Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Matthew 6:25-27

Recently a friend of mine and I were discussing how weird of a point we are in our lives. For her, she will be graduating from Virginia Tech in the spring. For me, I will finally be graduating from John Tyler in the spring. Took me a bit longer to figure out what I wanted to do, but that's okay. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in high school thinking about what college I would go to and now, here I am about to move 4 hours away to attend Radford University. Through these nearly four years since I graduated high school I have encountered a lot of moments of stress that I didn't think I would make it through. I wanted to bring to everyone's attention just how many times God has pulled me through a tough time and know how many more there actually were and how many more there is going to be.

Army Basic Training

This has always been a very sore subject for me. I was gung-ho about becoming a soldier and entering the United States Army. I was astonished at just how many times I accomplished something I thought I never could while in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I was unfortunately discharged during week seven out of ten because I was two sit-ups short of the standard they wanted me to be at during the time. I was devastated; I thought I failed and let everyone down. I knew that if they had re-tested me I could have passed. So many thoughts ran through my head until I finally concluded that it was not meant to be. God had other plans for me. I later found out that the unit I was assigned to was getting deployed during my college career. While I understand that joining the military does in fact mean I could be deployed, I didn't know it would happen so soon and I didn't think it would interrupt my college at the time. This was a blessing in disguise and I know now that God wanted me to experience what I did just to prove to myself that I can withstand more than I originally thought. I also now find peace through this thanks to my Lord and Savior.

Losing my Grandmother

If you keep up with my articles you may have seen the one I wrote entitled, "Remembering Nannie Daniels". This was dedicated to my paternal grandmother who passed in August. I personally have not, until that day, lost anyone that close to me so I was unsure of the feelings that this actually may bring. It was very hard to deal with the realization that I would never see my grandmother again, although it was more difficult to watch my family members who may have been hurting more than I was. God helped me through this tough time and gave me strength to deal with this situation. He also reassured me that Nannie was no longer suffering as she was before and that she was happy and at peace with him.

My future decisions

As I stated earlier, I have had a time trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life. Some of it has been trial an error, such as my little experiment with the Army. It took three majors, multiple optional colleges and many different courses for me to finally decide that I want to major in English. I have always loved English, but I always thought I couldn't make a career out of it. Through my failed attempts, I have learned to follow your heart and the road ahead will pave it's way. I had a lot of roadblocks arise through my journey due to the fact that I changed my major a few times, and I recently discovered exactly what I need to do. Through my thoughts and prayers I found a way to make everything work. I will graduate from John Tyler Community College in the spring with a degree in General Studies and then transfer to Radford University to major in English with a specialization in Creative Writing. God answers prayers and knows what is in our heart. All we have to do is trust in Him.