College Right After High School

After I graduated from high school and before I moved to North Carolina, I went to Dixie Community College a year and a half. I actually went to school for design and business. Very few people know that about me. Design has always been fascinating to me, and still is. I loved my classes, they were so much fun, we created some fun things and I learned many things about the fashion and business world. Though I have always loved fashion, I have always knows it was never something that I was meant to do as a profession. Rather I just wanted to be fashionable and if you know me now you would wonder, “She took a fashion class??????” I know, I know, I am not as fashionable as I would like to be. I have learned that there are more important things that we need to be worried about.

When I was attending Dixie Community College, I was a club president for The Best Buddies Club. I really liked it; however it was a hard job. The college really put a lot effort into training me, they sent me to Florida for two weeks and I received some great training and I met some rather amazing people. With the training I was able to get the club working rather smoothly on campus. That year we were a thriving club and we did a lot of great things. If you don’t know what “Best Buddies” is let me tell you. It is a program where college students partnered (buddied) up with students with disabilities. The college students friended students with disabilities and they took them out into public and taught them how socialize with other people. Many people with disabilities didn’t get to go out unless they were with family. It was nice for them to get out with a peer. I remember teaching my buddy how to order food at a nicer restaurant and then how to eat. We were able to teach a lot of different things. Many of the buddies did not get out into society very often and so they did not know how to act or be around other people. We really did a lot of great things. I was really involved with the program for a year and after that I trained someone else and turned the program over to them and I got involved in other student body activities.

I was so involved and having too much fun that I slacked a little too much in my studies and I didn’t keep my grades up and ended up dropping out, or taking a break from college for a bit. I than moved to North Carolina soon after, I needed to get away from my family; I don’t remember what was going on at the time but I am sure it was crazy.

Never give up

Today I was sitting here thinking about all the wonderful things that I have in my life and all the things that I have had to go through to get here. Things in my life have not come easily, however I don’t think they come very easy for most people. I remember thinking a few years back “is this what my life is going to be, full of trails and hardships, and is there ever going to be a time that I won’t have to struggle?” Yesterday as I was driving to Houston I spoke with a friend of mine in New York and life for her these last few years have not been very easy. She asked me the same question that I have asked myself many time; “is this every going to end?” It really got me thinking about my own struggle to get to where I am now. My circumstances are so different today from what they were three, four or even five years ago, which makes my struggles different, but I still have hardships and difficult times. I truly feel our struggles, our trials and endurance of hardships is what shapes us into who we are and who need to be. As I was speaking with my friend I thought that maybe we go through things not only for our own growth but the growth of those around us. I have learned far more from helping others than I have ever learned from my own indulgences or even my own trials and difficulties. In fact, by helping others I can forget about my trials and struggles for a moment and in the end they do not seem as hard as I thought they were. As I was listening to my dear friend I understood her pain and I knew that if she kept moving forward no matter how hard it might be things would work out for her. Life does not always turn out the way we expect or the way that we want and sometimes the journey can be grueling and we may not see an end. The most difficult times in my life, times I thought I would not survive I come out of them stronger, with more faith and more understanding. I pray that my friend will stay strong even though things are difficult and I hope that everyone going through hard things will stay strong and keep moving no matter how difficult things may get. Never give up on yourself those around you and most importantly Heavenly Father. I have failed at many things and life did not turn out the way I had planned however I am not a failure because I never gave up on Heavenly Father and I never gave up on myself. Oh! How much I still have to learn and grow?