God Gave Me You For The Ups and Downs
The picture to left is a personal picture of my husband. He’s my best friend. The best song ever written about marriage is God Gave Me You by Dave Barnes. The song starts out by saying I’ve been a walking heart ache , I made a mess of me, the person I’ve been lately ain’t who I want to be. Anyone who’s ever been married can probably relate to those feelings of inadequacy. I’ll be the first to admit marriage is hard. People disagree, feelings get hurt and it can be hard to see eye to eye on everything. But I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that my husband came into my life to make me a better person. Some of you know me IRL and some of you don’t. No one wants to hear hairy scary details of my past transgressions so to put it simply my husband has...
Hearing God
It seems for me when I’m down on my luck I have no problem hearing God or knowing what I am supposed to be doing. When I have my struggles I know the issues that put me in the situation and I know how to ratify the situation. But when everything is going well I have trouble hearing God. I have trouble seeing my purpose in life. Maybe it’s because I just turned 25. Maybe I’m having a quarter life crisis. That could be why I’m looking around a life and wondering about the things that matter. I can say that I trust God and I’ve always believed in destiny. Yet, in the day to day I look around and wonder if there is more. Is there more to this life than what I am doing. I use to think I would get my masters and study communication patterns and health...
Getting Older
People say that there is nothing fun about getting older. I disagree. I partied in high school, did some crazy stuff, went to college got a real job and got married. I can say that some days I think back to carefree youth and miss my days of inhibitions. But looking back on all of it I only ever miss the idea of it. When I actually truly think back on all the hell I’ve seen I don’t miss it at all. There was nothing fun about dating a creeper guy, or going to parties that got broken up by the cops. I would actually prefer to never had to speak to another police officer again in my life if I can avoid it. From my experience you don’t want the cops looking for you; just as you don’t want to need something from them either. Yet in our minds for some reason we...
The Quarter Life Crisis
Next week I turn 25. From everyone I’ve talked to, 25 is a big deal. Apparently on the day I turn 25 I will wake up old. People say your body changes. You can’t do as strenuous exercise. You will have strange aches and pains. You can’t party like you use to. Some people have there quarter life crisis. It used to be age 40 that people freaked out and got the tattoo, or bought the sports car, or suddenly quit their job, or marriage. Everyone in my generation did things earlier. We overindulged in our youth and felt the effects much sooner. Yes, 25 will be a big year for me. I am lucky to have gone through most of the major life events. I’ve graduated college, started a career, gotten married. I still haven’t bought a house or had a child but those thing...
Learning To Fail
My generation is lovingly referred to as the support ribbon generation. When we grew up the hot topic was self-esteem. Psychologist back in the day, were certain a high self-esteem was the key to success. I agree with them in that people who are comfortable in their own skin are more likely to succeed and have better outcomes. Yet no one ever predicted the consequences from removing failure from our culture. Parents, teachers, and coaches strategically tried to down play and minimize failure. Consequently, people didn’t learn how to fail. I remember when I went to the regional DECA conference. I did my event and my judge ripped me a new one. She told me how terrible I was at my event. That wasn’t exactly something I was expecting and that wasn’t exactly the...
Coming to Age In The Great Recession
I remember stories about my grandmother. Everyone always teased her for being frugal. At a restaurant she would take extra napkins, bread and anything else that wasn’t nailed down or too big to fit in her purse. She was very street smart always micromanaging her family of eight one step above poverty. In later years when she had everything she needed without hustling, we would try to explain her behavior by stating that she was raised during the great depression. Everyone in my generation came to age during the great recession. It was on the tail end of the housing market bubble. People were approved for homes they couldn’t afford and then the banks took them out from under them when they couldn’t pay. People from my generation are referred to as the...
Connectivity And The Social Disconnect
This was one of my favorite topics as an undergraduate. In the digital age we are so focused on being connected to our friends. We have access to all sorts of personal information about the people we know. Facebook is the perfect tool for all those cyber stalkers out there. Wanna know who your ex is into? You can find out just by poking around online. We can all feel like we know people no matter how far away they really are. But what about the people you actually know. I find myself calling my husband to talk about absolutely nothing. People text at work, at school, in meetings where ever they are. In our digital age it’s possible to be connected to someone you have never met and disconnected to the person you are sitting on the couch with. People argue that...
