Friday, November 25, 2016

Progressive Challenges

I'm home for Thanksgiving this weekend, and I must say that I am very glad to have some much needed alone time. You never really appreciate having your own room until you move into an apartment filled with nothing but estrogen. No offense to my roommates, but I like being by myself. A lot. Even though I have this love to be alone, I also love to hang out with my family.

Since I've been home, I've noticed a lot more family problems than I initially thought we had. There's jealousy, accusation, and even mistrust. It starts to worry me a ton and I think it's something that all of us should address while we have the chance to grow closer as a family. Though none of those areas affect my personal life, it's my job as a peacemaker to make sure nothing goes unresolved. Hopefully we can get these family issues taken care of by the end of the year.

2016 has been a pretty eventful year. My brother got married, another step-brother left on a mission, I graduated, and now my step-sister is getting married next weekend. With everything happening, I think it's easy to take little ways to say "I love you" for granted. As a family, we've gotten so caught up in the events themselves that it's hard to concentrate on supporting and loving each other throughout them.

Despite small little family issues popping up, our family has still continued to want to do good for others. Recently, my mom and I gave Jared $1000 for his mission, and Reino paid for two veterans' Thanksgiving Dinners at Chuck-a-Rama that he had just met. My uncle offered to take me, my dad, my brother, and my sister-in-law to Shilo Inn's Buffet for Thanksgiving. These are the events that just happened recently.

Kind efforts are definitely being made, so the fact that issues pop up despite the good we do is a little scary. Believe it or not, karma isn't the driving force of what happens to us. Although it's good to do nice things, doing nice things doesn't prevent the bad things to happen. I feel like the bad things come when we need a challenge to help us progress.

My family is definitely progressing right now. We're all progressing and moving onto our own lives and the challenges that will help us grow into them. It may be hard, but with each other's love and support we can help each other get through it.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Lil Miss Epic's 4th Anniversary: Life Changes and That's OK!

Back in high school (never thought I'd be able to say that,) I thought for sure that I would struggle a ton here. I thought that I wouldn't be able to adjust at all. However, that's quite the opposite of what's happened during my nine weeks here in college. Throughout this week I've been thinking about what I should write about for my blog's fourth anniversary post. I think the most special thing I could write about this year would be the blessings that come with change.

I relied so much on my parents, and I still do but not as much. When I came up here, I was scared that I wouldn't have as close of a relationship with my family back home, but I find that the time away from them has brought me to appreciate them more fully and acknowledge the things they taught me growing up. Some people don't know how to do their own laundry, wash their own dishes, or even sweep the floor. Since I grew up under my parent's instruction, the transition of learning what to do wasn't really that big.

At first I just pretended that I was home alone, but that didn't actually work out well considering I have all of these roommates that are all around me. I was super scared to socialize with them at first because I didn't know if we would get along or hate each other or something. Then, I started pretending that I was on some weird school field trip like the Seattle Music Tour back in early 2015. That didn't exactly work either considering we didn't do any sight-seeing, and I didn't really have any friends up here. I've learned a lot since coming here. I've learned that I need to learn patience and love others just the way they are, regardless of whether or not they have some big issues in their lives that they need to fix. I've learned that change is okay and that it's inevitable. I've also learned that I'd rather have friendship in quality rather than quantity.

I can't imagine my life being any different than it is now. I actually like it here now. I'm used to it, and my apartment feels like home. Sure, my "home life" may not be the best here at college, but it's better than living in a box or living reliant in everything on my parents. College is interesting. You meet new people with the intention of actually being friends, not just because you sit by them. Professors actually treat you like adults. Anyone that's way older than you doesn't treat you any different because we're all in different categories when it comes to our degree. We're different but equal in the sight of others. There's no extreme judgment here, at least none that really comes to mind.

Things have changed for me and that's okay. I'm still the same person. I'm on my way to bigger and better things. I have a plan now and I'm determined to do something with it. Whether or not that plan leads to success or failure depends on my future and where life takes me. All I can do now is be prepared and take a step with faith hoping and praying that I am going in the right direction. Life is different now, but different isn't bad.