high school

yesterday was my ten year high school reunion. it was a really fun evening, and felt like a total time warp. i left totally full of gratitude for my high school experience, for dear friends, and for the past ten years of my life.
 
i was really, really, really into high school. after watching my eight older siblings graduate from east high, i was so heartset on all the traditions and spirit and fun associated with high school (and particularly that high school). i felt like life began freshman year and totally ended at graduation. i was involved in as many things as possible: cheerleading, choir, student government, school plays, sports rivalries, going to every dance, assemblies, dance company, silly events like senior assassination and the mr. leopard pageant, etc etc etc. and although my expectations were sky-high and there were of course hard and dramatic times along the way, i absolutely loved high school. i still get a swelling heart every time i drive past east high - it will always be in my veins.

but life certainly didn't end after high school graduation! i have been thinking over the past few weeks about everything that has filled those ten years (it really flabbergasts me that it has been that long!). and i just feel enormously grateful for my post east high life. here's what's happened:

-moved all the way across the country to fulfill my dream of going to college on the east coast.
-lived in new york city for a summer with my childhood best friend studying contemporary art at new york university and bopping around the city.
-traveled through southeast asia.
-spent a summer in washington d.c. and interned at the united states senate.
-experienced the stark contrast of leaving wellesley to spend a semester at byu in provo.
-studied abroad in jerusalem and explored the holy land.
-traveled through italy, france and greece.
-graduated after just three years of coursework from wellesley college.
-served a mission in england.
-moved back to provo: worked at a treatment center for troubled teenage girls, explored utah and fell in real love for the first time.
-volunteered and traveled for two months in india.
-followed a gut feeling that i should move to san francisco: packed everything i owned in my car and drove west until i hit the ocean, without a job and only knowing a couple of people.
-built a beautiful life in the city by the bay; experienced the intense pros and cons of unemployment and the diversity of many random jobs to stay afloat.
-landed a job working for the world's most influential business thinker's nonprofit think tank.
-explored the spectacular bay area like crazy.
-traveled to england, scotland and ireland (alone!), hong kong, singapore, thailand, guatemala, mexico, canada, and indonesia.
-checked off some bucket list items.
-feel in the deepest love, endured intense heartbreak and heartache, and experienced the miracle of healing.
-experienced the insane challenge of teaching 38 eighth graders in a brand new low-income charter middle school.

and yet, i really do believe that the best is yet to come!
gosh, life is beautiful. i am so so blessed.
and i'm always, always an east high leopard :)

Comments

  1. Wow Charity!! You've accomplished and experienced so much. You truly are blessed.

    ReplyDelete

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