Have you ever re-read something you wrote a long time ago and hoped you were the same person?
Tonight I plugged my external hard drive into my computer to look through old pictures, and I came across some documents from high school. I read through a surprisingly intriguing 20 page paper on poetry analysis, and I laughed at the completely ridiculous papers required for my dance classes. Here's a gem from a paper on dance dress code and conduct:
"I am always in dress code, except a couple of times when I wear the wrong tights, or forget my ballet shoes. I always take off any warm-ups after pliés if I wear any at all. I actively participate in every class and rehearsal."But I digress. I'm not hoping to be that same girl who forgets her ballet shoes. I'm woefully certain that that aspect of my personality is permanently encoded in my DNA. Of real interest was my Personal Statement for admission to UF, written five and a half years ago. The closing paragraph reads as follows:
"Success, to me, is meeting the standards I have set for myself. It’s achieving my everyday goals that slowly lead to big accomplishments. But I can’t consider myself successful if my life has only impacted me. Success is also having made a difference, for the better, in people’s lives. If I am truly loved by others, and if I love myself, then I have reached the very pinnacle of success."Well said, 18-year-old Tyler. You were wise beyond your years... even if you didn't always wear the right color tights to dance class.
