It's A Wild Ride

Thus far I have ...

• Moved across the country twice - both coasts!

• Watched my 100 year-old elementary school, where my mom and the rest of my family went, be torn down, and a new building built down the block.

• Survived a horrible three years in one of the roughest middle schools in my districts.
  

• Managed high school without the help of my best friend when she moved away after 9th grade.
  

• Achieved some major personal girls in high school, which included making the cheerleading squad (with no gymnastics or dance background) and becoming an editor on my school newspaper.

• Rebelled against my family and chose to attend Iowa State University instead of University of Iowa, successfully converting several Iowa fans into ISU fans. Go Cyclones!

• Wrote for my university's newspaper my freshman year, then decided I didn't want to major in journalism anymore and chose the oh-so-practical department of fashion merchandising and design (sarcaaaasm).

• Joined a sorority, and after living in a house with 52 girls for a year and a half, deactivated.
  

• Earned my bachelors degree and moved away from home to a larger midwestern city.
  

• Through a sorority sister, I found a very young company that I fell in love with and stayed with for the next five years.
  

• Moved back to my hometown temporarily on a pit stop before moving again. This time to South Carolina.
  

• After almost a year in South Carolina, I felt the worst kind of homesickness and loneliness. I knew I had to move back home.
  

• Quit working for a company that I was head over heels in love with. Luckily, a position opened up again a year later and I began working for them again.
  

• Two months after I got my old job back, the company's owner (another huge corporation) announced that they were closing all stores and liquidating.
  

• At this time I decided to switch careers. For two years, I worked for another company, but meanwhile was planning how to earn a degree in education to become a teacher.
  

• After a horrible Christmas working retail (2010) I quit my job and began graduate school full time

• I also began substitute teaching at this time, which solidified my choice to pursue a career in education.

• Today, I am ... happy, energetic, hopeful, wiser, optimistic, realistic, and excited for what the next few years may hold....

• Today is my 30th birthday, and that? Blows my mind. It feels completely impossible, but I am insanely curious to find out what my thirties has in store for me.
  

I can chalk this up to these two, simple words.

Time. Flies.