When Potential Becomes Reality

I wonder if the caterpillar knows what it’s becoming while in it’s cocoon, or if it is only upon the exodus that it realizes it’s new, beautiful form?

How does the baby bird know that her wings are strong enough to lift her upon the updrafts and eddies, far into the sky, above the nest where she spent all of her life to this point?

I stand here on the precipice, looking at what I used to be, and where I am now. It’s been a long, difficult climb, but a new world awaits me.

No more do I call myself a student of American Sign Language Interpreting: Though I still am a student, I am no longer merely a student. A new world has been opened to me – filled with all the wonder and terror that comes with such a discovery.

Five years ago, I touched American Sign Language for the first time. I stepped into ASL 101 and played a simple game to get my hands moving.

Now, I stand on the verge of an internship, to begin working as a professional ASL interpreter.

I didn’t see this road that I would be on. If I had my pre-college desires fulfilled, I would be on a farm, shoeing horses.

But here I stand, grasping meaning in one language in order to craft a message that conveys the same meaning in a second language.

My possibility has become my reality.

I arrived at Liberty, already holding an air of confidence – some would say arrogance. Now, that assumed confidence has been translated to real confidence. The safe confines of school and academia are being removed, and I find myself looking at the world outside with hungry eyes. There are so many vast experiences that will assail me in these next days and months, and I find myself longing to run into them, headlong, no worry of what they may be.

I remember the beginning of this year, putting my hands to the rungs of skill development, laughing at how much life would suck in the following two semester.

I remember the hardship of this past year. I left for spring break, and didn’t see my class in person for another six months. I remember lifting my hands and producing the largest load of nonsense that I could have imagined.

I remember driving to take the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening (VQAS), knowing that didn’t know what to expect. I sat in that testing center, knowing this was the culmination of my work and practice, while still knowing there was much more growth and development to follow after the fact.

I remember standing in front of an audience, interpreting for the director of a play, my legs feeling like jelly, but feeling more alive because of it.

So many memories, even from this year alone, rush back to me.

And then, today, it happened.

My classmate got the email first, and I got mine a shortly after.

Three months to the day after taking the VQAS, I was informed that I had passed. I am officially a qualified interpreter in the State of Virginia.

A qualified interpreter.

Potential has become reality.

I don’t think the caterpillar knows what’s going on, deep in the cocoon. I don’t think the bird knows that it’s wings will support it before it leaps off the edge of the nest. But both soar in glorious motion.

I have yet to see how I will soar. But now, the cocoon is opened, revealing the bright rays of the daylight. I stand on the edge of the nest, with the forest floor far below.

Watch me – I’m ready to soar.