It's All About The Journey
Hello everyone! Hope you're ready for another somewhat college related post :)
Up until today, I have been fairly adamant that everything about the past 12 years has culminated to this year: being admitted and enrolling in college. But in reality, at least for me, today (and yesterday a bit too) was the culmination of my years in public education.
I have been extremely blessed the past two days. Yesterday, I was honored with a Who's Who award from my high school and also voted Contributed Most To Class. The greatest part of this honor was being affiliated with and linked to some of my amazing classmates who were also awarded yesterday. Each person who won an award (and even those who didn't!) is just absolutely phenomenal and I cannot wait to see what they do in college.
Today, I had the pleasure of meeting five fellow seniors (all girls, actually) in the East Cobb area who have committed a lot of their time to service. The six of us received the Margie Hatfield Scholarship for leadership and service. It was a great presentation, where we heard about some of the things they did to deserve the scholarship. In the evening, I attended the Cobb EMC Annual Women's Task Force Banquet and received a check for the Youth Tour Scholarship I won last year. I also got to give a speech to the wonderful Cobb EMC employees and Task Force volunteers who made the Youth Tour possible, as well as the 2013 winners.
In between these two very memorable receptions, I visited my elementary and middle schools. For one, it was crazy driving to my elementary school, but I definitely enjoyed the visit. Speaking and meeting with my old teachers was definitely one of the highlights of my month. I was reminded of how amazing and compassionate these adults were and that they do deserve more credit for where I am today. Even more amazing was the fact that they remembered me. They remembered more than my name and my face. My fourth grade teachers remembered the time I went to India when the great tsunami of '04 hit. My sixth and eighth grade science teacher remembered a time when I got so frustrated in class because she wouldn't tell me if my answer was right that I broke down and started crying. She said my classmates approached her with concern and she calmly responded that I would be fine. And sure enough, she recalled, five minutes later I was sitting there with my runny nose and red eyes working away.
These adults aren't my teachers anymore, but they still care about me and they still have so much faith in me. I'm not going to lie, I definitely enjoyed the copious amounts of compliments and praise I received to day. It made my feel...validated. Like I had satisfied some great expectation that was placed on me twelve years ago. It made me realize that all those little moments culminated into this: a character with potential.
The scholarship money I received today was because of those little moments. The awards, the scholarships, the colleges, the lack of all those things, are not the destination. They're all part of the journey. In fact, I don't know what the destination is yet. But I do hope it's a ways away because I am finally starting to appreciate the journey. And I am ready to discover so much more.
Up until today, I have been fairly adamant that everything about the past 12 years has culminated to this year: being admitted and enrolling in college. But in reality, at least for me, today (and yesterday a bit too) was the culmination of my years in public education.
I have been extremely blessed the past two days. Yesterday, I was honored with a Who's Who award from my high school and also voted Contributed Most To Class. The greatest part of this honor was being affiliated with and linked to some of my amazing classmates who were also awarded yesterday. Each person who won an award (and even those who didn't!) is just absolutely phenomenal and I cannot wait to see what they do in college.
Today, I had the pleasure of meeting five fellow seniors (all girls, actually) in the East Cobb area who have committed a lot of their time to service. The six of us received the Margie Hatfield Scholarship for leadership and service. It was a great presentation, where we heard about some of the things they did to deserve the scholarship. In the evening, I attended the Cobb EMC Annual Women's Task Force Banquet and received a check for the Youth Tour Scholarship I won last year. I also got to give a speech to the wonderful Cobb EMC employees and Task Force volunteers who made the Youth Tour possible, as well as the 2013 winners.
In between these two very memorable receptions, I visited my elementary and middle schools. For one, it was crazy driving to my elementary school, but I definitely enjoyed the visit. Speaking and meeting with my old teachers was definitely one of the highlights of my month. I was reminded of how amazing and compassionate these adults were and that they do deserve more credit for where I am today. Even more amazing was the fact that they remembered me. They remembered more than my name and my face. My fourth grade teachers remembered the time I went to India when the great tsunami of '04 hit. My sixth and eighth grade science teacher remembered a time when I got so frustrated in class because she wouldn't tell me if my answer was right that I broke down and started crying. She said my classmates approached her with concern and she calmly responded that I would be fine. And sure enough, she recalled, five minutes later I was sitting there with my runny nose and red eyes working away.
These adults aren't my teachers anymore, but they still care about me and they still have so much faith in me. I'm not going to lie, I definitely enjoyed the copious amounts of compliments and praise I received to day. It made my feel...validated. Like I had satisfied some great expectation that was placed on me twelve years ago. It made me realize that all those little moments culminated into this: a character with potential.
The scholarship money I received today was because of those little moments. The awards, the scholarships, the colleges, the lack of all those things, are not the destination. They're all part of the journey. In fact, I don't know what the destination is yet. But I do hope it's a ways away because I am finally starting to appreciate the journey. And I am ready to discover so much more.
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