Have You Lived Today?

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’. – Erma Bombeck

Today I went to lunch with my Mom. We got into this very intense conversation about life and how we think it should be lived. My Mom thought that she hadn’t ever really done anything exciting with her life. She began to reflect back and I pointed out that yes, she has in fact done some pretty spectacular things. She’s made bold, life changing decisions. She’s pursued her passions and made some great memories on the way.

It got me to thinking, When I’m her age, what am I going to reflect back on and smile about? Right now I feel like everyone my age is getting their life started. They’ve moved across country to a new place, they go on vacations, they do whatever they want without worry. I recently ran into an old classmate from high school and he asked me what I’d been up to, Oh, just the usual — going to school and working. When I asked him the question you know what he told me? My buddy and I are moving out to LA to pursue our DJing. We leave in two weeks! Yes, he was leaving. Just him and a friend. He packed up all of his belongings into a few boxes, said goodbye to his parents and left.

It got me to thinking. What am I doing? I’m in school and working my butt off. I eat, sleep, go to school, and hang out with Abraham. I love school — I love learning, and I love Abraham to pieces. But I feel like I don’t do anything. I want to be able to look back and say that I lived during my 20s. I don’t want my only answer to “What did you do when you were in your 20s?” to be, I went to school. 

This is the time when I am not tied down to one place with kids and a career. I am free. I am me. I want to live it. I want to experience everything I can.

My goal? I want to learn. About everything. That is one of my greatest joys in life – learning. I feel like this world is filled to the brim with lessons, experiences, and challenges. So much so that there isn’t physically enough time to deal with it all.

But I want to. I want to spend my life learning, not just from textbooks and lectures, but from people, through experiences. I want to soak up everything I can. I want to use everything I have to propel myself through my life. Never stopping, just experiencing.

I’m tired of just sitting idly while my life flies by. Lately, I feel like the weeks are just speeding up and the birthdays are coming more frequently. It’s making me realize that you only have one shot at this life. Why should you just sit around, lazy, when you could be out living it?

So here it goes. Time for a change. Who’s with me?

Relationships and God

This post is regarding something that has recently occurred in my life and I honestly can’t stop smiling because of it. It is part of my list of things I wanted to alter in my life. My own self-improvement plan. Because of it, the smiles have outweighed the (unhappy) tears, the laughter has banished the anger, and conversations have filled the silence. What is it, you may ask? God.

I was raised Catholic. I’ve always had a firm belief in God. But I’ll be honest, growing up I was more of a “Sunday Catholic.” Not that I was a rebellious teenager: I’ve never smoked, consumed alcohol, done drugs of any kind, or slept around. However, within the Church I never…felt alive. I didn’t grow up in a family that said grace before meals. I never really prayed at all. I just went to Mass and tried to be a good kid. My faith was always there, but there was so much I wasn’t doing to strengthen it and profess it.

Abraham is a Christian who is very involved in his Church. He plays guitar and bass in the Youth Group band and he is one of the Youth Group leaders. He comes from a very devoted family who actively participate in Bible Study and the Church.

Abraham and I have always had God in our relationship but it wasn’t until recently that we centralized him within it. Before, we never went to service together or prayed together. Recently though, we’ve started attending the same service together. It has really helped me become closer to God. Before, I used to go to Mass and (like a lot of people) just went through the motions. The Word never hit me.

That is, until this Group. Weekly, I find myself being impacted by what is preached. I find myself reading my Bible more and more and studying it. Before, I never read the Bible and was ashamed at how lost I was when people would quote scripture. Now, I find myself praying a lot more.

The most interesting change I’ve seen is that if I do something wrong (cuss, get angry, etc.) I find myself being aware of it almost immediately. Not that I have a sailors mouth but I would say a cuss word here and there and I would just glaze over it. Now if I say it, I’ve begun to correct myself and feel guilty for it. I love that I am noticing change.

This change has done wonders for my relationship with Abraham. I love going to Service with him and being able to share that time with him. I can’t tell you how blessed I feel being able to Worship with him. It has brought us so much closer! Before I was terrible at communicating. If I was angry, I was the Queen Bee of the silent treatment. I just couldn’t bring myself to talk. Now, that barrier is completely gone. I am not as angry of a person as I used to be. I am so much happier. This change has affected not only myself, but Abraham too. I can tell he is so much happier. Being able to share this and love God together as a couple has completely altered our relationship for the better. 

Day 1: List 20 Random Facts About Yourself

1. I am a child of God.

2. My favorite color is purple, but I don’t discriminate: I like blue, green, red, orange, and yellow too!

3. I will travel the world someday. I want to learn from people of different cultures. I want to visit places that haven’t been tainted by modern practices.

4. I hate painting my nails with a burning, fiery passion but my nails are always painted. C’mon, who in their right mind enjoys spending so much time carefully painting their nails just to accidentally touch the wet paint or chip it on a door 45 minutes later?

5. I am studying medicine.

6. I’ve been in love with and dating my best friend since January 2012.

7. Every year since I was 12 I’ve been volunteering on my birthday.

8. Spiderman kisses aren’t as awesome as Spiderman and Mary Jane made them out to be.

9. I can eat peanut butter with a spoon straight out of the jar.

10. Since I was a little kid I’ve had a VERY strong maternal instinct. Kids are awesome. But I don’t want any until I’m married.

11. Giraffes are awesome. Did you know that zoos actually let you FEED THEM?

12. I absolutely detest the following: YOLO, swag, swerve, and LOL. C’mon people.

13. Ice cream has to be the greatest comfort food ever made.

14. I love school. Really.

15. I hate ants. So much.

16. I am a VERY organized person.

17. I will never get tired of ham and cheese sandwiches.

18. I’ve never done drugs or drank alcohol in my life.

19. I have had a mild obsession with Chinese food lately.

20. If I wasn’t studying medicine, I’d be studying criminal justice.

A Step Towards Happiness

In recent years I have been struggling with happiness. I used to be the person that would have a smile plastered on my face 24/7. Now, life has caught up, responsibilities have taken effect, and I have yet to figure out how to completely keep my head above water.

Now, I’m finally doing better. I’m on the road to change and I couldn’t love it more.

In order to do this, I have been implementing a few things to help me learn how to appreciate life more.

One thing that has been doing wonders is writing down what I am thankful for and happy about that day. Today has been a phenomenal day and I just wanted to share with you guys what has happened:

1. I had a really long and intimate conversation with my boyfriend about our relationship. We discussed the things that bother us (it’s not as bad as it sounds!) and the things that we love about each other. Lately, school and work has gotten very rough and we haven’t been devoting as much to our relationship as we should. Today was a great reminder of how special we are to each other and a way for us to grow closer. I’m definitely happy about this!
2. After the lovely conversation, I got home to find out that I had a few new followers! Sarandipitous is growing! I’d like to give a shout out to these new blogs as a thank you!
   fatimanagaria has some great advice about networking and reaching your goals.
   shelbylucas14 has some wonderful posts about clean eating and healthy living.
3. I had my first exam in my anatomy course. I studied my butt off for a week and a half (the course is only six weeks! Yikes!) and got a 54/50. Thank goodness for extra credit! Woot woot!

Today has been a wonderful day! I can’t wait to see what else is in store 🙂

What things are you happy about today? Do you have any tips on how to stay grateful?

Have a lovely day!

Found A 5k!

Okay Guys I’m SUPER excited. I decided to implement the Law of Attraction and wrote out the list of things I wanted to change within my life and framed it. The frame is sitting right in front of my face on my desk for me to see everyday and remind me that I have these goals and I am going to achieve them.

Well, I found a 5k run that I am VERY interested in. For those of you that don’t know (trust me – I didn’t for the longest time), a 5k is the equivalent of 3.1 miles. So, in preparation for running a half marathon by the end of next year, I decided I would try a 5k race.

It just so happens that there is a 5k happening over the summer. But this isn’t just any run. No, it’s a zombie run. Yes. Runners sign up (did I mention that college students get free admission? SCORE!) as a general participant, and some will actually opt to be a zombie chaser.

Talk about motivation.

I am so doing this.

Goals, Goals, Goals

It’s time for the post that can be found on nearly every blogger’s website — The Self-Improvement Project.

Time and time again I find myself starting a new self-improvement project. And time and time again I find myself losing my motivation and quitting my project within the first few weeks.

But here is where that changes. Recently, I was given a reality check. It wasn’t as much a check as it was a truck barreling into me. Metaphorically speaking.

I now have no option. I have to.

I feel like a big reason people lose focus in their self-improvement projects is that the projects are too long. I’ve read blogs where people list 50 things they want to do and think to myself: Uh, no. Let’s start out small. Baby steps.

So here it goes. I have the motivation, now I need the list.