"Time flies"

Last night, our church youth group had a New Year's celebration. I can honestly say that I had a wonderful time; it was the most fun I have had in a while. My favorite part of the entire night was when our pastor taught us a lesson on making a brand "new year" for ourselves, New Year's resolutions, and figuring out what exactly we are going to spend our time on. All throughout his lesson, I couldn't stop reminiscing over the past four years of my life-high school. Knowing that I'm graduating this year, the sudden realization that it's 2011 hit me a lot deeper than I was expecting.

While Roger, our pastor, was speaking, he mentioned that one of the things that he couldn't stress enough was that we shouldn't wish our lives and time away because even though we think it's not that big of a deal now, the time will go by more quickly than we realize. This was the part of the lesson where I just wanted to shout, "AMEN"!!! My biggest pet peeve is when someone says that they cannot stand high school, they are so ready for it to be over with, and that college can't come soon enough. They think that they are living some nightmare, when the truth of the matter is that they are living one of the best experiences that life has to offer; they are running away from something that they haven't even been willing to give a chance.

 I have been in that position before. The point in your life when you're just ready for everything about being a teenager to end. When I was in the 9th and 10th grades, I was more than ready for the day to be over with before it even began. Finally, in the 11th grade, I started to find myself, realizing who I was meant to be, and what my purpose was. Some people may say that I'm crazy; crazy for loving school in general, crazy for seeing the act of learning and having an education as one of the greatest blessings of life, and crazy for thinking of teachers as real human beings, but the truth of the matter is that these people could see the exact same things that I see if only they would open their eyes.

You may think that the reason I started to truly see things in a different light in the 11th grade was because that is the year I finally commited to the idea that I wanted to be a teacher. Yes, it has a little to do with it, but the real reason is because I was finally able to open my eyes and wake up to what I was so blind to see all along. I found myself that year because I realized that my best friends could be even closer than they were to begin with, I could make new friends that I had never even considered speaking to before, I could trust 3 teachers with every single aspect of my life, knowing that they will stand up for me and defend me no matter what life throws my way, and I found that my life was passing by my eyes too quickly. A combination of all these things led me to be the person that I am today, and I am so grateful. I don't care who agrees with me and who doesn't. I only wish that more people could take a step into my shoes and see what I see everyday.

I say all of this to sum up the fact that for the first time in my life, last night, I had the greatest satisfaction when I considered everything I have done these past four years of my life, where I've been, and what I've done to get there, and I realized that I have completed one more goal in my life. I now know that I am exactly who I have been waiting my whole life to be, and I wouldn't go back and change a single second of my life because I wouldn't be the same person, sitting here right now, proclaiming that I have become the person that Christ truly intended for me to become.

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself, but the self is not something that one finds, it's something one creates". --Thomas Szasz

If you want to get anywhere in life and be truly happy at the same time, you have to take initiative and make a new beginning for yourself, start over, and CREATE the person you desire to be. The people that God have placed in your life are there for a reason, and they can help you along the way.