September. Made it through another one. It’s a wild month.
For me, September is like new years — the time when I start new things, reset after summer. My birthday is in August so likely I’ve reflected on the year ahead and then begin to make adjustments in September. Truly, I think I am academically wired to look at September as a new start, a new school year. For as much as I love summer, this time of year is also very welcome.
A few weeks ago I was sitting in the DC traffic that comes when all of the students and professionals, those that vacate the city during the summer months, come back to real life again. Sitting in my car in front of American University and watching the sea of students, I thought about how long ago that phase of my life feels like. Could not help but think about who I was then vs. who I am now. What I knew, what I thought I knew, everything I didn’t know.
A long lost memory flooded back - freshman g, sitting in an SIS classroom, a professor at the podium, roster in hand. I do not remember what class it was, but I remember the professor’s intro question that day - ‘what do you see, when you see your future?’ Professor looks down at his roster of 30+ students, slides his finger down the list, lands on my name, looks up and calls on me.
No idea what my response was. I so wish I could remember what I said to him and those classmates that day. What I know for sure is that nothing of what I said then is true today. There is absolutely no way that sitting in that chair I could have envisioned the path I took. A career in a field that I did not even know existed, a brand owner focused on new market entrants and trends, an Instagram lover…
I could ask myself the same question today and come up with a variety of answers. Hopefully, there’s more to the future story than I can envision as I sit here typing to you all today.
Happy Monday & Welcome to October…
xoxo,
TRESSE💋