Today I Felt what Empowerment Feels Like

Today it sunk in that I’ve graduated from college and I’ve never felt so liberated before in my life. I was reading people’s away messages on AIM and saw that nearly all of them said something along the lines of “class” or “homework already.” I don’t have class. I don’t have homework. I can sit and watch movies all night, start writing a book or get on a plane to Paris. This is wonderful.

Being me, I miss school. I’ve always enjoyed learning, studying, researching but it is so wonderful to learn, study and research whatever my heart desires, not what my professors tell me to. Like when I read that book about outer space or all the books I hope to read in the future.

And how empowering is it to know that my future is completely open. Tomorrow I could quit my job and fly to Australia and go snorkeling. I could send in my application for Peace Corps and be out of the country within months. I can pursue the career I have long considered unrealistic for me – photojournalism. I could sell my soul and bring in six figures for some big corporation. Anything is a possibility and nothing is holding me back.

Ever since I was a little girl, my mom told me I could be whatever I wanted. For some reason I have always viewed this in terms of the normal progression of life – college, graduate school, job, marriage, kids, retirement with me being able to choose the specifics of each and become whatever I wanted within those terms. I would be happy if that is how my life turns out and I can pick exactly what I study, exactly what I do, exactly who I marry and how I spend my retirement. But it doesn’t have to be like that.  Only today, at age 21, I fully understand what my mother meant years ago.