Ten years ago, I graduated from high school. What’s funny is that had you asked me ten years ago where I’d be at 28, I’d have told you that I’d be on my way to a successful career in the medical field and engaged to a brilliant, handsome lawyer and we’d be planning the wedding of the decade.
Maybe I’d have told you that I finished my Masters degree at Oxford and am currently publishing my third novel, you know, the one they’re predicting to be the NEXT GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL (or something equally as dramatic).
Or maybe I’d have told you that my career as a brilliant comedienne/actress/Broadway star was really hitting the big time and that I was due for an Oscar/Tony/Emmy any day now.
But I don’t think I would have ever thought to tell you that I’d go to community college for a couple years, then a moderately-priced state school. I don’t think it crossed my mind that I’d be a cancer survivor instead of a doctor working to cure cancer. I didn’t plan on staying in Tulsa, but that’s what happened. Very single, working a very 8 to 5 job, not following my dreams, but definitely working on new ones.
At one of the many graduation celebrations they had for us ten years ago, the speeches were very much the kind that make you feel empowered, and that you can do anything you set your mind to. I don’t think they lied to us, but I don’t think they prepared us for what was coming. I mean, how can you. I think they hoped the best for us, knowing that it would be hard, but really hoping we’d be okay and successful.
So, maybe I didn’t end up where I thought I’d be, but that’s okay. Dreams and goals change, My one-time dream of being successful hasn’t disappeared, it’s just evolved. Success to me now means something entirely different than it did to my 18 year old self.
Success to me is being able to survive really hard things without having a complete breakdown. Maybe that’s what all those graduation speeches ten years ago were about. Maybe our teachers weren’t hoping we’d become astronauts and poets, but that we’d become well-adjusted adults.
Well, I’m not sure how well-adjusted I am, but I know that I haven’t gone completely mad as of yet. And that has to count for something, right?
Our Father's Mustache 