I’ve spent my whole life wondering what’s next. When I was just five years old, I wondered what I would be when I grew up. Could it be a singer, dancer, doctor or lawyer? Would I be tall or petite? Would my hair be long or short? However, everything isn’t black or white. We find, often times, that it’s grey. The world in front of us offers a variety of things, and who’s to say you can’t do many of them. I have struggled, as I am sure others have, with being that one thing and finding that one thing that will ultimately complete me or make everyone around me say, “She did it. This is it.” However, life isn’t like what’s written on a piece of paper.

There is more to a person than one thing.

You go to elementary for a while and then middle school and then high school, and before you know it, you’re in college. What you did in elementary is different than what you are doing now, and I have come to the realization that I don’t have to be just one kind of person. There is more that makes up who I am. I can be really into baking one day and want to order take out the next, but we can’t be afraid of that. Every little element of ourselves makes up who we are.

So live life to the fullest. Take that class that you have always wanted to explore. Go on that trip that you have deserved ever since you started working. Don’t beat yourself up over the rejections of your expectations, but rather, look at all of the other avenues to explore. Just because the thing that you are “so-called” stamped as in life, whether that is being a writer, doctor or lawyer, is not going how you have planned does not mean that there is nothing else for you.

I’m a friend, daughter, girlfriend, cook, reader, writer, dreamer, believer…and so much more.

-Jas