Some thoughts.

This is how I feel right now, and almost exactly what I did as I walked out of that classroom into the rain. Today I finished my first semester of graduate school, and I cannot stop smiling. I think back to when I first started this program. The first few weeks I cried every night. I did not think I could do it. I wanted to quit. I hated myself for entering the program and thinking I could actually make it through.

I feel like society puts these strange restrictions on us. We are told to be self-confident, but not cocky. We are told to walk tall, but not too tall. We are told to boast about what we have done, but not talk about it too much. I feel like I always tried to walk this very fine line, and I pushed myself down because of it. It was easier to have low self-esteem and just hate myself than to know myself and what I was good at.

Today I completed something I did not think I could do. Something not everyone could do. I made it through my first semester of graduate school and I am damn proud of that, and there are no apologies for how great I feel about myself at this moment.