“Life is what you make it”.

A strong yet simple concept that apparently I need to be reminded of.

The first thought that comes to my mind is how my kids in school must look

up to us adults and think, “gee, they must have it all figured out”. I know I did

when I was that age.

Boy are they wrong.  If that was the case I would have saved myself a whole

lot of time and money, haha.

Truth is, at the ripe old age of 27, I am just now starting to see my life as I truly

want it to be.  Although, now that my eye is on the prize of the big picture, I

have come to the realization that it is solely up to me to achieve it.

Up until recently my life motto has been, “I get by”. I’m finally realizing that

“getting by” isn’t good enough for me. I want to make things happen and I

want to feel proud about it. Now that is the type of example I want to set for

my students.

The good news is if there’s anything I’ve learned along the way from friends

and peers, it’s that there’s no time limit on these things.

I remember when I was in 5th Grade my class consistently worked on an

“All About Me” book throughout the year. One page that particularly stands

out to me is the one where we had to draw what our future looked like in

5 years, 10 years, 15 years and 20 years. For the 5 years slot I drew a picture

of my friends and I being in the variety show in high school (not accurate but

not far off either). For the 10 years slot I drew a picture of me in a black mini

dress, drinking beer at a bar (extremely accurate). For the 15 years slot I

included a picture of me as a newlywed and working as a full time

veterinarian (extremely inaccurate). And lastly, for the 20 years slot,

which I am steadily approaching, I drew a picture of me standing in front of

a big beautiful house with my husband and three kids (could not be any

farther from the truth).

In reality, I’m 27, still live at home, and barely getting by financially despite

working 6 days a week. The good news though is that I’m slowly but surely

achieving my goals. I may not be able to change the things in my past, nor

do I want to, but I sure as hell have control over the person I will become.