Be Present

My high school experience has been the farthest thing from the montage of parades and cotton candy I had imagined it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I have been blessed in the high school experience department. I mean I never really had to go to “real high school” or eat from a cafeteria. In fact I basically got everything I wanted from high school. I went to a bunch of great dance, ate out with friends, went on countless road trips, took classes that interested me sometimes, had my own car, worked a few small jobs, went to camp several times, and just about everything else you can imagine (even a few parades).

Wait, why am I so ready to graduate again?

It seems like after all of your senior friends graduate when you are a junior and after you watch them get all settled into new dorms at great schools that is it for you. You are done with high school and you are counting down the seconds until you can post that “All moved in!” picture to Instagram. Believe me I am writing from experience. I have even gone so far as to drive the hour to go see them once a month. I once found myself sitting at a table completely alone on campus thinking to myself: I cannot wait to go to college. I will never take this place for granted. 

But wait – Didn’t I say the exact same thing when I was in middle school or even before I moved just a year and a half ago?

The Problem: Starting one doll house before finishing another. 

It sucks the joy right out of the present time. The problem is that when you imagine how great your life could be later on you can’t enjoy how great it is right now. The bible actually has something to say about this.

 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

-Ecclesiastes 3:11-12

That whole chapter is just a huge reminder that God’s timing really is perfect and on purpose. The more of an effort we make to be present and enjoy the moments given to us the better off we will be in the long run. You got that Halle?

Enjoy the rest of your semester. The rest of your life can wait.

-Halle