Live each day as if your life has just begun

Wow, this is my last blog post for this class.  This semester has FLOWN by, like honestly where did it go I feel like I missed everything, and I didn't appreciate every moment left with my friends who are graduating.  Even though the semester is over and I am sad about everyone graduating I am so excited for this summer!  My sister is graduating high school, my awesome summer job will be starting again, and my family is going on a CRUISE!  In June my family will be going on a cruise and I am beyond excited for it.  I have heard mixed reviews about cruises, most people I talk to have loved it, but a few people I have talked to who have been on a cruise have talked about how they were stuck on the boat, and they did not really enjoy it.  I know now though, not matter what I WILL enjoy every moment on that cruise.  I missed moments with my friends this semester I am going to make it a point to enjoy and appreciate every moment I have with my family before I graduate next year, and my sister goes off to college.  Big changes are happening this year, but I am thankful for the huge celebrating my parents have created for my siblings and I.  I will cherish every moment with them, and I will make the best of everyday for the rest of this semester, my cruise, and the whole summer.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are

As the semester comes to an end I am forced to face graduation and the fact that the majority of my friends will be leaving me.  All through college I have had two or more groups of friends and the majority of those friends are graduating this year, I will honestly have 5 of my close friends left next semester.  This is terrifying because now I have to go back to how it was freshman year and try to meet new friends and new people, because if I do not I will definitely be bored or lonely.  I am very sad that graduation is just around the corner, but I also am so thankful for the people this school has brought into my life.  My best girlfriends are graduating, the person I always went to to vent and cry and complain is leaving, my best friends from high school is graduating, my two girls that over the past year have also become my best friends are graduating, and my boyfriend is graduating. 

It is such a big step for them and I am so proud of them that I can not even explain, but I am sad, because I know I will see them maybe a few times a year.  I have had amazing times with all of these people and I know I am going to miss them incredibly next year.  I also need to keep in mind that these people who mean so much to me will also be facing a lot of changes (changes that are much larger than mine) they have to go out now and create a life for themselves with what they have learned in college.  I am so proud to call these people some of my best friends, and I can not wait to see what they become in the future and where we will all be 10 years down the road.

Happiness happens when we learn to expect nothing but appreciate everything

This is my Grandmother and Grandfather
on their wedding day.

Last week was a week of excitement and sadness all mixed together.  On Thursday I had to skip two classes and work to go home for my grandfather's burial.  He had passed away on January 18th, 2012 and considering it was January and the ground was completely frozen we were unable to bury him after the funeral.  I was speaking to my boss about me having to miss work because of this and after a while of talking she said she had never thought about that, considering everyone she has lost in her life has been in the spring fall or summer, and they were always able to bury them after the funeral.  She expressed her condolences for my loss and mentioned how hard it must be to have to deal with the loss on two separate occasions.  Yes, she is correct it is difficult to have to deal with it once in January and then again a few months after, and I was anxious about it to say the least.

At the burial, when I thought it would be extremely painful and sad, I was surprised as to how much easier it was to deal with the loss.  It is amazing how much four months can do in the healing process.  In January whenever anyone said Beepa (which is what everyone in my family called my grandfather) or mentioned a memory with him, someone in my family would start crying.  As I have mentioned before I have a rather large, close family, so it doesn't take much to get everyone crying when someone else is.  Along with crying though, there is laughter, when one person starts laughing, everyone starts laughing, and that is how the burial was surprisingly easy.  It isn't hard to think of the times with Beepa that are hilarious and that is what my family focused on during the burial ceremony.  The actual ceremony was solemn and touching, but when the minister asked my family to sing a verse of amazing grace, we all couldn't help but chuckle.  My family is not musical to say the least and my grandfather always found it amusing when we tried to be musical, so singing at the burial ceremony was a perfect way to lighten the mood.

After the formal ceremony, we all went to my grandmother's house to have food and celebrate my grandfathers life and be together as a family.  At my grandmother's house my cousin who is 26 announced that his girlfriend, Katie, would be having a baby boy.  We have known she is pregnant for a while but they were keeping the sex of the baby secret.  They decided though that when they decided on the name Nolin, that the get together after my grandfather's burial would be a perfect time to announce the sex.  My grandfathers name was Olin Kenneth Johnson Junior, and naming the newest baby to enter our family after him is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to honor him.  So after a ceremony that turned into a celebration, and an announcement that honors my grandfather, I would say the day that I thought could be really sad, turned into a day that was full of laughter and tears of happiness.  I can never express how much I miss my grandfather, but I have learned over the past few months, that my Beepa who was always laughing and always cracking horribly bad jokes, would not want us crying over him, he wants us to appreciate the life we have now and be happy the way he always has.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone

As the semester begins to come to a close, I keep getting more and more excited for June.  In June, not only does my awesome summer job start, my sister graduates from high school, and my family is all on summer vacation, but I am going on a CRUISE!  The cruise is 10 days long and we are going from Florida to Mexico and Belize.  I have never been out of the country, not even to Canada, and I am extremely excited.  My whole family is going, which I talked about in my first blog, so there will be a lot of people on the trip, and I expect it to be the best time ever.  It has been one of my dreams to travel the world and starting with a cruise I think may be my most ideal way to start.

My mother and stepdad surprised my siblings and I on christmas day, after they have already gotten us everything we had asked for.  We all screamed and were jumping around like those children that you see on TV when their parents tell them they are going to Disney or something.  We were all so excited and my younger sister and I still to this day can not stop talking about the cruise and what we are going to do on it.  I am a little nervous though because as I have said I have never been out of the country, and I have never been on a cruise.  Going to a different country for the first time will be a little strange for me, I am sure, but I am so extremely excited to be out of what is normal for me and forced into a place that I know nothing, or very little about.  I can't wait to go and I am sure I will make a million memories with my family that will last forever, but no matter what I am always anxious about the unknown.