As I sit here and type this, a weird wave of emotion is overcoming me! Five years ago if you would have asked me what I was doing with my future, I probably would have laughed and shrugged the question off. Simply because I didn’t know, nor do I still know the answer to that question! But what I do know is that the last five years of my life may have been the most rewarding, troublesome years yet! Five years ago I hadn’t even submitted an application to Walsh… or any university for that matter! I was enjoying what little time I had left as a kid and disregarded any concern I had about becoming an adult! Fast forward to today and here I stand, holding what might possibly be the most expensive piece of paper I’ll ever own, but I’m proud as hell for holding it!
Now you may say that the start and end of this story are quite similar to what many see as the “average college student.” And many will be quick to assume that the in-between of this story is similar as well. But, what I see is a transformed woman who… started her college career as a child, took on every obstacle that life presented her and turned those struggles into an ambition to pursue the life in which she envisioned for herself and her future family. Almost sounds like the catch line for the next big chick flick! But I can assure you, it is far from that! It is about a girl who took on her worries and struggles to turn them into confidence and success!
Starting my college career at Walsh just under five years ago was a step I wasn’t prepared to take but nevertheless, I persisted forward. Little did I know I was going to trip over the largest curb on campus just to fall flat on my face. I should have seen it coming (especially with how clumsy I am) with the path I was going down. I fell in with the wrong group of friends, the wrong major, and just all around became a person that I still scratch my head over! Now you’re probably like “girl, everyone trips, it’s normal,” and you’re not wrong! It’s totally normal to trip (even more than once)! But after tripping, I stayed down and got dragged across the pavement face side down by the devil himself. I contracted an illness and became deathly ill. Failed out of half my classes. Got involved in an abusive relationship. Pushed away anyone who cared about me and almost completely lost all hope I would survive this low. BUT right before I had completely given up, I remembered what the university’s president had been instilling in my head since day one…. “if you fall down, that’s okay! Even if you feel like you can’t get up, just lift up a hand and someone here at Walsh will reach down and help you up.” So, I figured what do I have to lose, and I reached out my tiny hand as far as my tiny limbs could reach! At first, I doubted that someone at Walsh could give me help. But to my surprise, someone actually grabbed my hand. They not only helped me up, but helped me remove myself from the situation I was in and guided me to follow the path I was intended to follow. After being helped back to my feet, climbing the rest of this college “mountain” became a piece of cake.
I still really struggled to envision my future after such a cloudy past, but if there was one thing I was certain of, it was that I needed to return the favor of being helped. I decided if I wanted to be the woman I needed to be when I was struggling, then I needed to start busting some butt! So naturally… I blossomed in the three jobs I had, continued to keep my spot on the cheer squad, decided on my career & hustled to catch back up. And most importantly began writing for Beauty Within the Hills (read my full list of accomplishments here). On top of achieving so much, I continued to pursue more in life because I knew I had not given enough back for what I had received. I applied for my dream internship, and was awarded it, moved cross country to start, and suddenly quit because I felt I wasn’t making a big enough impact! Which leads me to the semester I took off and subsequently the semester in which I am most proud of. I took a semester off to move cross country and pursue the start of my dream career at Disney. I quickly realized I was not making a big enough impact (although making dumbo fly for a 6-year-old is pretty cool) so I quit and traveled the coast. While traveling, I got to know quite possibly some of the most genuine, pure-hearted people I have ever met. The community I had been introduced to and got to know is something I am immensely proud of and thankful for! In those few short months I learned more about full heartedly appreciating life and what it has to offer from some people I will never be able to thank (to those reading, you know who you are and thank you… even though that’s not enough)! Having this opportunity to grow with this community and create endless smiles is something I will forever, cherish because it helped push me to strive to create a better me and helped give me that boost to finish my final semester!
Here I stand today holding my diploma looking back on what my five years at Walsh brought into my life. It definitely was not an easy ride, nor should it have been, because college is crucial for discovering you and your purpose! I’ve been told the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. But, I think the most important days of our life are the ones you continue to discover why you were born. Each and every one of us has our own story, whether college is involved or not. And I know each of us has had a day where we’ve had a moment where you’re like wow, I was meant to be here at this time to help others or myself! Those moments are what’s important to me, because if it weren’t for that one person at Walsh who was there at the right time, I wouldn’t be standing here holding my diploma today.
Life can be a complicated muddy mess, but it’s up to you to decide if you’re gonna sit inside and mope. OR if you’re gonna go out and slide down the other side of the hill in the mud! Don’t let the fear of college or anything else get in the way of YOUR future! You might fall a few times on your way to the finish line, but I have never seen a baseball player slide into home base with clean pants, an engineer walk away with clean hands, or a college student go four years without crying.
I’m not sitting here today writing this for attention, I am writing this in hope that it extends that helping hand out to someone who needs it. I hope this encourages someone to pursue a better life for themselves or gives that boost of courage to someone who needs it! Nobody is perfect, but we’re all forgiven and sometimes given that second chance to make things right!
I am now gonna go show off my fancy piece of paper to some of my favorite people waiting for me at home. But in the meantime, think about your story… Are you just starting? Halfway through? Maybe even nearing an end? Wherever you may be at in your story, don’t fear the unknown! Nobody’s story is going to go how they originally wrote it… that’s the luxury of change! You can either learn from what you’ve already discovered or you can run from it…… my pieces of advice, learn from it then start running with that knowledge, and don’t stop till you’ve reached that place you wanna be! I wish you all the best of luck and I encourage you to be that helping hand if you’re in a position to helps others, it never goes unrecognized!
