stories

It’s 1:30am and I’m itching to write.  It’s been a while since I’ve last written, mostly because I have no idea what to say.  I have all of these thoughts bouncing around in my head, but none of them are complete, so I’m hoping that I’ve made a few coherent sentences once I’ve finished this.  If not, oh well, I guess, not many people will read this anyway. 

A lot has happened since my last post.  I danced in my last dance recital as a graduating Senior and then graduated high school, my braces are gone, I spent my summer working at camp,  I’ve made new friends, I have a new job.  There have been a lot of new things in such a small amount of time.  It seems silly that your life is supposed to completely change all of a sudden just because you’re not in school anymore.  I’m really just trying to learn how to take it all in and figure this whole thing out.   I have a feeling it’s going to take a while before I even sort of have a grip on life, but that’s cool with me; I like exploring this new unknown territory of “adulthood”… if you can even call it that.

If you ask me what I think is the most important thing I’ve learned in this past year, it’s that life is like a book of short stories – all the small stories are what contribute to creating one big incredible book.  I know, the whole idea sounds kind of cliché.  I’ve just realized that, a lot of the time, we are waiting for that one big thing to happen that will define us and make our life “good” and I’m not really sure if that is the right way to go about life.  Whether it’s graduating high school, going to college, traveling, starting a business, getting married, or having kids, I’m starting to see that if we are constantly waiting for that one huge moment to happen, it’s causing us to miss so many amazing little things happening every day.  We are missing the “good life” by ignoring it while it happens around us every day. Or at least I am.  It’s not bad to be excited for the future and to have hopes and dreams, but I’m seeing that taking every opportunity to make memories, so we can look back on them later with a smile, is what makes up a “good life.”  I’ve always lived waiting for the day I can make memories instead of realizing that now is my time to make them because we aren’t promised tomorrow.  This is the “good life.”

“Here's the truth about telling stories with your life. It's going to sound like a great idea, and you're going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you're not going to want to do it. It's like that with writing books, and it's like that with life. People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.” – A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

One of my favorite movie quotes is, “You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life!”  The leading lady doesn’t wait for excitement to come to her, she chases after it!  She takes any chance she can get to make memories, good or bad.  I want this story of mine to be a good one, not one where the main character sits around waiting for things to happen or one where she is offered opportunities, but says no for fear that something better might come about.  When I’m older I want to reread my story over and over again with a smile and a giggle.  I want it to be one of my favorites –

next to Pride and Prejudice and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Not only do I want to like my story, but I want the Lord to like it too.  He’s given me this life like the master gave his servant a bag of silver to take care of.  Instead of investing in it and making it grow, he hid it away and it stayed just as it was – boring.  I don’t want to sit by idly while life goes on around me, doing nothing with this life I’ve been given, and ending up disappointing my Master like the servant did.  I want the Lord to be happy that He entrusted this life to me… I want Him to be pleased with my story.

I could go on and on, pouring all of my sleepy, incoherent thoughts out onto the page for you to read, but I’ll leave you with this quote from one of the books I’ve read recently.  It basically sums up everything I’m thinking, just probably in a more coherent way than I was able to express above.

 “I don't wonder anymore what I'll tell God when I go to heaven when we sit in the chairs under the tree, outside the city… I'll tell these things to God, and He'll laugh, I think and He'll remind me of the parts I forgot, the parts that were His favorite. We'll sit and remember my story together, and then He'll stand and put His arms around me and say, "Well done," and that He liked my story. And my soul won't be thirsty anymore.” – A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller