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Best wishes to Houston grads

Seven years ago I knew this day would come.
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Seven years ago I knew this day would come.

In 2010 my little sister and I stood taking photos at Steelhead Park on my graduation day from Houston secondary and I thought, “when you graduate I’ll be 24 years old.”

It has happened.

Here I am, 24 years old, living with my mother, about to celebrate my sister’s graduation ceremony after I write this editorial.

When I graduated high-school the vision I had for myself turned out so differently than what reality dealt me. And I am grateful for that.

At 24 years, I figured I was going to be graduated from university, probably doing something important like solving the common cold, married to a handsome fellow like Tom Hiddleston, and ready to pop out a couple of kids.

Luckily fate found me in adventures I could never have conceived of.

I have no interest in creating a vaccine for the common cold, but I am still holding out on becoming Hiddleston’s wife. (If you are wondering who this is, think of the actor that portrayed Thor’s brother. Mischievous.)

As I sit here recalling times long gone, I wonder what my sister and the other graduates of Houston hope to aspire.

In my valedictorian speech (yes I am bragging, my mother is very proud) I revised a quote from a poem by William Ernest Henley surmised my greatest wish for my fellow graduates of 2010, and what I hope for my sister and her friends of 2017.

“We are the masters of our fate, we are the captains of our souls.”

It’s all you. Thrive. Seek. Acquire all that you desire. Do so with compassion, free of harm to yourself and others.

Allow me to leave you with one last additional wish quoted by my political theory professor from, The Prince, by Machiavelli.

“It is all well and good when you find the heart of the thing, but Machiavelli says be willing and ready to adapt when fate intervenes,” said professor Simon Glezos.

Sometimes, our greatest vision for ourselves isn’t the highest and best for us.

Aim wherever you like. The moon, the stars, the core of this Earth. Just know that your vibration will echo forth and back to you.