There's a ring on my finger that gleams in the sun and sparkles out of the corner of my eye, reminding me of the wonderful fact that when I graduate college, I'll be getting married!
My wonderful, wonderful boyfriend has now become my wonderful, wonderful fiance. He proposed on a summer evening, August 21st. I'll never forget his sheepish, happy grin as he knelt before me bearing a black box in which was nestled the shiny diamond that now adorns my left hand. We met Thanksgiving my freshman year of college and we've worked hard ever since to stay in contact in spite of the hundreds of miles between our respective colleges, our various busy schedules, my frequent trips outside of the country, away from America's cell service and easy wifi. It hasn't been the easiest relationship yet, but it just makes me all the more sure of him, of our future, and of how happy he makes me.
While we got to spend a wonderful summer together, we're back in our busy school schedules and hours apart once again. But it's easier to be apart now that I have a concept of a whole life together. Two years doesn't seem too long at all, before we can start a life together, become our own little family. And I am so excited for that future. Whatever the future has in store, I know that I'll have someone to share it with.
I love you, Cody :) And I can't wait to share my life with you.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Halfway Done with College- Halfway an Adult?
Halfway done with college and I hardly even recognize myself sometimes. I look in the mirror and see an adult, a young woman I'm still getting to know. She hasn't grown in years, but it hasn't stopped her face, her body, from maturing into new lines, new curves, new angles. She wears more makeup now, sophisticated amounts of eyeliner and mascara, even carefully applied eyeshadows in muted colors that blend from lids to eyebrows more expertly each day. She's learning to be as at home in her business casual work clothes as she always has been in Tshirts and jeans. She's learning to walk in heels for hours each day without winces of pain. She wants so desperately to look the part of the adult she's become.
I have bills to pay now: Rent, gas, electric, credit card. I get paychecks. I make lists to take with me to the grocery store, buying chicken breast in sealed plastic, produce in filmy bags, pasta sauces and loaves of bread, even dishwashing detergent and paper towels. I have to wash each pot after I use it, clean the stove when the water boils over. I have to get up earlier than even ROTC made me to drive to work and sit in my cubicle, typing busily on a company laptop while learning my way around an office. For the first time in years, I carry a lunch box again, making my own lunchmeat sandwiches each morning, or bringing in tupperwares full of last night's leftovers.
I don't get to see my parents, my home on the other side of the world, this summer. My middle and high school age brothers grow taller, grow bigger, get deeper voices every day, without their sister there to watch. I moved my bed, my desk, my sidetables and chests- the furniture that had been mine- from the house in Florida, where it'd been waiting for the day to come when I could move it into it's new home, my own apartment. Furniture that once adorned my bedroom in my parents' house now occupies the ground floor apartment of a wood-paneled complex in Western Michigan, far away.
I finished sophomore year of college as successfully as I started. I adapted easily to the rhythm of college life, adapted easily to the pathway to adulthood. I've learned so much, come so far. And I've only to do it over again, only to go two more years, and my formal education will be over, at least for awhile. Then it will be time to let life be my teacher.
Life has been good to me. My transitions have been smooth and easy, I have people in my life who love me and care for me, who want to see me succeed. Most prominently, of course, my own parents, whose wonderful support and love for me have allowed me to thrive so well on my own now. But bosses, colleagues, friends, mentors, professors, my boyfriend's parents, so many other people also want to see me succeed, it's hard not to feel like everything is all going work out perfectly, regardless of how many questions I still have about the course of my future. I've made such progress, these past two years, in shaping an adult from my girlhood, how could I doubt I'll fail to grow into a successful graduate, post-graduate, and working woman in the next two, four, eight years I have to face? I'm really very blessed.
I have bills to pay now: Rent, gas, electric, credit card. I get paychecks. I make lists to take with me to the grocery store, buying chicken breast in sealed plastic, produce in filmy bags, pasta sauces and loaves of bread, even dishwashing detergent and paper towels. I have to wash each pot after I use it, clean the stove when the water boils over. I have to get up earlier than even ROTC made me to drive to work and sit in my cubicle, typing busily on a company laptop while learning my way around an office. For the first time in years, I carry a lunch box again, making my own lunchmeat sandwiches each morning, or bringing in tupperwares full of last night's leftovers.
I don't get to see my parents, my home on the other side of the world, this summer. My middle and high school age brothers grow taller, grow bigger, get deeper voices every day, without their sister there to watch. I moved my bed, my desk, my sidetables and chests- the furniture that had been mine- from the house in Florida, where it'd been waiting for the day to come when I could move it into it's new home, my own apartment. Furniture that once adorned my bedroom in my parents' house now occupies the ground floor apartment of a wood-paneled complex in Western Michigan, far away.
I finished sophomore year of college as successfully as I started. I adapted easily to the rhythm of college life, adapted easily to the pathway to adulthood. I've learned so much, come so far. And I've only to do it over again, only to go two more years, and my formal education will be over, at least for awhile. Then it will be time to let life be my teacher.
Life has been good to me. My transitions have been smooth and easy, I have people in my life who love me and care for me, who want to see me succeed. Most prominently, of course, my own parents, whose wonderful support and love for me have allowed me to thrive so well on my own now. But bosses, colleagues, friends, mentors, professors, my boyfriend's parents, so many other people also want to see me succeed, it's hard not to feel like everything is all going work out perfectly, regardless of how many questions I still have about the course of my future. I've made such progress, these past two years, in shaping an adult from my girlhood, how could I doubt I'll fail to grow into a successful graduate, post-graduate, and working woman in the next two, four, eight years I have to face? I'm really very blessed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
