A Change of Pace

I originally wrote this blog post about a week ago as a rant about life. Nothing had been going my way. I wasn't able to secure funding for a program, my room was a wreck, homework sat undone, emotions raged from anger to sadness to happiness to frustration, stress was at an all time high, and I didn't feel like doing a thing...

Now, a week later, that blog post is still written, but it's not posted. I realized that it wasn't up to anyone but me to turn that around. I forced myself to do something. Anything. But I didn't know what that something or anything was. Last weekend was Homecoming at school. I was on-call, and didn't really think much would happen... Or so I thought. Friday and Saturday weren't bad. I worked on some homework, chatted with people, did rounds, etc.

I went to bed around 12:30, 1:00 on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Little did I know my life (as well as a ton of other peoples') was about to be thrown a 360. I got a call at 3 AM that shots were fired at a party off-campus an hour earlier. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A young man who doesn't attend my school was killed, and a few others were wounded. The campus was in shock and lockdown. We're in a small town college. None of us ever saw something like this happening.

However... that next week (this week) was a complete turnaround for me. And I'm so happy. I have been in an incredible mood all week. What's a little odd about this is that I had no idea what caused this turnaround until last night. I realized that I'm thankful for the little things. I'm realizing that those are what is making me who I really am. The little things turn into the big things. The things I want to remember for the rest of my life.

I've got amazing friends and family. My grades are really good. And I work with some amazing people. I've made memories this year I don't want to soon forget, whether it's lunch with the gang, chatting with residents... Or even the fire alarm going off right after I got out of the shower (t-shirt + shorts + wet hair = freezing cold Cary). It's been an amazing year so far, and I can't wait to get even more out of it.