I am coming up on the 10 year anniversary of my graduation from high school.  Could it really have been that long ago?

When I graduated from high school, I thought I had everything planned out and knew where I would be in ten years – I was completely wrong!

It was 1998 and I was 17 years old.  I was graduating from one of the many high schools in the Inland Empire (California).  I was one of the top in my huge class of 854 students.  I had been offered many scholarships to many universities and finally decided on a local UC that had given me a “full ride” to study biomedical sciences.  I decided on that school mainly because I was following the advice of my teachers that told me that it was the best place for me to attend.  It was also a program that would get me through my undergraduate studies and medical school career at UCLA in a total of 7 years!  At the time I worked at Dairy Queen as one of the shift leaders.  I had a boyfriend that was controlling and mean, but I often overlooked his behavior because of my naivety.  And I couldn’t wait to get away from my family and move to the residence halls so that I could have freedom.

In 10 years so much has changed and I am not where I thought I would be!  After attending the local UC for two years, I left school because I absolutely hated it.  I then took two years off and finally went back to school to finish my studies at a university in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I switched my major from Biomedical Sciences to Sociology.  In Sociology I focused mainly on the educational system and the inequities that exist.  I now work at a university that truly creates access to higher education for many students.  I am now engaged to be married to a man that treats me with respect and honor and although I don’t live in the same city as my family, I am happy that I live within a drive from seeing them.

10 years has really given me the time to grow up.  Growing up and becoming less naive is why my expectations of where I would be in my life today has changed so much.

But, was it really 10 years ago that I walked across that stage to get my high school diploma?  I can still relive graduation day in my head and could tell you everything that happened that day.  I could, but I won’t because so many things happened that day. :-)

Not only did the outcomes in my life change from what I expected, I have also become a very different person.  I grew up in a very conservative family that truly sides with everything that Republican politicians believed.  Today, I have become very liberal in my views and match more closely with the Democratic party.  In high school, I was extremely shy.  I literally could not speak in front of a group of four people, even if my grade depended on it.  Today I speak in front of groups of people on a regular basis, with groups ranging from 4 to 150.  10 years ago I let my boyfriend at the time push me around.  With time I learned and now will not put up with a man ever treating me that way – if there was any guy in my life that ever treated me that way, I have kicked them to the curb! 

Although it doesn’t seem like it has been 10 years, I needed those 10 years to truly evolve and become the person that I am today – someone that I am happy and proud to be!