the old me is dead and gone

In the past year, I have went through a great amount of change, and as a result, I am a completely different person with a different way of thinking. I may not reflect this immediately in how you perceive my actions [for those of you who have known me longer] but anyone who didn't know me seems to think automatically that I am a very assertive person.

I was that kid who sat in the corner and prayed no one would ever call on me. I cried at the smallest thing that went wrong, and hated anything less than perfection. I was that annoying kid who always knew the answer and had my hand waving in the air. You know, that kid that everyone else prays just shuts their mouth so the rest of the class can be dismissed or so that the topic can change, because no one else cares.

It is not that I don't care, just that I have become a very different type of learner in the past few years, as well as a different person when it comes to interactions. Getting away from where I went to high school was quite possibly one of the best choices in my life, as it forced me out of my shell and made me realize just how annoying people must have thought I was...sorry about that, if anyone who remembers me from those days happens to be reading this.

Three years ago, I was one of the most passive people you could ever meet. I'm still pretty indecisive a lot of the time, but experiences that I have had during my first three years here at Northwest have really helped me grow as an individual. Falling in love, having my heart broken, and the jagged healing is a key portion of this. A movie comes to mind where a man's heart was all sorts of jagged, while the other's was smooth...the man with the very strange, jagged heart was healthy and happy on the outside, with no medical concerns and looked fantastic. The other man, who you would think would have the healthier heart, was actually suffering from several disorders and was also suffering slowly from a breaking heart since there was nothing to keep it all together.

I like to think of it as a very interesting patchwork quilt, and I thank all of you for being some part of my quilt, because you make feel feel warm/fuzzy/important, and I appreciate it. :)