Progress

I discovered today that I've made progress since high school. FINALLY.

I was up in Flagstaff today attending a conference for work at NAU when I realized that the last time I was in Flagstaff was in the summer of 1998.

I picked up a copy of the Lumberjack, NAU's student newspaper, and it brought back a flood of memories from the 10 days I spent at journalism camp at NAU. We lived in one of the dorms, ate at the cafeteria like one of the big college kids, and produced a newspaper.

I could barely write one article at that point--let alone dozens. I had never lived on my own at that point. I had never had a boyfriend nor a heartbreak at that point (yeah, late bloomer but made up for it). I had never had an argument with a roommate, a boss, a colleague at that point. I had never ran a 5k, worked out at a gym regularly, taken a firefighting test at that point. I had not lived in China for a year at that point. i had never read a book in Chinese at that point.

I learned a ton at that journalism camp for minority high school students. In fact, it led me to my first job in college, which was a reporter for the Arizona Daily Wildcat. Regardless, my point is not about the journalism experience but the fact that I've actually progressed a lot since I was 18 when I used to wear black Vans and a blue hoodie every single day and was too shy to talk to anyone until now as a hopefully wiser 31-year-old.

Perhaps I have grown up after all this time (sigh of relief).