I see a girl in a photograph. It was May 1997 and she just sat through three hours of her college graduation ceremony. Her smile beams of happiness, and her eyes full of possibility. She’s only 21-years-old and eager for everything that hasn’t happened yet. I see a girl who is full of promise; who has her entire life ahead of her. And I see just that: a girl.
I think about that girl a lot. How young she was and what she wanted out of life; how simple life seemed at the time (or maybe it just seems simple looking through a complicated backwards lens). And how she had no clue what her life would look like 22 years later.
I look at the person I was when I graduated college and remember that young girl to be driven and wanted something more and better for herself and her life.
While I’m now in the midst of my middle, I think – in many ways – I’m very much the same and still seeking those things. And while I do miss the early years where possibility seemed endless, I believe every choice I’ve made since that day had a purpose. And every road I took led to – and is still leading to – the next chapter of my life.