My senior year of high school, my marine biology teacher asked me, "Who do you want to be?" Not really knowing what she fully meant, I said a doctor. After years of thinking that statement through I realized "Who do you want to be" is a much deeper question and requires a much deeper answer than the one I had given.
At 17 I had no idea who I wanted to be, much less understood that my choices defined my character and who I was as a woman. I think we can all agree that at 17 the only thing you are thinking about is graduating and leaving high school behind. I knew that I had to become a better person and stop letting fear hold me back from the person that I was suppose to become. I couldn't let fear win.
Today, I can say that I want to be the person who stands up for what is right and stands up for what I believe in and to not be swayed by other people's opinions. I want to be the person who saves people's lives because if it came down to it, I would want someone to save me. I want to be the person who puts my fear aside and jumps head first into something and not question the What Ifs because anything can happen. In life, you are given choices and with each choice, you are given a chance to do something.
Choice: "We are defined by the choices that we make." Each day we are given a new opportunity to make a different choice and to continue to make choices that regard our own life. I don't believe a person can make a bad choice, instead, I choose to believe a person makes a choice that allows them to learn something and allows them to grow as an individual. Life is one giant learning experience and part of growing up is learning how to make choices. Losing my dad at 13 was not easy, it was really hard and I struggled with it for years. I realized I had the choice to let myself be consumed with grief or I could turn my dad's death into something positive, to let the world know that you don't have to let grief consume you. You don't have to become the person everyone wants you to be, you don't have to let fear walk you on a leash—you can simply choose to be more, to be something else because you can be anything and anyone you want to be.
Chance: Life is about taking risks and jumping all in because those choices that we make could be the best choices we ever make. I believe that there aren't any wrong turns in life, if you go left you aren't destined to fail and if you go right then everything won't necessarily be fine. Sometimes taking a chance leads you down a path that might not have been the best but like everything else, you still learn something.
1. Meeting your soulmate: I am a hopeless romantic and I would like to think that my soulmate is sitting somewhere right now, enjoying his life and becoming a better person. I believe meeting your soulmate happens by chance, it's a chance of fate and when you meet that person, you just know. I believe that you can't force yourself to not like that person because it's already meant to be.
2. Meeting your best friends: I was ten years old when I met my two forever best friends, they both some how complete me. They know every detail about me and I know everything about them. By a twist of fate we met in elementary school and ever since have been inseparable. I moved to Alabama and met them two months later, I believe that meeting life long best friends only happens once in a lifetime and by chance, we found each other.
Change: Do you like the way everything is going in your life? If you don't there is always something you can do, make a change. If you don't like the way you are being treated by someone you can make the change and get rid of the negative energy and that person. If you don't like your job, quit and find a new one. If you don't like your boyfriend anymore, dump him and find a new one. It sounds easy right? Change is never easy, it isn't for me anyway because I hate change, I hate everything about it but change is something that is a good thing. Fear is the one thing in life that will always hold us back from our dreams, from fighting for someone that you love, to telling someone how you feel, to not moving to another state. Fear is the green-eyed snake, it steals your happiness and feeds you negative thoughts and reasons why you can't do something. The truth is, you can't let fear win, you have to break out of your comfort zone and explore, explore new surroundings.
Who do you want to be?
