Thankful for the past and looking expectantly toward the future...

I have been thinking about my past quite a bit recently.  Being 8 hours from home, living in Atlanta and recently writing my Spiritual Autobiography there has been lots and lots of contemplation regarding the past events of my life.  Remembering as a little girl walking around in my grandmother's high heels because I wanted to be fancy like her.  Having my mom braid my hair and having a freakkk outtttt when washing my hair. (I was strange. It happens).  My dad letting me name whatever cows I wanted on the farm.  We had cows named Tinkerbell, Barney and Princess.  I was five thus not very original.  Then came the school years.  I was bored a lot of the time in school.  I got a C in conduct once for reading a book instead of listening to the teacher, because I had already finished my worksheet before she explained it.  I remember my mom having a "little chat" with my teacher hence I was vindicated.  Sometimes the teacher would make me sit by the "weird" kid in class so I would be a good example of classroom behavior. (Obviously this was not the teacher that gave me a C in conduct.)  I got stuck by T.J. whom we referred to as "The Cat Kid".  He earned this noble name from frequently meowing like a cat and was a cat every year for Halloween.  But I was nice to him.  He was always entertaining.  I remember learning how to square dance in 6th grade.  If you ever need to know how to dose doe I can teach you straight up.  Junior High.  So much awkwardness, so little time.  The whole "does he like me, or does he like my friend and if so I will be so mad and she can't date him because I liked him first" mess going on.  I vividly remember every girl in my class liking the same boy in 7th and 8th grade.  It got cutthroat and real....fast.  I feel like 9th grade was my year.  I wasn't so shy anymore (YES believe it or not I was painfully shy in my younger years. This is shocking I know.)  I had my real boyfriend. First real breakup which included watching a lot of girl movies and eating ice cream in my pajamas.  High school just kind of flew by.  I was so excited about college.  I was OBSESSIVE about having a 4.0 GPA.  I drug my parents to every basketball game in the world my senior year.  They were sweethearts for taking me.  It was the social scene in my "town". Sad but true.  Then came college baby.  My mom and dad tearfully helped me unpack all my stuff into my dorm room. Then we attended that "launching" ceremony at the end of move-in day.  It was the most emotional moment ever all because they played that song "Find your wings" by Mark Harris. If you have never heard that song don't listen to it when you are going through a major life change.  Definitely a waterworks facilitator.  I saw a mother straight up rocking her daughter in the row in front of me.  Things happened in that room we just don't talk about.  Soooo many memories I have from college.  Snow days, staying up until 2 am every night and barely making it in the dorm before curfew, having my dress for Winter Formal rip and having to be sewn into it in order to have something to wear, and running crying from the cafeteria in the weeks following a breakup.  Being fortunate to live so close to my family and spend sweet and precious time with them.  Too many Sonic runs to count, driving to McDonalds in some real bad storms after midnight, driving around campus with ice on the windshield with our heads out the window to see where we were going, driving around with the traffic cone on top of Jennifer's car, locking people out of the car and making them dance.  These are such sweet and amazing memories.  As I reflect on all of this it excites me to be making new memories now.  I am making such great friends here in Atlanta and I am exuberantly excited to be "making memories" in this new phase of my life.  As I tell Karen (my roommate) every time something weird and definitely memorable happens "we are defff making memories."