Ten Years

On this day ten years ago I walked across a stage in front of thousands of people wearing a red robe and some ugly clunky white shoes and received my diploma.

Well actually it was an empty diploma holder. We still had a week of school left before we were officially done. Talk about an anticlimactic graduation. We still had to go back to school! What's that all about?!?

Honestly I didn't realize it was this day ten years ago that I graduated until I saw a fellow classmate mention it on Facebook.

I find it weird that I read that status update of a person I graduated with, but haven't talked to since graduation but I still know the every move their children make and what they had for lunch yesterday. Isn't that weird???

Sorry I got off on a tangent, I've been forming a dissertation in my mind of how Facebook has ruined our lives. More to come at a later date.

Anyways, all day I thought about what I was doing this day ten years ago. I don't remember a lot about it. I remember going to the event center where graduation was held to do a run-through. And I remember our lives being threatened if we blew up beach balls and threw them around during the ceremony, and I vaguely remember going to a friends house for lunch with a group of other "friends". And I of course remember the ceremony, and my mom bawling as I walked down the stairs past her to take my seat in the sea of chairs full of classmates.

Ten years.

In one way it seems like yesterday and in another way it seems like forever ago.

In those ten years.....

I've grown, I've matured, I've learned what is truly important and what is not. I fell in love with a boy and PRAISED THE GOOD LORD that I didn't waste any time with a boy in high school. I got jobs and lost jobs. I went to college, got a degree and never left that university again - I still work there.

I bought a house, bought a car, made new friendships, lost friendships and learned how valuable true friendship are.  I grew spiritually and became a member of a church where I would spend the next seven years (and counting).

I became a mom and learned that my love has no bounds. I never thought I could sit and watch somebody sleep and think that my heart just might explode.

I'm sure all those years ago as I prepared to move into the next chapter of my life I wondered what my life would look like in ten years.

I wish I could remember my exact thoughts. But I can't. I'm sure as I pondered my future, I hoped I would be married and probably thought I would have a kid or two. But in reality I had no clue what the future held.

I had no clue how life would change. And nothing even drastic or dramatic. Just growing and becoming me. Learning from who I was and growing into something better. Learning that it actually IS ok to repeat an outfit in a month and learning to just say not to tanning beds.

So here I am ten years later. Sitting in my home thinking about that girl, who was scared, unsure, and much more confident and braver than she ever thought.

If that girl at that ceremony could see a glimpse into her life ten years from that moment she would see  the same girl, just a little older, a little wider, a lot more confident and full of a lot more peace and joy.

She would see a girl who isn't doing anything earth-shattering, but instead she would see herself on the floor in her bedroom, wearing yoga pants and wet hair, snapping pictures on her phone as her son crawls under a dresser and and gets stuck.

And I know she would have smiled, because to us, that girl then and the girl that I am now, this is the perfect life. One full of joy, peace, and confidence.



Me ten years ago: I cropped my sisters out so it made the photo long and skinny, the most important factor is you get a glimpse of those awesome shoes.

That girl is so cute. It's a pity she chose WHITE PLATFORM SHOES to wear on that day.