You Won't Learn This At School

Day 23: Things you've learned learned that school won't teach you

Wow, the things I could go on about with this topic. Let's get serious, most of life's lessons did not happen for me in a classroom. They happened in college and not while I was in class. (Seriously, you can not learn finance from a foreign professor who speaks zero English. Just sayin') They just so happened to take place between the ages of 18 and 22. The years where you experience freedom and a little independence for the first time. The years where emotions run high and life starts to get real. 

Don't get me wrong, my four years spent in Starkville, MS were some of the absolute best years of my life, no doubt. But some days were hard. I struggled with being myself. I struggled with being insecure. I spent four years trying to please others, even if it meant not being myself. I spent four years trying to figure out what was wrong with me. As you know they say down here in the south, "girls are not in college for an education, they are in college to find a husband" and mine was no where to be found. It was so hard to watch every one of your best friends and sister have serious relationships through out college and no one  give you the time of day. It was a real knock to the confidence. I went out. I had the time of my life. I had a ton of friends. But that doesn't mean I didn't go home and cry myself to sleep sometimes. I was not myself and I knew it.

But you know what those 4+ years did for me? They taught me to be a stronger person. They taught me to be a stronger christian. I prayed. I prayed a lot. Sometimes I prayed angrily, but God knew what he was doing. They taught me to be independent, perhaps too much so. You can ask Kendol, unless I physically cannot pick something up I do not need your help. They taught me to be a good listener. They taught me patience, which I clearly had very little of at the time. They made me realize just what I did and did not want in a significant other or friend. They prepared me. They toughened me up for the real world. They allowed me to live life up to the fullest and I did just that. And most importantly, they taught me to be the best version of myself I could be. 

And just when God thought I was good and ready, Kendol and I met two weeks before graduation.

And I was one the first of my friends to get married. 

I just needed to figure my life out first.

I needed to learn about myself.

And you can't learn that in school.

Thanks God.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord.

Plans to prosper you. Not to harm you.

Plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11