Ten

When I walked across the stage at graduation, there were a million and one emotions running through my head. But there was one thing that stuck out above everything else.
In the hands of Paul Larrea was a card. A card that, at the time, seemed to be on the epitome of the future. A few weeks back, we sat in Newnham's class and condensed the four years that we'd spent at CLHS onto a 3 x 5 card  and everything we wanted to accomplish in life.
After attending a few graduations before my own, there was always the joke that everyone got together to write down the same occupation that they wanted.
I felt, in that moment, that I would be the one to break the norm. That at our 10-year reunion, I would be the one that accomplished everything on my card. I'd dig through our time capsule and find my card and smile with pride that I did it and beat the odds. I really truly believed that.
It didn't take long for me to realize that these anticipations weren't always the ideal, but rather dreams from ignorantly blissful high school graduates. We had all these hopes that we would make the past and future generations proud with our success as doctors, lawyers, teachers, dentists, cosmetologists - and it's not to say that these professions aren't admirable or attainable. But we had set our sights so high we didn't take time to evaluate reality.
And reality, I've come to realize, is this. There are so many choices in this world. Choices, that coming from a small town in Northern California, had never before been discovered. I mean we had maybe 10 choices of places to eat for crying out loud. When they tell you that you can study whatever you want, they mean it. When you don't understand why people are shocked at how you did so much in high school, you get it when you find you can only devote yourself to one thing because there really aren't enough hours in the day. When they say there's something and someone out there for everyone and we just have to experience it, it's the truth.

I got to BYU shocked by the options. The food thing was one of the most overwhelming to be honest. But the biggest surprise was asking people what they were studying and realizing the wide array of possibilities. Why did I think that, at 18 and completely inexperienced, I knew what I wanted out of life? I had this whole plan and yet it meant nothing 3 months down the road (forget 10 years). I wanted to study something that would help me incorporate my love for people and passion for biology and it seemed hard to find at first but I got it figured out.

And there's one thing they don't tell you before you walk across that stage
with the brink of the future laying out before you
while you're feeling on top of the world.

And that is that it's OKAY to fail. Failure leads to growth and change and learning. And that's what life's all about, isn't it?