An Open Letter to the Class of 2017

YAY! It’s almost graduation time… which honestly is such an amazing moment, except for the fact that you have to sit through a long ceremony, when all you want to do is be done with it. But celebrating this big moment with your family and friends is definitely priceless and worth every minute of the wait since Kindergarten. So here at Her Story, we only thought this would be the most appropriate time to release our youngest woman’s story. She just so happens to be a Senior in high school and will be graduating tomorrow. She is probably one of the wisest high schoolers I have ever met, and it truly takes a lot for her to be comfortable enough in her own skin. This young woman, might also be one of the most selfless people I have met… when we first started her story, she didn’t start out talking about herself, but started out talking about the other people in her life that make her who she is. She truly represents humility alongside a genuine kindness that I hope we all can learn from… So here ya go… Our next story.

Her name is Kirby Grace.

Kirby decided that she wanted to meet at the Steel City pops Air Stream, and this was definitely the happening place for all the high schoolers to hang out at, so it was only fitting. We decided to grab some pops, and start our conversation the best we could. I’ve been fortunate enough to know Kirby for a little while, so of course we had to catch up before we started her story. As we always begin, I asked Kirby to tell us a little bit about herself, and this is what she had to say, “So like I’ve said, I really don’t have a lot of wisdom of my own, that I have acquired on my own… since I’m only 18 and I haven’t lived a lot of life yet, but I do think that the people that have been role models in my life have really affected me. For me, I have had a lot of women in my life that have influenced me, like my small group leaders at church, my mom, and also some of the people that have graduated and are in that age group, like my sister, that are doing what I’m about to start doing.” Kirby emphasizes the importance of having these influences to model how to do do the unknown. She feels that it’s important to have these people to help shape who you are… Kirby is one of the only people that I have met that when we asked her about herself and what she wanted you, the readers, to know, that she talks about others. Such a sweet, sincere young women. I did though ask Kirby to give us a little background about her so you all could get to know her a little better. Here is what she had to say, “I’m at very pivotal point in my life, which is actually kind of scary. I am graduating soon, and I’m going to Alabama next year and my plan is to be a doctor, but I don’t know how that is going to work out… that’s my goal. It’s not that I don’t think I can do it, it’s more about I don’t know if that is where God will have me. So that’s the plan…” I asked Kirby to look back on the start of high school and if she thought she would be where she is now, making the decisions that she is making in this pivotal point in her life. She answered, “In certain aspects I did see myself in this spot, I imagined that I would be successful in school and I have to have all As, and I did that, but I did reprioritize during high school that school isn’t the most important thing. I realized that school is important but that I didn’t have to be the best. I also had a mentor that was really intentional with me and we would meet one on one together. She would always ask me what I am struggling with and mine was always that I couldn’t get into the word enough. I expected for myself by the time that I’ve graduated that everything had to be perfect, and that I had to have everything together. Obviously I’m not perfect, but the image that I had of my faith as a freshman is not how I am today. It’s changed not in the way that I thought it would, but I’ve grown so much in a good way, just not in the way I thought.”

Emily and I being two woman that have been in this exact moment in our life, enjoyed taking these pauses in our conversation to give Kirby encouragement and let her know about our own walk and journey through college and life after high school. I’ll spare you all the details, but this is where one of those moments took place… To sum it up, it’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them in college. So seniors keep that in mind.

But back to Kirby’s story…

We went on to talk about if Kirby found herself successful. She talks about how everything that she’s done that she doesn’t think that she’s been successful but that if she was to average out everything that she has done (because she loves math) that she would find herself success… and y’all this girl is. She made all A’s through high school, so give her a high five when you see her. She’s one smart cookie. I did put her on the spot to tell me if she thinks that she’ll be successful at Alabama, and she really isn’t sure just because Alabama is such a big school and doesn’t know what it will look like to make new friends. So if you’re reading this and going to Alabama next year, you should be friends with Kirby… She’s awesome!

Insert another time that Emily and myself (mainly me) give Kirby some more advice about making friends in college and finding the right fit… we kinda did a lot of that.

Then we went on to one of my favorite questions for Kirby because she is amongst the younger crowd. I asked Kirby what advise she would give the younger ladies in the world. She responded, “I have a lot of advice… (insert laughter)… a big thing is to take breaks. I think that it’s so important to relax and take time for yourself, and really just be a little selfish. Not that you need to always be selfish, but it’s good to take time for yourself. Just take time to reflect and think about your goals for the week or for the month. Some other advice would be to have friends… I feel that there is someone out there for each person friendship wise. I feel that there is someone out there going through something similar to you and even if it’s not similar, the differences can bring you together. Also, keep your friends, don’t let your friendships die. Make an effort to keep your friendships going.” Such great advice just for life in general… it’s a good skill to learn to keep such value on your friendship.

*Some side advice from Kirby, Emily and myself: NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR SNAPCHAT

Just had to throw that side comment in there… no offense to everyone that uses Snapchat, but life is much bigger than what appears on that small screen.

This led into the conversation about not caring about what people think of you… Kirby hit the nail on the head for every high school girl, but I asked her to give us some application because it’s easy to say but how realistic is it to actually do… Here’s Kirby’s application: “Most of my application stems from the Free Your Flaws Campaign that I have been a part of (learn more about this campaign on Instagram at freeyourflaws) where we don’t where make up for a whole week to start a conversation about the campaign. It was super empowering for me to do because people took interest in being a part of it instead of just looking at me weird for not wearing make-up. Everyone has flaws that they see in themselves… but thats the thing EVERYONE sees flaws in themselves. That’s one way to realize that people don’t care about your flaws like you do.”

It boils down to… YOU do YOU. Enough said.

We moved on to talk about another fun topic for high school girls… BOYS and young love. Kirby does have a boyfriend and we got to hear all about their sweet love story. Ladies this guy had been crushing on Kirby for a while before she realized it and really before she even knew she liked him and he still pursued her… Young love is so fun and I’m kinda bias to it myself. But I asked Kirby to give me a little insight on what it’s like to be dating in the world today and what her experience has been like. She said, “My parents were very cautious at first with my older brother, just because they wanted to make sure that he was making good decisions, and they were wanting to make sure everything what done right. My older sister, then started dating and has been dating the same guy for 5 years, but when they first started dating it was hard for my parents to know what was the right thing to do with everything, and it was new for both of them. So then I wanted to start dating, but I knew my mom and dad wouldn’t just go for the idea of me to just date anyone. I started talking to some guys, and would tell these guys I could go on a date with them, when I knew my parents weren’t going to let me… so I really started to learn what my standards were.” And then Kirby went on to talk about her current boyfriend that she started dating 5 months ago. And they’re too cute… But Kirby doesn’t play games. She is very straight forward about her intentions and if things aren’t going to work out, then they aren’t… but I sure hope they do.

Kirby, thanks for giving us insight on what it’s like to be a Senior in high school, but you are definitely not the typical high schooler. Congratulations on finishing high school and we truly wish you the best on your journey at Alabama. You have quite the wisdom to give and a story to tell. We loved laughing with you and really just enjoying conversation over popcicles. (And for our reader's out there, Kirby is an amazing photographer so you should go see her stuff on Instagram at kirby_photog,

Thanks again to my favorite sidekick, Emily, for taking pictures and enduring my quirkiness.

And thanks to all of you who read this stuff… we couldn’t do it without yall’s support and we hope you continue to share with your friends and follow us on instagram at Herstorybham. Please let us know you thoughts.

And a bonus thank you to Steel City Pops for yet another amazing conversation over popsicles.