I Have a Confession

The first week of college was really hard for me. I was incredibly homesick. I missed my mountains, my friends, my mom, my dad, my grandparents, my siblings - yes, even my shirtless 17 year old brother. It was a rude awakening to be uprooted from everything I have ever known and thrown into a place where I must live in a box with three other people, having no car to go places, no friends, no family, no job, no maverick frozen yogurt runs at midnight... no nothin'.

More or less I felt as though my freedoms had been taken away. I lived the good life back home, I was able to come and go as I pleased, had an awesome job playing bingo with old folks 3 days a week, hung out with my best friends every night, and slept in my own room with my own bathroom and food somehow managed to show up magically in the fridge for me to eat. It was good livin' I tell ya!

Then I was uprooted.

To Idaho.

Rexburg, Idaho.

I quickly found out that the girl to boy ratio is 3:1. Four hours of homework a night suddenly became the norm. I worried about whether or not I was going to make friends, or if ANY cute boys even existed in this place.

And they do. There's one in my American Foundations class. Teehee.

But gosh dang it I was tearin' up every five seconds just thinking about how much I missed everything. Also I was questioning my decision to move up here. I just had a terrible attitude about everything, which is so out of character for me. I'm a pretty darn happy person! I like life!

However, the story takes a turn when my english teacher assigns us to read Ether 12 for homework the first day of class. So I read it, and I come across this scripture...

Ether 12:27

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

A sweet pillar of light lit up in my head just then, I tell ya. And holy moly I know for sure that God definitely knows each one of us and what we're goin through because that is exactly what I needed to hear. Crazy how that works.

But I got to thinkin. In life we gotta have our challenges. We've got to have those hard moments that will test our character, and help us to grow. Because God puts us into situations that we're uncomfortable with sometimes so that we'll humble ourselves and get down on our knees and ask him for help, and then after we've humbled ourselves and have faith in him then he'll lift us right back up higher than we ever were before. That is how we grow. That's how we become better. We're tested and tried and if we endure it well, then we become a little closer to being the person Heavenly Father wants us to be.

And thus is life. You go up, you go down, and then afterwards you go a little higher than you were before.

You become a little better.

p.s. I'm liking college a lot better now! My mom sent me a package of false mustaches and some circus peanuts in the mail so I am a happy woman. Also I made a friend and he is from El Salvador, he is awesome and has a sweet accent.