The list was created during freshman year, it wasn't a list written on paper, or as a note on my phone; it was a starkly printed bold font, in my head and sporadically on my lips during the occasional chitchat. The title of the list went through an evolution of its own as my life’s milestones progressed. The ‘when I graduate list' emerged in 2010, it was my endpoint, my tightrope walker’s finish line. The list served as an incentive to keep on going even when the shifts were long, and reading assignments incessant, and bank account shallow. The list was my reminder that my wants in life will wait, as I invest in my noble career and my promising future. That list differentiated my wants from my needs, and served as my personal vow towards fulfilling some of my selfish mundane desires in life.
Three years of school meant 3 iphone upgrades, 3 boots seasons, 4 vacation-less school breaks, and and innumerable amount of social opportunities either simplified or simply avoided all due to an unreliable income and textbooks and PowerPoint presentations in dire need of my love, attention and devotion. To many, this might sounds as a sorrowful life for a young gal, but each pair of boots I looked at, imagined myself wearing, but left on the shelf; every phone upgrade I imagined utilizing, every country I dreamed of exploring, and every social experience I longed to participate in but neglected due to the prioritizing of my schooling needing my complete and devoted attention; I chose to see these not as sacrifices, but rather each was a step on that ridiculously long staircase to a life spent toiling with bed pans and syringes all while making a difference in others lives.
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