Most Likely to Succeed

My school's yearbook is doing a page on teachers who won superlatives when they were in high school, and they wanted us to pose with a prop that represented our old superlative. So my students, since they are the best students in the entire universe, photo-shopped my last year's yearbook picture on a Time magazine cover!! It's a piece of paper taped to a Seventeen magazine. And I am going to keep it forever!!!

Just taking a selfie with my Time magazine!

I remember feeling so honored that I got a superlative at my high school, because my high school was so large and I was never "popular;" I was never on any kind of homecoming or prom court. But I was very smart. I ended up being valedictorian and was president of a bunch of different clubs my senior year, (NHS, FCA, Band, etc.)

Most likely to succeed. That's a good one. I'm proud to have gotten that one. I'm honored my peers thought that I would make something of myself. What does it mean to succeed? To make a lot of money? To be popular/a celebrity on social media by having thousands of followers? How about to be fulfilling your life purpose? (Or just identifying your life purpose! Can I hear an Amen!?) To be in the most wonderful marriage I could imagine? To be proud of the person I've become? To be enriching the brains of precious adolescents so that they may succeed in their own lives? Yes. By these standards I have succeeded far more than my wildest dreams. 

Reflecting back on my high school self, I can barely believe it... How content I am with myself and my life. More than content. I am ecstatic about who I am, what I am doing, and who I am doing it with. If I could go back in time I would tell my high school self, just keep at it. Keep working hard. You are going to do it. You are going to be happier than you ever imaged you could, and you are going to be so good at what you do! It was a hard road to get here, and of course it's still hard, but it has always paid off. So keep at it, young ones! You will reap the benefits of your hard work soon.