Are you a frog or a tadpole?

TMI Warning: I got my period when I was eleven years old, and while Liza was wearing a training bra and praying each night that she'd wake up the next morning with something to fill it out, I was already rocking a B-cup. So, when it came to puberty, I was certainly not a late bloomer.

However, with pretty much every other stage in my life, things seemed to happen so slooowly. During freshman and sophomore year of high school, I went to dinner and a movie with a group of friends every Friday night, while most other girls in my class were out at parties, getting smashed and showing the upperclassmen just how slutty they could be. I didn't have a boyfriend until I was seventeen--who was also my first kiss--so you can only imagine how much longer it was until I experienced, um, other things. You get the point.

Basically, the first two years of college were much of the same. It took at least that long to make a tight group of friends (friends, not just girls I partied with), and for boys to notice me. I switched majors I don't know how many times, and when I graduated, I had absolutely no clue what the heck I was going to do with my life. While everyone else was landing jobs or going to grad school, I was waiting tables at the neighborhood restaurant back home in Kentucky.

And even when I made the leap to New York, it took me almost an entire year to get a job. (I'm pretty positive that at 24 years-old, I was the oldest intern alive. I was older than some of my bosses). Since I lost my job in the spring, and have been forced to totally reevaluate my life, I feel like I'm a tadpole once again. A damn old tadpole at that.

I was venting to my mom today about my situation, and she said, "Well, those who laugh last, usually laugh hardest." And I know she's right. I mean, being a late bloomer does have some positive points, too. I think the main reason that things have always happened a little later for me is because I've really taken the time and made the effort to figure out who I am and what will make me happy. All of my successes so far have come from hardwork, perserverence and a positive attitude--I haven't taken any short cuts. I haven't used people just to get a notch higher on the social latter, or pretended to be someone I wasn't just so I could score a cool, high-profile job. I've been true to myself 100 percent, which really, I don't think is something everyone can say.

With that being said, I'm ready for things to start happenin'! I want to be a frog, damnit!

How about you: Where are you at in the tadpole-frog cylce?