Today is a bit of a special day today, a day that marks a major transition in my life: today, 8 years ago, I graduated college with a B.A. in English/Writing from the University of South Carolina (Go Gamecocks!)
Once again, this day has inspired me to examine where I am in life and how far I’ve come since I crossed the platform at the Colonial Center in my red fishnet stockings and black Doc Marten boots that unrelentingly hot May morning. I remember wondering where I would be five years down the road, imagining what I would be doing and how I would be making a difference in the world. My career goals were fuzzy, and I had resigned myself to living out my days in my hometown and was a tad fearful of the possibility of just existing.
As I moved my tassel to the right side of my mortar cap, I never imagined that I would be raising a son in Alabama, so far away from my family; I never would have dreamed that I would be making connections with clients all over the country and getting paid enough for my writing in order to claim the title of “professional writer”. I had no idea where I was going, but I knew I would get there at some point.
When the road we take is not straight from Point A to Point B, we have, throughout our journey, the opportunity to acquire some crucial life lessons along the way that will eventually, if we are dedicated enough, guide us to where we want to be. Sometimes, even the most seemingly insurmountable trials can have fantastic rewards if we are open to them. Sometimes, the speed bumps we hit along the way reveal a part of ourselves that we never knew existed; a stronger, more assertive, more liberated self.
While I may not have had a clue so many years ago as to the twists and turns that would lay before me, I think I have zigged and zagged appropriately, and now I enjoy claiming my rewards — just never forget that hard work and persistence are never things to forego, no matter how comfortable things may be.
Ashley Writes 