Hillary Clinton’s last day as Secretary of State was Feb. 1. At 4 p.m. EST, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan swore in John Kerry as the 68th Secretary of State.

Even before Clinton walked out of the State Department for the last time as our country’s top diplomat, rumors started circulating about whether she will seek a 2016 presidential bid. She has refused to directly say if she will run or not, but if the rumors are true Clinton will be back in the spotlight soon enough.

During her time as Secretary of State, she traveled to 112 different countries, making her the most-traveled Secretary of State.

She faced many challenges and rose as a great leader. For example, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said, “Pakistan-U.S. relations went through the worst time during Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. When you come out of the worst times, I must give her a lot of credit for the wisdom she showed.”

The biggest challenge Clinton had to face was explaining the attack of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya last September. Clinton took full responsibility and recently faced questioning by Congress.

After that serious questioning, Clinton held her ground. She has made her frustrations about the politicalization of the investigation known, and has made it clear that changes need to be made in order to help prevent events like this from happening in the future.

She has said that this controversy will not affect her decision to run in 2016, but there are other things she will have to take into consideration.

During her last few months in office, Clinton had to take time off for a concussion, blood clot and stomach virus. She said there will be no lasting effects, but this is a reminder that she is getting older. Whether she is getting wiser or more frail could be a large part of her decision.

That is, if she even questions staying out of the race.

Clinton has been in the spotlight ever since she became first lady back in 1992. During that time she played an active role in policy-making. She was named the most admired woman in the world 17 times by Americans in Gallup polls. She left her role as Secretary of State with almost a 70 percent approval rating — higher than any Secretary of State since 1948, with the exception of Colin Powell.

That’s not to say she hasn’t had some less-popular moments. During her 2008 bid for the presidential nomination she was seen as too tough and hard to relate to. As first lady she was seen as too political, yet she is the only woman in our country who had a realistic shot at becoming president. Obviously the good times have outweighed the bad.

During the 2008 election, Clinton’s campaign struggled to decide how to present her as a candidate. She was the first woman to have a serious chance at getting her party’s nomination. Her campaign decided to present her as a tough candidate, but this ended up working against her. If she were to run again she would be able to try something different that Americans would maybe react better to.

Americans have seen another side of Clinton during her time as Secretary of State. A picture of her texting has been used for many memes; she was seen shimmying on a dance floor in South Africa and out for a beer in Cartagena. Her friends say they have not seen any change in her, but she has come off as more relaxed to the American public, which she could use to her advantage in the next election.

Hillary Clinton has already had a very successful political career. She has held a variety of offices with success. She has won over Americans and would gather a lot of support if she were to run again.

It will be another two years before we know if she will throw her hat into the presidential race again, but it’s unlikely that this is the last we will hear from Hillary Clinton.

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Hannah Dankbar is a senior in political science and Spanish from Johnston, Iowa.