5 Years…

About a week ago I was scrolling Twitter and saw a tweet that gave me motivation to blog. I cannot find the specific tweet to link y’all but it was basically saying when you graduated high school where did you see yourself in five years and is that where you currently are. I graduated way more than five years ago.. 12 to be exact.. but it still applies because where I saw myself is in no way, shape, or form where I am today. I have absolutely no regrets, though, and I will explain why as you read further along.

When I was getting ready to graduate high school I was imagining myself going to college, enjoying life, having fun, being your typical college kid. I was in a committed relationship with the guy that would become my husband and children’s father. I was extremely happy to be done with high school and get far away from there. Life was going great. I applied to the closest community college to get my degree plan started. I decided that an associates degree in Accounting was what I wanted to do, so I registered for the classes and enjoyed my summer.

For my five year plan I imagined that I would be finished with my associates, married, living in our own home, maybe one child, and at least working on my bachelors degree (if not done with it, as well).

I graduated in June of 2006 and the beginning of my second semester in college I was given news that would change my plan in a huge way. In February of 2007 we found out that I was pregnant with our oldest daughter. We had just got engaged in December and were planning our wedding but all of that changed when we found out we were having a baby. The money that we had put aside for our wedding was quickly switched over to baby money instead. I wanted to remain in college and not give up. I wanted to beat statistics.

I ended up on bed rest and my professors did not work with me on anything so I failed out of the summer semester. This was a huge disappointment for me but I knew that I needed to focus on my growing child – I could always go back to school later. I took time off and ended up going in labor a month early. This also was something that was not planned. A was born October 13, 2007 weighing 4 pounds 15 ounces and she was 18 inches long.

Five years after I graduated was 2011. We had just closed on our house in August of 2011 and were working on planning our wedding. We got married on November 11, 2011 and our daughter was our flower girl.

I was not done with my associates degree, let along working towards my bachelors. It was a little disappointing but family has always been my number one focus in life. I was working for a pharmacy that I absolutely hated and life aside from my job was great. Not at all where I saw myself, but it was something I could not complain about really. I was happy, healthy, had a family, was married to my best friend, and we owned our house.

A degree that should have been completed in 2008 was finally completed in 2017, after a few changes to my major, receiving a certificate in Business Information Management, and having our second daughter. This past Friday I walked across the stage and received my Associate’s of Applied Science in Human Services at 25 weeks pregnant with our third daughter!

As I sit here typing this I am finally half way done with my bachelors degree and will be graduating next May (as long as everything goes smoothly with this pregnancy and nothing comes up). It may have taken me 12 years to get to where I am now but I have the most amazing life and I cannot complain about any of it. It has taken me a lot longer than I ever would have imagined to finish this degree but fuck it. All that matters is that I never lost hope and that I am still working towards it.

I put my children ahead of myself like any mom would do and I am perfectly happy with that. I am so glad that I am able to be a stay-at-home-mom, homeschool our children, and work towards my own goals! It has been a blessing and one that I would not change for anyone.

xoxo.