Lessons Learned

Why are thunderstorms so amazing? We had one today. It was great. Except that I got hail in my shoes when I came out from work and my umbrella flipped inside-out thus, getting me and my white skirt all wet. Other than that, it was awesome.

Sarah, these are for you. I'm sorry that this one is so blurry.

Okay, now for the real reason I posted.



Lately, I've realized how negative I've been. These past few weeks have been pretty tough for me, but nothing that I can't handle. I really don't have it hard at all. I complain about how tedious my job is, how I have no social life, how I miss college, how I get bored, and how I miss Sarah and hate that she's so far away, but in reality, my life is pretty dang good. I have a job that pays $9 an hour that allows me to work around my own schedule. I get to go and work out with the high school track team on Mondays and Thursdays. I get to go to Institute on Thursday nights. I get a nice, long break from studying, stress, and homework. Even though many of my close friends are away at college, I have my family here. I have a piano I can practice whenever I darn well want to (most of the time) instead of having to walk and find one. I can talk to Sarah whenever I want. I know people who have it way worse. My cousin's husband is in Iraq, my other cousin just said goodbye to his wife to go to basic training for the Air Force, my uncle did the same with his family to go to Officer's School for the Army, and Sarah is waiting for a missionary. So I can miss my friends all I want, but I really don't have it that bad. The past week or so I've been trying to see more of the positives. My grandma was in poor health for her entire life and yet, she was the happiest person I ever knew. She always used to say, "I can sit here feeling grumpy and sorry for myself or I can be happy. No one wants to be around someone who's grumpy, so I might as well be happy." I've tried to adopt that philosophy. I taught Family Home Evening on Monday. I decided to teach a lesson on the 6 Be's. As I was looking through my "Way to Be!" book, I noticed that there was a bookmark in page 79. It was the section called, "Be Positive." It was one of those "I get it, Heavenly Father" moments (I always love it when that happens, so that's why I'm posting this). I read that section of the book and this was something that stood out to me:

"My dear friends...don't partake of the spirit of our times. Don't always be looking for the dark side of life. Look for the good. There is so much of the sweet and the decent and the positive to build upon. Cultivate an attitude of optimism. Know that God is watching over you, that He will hear your prayers and answer them, that He loves you and will make that love manifest."

So I've decided to stop being a baby. I need to stop complaining and find joy in the journey.
Life is good.



Picture of the Day: This is me and Kyleigh at a cross country meet. We were captains during our senior year. It had rained all morning and since our course is basically a huge (but nice) swamp, it was pretty muddy. We gave ourself mud facials. Hers looks more hard core than mine because mine had already dried. That grass was really yummy, too.

Actually, I lied. It was really gross.

Okay...for realsies, we didn't eat it.