Colorado House Speaker Crisanta Duran, 37, is ending her House career at an age when many lawmakers are barely getting started.

In the last two years, Duran’s national profile has risen dramatically, even before becoming the state’s first Latina speaker of the house.

She won the Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award in March 2016 from Emily’s List, the Democratic committee that supports Democratic women running for office. Just five months later, she was at the podium of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, telling her story.

“Only in America could a shy little girl from Northglenn and Arvada, Colorado, grow up to break glass ceilings and serve as the majority leader of the Colorado House of Representatives,” she said.

“So, to every shy little girl or boy out there listening, I want to say: No matter who you are, no matter where you’re from, or how you got here, you are special. And your potential is as big as America itself.”

Duran said in her last go-around in the lower chamber she will be “laser-focused” on issues such as affordable housing and child care, and a way to knock down some of the state’s $828 million obligation to public education.

Her biggest disappointment in 2017 – the failure of a statewide transportation package – still stings, and Duran indicated she doesn’t see much hope for a different outcome in 2018.

Instead, she’s supportive of a citizen-driven ballot measure that mirrors the 2017 bill and which could include many of the same stakeholders who backed the 2017 effort.

At this time, however, there are no ballot measures filed to do that; the half-dozen submitted by the Colorado Contractors Association last year expired, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Duran also wants to have “tough conversations” about Colorado’s growth. Up until 2017, the state population had been growing at a robust rate of nearly 100,000 residents per year. State demographers predict Colorado will be home to 8 million residents by 2050, up from about 5.6 million today.

“We have an incredible quality of life, and have to do more to enhance and preserve it,” Duran said. “I don’t blame people for wanting to be part of our communities. But we also should have tough conversations about how we plan and adjust for the growth for the next generation.”

The bipartisan success of the 2017 session – breaking long-standing logjams over construction defects, the hospital provider fee and equitable funding for charter schools – is what Duran will look back on as part of her legacy. But the bottom line is that all of those measures demonstrated an ability to problem-solve on tough issues.

Duran’s thinks that ability will guide her future. What that will look like is a question she asks herself almost daily. For now, she will make sure the 2018 session is as productive as possible “and that we work to reform the culture at the capitol and address the harassment issues head-on.”

Duran doesn’t have a specific future office in mind, but is mindful of her role as a leader for women and Latinas in particular.

“I think a lot about the future of women in our country. My grandmother would never have imagined her granddaughter as speaker of the House” or earning a law degree, she said.

“It’s been the honor of my life to be the first Latina speaker in Colorado and the only Latina speaker in the nation. It is also important to me that I’m not the last, and that we continue to support women and Latinas specifically.”

Duran said she knows how hard it is for women to excel in politics.

“I had to work twice as hard and be twice as smart.” And even today, there is still much to be done to make sure women have the same opportunities,” she said. “I will continue to work to help others succeed in politics, especially women and Latinas.”

But she still needs a paycheck after 2018.

“I need to get a job,” she said. “I’d like to continue being able to problem solve. What that means, I’m thinking through … and you don’t have to be in the spotlight to do that.”