Life Transplant.. NBD.

It's weird how fast you adjust to a whole new life. The transition between high school and college was hard, I'll admit. But once you get here and starting getting in the grove, it's hard to remember you've only been here a few weeks. You learn to cook and go grocery shopping when you no longer have food. You force yourself to do homework when you don't have a mom telling you need to do it. You wake yourself up, go to class at a school that is 16x bigger then your high school. And you do all of that with different friends and teachers then you had just a month ago.
I'm telling you, it's weird. It amazes me just how resilient the brain is. You don't really have a choice to go back home, so you force yourself onward. I do miss home, and I miss it a lot. I miss the dumb things we did in Politics each day, singing in choir. I miss the predictability of church at home; you knew where you were going to sit in Sunday School, what everyone's names were and where to hide when you didn't want your family to find you just quite yet. I miss trying to block out my little brother's screams as I did my homework every night. I miss my family and my friends faces, personalities and how well they knew you.
But even with all of this, you don't have a choice to live in the past. You float, swim, or drown. I'm just starting to float and feel comfortable with my new life. Soon, it will be time to swim to the edge of where  college can put me.
So here is the thing. Don't give up. Keep swimming, even when the tide is against you. At least you aren't in a foreign country with bad guys trying to kill you. And if you are... well why are you reading this? You should be running right now!!!
One more thing; I love Disney movies. A lot. But we had to analyze The Little Mermaid for three minutes in film today. The themes were; If you run away, disobey your parents and sell part of yourself to a witch, a handsome young prince will sweep you off your feet and fall in love with you anyways. Apparently the seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake.
Whatever Disney, I'm perfectly content with my own life thank you very much! I already ran away from home and well I probably stay out later then my parents would care to know. But there is no way I'm selling my voice for some dude. Do you know how many guys are here? Ariel, you got it all wrong. Love your life.

Weak Things Become Strong- And we aren't talking about the impressive size of your biceps. Sorry. :)

I would like to start off today by telling you something important: You can indeed overcook Ramen noodles. 

I did not know this. I just left them cooking while I cooked some chicken. And as a result, they turned to mush. My roomates and I feasted on mushy Ramen stir fry. It was not our most stellar meal, but you live and learn.  

My inspiration of the day is completely unrelated the art of cooking Ramen. Being enrolled in the 2nd largest private university in the world tends to occasionally make you feel small and insignificant. The things you did in high school doesn't really matter other then the fact that they made you who you are. The friend you had in high school are very much part of your life and your personality, but you don't get to see them every day. Your family you've been living with for the last 18 years is 1500 miles away. Some good comes out of the large abundance of people however, In the process of making a whole new set of friends and meeting new people every day, I've realized something important. Every single person has distinct strengths and weaknesses. My personal belief is that God gave each individual person their own unique set of gifts and talents to achieve what He would need them to do. Even if our opinions differ on this, this distinct set of talents each person owns truly makes the world unique. 

I am coming to appreciate my own talents more every day. You should as well. Think about what you are good at and how you can use those to your advantage, as well as how you can use them to help other people. You might also want to consider your weaknesses and how you can make them strong. 

I was reminded at church today of one of my favorite scriptures. It reads, "And if men come unto me, I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they my be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before m, and have faith in m, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Amen to that, brother. 

I thought this was lovely. Happy Sunday!