Saturday morning.  Am going through and dumping old files.  The box catches my eye:  "Business Junk - Old School Records."  All neatly organized.  Typical.

Find a two page writing sample entitled:  "Where will I be in ten years. Karen Kathryn Koehler.  English 181  Milbauer, May 9, 1979."

This would have been typed on an IBM Selectric.  The three pages of  onion skin paper are a bit wrinkled.

The 54 year old me reads what the 19 year old me has to say.   Oh the arrogance of youth!

The teacher docked me for poor punctuation.  Never mind the run on sentences.

Where will I be in 10 years?  It's a question I hardly ask myself as I am young and still not worried about my future.  Yet, when I examine my past upbringing, present living situation, and various expectations of life, I find I can pretty accurately predict what my place in society will be by that time.

My past plays an important role in determining my future.  I am the product of a family in which I was the oldest child.  Not only did I have my younger siblings to boss around act like a queen to, but I also had a substantial amount of responsibility placed upon me by my parents, which included setting a proper example for the rest of the kids, and often being placed in charge of things, like cleaning up the living room.  To my childhood under these circumstances, I attribute my current ability to be authoritative and my general nature of being very self-assured.

Ah, yes, the hardships of cleaning up that living room.

For more insight into the analytical brain of a 19 year old future lawyer (and to see if the predictions came true) here is the full unabridged and uncorrected text:

Where will I be in 10 years