As my first day of summer or what should feel like summer starts today, I cannot help but reflect on the year that was ever changing in my life. I started off my junior year over halfway through my business major and soon realized that God was not just telling me, but what felt like shouting at me everyday that He had other plans for my life that I was failing to see in the previous years. Majoring in Psychology was put on my heart and no surprise, I fell in love with the material being taught and finally loved going to class again. My new professors welcomed me in the department with open arms and I was able to form amazing bonds that will last a life time. While I still had credit hours in Business Administration, I decided to keep it as a minor. I was still able to keep my position as Vice President of Correspondence for the Society for the Advancement of Management club. While I thought this was going to be the biggest change of my junior year, I was definitely mistaken. While every year of my college experience has taken a slightly different route than I had planned for, the pandemic of the COVID-19 outbreak was sure to be something new.
Beginning my new semester of classes, everything was going just like it should. I had just gotten back from an amazing Christmas and 21st birthday trip to London, I was hanging out with friends and making new ones in my classes, planning a trip to go back to London for the month of May, I had just finished planning and executing an event with the career development office at JCPenney, and loving life as much as I could. While everyday wasn't always sunshine and lollipops as they say, it was normal and I was content. I was able to attend my sorority's formal event with my boyfriend, in which we had an amazing night dancing together and getting dressed up and I was able to have my class ring ceremony surrounded by friends and family. As I began spring break in early March, I was able to see my Grandma's and plan some fun day trips for Josh and I, little did we know life as we knew it would drastically change just 2 short weeks later...
As the world as we knew it came to a sudden halt, the things I loved the most like going out for a meal or even just my day to day routine was no longer my normal. Seeing my classmates or having the luxury of seeing my professors in person was changed to doing online classes on my desk in my bedroom at home. While I love being home, nothing felt right. I suddenly wasn't able to see my best friends from home on a Friday night or just have a shopping day with my mom. It seems so minuscule, but it is what we get use to doing. I have realized over this new change in my life that tomorrow is never guaranteed and that we take the little things in life for granted so often. At school, I would often find myself getting anxiety over going to that next event or dreading taking that test because I had an event the day prior and did not get all the study hours I wanted in that day. As the new normal began to settle in I learned that sometimes having life flipped upside down allows you to evaluate what aspects of the old normal are worth keeping around and that just having a roof over my head and food on my plate is a blessing.
I was suppose to be leaving for a trip to London tomorrow with my boyfriend to go meet his family and do trips to Amsterdam and Paris and with the way the world is right now it is not safe for travel. As it will be a somber day tomorrow, I have faith that God has a better time for us to go in store. I am looking for the positives to come in my future. I will be a senior in college next year and it is quite an accomplishment for me given the fact I was ready to quit after my first semester of Freshman year. I will be starting an internship in Career Counseling and I have taken on the position of the Society for the Advancement of Management Club President. The school year did not end how I thought it would or how I planned for it to, but I have to trust that God always knows what He is doing and has a bigger plan for all of this.
