Dear me: you got your degree.
Well, Hey me …
I know you're 16 and you think your life is already off track, working nights and weekends while trying to get your baccaleaureat. You're telling yourself that school isn’t for you but that will be the only way to make it out in life so you persist. In fact, little do you know, there is not any academic type but just different systems and you are only aware of one! Imagine going to university, in France, after covid, all of that to maybe fail? Well my girl, you see those movies where they wear a cap and grown, those funny looking cords, you see those silly Americans graduating and who are pretty cool ? You like them, don’t you? You think, how fun but it will be crazy if I can even make it to university in France ? We made it, you are a bilingual girly who got her degree in another language because you are resilient. You will be so eager to get a degree and prove everyone wrong that you actually took more classes every semester and completed this Bachelor in less than two years! While working! While moving around!
You are one of those people. A proud graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a 4.0 GPA, honors, invited to Sigma Tau Delta (yeah, that’s an honors society, like in the movies). Yes, you. In English. From a U.S. university.
I know. Take a step back, stop to rush and enjoy the moment because good things are coming.
But let’s rewind a bit, because it didn’t happen the way you thought it had to. You didn’t finish high school and go straight into a degree. You got on a plane. You left France, became an au pair in Brooklyn, and moved into a whole new continent. At first, you thought that it will be a great 2 years max adventure, it became your life.
What you didn’t realize back then is that you were already starting something bigger. You were learning how to adapt, how to take care of others, how to show up even when things felt completely upside down. And somewhere in the middle of that, between making peanut butter sandwiches and helping a toddler (who are one of the love of your life) learn colors in French and English , WE started figuring out who you were. Now, we are 25 and we know.
First, you became a newborn care advisor. (Nope, not kidding. You, giving advice to new parents. And they actually listened.) I created guides and workshops, made resources. I started to showed up for people. And I did it all in a language you were too shy to speak out loud in class. I decided to go back to school. In the U.S. In English. While working. While adulting. While dealing with life (it gets better, you’ll see). Like always, we found amazing professors who pushed us, inspired us, supported us. We kept pushing, even when no one was watching because resilience is your ally.
And let’s talk about what we did outside of the classroom. From the french Consulate in New York, organizing huge events like Bastille Day with 7,000+ people, art exhibits, gourmet food festivals, and the 80th Anniversary of D-Day to running around coordinating with diplomats, vendors, artists and somehow always made it work.
I also realized the importance of giving some of my time and we started to volunteer and interned at the National WWII Museum, helping run programs for students, planning events, and teaching history in a way that made it matter.
And now? I am not done. You and I made our peace with the system and are about to start a master’s in Project Management, because organizing chaos has become OUR thing and we are actually really damn good at it.
So, to 16-year-old me: You're not too late. You're not behind. You’re not broken or bad at school or any of those things you whispered to yourself when no one was around.
You're just not meant to do life in a straight line. And that’s honestly what makes you unstoppable.
Love,
Your future self,
Who did the thing.
