The Next Journey

Today marks my first day as a "real" adult. Yesterday, I graduated from high school, and man have those 12 years of school flown by. I still can't believe how fast my life has gone to this point. I sincerely enjoyed my high school years, and it is unfathomable to me that they're over. I wanted to start this blog to chronicle my life following high school and reflect back on my life to this point. I've been doing a lot (when I say a lot, I mean A LOT) of reflecting on my life lately and its purpose and the direction I want to take with the rest of my life and I've decided that as I go through my thoughts I will write them down so that I can look back on what I wanted to do some day when I'm older. 


To this point in my life I have done quite a bit. When I was in kindergarten through first grade, I was my town's "Little Miss Shenandoah." Then, when I was in middle school I got involved in this weird organization called FCCLA, which has affected the rest of my life and I think will continue to affect my life as long as I live. I attended a National Leadership Conference in Orlando, FL the summer of my eighth grade year before high school, and I fell in love with the organization. As a freshmen, I attended the same conference in Nashville, TN. Again as a sophomore I attended the NLC in Chicago, but I had ran for a district office earlier in the year, and had been elected as Vice President. My junior year I ran for an Iowa State Office and was elected to the 2011-2012 SEC as First Vice President, the exact office I had wanted! I attended the NLC that year in Anaheim, California! What a fantastic experience! I gave up that office at the 2012 State Leadership Conference last March, I don't know if I've ever been as depressed. Now, I will be attending the 2012 NLC as a workshop presenter! I'm so blessed to have found my niche with this organization! 


My life plans to this point are a tad outrageous I'm sure. I will be attending Grand View University this fall (Go Vikings!) to major in Secondary Education to be a Family and Consumer Science teacher. I'm also contemplating getting a couple of other education endorsements to teach other classes such as math and social sciences. Right now, I'm considering that math one the most. I then plan to teach for a few years, get my masters degree, and possibly my doctorate in educational leadership, become a school principal and one day work at the Department of Education! I also plan to travel the world and own a monkey. I want to have a summer internship with Southwest Airlines, work as a congressional page and become a politician (probably not a realistic goal). I want to do, see, experience and taste everything I possibly can while I am able to. 


I hope this first post was half-way interesting!


Hayley