It's strange to think that ten years ago, I was a sophomore in high school who had just gone to her first National Portfolio Day, and my dream was to get into an art school and become a painter or illustrator. Back then, I was forging some of my most important friendships, and one of my most toxic ones, which I'm still healing from. I used "XD" emojis with abandon, and DeviantArt was my favorite website to waste hours on trying to seek validation for my art. But even then, I was a writer, and I hoped to be published one day. That hasn't changed one bit. Ten years later, I'm on winter break following my first semester in grad school, with the goal of becoming a public librarian who works with teens. It feels a little full circle, in some ways. I got my first volunteer experience at my local library, far before I realized that librarianship would be the career I would ultimately seek out.
Some of my accomplishments from the last ten years:
And, in 2019 specifically:
I think with so many of these reflections that people post, it can be easy to compare yourself and maybe feel inadequate, because you're only seeing the highlights, the triumphs, the best ofs. That's why I wanted to include the imposter syndrome, the heartbreak, the depressive episodes. And there's so much more I could include along those lines. All this to say, if all you did was survive this decade, this last year, that's enough. That's more than enough. I'm so glad to be here, and I'm glad you're here too. On to 2020, in the hopes that it will be better than what came before!
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AuthorWriter, reviewer, bookseller, book nerd extraordinaire. Fiction reader at Waxwing Magazine. Archives
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