Life is an ever-changing experience, full of unsuspecting turns and obstacles, but it's filled with the best moments, too.
What are you afraid of? Maybe you're not afraid of one thing. Maybe you feel uneasy about several tangible unknowns, or situations that you have to face, that are out of reach and unimaginable. Maybe your fear is one of a new experience or a scary new adventure that you need to go alone.
Maybe you're excited about what's to come but unsure about how you'll handle it. Or maybe, you feel like you've got so much stacked on your plate that you'll never possibly manage it according to expectations. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "live in the moment" countless times. While it may seem cliché, its incredibly important to constantly be reminding yourself of it because as people, we generally seem to fear what we don't know, and what we feel is out of our full control. Fear is far from a bad thing. It reminds us that we're alive and that we are living.
I'll never forget the dread and fear I felt in my chest the night before moving away from home for the first time. College was growing closer than I'd allowed myself to realize, and in less than 24 hours I would have no choice but to face it every day for the next four years. This was a life-changing step for me, and I'd be doing it completely alone. All night, I sat in my room with my hometown best friend (featured in the photo above) making myself sick over the prospect of not having her by my side whenever I'd need her. Laughs turned to tears and hours turned to minutes before all the people I loved most were hundreds of miles away from me. Once the adrenaline was gone, and I was completely alone, I sat in the dorm room I'd imagined as terrifyingly small and thought to myself, "is this it?"
Did I miss everyone as much as I'd imagined? Absolutely! But somehow, the room felt much larger than I'd dreamed it would, and my best friend was a facetime away. Soon, I realized that what I perceived as potential loneliness was simply independence, and I was able to see the people I loved as often as I'd like after just a couple of hours in the car. Classes were manageable, though I'd never imagined myself being able to handle as many credits as I was told to take. Soon, I was even seeking out new challenges and taking them on in addition to everything else, all as a much better version of myself than before the journey I'd been brave enough to face. Sometimes, anxiety gets the best of you. It clouds your ability to imagine the future as anything but dark and out of reach. Luckily, the more experiences you take, and the more experiences that approach you, the more you learn that the most important thing you can do…is to do!
Pictured here are my best friend and me the day I moved away from home. Before I even had curtains on my windows, I was realizing that everything was much less daunting than I could have ever anticipated by worrying.
My favorite Bible verse. Living day-to-day allows us to slow down, and not be drowned by useless anxiety.
So please, live in the moment. Don't spend all your time worrying about the unknown, but tackle whatever comes your way with the confidence that you can do that and so much more because you can.
