Touchstones

This is me.

The girl who wandered around her backyard with a book in her hand, acting out scenes for her next great movie.
The girl who woke up hours before she actually got out of bed and spent that time thinking and dreaming.
The girl who wanted to grow up and do something great.

This is me.

The girl who carried her violin everywhere she went in fourth grade.
The girl who struggled to enjoy it when she started taking private lessons.
The girl who switched to viola.

This is me.

The girl who never had the courage to tell her parents she wanted to play soccer or take dance lessons.
The girl who took tap dance her last semester of college.
The girl who played rugby her first two years of college.

This is me.

The girl who dreamed of being a voice-over in an animation or making it to Broadway.
The girl who never passed a high school audition in her life.
The girl who now sings in a science and engineering acapella group.

This is me.

The girl who applied to a math and science high school on a whim.
The girl who fell in love with Physics her junior year.
The girl who has never changed her major from Engineering.

This is me.

The girl who wanted to take German in middle school but had to stop in order to continue in orchestra.
The girl who took Chinese instead.
The girl who now misses Taiwan every day.

This is me.

The girl who wanted to have 50 kids.
The girl who quickly changed that number to 5.
The girl who still hopes for one.

This is me.

The girl who does not remember life before she could read.
The girl who started writing stories in middle school, with her other aspiring authoress friends.
The girl who still writes stories.

This is me.

The girl who just KNEW her daddy was Superman.
The girl who grows up to realize everyone is human.
The girl who still wishes she was small enough to crawl onto her father's lap when life gets tough.

Matthew Arnold once discussed touchstones as something used to measure experiences against.  I am my only touchstone.  The person who feels like she has already lived a thousand lifetimes in a hundred different places.  I've changed a million times only to find I've never changed at all.