OH the places you will go

“It's not where we are but who we are." Maggie Zimmermann

I remember spending many evenings the summer before freshman year of college sitting in Maggie's neon green room, candles lit, tea slowly losing its heat, talking about what the next year would hold for us.

I thought college would change me completely. I remember thinking my life would be like a WB series. I would magically transform from the chubby school newspaper editor to the gorgeous girl of every man's dream. I thought college had the power to change in me what i could not change within myself.

Of course my life didn't play out like a WB series- thank god or i would have been cancelled by sophomore year. It twisted and turned; I changed partially due to where I was and partially due to who i was. And then I ended up in Argentina.

And without realizing it, I made Argentina my freshman year of college. I envisioned the stereotypical American abroad in a foreign land scenario, full of dark handsome men, exciting exotic places and of course dramatic changes physically and personally. I imagined i would become the person i have always wanted to be in Argentina.

But again, I gave the where too much power. The things I really want to change in myself, Argentina does not have the power to change. Only i have that power.

So now i ponder the same question i pondered 3 years ago. Is it where we are or who we are?

It is both. Where I am will surely shape and mold me into the person i will be but not in the way i expect or want it to. And who i am...well I am not a WB series.