Confession: I'm borderline obsessed with the new Lady Gaga song. Give it a listen and tell me what ya think.
So, um, High school.
Did anyone really enjoy it?
I take that back. I know there are people who did. People who were involved, mainly. Maybe that's my issue: my lack of pom-poms or a student government slogan.
But like, really. That became an issue for me. Somehow it happened that almost every conversation between me and a fellow student started with an inquiry after my athletic abilities or my desire to audition for our schools latest version of a broadway classic. Have you seen me try to catch something? Have you seen me dance?
It was almost too much for my 15-year-old confidence to handle. If I couldn't swing a tennis racket or sing my way into the hearts of my peers, what was left? "Hey guys, come on over and photoshop your head onto a different body. Maybe do a little summary of Homer's classics for you?"
I turned inward with these worries. My fears festered in my heart as, over and over again, this question crossed my mind: Would I ever amount to anything?
Around that time I found myself on a website full of photography and quotes. It was there that I cam across the following mantra:
"Watch out for that girl, one day she may change the world."
I later found out that it comes from a Jonas brothers song, but we're gonna let that slide.
And that is when I decided that I would do just that. I wasn't sure exactly how, still true, but I was sure it would happen.
As I have gone on with my life that line has stuck with me, and I have come to realize its flaw: the word "may".
May? One day she may change the world? Is that not what we are doing daily, simply by living our lives?
For years I have been becoming the person I am, built up by a mixture of the persuasions of others and my own experiences. Have I not left a bit of myself with those who have touched me? Has no life been altered, no matter how slightly, because they knew me?
My ultimate goal, motherhood, is in itself an act of changing the world. Raising and teaching the young minds that will go into the world to do great things. Could my influence be any greater?
I like to think that these daily acts, these processes of becoming me, are the very things that are changing the world around me.
So, um, High school.
Did anyone really enjoy it?
I take that back. I know there are people who did. People who were involved, mainly. Maybe that's my issue: my lack of pom-poms or a student government slogan.
But like, really. That became an issue for me. Somehow it happened that almost every conversation between me and a fellow student started with an inquiry after my athletic abilities or my desire to audition for our schools latest version of a broadway classic. Have you seen me try to catch something? Have you seen me dance?
It was almost too much for my 15-year-old confidence to handle. If I couldn't swing a tennis racket or sing my way into the hearts of my peers, what was left? "Hey guys, come on over and photoshop your head onto a different body. Maybe do a little summary of Homer's classics for you?"
I turned inward with these worries. My fears festered in my heart as, over and over again, this question crossed my mind: Would I ever amount to anything?
Around that time I found myself on a website full of photography and quotes. It was there that I cam across the following mantra:
"Watch out for that girl, one day she may change the world."
I later found out that it comes from a Jonas brothers song, but we're gonna let that slide.
And that is when I decided that I would do just that. I wasn't sure exactly how, still true, but I was sure it would happen.
As I have gone on with my life that line has stuck with me, and I have come to realize its flaw: the word "may".
May? One day she may change the world? Is that not what we are doing daily, simply by living our lives?
For years I have been becoming the person I am, built up by a mixture of the persuasions of others and my own experiences. Have I not left a bit of myself with those who have touched me? Has no life been altered, no matter how slightly, because they knew me?
My ultimate goal, motherhood, is in itself an act of changing the world. Raising and teaching the young minds that will go into the world to do great things. Could my influence be any greater?
I like to think that these daily acts, these processes of becoming me, are the very things that are changing the world around me.
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