5 Years Later

The end of last month marked five years since I graduated from the University of Michigan with my bachelor's degree. Humans of course assign a certain significance to markings of time in fives and tens, so it is significant in that way, but more so to me because of just how much my life has changed since. In the span of things, I realize five years is nothing. But looking back, five years has never seemed like such a long period of time. Since then I have had six different jobs, moved four times, lived in three different towns, and met and married my husband. But the most significant change seems to be internal, if that makes sense - the person I am today is so, so different than the one who walked out of the Big House that day, and even different from the one I thought I would be at that time.

I mostly feel like, for the first time at least since graduating and maybe since before then, that I am going in a forward direction. It feels pretty good. I am optimistic for the future. This is significant for me to say, because in the past I have struggled to look ahead rather than behind. Honestly I don't like thinking about the past - I spent too much time there while battling depression. I am not fascinated with nostalgia as my "Millennial" generation label would have you believe. Keeping myself in the present allows me to plan for a future.

Speaking of, I also think that five years from now will be significant. I'll have graduated, I'll have been working at least a year as a professional again. We'll have moved again, hopefully out of the Midwest, definitely out of the state. Our family will likely have grown - certainly in furry members but maybe human ones too. It is exciting to think of the change that lies ahead.

But it's also nice to know one thing hasn't changed. I did just receive a cumulative 4.0 this semester, which I don't think I actually ever did in undergrad, though I came close. Once a Hermione, always a Hermione :-)

"It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." - Albus Dumbledore