Beginnings, Endings and Everything in Between...

I'm laughing, as I look back and think about all that happened during my first semester as a college freshmen. My floor flooded, we moved to a house a little off campus, that was still owned by our school and called ourselves a sorority, at the Bible college and went mattress surfing in the house we were living in. It was a pretty great beginning. Sometimes, its really hard when we can't see things right away though. We can't know what the future is going to look like or maybe even what we want for ourselves in the future. Sometimes, though this can be a really good thing, because at least for me, being known as the girl who likes all the details and likes to plan everything, it helped me to not be able to see everything and simply be in the present and realize what I wanted and who I wanted to become. Obviously, this is still a process for all of us, but it really hit me around 1 am last night as I was thinking back on this year, we have permission and freedom to be whoever we want to become and decide what we want. Now, that I'm going to be back in the dorms for this semester and know a little bit more of the details and future plans, I'm still looking forward to being surprised and not knowing everything. I had no idea that the alarms would go off around 10 that night last semester and that I'd have to move everything out of my dorm and live in a house with 10 other girls from my floor for the rest of the semester. I remember being angry and frustrated because all I wanted to do was sleep! Little did I know that God knew exactly what I needed and it was totally His details and His plans that I couldn't see everything that was going to happen. That's my challenge for this year, its ok not to know all the details or have plans and realize around 1 am that we can be whoever we want to be and decide what we want for ourselves. The surprises that came to me this year, may have originally made me angry and frustrated, but in the end it was exactly what I needed. To grow closer to my floor and have that experience in the depths of the city which gave me a greater appreciation for the suburbs. As angry and frustrated as the surprises may make us, or as happy and exhilarated, its in the end that we can see how they shape us and how they really reveal our true selves and who we end up becoming.