Just a moment of reflection…

I recently opened up one of my journals to look back on what I had written.  This particular journal is special.  I bought it a few years ago at Barnes & Noble (I’m pretty sure), so the origin isn’t especially exciting.  However, I also bought a long, glass pen with a jar of original black ink to go with it because I wanted to try my hand at calligraphy again.  Since it had been so long, I wanted to practice before I tried writing in it and ruining it.  Unfortunately I got distracted with life and never got the opportunity, but I always kept it close by in case I had something significant to write.  Eventually I cracked it open, carefully as to not bend the spine, and scrawled a few quotes from songs and the Bible.  Based on what I wrote, I would figure that it was early 2010.  The next page has a different quote, followed by a promise made to myself to experience life.  I remember this was later in the year and it felt as if I was turning a new page in my life and I had to make it count.  I wrote, “I want to experience new things, meet new people, see new places, learn new skills.”  Looking back on the past couple years, I think that I have stayed true to my own word so far. 

In November of 2010, I became friends with Calvin and spent many nights driving around with him and his friends, hanging out in friends’ basements, and goofing off in the toy aisle of Walgreens.  In December, I went on a cruise around the Bahamas with my mother, and then I spent a couple days in Guatemala to watch two good friends get married in the Eternal Spring.  I took a road trip to Las Vegas with my mother in March of 2011 and saw the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam for the first time, as well as take my first tour of Sin City.  In May, I went to Italy and fell in love with Rome and all it has to offer, awed by the vast history it contains.  Later in September, I was hired at Starbucks and learned to be a barista, and improved my social skills a little.  January 2012, I started my first semester at University of Missouri – St. Louis as an English major, and through my classes found a renewed love for literature and writing.  Soon I will be driving my own car (finally) and I am considering lessons in bass guitar in between work and school.

I kept to my word and made a new beginning for myself.  I feel like a completely different person from who I was before I really started living.  I have come a long way and I have absolutely no intention of stopping now.  There is still so much more to see and so much to learn.  I’m going learn how to ski, I’m going sailing for the first time, I’m going to India to meet my little sister (sponsor child) for the first time ever, and I’m going to write my heart out until I have given all I have to my work.  I will continue to better myself, inside and out, and learn as much as I can.

As I think about all of this, I just have this great happiness in me that spreads everywhere.  Two years doesn’t seem like that long, but I’ve come so far.  I feel so lucky to have been given the life I have and the opportunities to accomplish so much.  I am completely undeserving to have such a blessed life.

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