Creative Juices, Good Reads, and Blogging

Well, I'm sure people are wondering why I'm still not back in Rexburg....and the truth is... I dropped out of school! It was never the plan, but with my health problems, and all of the missed school, I thought it best to come home and NOT fail all of my classes. So, there you have it. I'm a college drop out *insert the music for beauty school dropout here*. You can save the apologies though, because I know this is what's best for me right now, and I am going to use this time to my advantage by strengthening my talents, learning, and growing as an individual. You don't necessarily need to go to school to do those things.

Ever since I returned home, I have felt this great desire to NOT sit around and waste my time. I am always trying to keep myself occupied, and do something useful. I am re-teaching myself piano. I am writing...A LOT. I'm reading, I'm cooking, I'm drawing. I'm trying to do anything I can to not waste away...haha. I have even formed a greater appreciation for art. I am letting the creative juices flow...I will tell you how that goes!

Also, I was on Facebook today, and I am so surprised at how many of my friends have come out as bloggers recently, so I went through and read some of their posts. It makes me proud to see that people can find joy and share it with others, because I think it's important to share positive insights on life. Blogging is a way to share new knowledge and enlightenment with others, and sometimes just to make other people smile. And...it's a stress reliever, so that's a plus.

I challenge you, if you haven't already, to start a blog. Even if no one reads it (but if you ask me to, I will. I have nothing better to do). There was a long time when no one read my blog, and it was more of a journal for me. It's not very popular now, but I have a few followers and I hope some day to have more. Anyway, I would give blogging a try.

Remember that book I ordered on Amazon? Well it arrived the day after that post, and I read it! I just want to tell you all about this AMAZING book. You all know how much I love Stephanie Nielson's blog, but did you know she wrote a book all about her experience? I did. One day, when I was trying NOT to waste my time, I decided that I wanted to read it. I was going through a hard trial in my life, and her story was such an inspiration to me, so I ordered it on Amazon. (buy it here).

Heaven Is Here is a book about Stephanie's life before, and after, her accident. It is about her challenges and trials, and how her faith and family helped her to recover. I don't know if it is because I can relate to her experience NOW more than ever in my life, but I had a great emotional connection to this book. I was literally in tears while reading most of it, but I don't want you to think that this book is just depressing. It has it's sad moments, and I can't even imagine going through something so hard, but she handled it in a way that only someone with a knowledge of Heavenly Father's plan can handle it. With faith. It is so inspiring to read how she faced her trials. I recommend you read it...really. It's on sale.

One last thing. I never post anything on Facebook anymore except for links to my blog...so if you would like to start following my blog, I would appreciate it. If not...that's fun too. Enter your email right over there ->

I hope you all have a great week! :)

Looking Forward to Better Days

I don't know what brought this upon me, but lately I have been longing for warmer weather. Maybe it's the fact that it is starting to warm up a little and the snow is melting, but it's definitely not warm and it's CRAZY windy. I watched the movie Soul Surfer with my roommates yesterday, and I have been thinking a lot about the summer...and Oregon. When we went to Oregon as a family, this past summer, I made it a goal to someday live there, and be a beach bum. Great goal, right? I agree. I just keep remembering how beautiful it is there, and how good I felt the whole time. I honestly just never wanted to leave. I could definitely see myself setting up a cute shop there and raising my family. I even researched how hard it would be to go to church. The closest ward is an hour away in Portland, but that wouldn't be too long of a drive on Sundays! As you can probably tell, I put a LOT of thought into this. I guess it gives me hope to know that I will probably feel better by the time I get out of school, and I will be able to focus on myself, and being the best me I can be, inside AND out. I can focus on my health and try to make good spiritual goals for myself as well. I am focusing on my future.

I have all of these things that I want to accomplish when I get home. I don't want my lupus to make me feel like I can't accomplish the goals that I have set for myself. I still want to spend a lot of time outside, and keep myself as active as possible. Even if I just do small things, I need to keep myself moving. I want to read, write music, go camping, kayaking, paddle-boarding, hiking, and lots of other things. Hopefully I will feel good enough.

Along with the goals that I have for myself, I also want to use this disease to help others. I don't know why I have been given this trial in my life, but I know a lot of really good people who have been given much harder trials. I don't want to play the victim card. I don't want to use this as an excuse to become lazy and antisocial (that is how I feel right now). I read Stephanie Nielsen's blog NieNie Dialogues, and she really is such an inspiration to me of how trials can't stop you. She was in a plane crash and severely burned her entire body. This happened many years ago, and yet she is still recovering. She blogs about religion, family, and just life in general-and it gives me hope. She is such an amazing mother, teacher, role-model, and she doesn't let her afflictions hold her back. (go check her out!)

                                               

 I am really struggling here at school right now. I feel like a loser, because all of my roommates have all of these friends, and boyfriends, and all I can think about is going home. I know there is a day when I will feel better, but I will just have to be patient and live more in the moment. I feel like I am living so in the future at the moment, that I forget to live! I don't want that to happen!

This post is kind of throw up (sorry!), but I feel like I need to remind myself of these things and not let myself get discouraged. I have been feeling very discouraged these past couple of months, and I need to focus on being happy in my trials instead of just waiting for everything to get better in order to feel happy.

I hope that this summer I can be able to improve myself, improve others, and do the things I need to in order to become truly happy! That is my hope, but for now I will just keep moving forward and living the best that I can!