El oh el.

Ah, Kailey, how you love the past. You’d think with how much you reflect on it that you’d be excited to write this column, but here we are, having an existential crisis. I know you’re a planner. Yes, I see that 8-year-plan document and that “List of all of the things I’ve done, ever” that you dreamed would give you some semblance of meaning and worth. So it’s going to freak you out when I tell you that we have absolutely no plan for what we’re doing with our life. 

I will tell you this though: these days, you don’t need arbitrary achievements to define your worth (although they can be nice sometimes, future Iowa Journalist of the Year). You’ve learned to follow your passions despite the path to reaching them being unclear. And, you’ve actually felt real, pure joy. Like normal people. Like people that haven’t been depressed since they came out of the womb. AND you did it by yourself, no outside factors necessary. Of course, the world is sticks and poo and piss and worms so we’re not at that level of self-actualization right now, but I’m gonna get you back there—TRUST.

We’ve grown so much since then. Again though, I’m not gonna lie. Some things really haven’t changed. For example, we’ve still got great taste in music, but we’re still working on not watching the red flags get redder. I hope you’re following your dreams which currently have whittled down to the ever-disappointing “I-want-to-help-make-change-but-there-are-so-few-ways-to-do-so-in-a-capitalist-system.” Good luck figuring that one out, and never stop growing, kiddo.