2009 - 2020: A Reflection & A Prayer
In the last ten years I have gone from being 9 to 10 halfway through, now going from 19 looking at 20. I can’t begin to list all that has happened (in part because so much I don’t remember! Sub-resolution: write more sticky notes!)
2009: Met my best grade school friend and bought a corn snake
2010: 4th grade, began playing trumpet
2011: 5th grade, still one of the hardest of my life (long story dm me if you really are starving for info)
2012: graduated elementary school
2013: became a teenager (gross) started junior high, joined church orchestra with my dad
2014: graduated junior high, conducted in their band
2015: began high school, longest and most challenging 4 years of my life but well worth it. Said goodbye for now to some old friends, made some new ones, a few which have become the utmost close to me. Went to serve in Greece for the first time!!
2016: Summer of hiking, and a return to Greece (almost died in a shipwreck but still probably my favorite summer)
2017: Became a dancing queen (jk 😜)
Shoutout to favorite teacher Robert Walker and the infamous autumn multicultural project (and the summer of baking/figuring out what I want to do with my life).
2018: The year of changes that surprised me: senior year, first job (hired and let go 6 months later), college apps and rejections, voting, Greece #3, and watching my best friends begin to take on the world!
2019: The year of changes I mostly (88%) predicted; Graduated high school and community college, Greece #4, reunited with an old friend, first year of university (Go Ducks!) with the swankiest of roommates, and LOTS of journal entries, Earl Grey, and deep-conversations with home over the phone. (....oh, and got my nose pierced after my last final!)
Dear God,
The amount of growing that starts in this second decade has made my head spin! But I know it’s still so blessed and nothing compared to some, after all life only gets exponential! I have watched you direct me in a thousand different ways and asked me to wait faithfully in a thousand others even when I have no clue what you are working on but Your Word to keep me moving! In all these years, short as they are, this I learned and this I know: you have promised and proved that You have plans for every blessing, every tear, every worry, every relationship, every rejection, and every opportunity! Forgive me when I fall short of walking in that. Thank you for this decade, and the victories and hard fought battles and people that make life worth sticking with! I pray for balance, courage, and a faith that endures this year, and eyes that recognize Your loving hand when its staring me in the nose! I pray for every person you put on my path however long or short they are there for. Most of all I pray for a mind that lives and strives to find joy in the present! Thank you and may You be glorified in this past decade and be glorified more and more in the next, through everything to come! 💕
A Very Happy New Year, 2020!!!!!!!!!
(Fair Warning: I don't post family photos usually... so I kinda went a little nuts and uploaded about 130 😬 ...you're totally welcome to peruse but feel free to stop scrolling whenever.
... Also they are accidentally ordered backwards)