The past few days have been all about reflection.
I think if I went back in time and found my 13-year old self, she wouldn't believe that I was her.
As I was reading Romeo & Juliet for my Shakespeare class last week, and I was amazed at how different it seemed to me this time around. I had read the play so many times (and performed it once in the chorus) but never really appreciated how true Shakespeare was to girls at that age. Actually, I wrote my discussion board post about it. When you're 13, every little upset is the end of the world, and it's because you're caught between being a kid, just becoming a teenager, and not quite being an adult, but wanting to be all three things at once. No wonder our minds were exploding! And I feel like now, at 20-years old, things are finally not so damn dramatic. I'm scared and excited for what the next few years my entire future will bring, but the best part is that I feel like I can look back on all of the heartache, the hurt feelings, and the insecurities and actually be thankful for them. I mean truly thankful, with no bitterness or regret. Who would I be without these experiences? Someone who is afraid to be her dorky self around people, afraid to speak her mind, afraid to let herself love what she's doing and let herself be good at it, and afraid that no one could ever love her--or even find her attractive, for that matter.
That was who I was at 13-years old, and 7 years later, I can finally see light through the brick wall I've been tearing down. But it's only beginning, and there's a lot more wall to break through.

Brick number one: I'm sorry for hurting you.