Growth and Change (An Editorial)

This was published today in our school newspaper, the Kishwaukee Kaleidoscope. Enjoy :)

       The other day I ran into my seventh grade home economics teacher. We stopped and chatted for a while about what was new and how college was going. We talked for about 15 minutes and then went our separate ways.

Later that night as I was falling asleep I did what I always do when I think about that class and that teacher. During the year she would ask us questions that were meant to make us think about something bigger than ourselves and one of them has always stuck with me. "Are you really the person that you think you are?"

When she first asked, I must admit that I was mystified by this obscure question.  What could that possibly mean? "Of course I know who I am", I thought.  "I am Grace Martin. I live in a tiny town in the middle of a cornfield. How could I not know who I was?" The answer seemed so simple. As I looked around the rest of the class I could see the other confused and awkward looks on the faces of my classmates. No one had any idea what she was talking about.  

Luckily for us dumbfounded seventh graders it was a rhetorical question and she continued on with her lesson but, for whatever reason, I never forgot her asking it. Every once in a while I come across a situation that makes me think about it and what it means. Could you ever really possibly know who you are? 

As I was looking back to seventh grade I began to think about how much I've changed as a person and about everything I went through in Jr. High and High School. I'm definitely not the same person that I was in  seventh grade or as a freshman or even as a senior in high school. Those experiences shaped the person I was then into the person that I am now. 

In Jr. High the answer to that puzzling question seemed so simple. I was Grace Martin who grew up in the middle of a cornfield.  Though now I realize that the answer was much more complicated than that. There is so much more that defines who you are. The experiences you go through in life change how you view the world. Sometimes in big dramatic ways and other times in small, almost insignificant ones. But they still change you and that change is constant.

So this makes me wonder. What will I be like in a year? What about in five years? How much will I have changed from the person I am now? What will I think of myself when I look back? This probably sounds strange but when I look back, I hope I see all kinds of things that I could have done differently. Not that I will regret them, but I hope that will mean that I have grown for the better.