August 7th

I know I haven't blogged in quite a while, so I wanted to make sure that I got one in before school starts. This summer has been an incredible one, and has filled my time with excellent learning, growing, and relaxing.

This summer was also an emotionally overwhelming one. It was the first time that I had to refer to my high school as "my old school" and my classmates as "people I WENT to high school with". This sounds like silly language choices, but it was anything but. This represented a drastic change in the way I saw myself. I was no longer tied down by what I thought I was in high school. I felt as though I had the chance to reinvent something. I didn't really want to reinvent myself, but to reinvent the way I saw myself and the way I put myself out for others to see.

I graduated on June 2nd. In the two months since, I feel as though I have grown significantly, quite possibly the most I have grown in any two month period in my life. This growth is in several directions. I learned what it means to be living independently, as I spent the summer at an amazing camp (URJ's Kutz Camp) and had the chance to really be responsible for my own living for six weeks. I learned what it means to truly not care what other people think of you, and to simply be the person you are in new places, because people will wind up liking you better anyway. And I learned that I am continually growing, as is everyone around me.

This last fact may sound simple, but it is actually monumentally important. I am learning, growing, and turning into a better person all the time. Yet I so often think of people in cemented terms. I rarely consider how some one's summer experiences may have changed their ways of thinking, or how they behave. I want people to give me the benefit of the doubt, but how can I have that if I'm not willing to do the same.

I have changed a lot this summer, and I think for the better. I hope and wish that people will have the chance to see what kind of person I am and am becoming, rather than dwelling on what I once may have been.

May it be God's Will