Growing up I never saw the limitations the world had set up for me. I carried myself with pride and let my dreams take me home where I was safe to wander the vast possibilities. I felt anything was well within my reach.
I was only nine years old when I told my mom I would be in college. Looking back now I’m not sure she understood how relentlessly determined I was to break free of the lifestyle I was forced to grow up in.
My whole life I’ve watched my parents work in labor, never knowing what more they would have been capable of if they would have been given the opportunity to go to school like I did.
I refused to be taken lightly. But like most people, life got in the way.
When I turned 15, I had already dropped my dream of being a veterinarian, too scared to possibly kill an innocent little critter that came in for a routine de-worm- ing shot. By 17, I had completely alienated myself from former friends and any future ones due to an extremely bad dating choice. By that time, I was so ready to get out of high school that I graduated early in 2008 and was at Tyler Junior College three months later.
I wanted to prove my independence to myself so badly that I unintentionally placed myself in a terrible situation riddled with financial devastation and broken friendships.
And much to my dismay, I had to tuck my tail between my legs and return home where my parents welcomed me with open arms and a smug grin (oh, how we knew you would never make it on your own). Finally back to school with those same hopes and aspirations that kept me awake at night. I’m approaching my dreams more realistically this time around.
So for those of you returning to school after some serious growing up or even for those of you who never lost sight of the importance of your determination, let me prove myself. Take my words and run with them so that they may cause a nostalgic experience where you are launched back into your childhood, where the word “impossible” wasn’t uttered and the world was an open invitation to take over.
