As college quickly approaches, I have been doing a lot of thinking about my past and my future. A word that has popped a lot recently is "legacy." We all leave one in one way or another, whether we like it or not. It made me ask myself... How have I made my mark? How will I make my mark?

I thought about what possible legacy I left in high school. I asked friends what they thought. Some of the immediate responses included the girl who loves service, the girl who organized Mass, the girl who did everything (quite an exaggeration), the girl who was always sweet to everyone she met. Others included the girl who spent way too much time at school, the girl who stressed out about everything (if you ever ran into me while I was setting up Mass then you know this). I am glad I was able to make a positive impact. I am grateful for these responses because how I left my legacy was honestly something that I did not ask myself when I entered high school. But I'm thinking about it for college now...

Over the past few years, I have gotten to know myself better. I know who I am and who I want to become. I know that for college I want to continue to make the strong positive impact that I made in high school. Thanks to a really good friend of mine.. I have realized now that the difference is that my goal is to be a reason that people can believe in the goodness of people, an example of Christ in one way or another in people's lives. In the back of my mind this had always been what I striven to be. Being the girl who is in multiple leadership positions or who loves doing service is great but I want to be defined by more than just my activities. I'm stating it now.. the example I leave is my first priority.

Now you may be asking yourself.. why should you care about what I have to say about the legacy I am going to leave? You don't. For me, putting this out there makes it all the more real. And who knows? You may be encouraged to think about your legacy, as my friend got me to think about mine.

On my gravestone, there will be a little dash representing all the time between the year I was born and the year I will die. The question is how will I live it? How will I make the most of it? What you see above is what I have decided. It is my utmost hope that I will follow through with it.