10 years on

May 2014, my parents visit to Botswana 

High School Graduation, May 2004 

Its been 10 years since my high school graduations….10 years! Am I really that old? It seems like just yesterday I was a fresh high school graduate, ready to take on the world (or just leave west Texas…)

I was one of the few who went out of state for college, even one of the fewer who went farther than Oklahoma or New Mexico. 10 years on, I am not sure where we all have ended up…but I suspect I am still one of the few that are living outside the hallowed grounds of Texas. 

Looking back over the past 10 years, I have to say. I am pretty dang proud of how I have turned out. 

I have graduated college, I am a final report away from my Masters. I don’t own a home or have a dog—but thats okay right now. 

I have gotten myself in to debt and out of debt. 

I am serving my country. 

I am an intelligent, vocal, independent woman. 

I don’t have any children and I am not married. I am okay with that. Fundamentally, I don’t think that I would be happy if I was saddled down. One day, marriage will be nice. 

I am honest to a fault—Its my fatal flaw. 

I don’t have regrets. Life is to short to have regrets.

I live life how I want to live it and I answer to myself. Maybe I am just selfish? 

I have a lot of fun. Life is too short not to have fun and see new things. 

I have hitch-hiked around southern Africa. I have seen the world, met new people and opened my mind. 

When I go to bed at night, I know I am living my life how I need to be living it. I have a wealth of experiences I wouldn’t have been able to acquire anywhere else. At the same time, if I ran into you at a bar, I couldn't carry on a conversation about children or owning a home. 

Everyone has their bad days, I wont lie and say there haven’t been nights where I wished I had a house and a fence and a man, maybe a few chickens too. But all in all, I am the satisfied with my life. And that my friends, is all one should want at the end of the day.