11/21/2012

{Great Wall of China - May 2012}

Journal entry - 11/21/2012:

''...As always I have so much to be grateful for. I'm so grateful that I get to spend Thanksgiving with both of my siblings and so many of my extended family members. I'm finishing up school next semester. My graduation date is set and even though the end is in sight, I think the mountain I have to climb to get there will be the tallest, toughest, and maybe even (in some ways) the loneliest of all.

6 years of school straight is a long time to get an undergrad. Two more years than I planned or even wanted to. I could have been getting my Masters during this time... clearly that was not the greater plan.

But in the past two years I have been tested and I have been stretched and have I developed some of the greater qualities of my personality and character. I have also been blessed with the time to nurture and learn from relationships and friendships that have come to mean the most to me in the past couple of years... [I would never have met a couple of people that have become closest to me] ...And mine and Kacee's friendship would not have grown the way it has if we hadn't experienced some of the adventures and trials we've had together. 

In the past whenever things got hard I would have this insanely overwhelming desire and need to get out, escape, run away, and leave it all behind me. I would literally get in my car and start driving and I wouldn't want to stop or turn around. Heavenly Father knows best. Obviously I know that, but it's so humbling to see his hand so intimately working in my life. His fingerprints have marked every part of this journey, especially through college.

I'm excited to see what things are up ahead, because even as I remember the lowest of lows and the best of the best, I am filled with gratitude for all of it. I know without a doubt that I have been where I've needed to be. Not only do I know that I'm where I need to be, I'm where I want to be. That is a huge mark of how far I've come emotionally and spiritually..."


I'm climbing that mountain. 
And it is a climb.
It's everything I thought it would be and at the same time not what I expected at all.
But I'm grateful for the things I've come across on the path and I'm pretty excited for the things up ahead. 

Come what may and love it, right?