Graduation Day

one of my only intern “action shots”—hah!

So yeah, when I went back to school in May of 2009, I couldn’t even begin to wrap my mind around the idea that I would be doing a dietetic internship—much less finishing one! But what do you know…tonight is our official graduation ceremony.

It’s certainly been a wild ride of a year, and I mean that in the best way possible. I’m filled with a bright, warm sense of gratitude, but I also have to be honest with myself and acknowledge the fact that I worked my ass off to get here. With a licensing exam to take and an MS to finish (and oh yeah—a job to find), there’s still more work to be done, but as I was talking about the other day, the Great Unknown brings a lot of wonderful things with the challenges.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to go back to my 22or-23-year-old self and tell her to stop crying about not knowing what was going to make her feel fulfilled and happy (and somehow manage to pay her bills). Aside from the fact that those are some big, ever-evolving things to ponder—hardly the stuff one fully sorts out just sobbing at the dinner table to a bad-news boyfriend—I’d tell her to do her best to stay present, note the things that felt right, and pursue those things, just let it all unfold.

I would also tell her to actually use the hairdryer her mother bought her, but she’d probably just tell me to go f*** myself.

What would you tell your younger self? What might your younger self say back?