If I knew how to predict the future I don’t think I’d be sitting here on a Sunday afternoon writing this essay at the last minute. Sadly, I don’t have a crystal ball or tarot cards to predict to tell me what the future has in store for me. I think that’s what makes the future so scary, the fact that nothing is guaranteed.
Just like any little kid, I wanted to grow up and be something. When I was younger, I recall having dreams of being a baker or a singer and sometimes a weather girl. I never thought too much of the steps needed to get there. Around the time I was eleven I figured out I wanted to be a journalist and go to Stanford. The winter break of my freshman year I went to California with my family and it wasn’t until then that I realized …show more content…
I started noticing that every time someone mentioned college to me, my heart would race, my head would spin and I wanted nothing more than to change the subject. Flash forward a few months later and all around me I see proud family members and camera flashes while I’m sitting in the stands at my cousin’s graduation. Even the insignificant act of sitting in the stands still made my hands shake.
All of the sudden it hit me. In three years I was going to be in a red cap and gown. In three years when the announcer said “Deziree Ortega”, I would be the one shaking hands with the principle. In three years I’d be face to face with my biggest fear, the future.
In the two years since my cousin’s graduation, the future has become a frequent conversation topic over Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas Eve’s with extended family. Other than “so how’s school going?” and “are you thinking about what college you want to go to?” what else is there to ask a sixteen year old? My heart still races, my hands still shake but I know now I can’t avoid the conversation forever. It’s a difficult pill to swallow that I’m not a six year old playing with Barbie’s but instead sixteen writing college essays. Time is always passing and people are always changing and slowly I’m facing the future. I’m accepting the fact that there’s more to life than the four years spent in high
Just like any little kid, I wanted to grow up and be something. When I was younger, I recall having dreams of being a baker or a singer and sometimes a weather girl. I never thought too much of the steps needed to get there. Around the time I was eleven I figured out I wanted to be a journalist and go to Stanford. The winter break of my freshman year I went to California with my family and it wasn’t until then that I realized …show more content…
I started noticing that every time someone mentioned college to me, my heart would race, my head would spin and I wanted nothing more than to change the subject. Flash forward a few months later and all around me I see proud family members and camera flashes while I’m sitting in the stands at my cousin’s graduation. Even the insignificant act of sitting in the stands still made my hands shake.
All of the sudden it hit me. In three years I was going to be in a red cap and gown. In three years when the announcer said “Deziree Ortega”, I would be the one shaking hands with the principle. In three years I’d be face to face with my biggest fear, the future.
In the two years since my cousin’s graduation, the future has become a frequent conversation topic over Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas Eve’s with extended family. Other than “so how’s school going?” and “are you thinking about what college you want to go to?” what else is there to ask a sixteen year old? My heart still races, my hands still shake but I know now I can’t avoid the conversation forever. It’s a difficult pill to swallow that I’m not a six year old playing with Barbie’s but instead sixteen writing college essays. Time is always passing and people are always changing and slowly I’m facing the future. I’m accepting the fact that there’s more to life than the four years spent in high