ordinarily extraordinary

As cliché as it sounds, childhood was such a simpler time. We could run around and get dirty, our homework was MUCH easier, and the only thing we had to stress about was whether or not Gordo was going to tell Lizzie how he felt about her. Ah, those were the days. As a 21 year old woman who has seen her fair share of joys and difficulties, I wish I could go back in time to share some of my wisdom with my 10 year old self. I know how much you worry about people not liking you, people judging you, people thinking badly of you… Do not let those thoughts overtake you. Will some people not like you? Yes. Will some people judge you? Yes. Will some people think badly of you? Yes. But not all will think that. The one person you can trust as a child is the one person you can trust as an adult. Yup, that’s right; Kristin is still your best friend. 15 years later, she is still your rock, your soul sister, your immediate go-to. No matter how long you go without seeing each other or how ma...

I am not afraid to admit that I love love. I watch bad chick flicks like it’s my job and I read Jane Austen more than I should. Love is families and pets and friends and couples. Love is beautiful. Love is everything. And I love it. I love L-O-V-E. I’m a hopeless romantic and I am so excited for the day that I get married and start my own family. However, I seem to be stuck. Movies always start at the pivotal moment when the boy and the girl meet. They meet, sparks fly, there’s a catastrophic problem that puts the relationship in jeopardy, all gets resolved, they run off into the sunset together, roll credits. Everyone always talks about what happens after “happily ever after”, but I’m more interested in what happens BEFORE the movies. I’m more interested in that because that’s where I’m stuck. I haven’t been on an actual date in 5 years and it’s hard not to let that affect me. I spend so many nights going over every possible thing that could be wrong with me. Is my laugh annoying...

“I know I’ve left a life behind, but I’m too relieved to grieve…” I’ve never seen myself not going to college. It was always something that I knew I needed to do in order to get where I need to be in life. My education was always my highest priority and even when I struggled, I knew that failure wasn’t an option. I thought that school was everything, but then I actually got to college. Even though I still have at least a year and a half left of school, I thought I would go ahead and share some of the things I have learned thus far. Freshman Year: Cut ties from people you didn’t like in high school. Sometimes, you’re only friends with the people in high school because you have to see them for 8 hours every day, five days a week. Once everyone leaves for college, you are no longer tied to them! I think that as soon as the day after graduation, I did a complete purge my Facebook. Do the same! Delete the guy who only tweets sexist comments and the girl who thinks that Inst...

It still hasn’t hit me that I’m actually here. I’ve been here for 3 weeks and it already feels like it's been months. There has been so much that has happened that I haven’t really been able to sit down and take it all in. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if it will ever hit me. I’ve been waiting to do this program since I was a freshman in high school- that was 7 years ago. And here I am today having the time of my life and being completely blow away by God’s blessings. I can probably use this blog post to not only catch everyone else up to speed on my life lately, but I might be able to help myself catch up. My mom and I drove down to Florida the Friday before I had to check in to my program. I think that this was the most nervous I had ever been when it came to driving. My mom was driving down with me, but she was taking her van and I was taking my car, so that meant that I would be driving by myself for 13 hours. Straight. The longest I’ve ever driven was 5 hours in a...

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a post about my New Year Revolutions. I was going to “[rebel] against all of the anger, fear, pain, and cruelty that has been holding me back, and [fight] for all of the good things that I deserve”. So that’s exactly what I did. I had no idea that my year would turn out the way it did. I didn’t expect anything really incredible or amazing to happen to me. I was just planning on this being a year to be happy and work on my recovery. But God took those plans, crumbled them up, and rewrote them, just as He always does when I make my own plans. His Plan wasn’t for me to settle, it was for me to be bent so much that I had to break. I had to be plucked out of my comfort-zone full of the word “yes” and the words “it’s my fault” and He raised me up higher than I ever imagined possible. At the beginning of the year, I was broken and scared, and now, at the very end of this year, I find myself liberated, excited, and happy. I am happy. So now, let’s...

Hello, blogosphere! Wow, it has been quite a while since my last post. I was going to make it a priority to write a new blog post every week or two, but things just got crazy. Between school, work, actually having a social life, family obligations, and everything else that is included in a hectic life, writing a new blog post got put on the back burner. When the to-do lists are a mile long and life demands to be lived, I don’t always get to blog. I think that’s why people who use social media every 5 seconds really annoys me.  Have you ever been out with your friends or family and everyone is on their cellphone? If not (which I highly doubt), I’ll tell you about it: It is so freaking annoying! People who are glued to their text messages or their Twitter drive me nuts! Believe it or not, life exists outside of that little black box. There is hardly ever a single second where my brother’s eyes leave that glowing screen. When we’re out to dinner, when we’re watching a movie a...

They say that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but I beg to differ. I love Christmas, don't get me wrong, but spring and summer are pretty awesome. I think that fall is my favorite time of year, though. Pumpkin flavored everything, flannel shirts, boots, Thanksgiving break, colorful leaves, Halloween, not having to shave my legs; oh yes, I love it all! There's just something magical about walking across campus dressed in layers, sipping my Pumpkin Spice Latte, making it a point to step on every crunchy-looking leaf, and letting the cool autumn breeze blow my hair. I truly do love fall. But I still have at least 4 weeks of summer. A lot of people would be thinking "Yes, a whole month more of summer that I can fill up with trips to the pool, popsicles, and tanning!" That does sound enticing, but once August hits, I'm ready for fall. I think a majority of it has to do with the fact that I go back to school at the end of August and nothing screams...