Merry

Be who you are. Laugh at yourself. Enjoy your family and the onesie your mom got you for Christmas, 

wait that is just me!

Claus

This time of year Santa is ever present. The magical make believe man that has been created in the hearts and minds of children. Parents can create or add onto what Santa does and creativity can be used to allow for Santa to prefer peanut butter cookies over oatmeal ones. In the past two days I traveled to visit the new college that I landed with two of my co-workers which was great fun, minus the twelve hours of driving! But when I started to think more in depth about what I actually do for my job a lot of it involves creativity and trust. I visited the school with a range of services for them to choose from, they trusted that I could provide the services and I create a custom package to suite the college. They pay; we back it up with great services. Bring it around to Santa. He seems to fulfill his end of the bargain every year with gifts, but what happens if he doesn’t back it up? All I know is that the idea of Santa may not be slipping down the chimney of my house when I have children, because my children trust me and I want to back it up.

Plus, I don’t think I would let my children sit on this sketchy Santa’s lap, I sure didn’t want to!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Vita

Being a grown-up can be way fun. Christmas wreath:

My dog snoring louder than anybody I have ever heard:

Loving my life.

Criticism

Why do I have so much work to do, geeze? The homework is drowning me, and I will never get out! I feel so awful today after getting no sleep. My house is a wreck and I have to clean it, boo. It always rains, and I hate the rain. I went running today and it was awful. I can’t wait for it to be Friday so I can stop working.

Complaining.

Why do people feel the need to complain about things that will only make them or others around them better?

I have begun to purge my Facebook friends and real life friends that are negative. You know the person that is always complaining about something and it is always negative. Why must they do that?

Do work.  Get your stuff in order. Get it done! Is doing whatever you are complaining about always fun, certainly not, but ultimately you will be better for it so why not just be happy about it! Complaining about doing something that you don’t like is stupid, because it does no good what so ever, it only makes you look more miserable. You can control your emotions and mood at all times, so why not be happy?

You know what; I think it might be better if we looked at it from this angle instead. That doesn’t sound quite right, how about we change this? I have a suggestion, why don’t you move this over there. I don’t agree, I don’t think they would ever do that, so why don’t we do this instead.

Constructive Criticism.

Why do you get constructive criticism? To get better. Who normally gives you criticism? People who care about you. So people who care about you want you to get better. Hum, sounds pretty good to me. I know a lot of people who when criticized feel like their intelligence is put into question. That is not normally the case at all. The person wants you to look at it from a different perspective, a new light and for the purpose of helping. Who doesn’t want to be a better person? Who doesn’t want someone to care about them?

Be open to constructive criticism and be happy!

Contact

I slide the pin to the door of her crate and she bounds up the step from the garage and spills out onto the hardwood floor in the living room. She then leaps onto the couch laying patiently for me to emerge from the garage and turn the corner of the sofa. I lay down and she slowly climbs onto my stomach and lays her head on my chest. I love snuggly Saturday mornings with Belle.

How could you not love that face?

Contact. The idea of being close to somebody that you care about and having the ability to reach out to touch them is amazing. How many people have you heard say or desperately want to say, can someone please just give me a hug! (I say it quite often and either my roommate or boyfriend will always bless me with one.) I don’t think there will ever be a replacement for it no matter the change happens in technology.

First hand contact, maybe not necessarily snuggling, but meeting face to face is vital not only in your personal life. Most business to business business happens due to the relationships that you make with people in the businesses. After all even mega corporations are made up with real life people who make decisions.

Why do I travel to different colleges to meet the athletic trainers in the flesh, because I could send out thousands of emails and make hundreds of phone calls, and never have the same results as what I am having.  Also, meeting someone on their turf makes them more at ease. I landed my first client on my own this past trip and it feels pretty good. It comes down to getting your face out there and meeting as many people as you can. Lesson for the day: Handshakes > E-mail blasts and I heart snuggling!

Unconditional

A table, most are made from wood and are fairly simple but what really makes them special is the people sitting around them. This weekend tables were filled with food, board games, photographs, white elephant gifts and more importantly were surrounded by people.

Most of my family both mom and dad side live in Virginia, so seeing my extended family can be quite a haul but always worth it. On average I spend about two weeks with my extended family all year, so it is super exciting when I get to see them. It was the Johnson family reunion (my mother’s side) and with my mom having four other siblings with children and grandchildren, all coming together with memories getting passed back and forth and new photographs getting taken it was quite exciting.

Family is an amazing thing. The unconditional love that is expressed between people that are connected for life by blood, adoption or marriage is completely unique. Being an only child I often wonder what it will be like when I get older, and I hope that enough of extended family will be around to make up for my lack of siblings. I always want to have crazy difficult to open packages, water testing questions to be asked and enough food to be present to feed hundreds. Unconditional love + family = always a reason to be thankful.

Broken

Beverages are the way to my heart. I love drinks of all kinds, more than food. Wine, coffee, chai, grande two pump pumpkin spice two pump white chocolate non-fat no-whip latte (my fall favorite), I enjoy them all. Therefore the containers that they come in are super important. I have to align my Starbucks sleeve so that the siren lines up perfectly with the one on the cup, the white ceramic coffee mug that I use everyday and two complete sets of wine glasses from Crate and Barrel my mom got me two Christmases ago.

He broke it. He broke one of my wine glasses. How could he do that? I felt the stress build up inside my body and it spewed out of my mouth as all forms of negative. How am I going to replace it? It is a part of a set, and I don’t know the exact name of set. I don’t even know how to even start to find a replacement.  It just lay there shattered on the floor and I screamed at him, loudly that it is his fault and how could he do that to my wine glass. I was totally and completely pissed. He just stood there, in awe that I was so upset. He didn't know what to do.

Almost a year to the date, she broke it. She called me up while I was at work. She asked me how my day was going. I told her that that it was going well. Then she told me that she was putting up a wine glass and she broke it. She confessed her apologies and said she would replace the glass, even the whole set if I wanted her to. I told her not to worry about it, that it was fine and it truly was. She was relieved.

True the people were different, the back stories of my relationships with these two people are different, but the important thing is that I am now different.

Over the course of the past year I have learned how to not value things, but value people. Items can be replaced; emotional baggage that you could create is not worth any item. The people who are involved in your life and that you care about are always more important than anything.

Memory

I tumbled today at a gymnastic facility during a tour for Leadership Rome and it made me realize how much I missed it. Back when I was twelve, I was the first all around in the state of Georgia for gymnastics. I was a big deal! A lot of times when we reminisce about past experiences it can leave us with a sense of sorrow, but the opposite occurred today. They were talking about how an adult class is held at the facility, and I am seriously thinking about partaking in that. Also I could be an instructor for young gymnasts.

With anything in life it is important to look back on your once passions with great memories, but how can you get involved now? How can you satisfy one of your hearts desires? I am not a fan of just theoretically y thinking about a topic and it involving no action. If you miss something, do something to fulfill that once passion in a new way.

Thoughts are awesome, memories are awesome, but do something now that can bring you back to your glory days and makes your smile!

Done

Driving drives me to sin. The lack of consideration of other people on the road makes me want to scream, and well sometimes I do just that. I am currently on a road trip for my job that has taken me across four state lines in one week. The number of awesome (insert sarcasm) drivers I have seen is incredible. God seriously is testing me this week in more ways than one.

She just sat there, texting on her phone, in her yellow mustang tapping away with her long fake fingernails in the middle of the exit. I couldn’t get out of the parking lot. She was completely blocking the whole exit and she didn’t even notice. I slowly moved closer to her car almost to the point of hitting it before she looked up. She then moved about two feet forward so I could barely squeeze by, but my poor car hopped the curb in order to avoid her completely. The whole reason I was leaving the parking lot is because I couldn’t find a parking space but one opened up during the whole exit debacle. So I went around to the entrance of the parking lot again only to find that during the time I had to wait at the light, Ms. Mustang decided that she wanted to leave through the entrance. Really. First you block the exit and then you block the entrance so I can no longer get into the parking lot. I GIVE UP!

I was attempting to get into the visitors information parking lot at a large university and failed and this one lady was my road block into meeting a potential client. I didn’t know how to find the building that I wanted.  I gave up completely. I set my GPS towards the next destination. Once I did this, I was loaded with guilt that I had failed. I didn’t know what I would tell everybody at work why I couldn’t accomplish my task. Then two miles down the road, feeling sorry for myself I saw a sign. It was the building complex that I was looking for the whole time. It was set apart from the rest of the campus, so I pulled my car in the right parking lot, got my stuff together and walked in with confidence.

Crazy right? No, not really. Testing my patience is just one way that God gets my attention to let me know that He is in control. He has my back no matter what.

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Time

To any appointment, I am chronically early. I simply have to be on time. Why? Because it shows respect. I am respecting the fact that the other person’s time is just as valuable as my time. It doesn’t matter if the appointment is with a girl friend to see a movie or the president of a college I am trying to gain business with, I will be early. And by a random chance of awful misfortune I am running behind then I will always call to inform the party that I am meeting that I will be late, again out of respect.

On the flip side, I get extremely frustrated if the same respect is not shown for me. The problem is that being late is often not seen as being disrespectful therefore it is commonly expected that people can be late.

Another time issue that I concern myself with is response time. I know we live in a busy, fast pace world however I am a firm believer that phone calls and emails should be returned within 24 hours of receiving the information. Even if the only response you currently have to offer is that you will have to get back to whoever it is on a later date. By doing this, the sender gets acknowledgement in turn shows respect for them. In most cases it takes a matter of oh you know, 30 seconds to respond, but these 30 seconds of your precious time could help ease the mind of someone who might worry for days, simply by letting them know that you are in fact working on getting an answer.

If you have too many avenues for communication open for people to send you questions or information, consolidate. Constantly being on top of five different email address, facebook, linkedin, twitter and expecting yourself to keep up is funny to say the least. Knowing your limits is a huge part of time management.

I know that creating a precedent for myself is one thing, but thinking that others will follow suit is another, unfortunately. My hope is that by writing this blog others will to see the value in respecting other’s time as much as their own! (End Rant)

From the perspective of someone with ten years of success as the President of an up to $200M group of manufacturing and services companies on response time:

http://davidsheddblog.com/2010/09/09/do-you-return-phone-calls/

Positive

You can’t do anything right. You are crazy for thinking that will work. I doubt you can finish that. Why would you ever think that way? How can you actually believe you are going to accomplish it? You don’t have enough time. You don’t know how to do that, why try?

Just tie the rope around your legs with a cinderblock and sink to the bottom.

Don’t you feel depressed? I certainly do.

I believe in you. I trust in your ability to accomplish it. You are almost to the finish line, don’t stop! You are on the right track. I have never thought that way! You have plenty of time. I encourage you to try the new things; I think you will be great at it.

Run and leap higher than you ever thought possible.

Negative words and low expectations will reap negative results.

Positive words and high expectations will reap positive results.

Try it, live it and you won’t be sorry!

Dot

Organization is the key to being efficient. If items have places and people have schedules they are more like to budget their time and skills more efficiently. My iPhone has lots of dots on it, which means I have lots of appointments, but they are not just for work, they are for everything. I have created a reoccurring appointment for calling my grandmother and certain prayers. Oh and of course it is also connected with my professional life as well reminding me to send invoices or call clients. Having a system set in place will in essence create a more balanced life. If you have a certain friend that you want to catch up with, put it on your calendar and you are way more likely not to forget. It is a life saver, promise you won’t regret it.

I know I know, what about being spontaneous. I am all for it! I am all about randomly deciding hey I want to go to Chattanooga, so I will pick up my keys and start driving. My thought process is that if you have yourself organized, it creates more time to be spontaneous.

I know that my lack of efficiency in the morning is my closet. It is a complete wreck. If I created more any organization, I guarantee I could shave at least 5 minutes off my getting ready routine. What will it take for me to do it? Time, dedication and effort. I will have to take the time initially to set it up and follow up with a little more time when I am putting clothes away. Dedication to actually undertake the project and then to stay with it. And it will take a whole lot of effort, all the way around.

I am good at organizing my life both personally and professionally however my closet is another task entirely. I think I could find something more spontaneous to do that would be way more fun!

Drowning

An island is defined as a mass of land surrounded by water. The water that is slowly engulfing me is knowledge. These past few days I have gained knowledge about my leadership style, community, and people. It is incredible how much new information one person can process throughout the day. I wouldn’t say that it stresses me out because of how much I have acquired in my mind, but rather I just feel drained.

Good and Bad.

Good. Gaining knowledge allows you to be more educated on a topic, which in turn can help you personally and professionally. This past Friday and Saturday I was a part of a leadership retreat where I learned about different ways people serve as leaders and about the community I live in. After the retreat, I feel I can better assess the leaders around me and can tell people more about Rome, Georgia.

Not to Shabby for a floating dock!

Bad. Knowledge can give you insight into others sometimes messy lives. I have recently been told a lot of information from individuals that hurt my heart. I would be a terrible counselor because I am not able to protect myself from the pain of others devastation. However the knowledge that I have gained from their falls has hopefully protected me from stumbling.

I don’t think it will ever stop. I will constantly be gaining more knowledge every single day some good and some bad. Thinking of how I am going to keep myself a float with the waters rising is can be a struggle. However I know though that God and the people in my life will never let me sink. The loud singing, puppy dog kisses, contagious laughter and words of encouragement keep me lifted higher.

Refresh

Technology will always be associated with the up in coming generation. Therefore the older you get the less in touch with the current technology most people become. A constant struggle emerges within the work place because at a lot of companies have employees that span decades in which they were born.  How to encourage the evolution of technology and change can sometimes be a hard fought battle. If emphasis is placed in the positives of the change and rewards are set in place to encourage the behavior of using the new technology, then it may become less of a mountain to climb and more like a hill.

As I have mentioned before, food is my baby. I totally enjoy every aspect of food, growing it, taking the time to prepare it and most importantly eating it. My roommate is a vegetarian. I love meat. However, I have found interesting ways to make meatless dinner options. Don’t get me wrong I am personally open to the idea of being a vegetarian, but I would crave a steak and then I would eat said steak, so that wouldn't work. Needless to say I have learned to evolve some of my menus so that they do not involve animals.

Opinions. Unlike genuine truth they can change and twist depending on our own thoughts or ideas. I had a very strong opinion on a common occurrence in today’s society, the same side sitters. You know the lovey dovey couple that sits on the same side of the booth in restaurants. I was a strong believer against the same side sitters, because it just seemed strange. What did the couple both bring along imaginary friends? I didn’t understand why I couldn’t have my own space on my side of the booth to stretch out, put my purse and not have to worry if my arm would be hit during the inhaling of food (maybe this is the only child in me coming out). However on a date, I was asked if I minded if he sat on my side of the booth. Warning bells went off in my head, but then I asked him why he wanted to sit next to me. He explained that he enjoyed being close to me and didn’t particularly want the whole restaurant in our conversation. I am still not 100% convinced of the same side sitting, but I am now open to the idea.

Refresh your mind! Keep questioning your opinions on everything and don't say you don't like something unless you have tried every way you can. Tofu is yucky, but I still have many more ways to try it. Hip Hip H...

Two

Love is dangerous. Well it can be to toy with. It can also be the most powerful emotion and action in the world. Two of the people that have professed their love to me are now engaged to other people. It is crazy to think about how much can change over time and what can change. Is it the people or the circumstances that change? Both I would argue.

What is the determining factor that decides that you want to be with someone forever? Is there one thing or is it the culmination of elements that are present in the person that creates the factor. The funny thing is that after both of the guys and I broke up, both came back to me later claiming they would have put a ring on my finger. Clearly, thankfully that was not the case. God had other women to place in their lives that they will be with forever.

Interesting. Crazy. Wonderful. I am so glad that God is the keeper of my map of life and He always has been guiding me in the right direction. Now more than ever He is flagging down my heart and is pointing me in the directions of my dreams. I just have to have the patience to slow down so I don't get a speeding ticket or a heartache.

Grill

One of my favorite pastimes and stress relievers is being able to cook. I absolutely love to chop, dice, fillet or grill anything. Something about transforming an ingredient using my imagination and creating something pleasant to the eyes and pallet. My favorite form of transformation is grilling. Being one with fire.

Tonight corn and chicken was on the menu to be sacrificed to the flame and I was quite impressed with the way it turned out. Something about a cold beverage, my dog at my side and the smell of food cooking is quite intoxicating in the summer.

Stress gone.

Honest

Being brutally honest can drastically change a situation. I am not a fan of playing games. Board games yes, emotional games no. Being honest in the work place can sometimes be difficult because political agendas can get in the way. Feelings may get hurt, but I am a firm believer it is always better to state your opinion and get shot down then it is not to state it at all. Everybody in America has been given the right to free speech; therefore I think they should exercise that right.

Like most everything though, too much of a good thing can also be detrimental. I will always tell the truth, but in some situations it is better not to vocalize your opinion because of the harm it could cause. Having discernment of the appropriate situations comes with time and situation analysis.

I am a pusher. I like to push myself to be aware of my missteps and ways to correct them. I have begun to look back at my life these past couple of months and am beginning to be honest with myself. This reflection has knocked me back to earth, because realizing that I am not perfect and I have issues I have to fix is hard, but necessary. (I totally have pj’s that have planets on them that my mom got me that say, “Why yes, I am the center of the universe.”)

Being honest, having integrity and being respectfully truthful to those around you, will in the long run benefit you more than any of the white lie people pleasing that can occur. When it comes to yourself, it does absolutely no good to make up excuses because in the end you will end up not only hurting yourself but others can also be affected. Honesty really is the wisest, yet sometimes painfully best policy.

Adapt

Walking into a room you can quickly analyze the situation at hand. What are the people wearing? How are the positioned together? Who is talking the most? Can you feel the tension?

When moving into a situation where you are the newcomer your ability to adapt is what can make or break the mood and allow for initial impressions to develop.

Right now in my life I am meeting a lot of new people and the stability of my life seems to constantly be swaying like a boat in the waves. Therefore my ability to adapt has been on high alert. However maintaining a balance between being true to you and adapting to others behaviors is a tight rope act. That being said I am always eager to seek out others lifestyles and try them on to see if it is something I enjoy, which seems to make my life slowly more complex.

The makeup artist, tea party host, photographer, doctor, hog roaster, dancer, rap lyricist, shopper, golfer, poker player, joker, and truth seeker. These words describe the amazing people in my life that have shown me new exciting things about the world, that at one time started with a new situation.

Being able to adapt to the room and creating meaningful friendships from that will then allow you to take on new lifestyle skills which will make you better equipped for your next encounter. Just make sure that those people that you adapt to are freakin awesome!

Glass

Is the glass half full or half empty? Are you kidding me, the glass is spewing over the rim it can hardly contain itself.

Outlook wise, people have completely different mentalities. The people that you work with will have different ways of perceiving life. Therefore, the way that you approach them in a normal workday needs to be different. Some people purr when they are given praise in public, others want to hide in a corner and would prefer to be told in an email that they did a great job.

My personality type enjoys screaming at the top of your lungs that you loved the proposal, and sometimes it is difficult for me to understand why people do not want the same. Since being efficient is one of my favorite things, I have learned that it is not efficient at all to embarrass someone or praise them in the wrong manner. Gaining knowledge about how the ones around you work will lower the stress and increase efficiency because you will flow with each other and it increases respect when responding to them in a way they understand.

Lesson for the day, it is not always to do unto others as they would do to you, sometimes you have to tailor the same kind action to something they see as kind.

Endless

Patience is something that I lack in all since of the word. Patience is the willingness and ability to suppress restlessness when confronted with a delay. My lack of patience has sometimes put me in a tough spot to get out of, but most of all it shows my lack of constraint.


"But since I was worse (of a sinner) than anyone else, God had mercy on me and let me be an example of the endless patience of Christ Jesus. He did this so that others would put their faith in Christ and have eternal life." 1 Timothy 1:16


Endless patience. That blows me away, God chose me to showcase his ongoing everyday patience, so I can shine his love that others may follow him. God knows that everyday I will struggle to be like Jesus and I will fall to sin, but he has endless patience for me.

Tonight I rode around in a car with the windows down and wind rushing through my hair as the hot summer night blew into my face. Peace came over me and I knew that everything was right in the world. I may not have my life figured out completely, but I have a God that has endless patience. I want to be his example of mercy, but first I have to find my own patience one calm night at a time. I am thankful God gives me the opportunities like tonight to be still and be patient.

Crunch

At my job it is currently crunch time. Myself and those that I work along side with have been pushed to the max and we are still not out of the woods. I was sick the other day and had to stay at home, but I still managed to have a conference calls between running to the bathroom. Why do you ask? Because it wasn't really an option.

When you are shoved into a corner and things have to get done, how do you manage stress?

The management of the stress, that will always come, is what can literally make or break you. Understanding that at the end of the day your world will not come to a crashing halt if you miss a deadline, but you better have tried everything in your power to make it.

One of the best ways to manage stress during crunch time is to ask for help. See if somebody at your office or in your personal life can help you with anything and everything. My friend brought me medication to my house minutes before my conference call. I didn't have my office computer at home, so one of my coworkers sent me all the necessary paperwork to my personal email so I could be ready to go. I asked for help and I have a great network of people who were willing to make my life easier.

The reason why I work and have my career is to gain knowledge and to support myself and my dog (believe me she has cost me a lot, but I love her regardless). Work is not worth getting so stressed over that you can't sleep at night. Enjoy life to the fullest and spend time with the awesome people that can help you manage your stress when it comes, after all isn't that what life is about.

Action

When a project just sits on my desk, it makes me nervous. I have to complete something when I start it or it drives me crazy thinking about it. I have laid in bed for hours attempting to sleep while trying not to think about something I need to get done. The problem comes into play when it comes into my personal life.

I am a serial dater.

I have known for a long time that I enjoy being in long term relationships and for the most part I think I make a really good girlfriend. It is something that I pride myself in and it makes me happy. The problem arises when I am not in a relationship. I get really nervous. I panic because I don't have someone to talk to every night about my day. It sends me down a crazy spiral of thinking that I am going to be alone forever. So when a guy actually comes into my life I force an instant relationship, which to no surprise scares every guy off. I don't allow a bond and friendship to develop before demanding that he comes home to meet the folks. I have just been plan stupid in that regard.

Needless to say that if a task comes to you at work it is alright to want to try and complete it right away, in the relationship department not so much. It isn't good to mix the business philosophy with pleasure.

Proud

What makes you proud? What makes you smile at the end of the day? What would make you say, “I feel so accomplished”?

Is it something that everybody can do? One day I will hopefully find the one I want to be with forever and get married. Then after a few years of marriage I hope I will have the good fortune of bringing beautiful healthy children into this world. Are those things something that I should be proud of or not, because let’s face it a lot of people in the world have the ability to do just that.

My last trip to Wal-Mart made me validate this finding that most people have the ability to have children, all though they do not necessarily have the ability to raise them. A mother had in her arms a baby, which I believe was less than six months old with its head flopping around while she was walking to her car. She then proceeds to get into her car still holding the baby and light up a cigarette and drive off with the child in her lap. This enraged me and confirmed my belief that I don’t need to be proud of something that most people can accomplish.

In the professional world, I get enjoyment out of learning new ways to network effectively and read people. I put my marketing skills into practice when designing new flyers for my agency to use. I am proud of myself for gaining valuable skills that not everybody can obtain and I should not stress myself over something that everyone can do. My mom continuously tells me, honey you won’t be single forever one day you will be somebody’s catch of a lifetime. What I should be doing is focusing on what not everybody is capable of doing, and enjoy the talents and accomplishments that few have been able to obtain. Make sure you are making yourself an expert in something that people will one day come to you for your advice on. Those are the things that you should be proud of and make you smile.

Distance

Growing up some of my closest and best friends were the ones in my neighborhood and church. In college the first people that I gravitated towards were those in my freshman orientation class. Then it was people that my boyfriend hung out with or I met through my on campus jobs. It is amazing how it is human nature to draw people into your circle that you are in close in distance to.

How much does convenience play into our friendships? Is that a bad thing?

What happens when you no longer are in a situation where people your age are around, then it becomes a little tricky. Obtaining new friendships through existing friends is one way to expand your base. Going to events that the local chamber of commerce or clubs puts on is another. One of the hardest things about being a young professional is getting to know other young professionals with similar interests.

Being in the right place at the right time to meet your new potential friend does not happen overnight.  You have to make a conscious decision to go not go home after a long day at work and sit in front of the tv watching the food network and play with your dog. Believe me it sounds super appealing on most days. But then again waking up one morning and realizing that you don’t have plans with anybody your age for the month, fuels your desire to reach out.

Setting yourself up for meeting people that are like you is important not only in the realm of friendships, but allows you to also develop your professional contact list. The network that you slowly start building is what will set you apart from the rest of the pack. If you know somebody to help your boss get into the door at a new company, it can’t hurt.

True

Who are you? What makes you, you? Your upbringing, morals, values, experiences and passions. What happens if you break a promise to yourself? What happens when you deviate from your values? Does it mean that you are less of who you are?

People and situations will come into your life that make you question your core beliefs, that is just a fact of life. How you deal with those situations is what truly makes up who are and strive to be.

I laugh obnoxiously loud. I hug people when I meet them. I dance in a room full of people, when nobody else is dancing. I drink coffee like it is going out of style. I refuse to have sex before I am married. I grow my own mint to make mint juleps. I will wake up early every day to take care of my dog.

I will not change these things about me. They are part of who I am and what I enjoy. Being true to who you are at the core, but being open to change that does not sacrifice your beliefs is essential.

Over the course of the past couple of months opportunities both good and bad have crossed through my path that question who I want to be and I am happy to say that for the most part I have stuck to my core. However, I have not done a very good job making improvements and deciding where I want to go from here. How do I see myself growing to be even better in the future? Everything is evolving in this world, so you have to make sure that you evolve positively with it.

Defined

Desire and Effort. These two components set everybody apart from each other. These are the items that fuel the society in which we live in. Some people say, thoughts and action must happened for the world to function. I would argue that thoughts are different from desires and actions different than effort. Unlike a mere thought, desire denotes passion and motivation.  If I desire for something to happen, some form of emotion good or bad is behind the thought.  Then once your desire can be set into motion by not just an action but real genuine effort. Desire without effort is simply another strong belief that comes from our hearts strings. An action can be so small as to lift a finger, but an effort means that the action takes time and an amount of struggle in order to be achieved. Effort is the driving factor to create change.

I believe that these two words desire and effort can be put together can transform our outlook on a lot of areas in our lives, one being relationships.

A relationship without desire and passion is dead. Nobody wants to hang out with anybody that they don’t like. If you do not desire to be with somebody, then clearly the relationship is over before it began. However the next part is a little trickier. How do you manifest your desire in the form of effort? How do you continuously give effort? Showing someone that you desire them everyday, that is true love. I can get told everyday that I am loved, but if you put effort into showing me. Then I know it is real.

The lesson that I have learned today is that emotion fueling desire with effort will allow me to transform my complacent relationships into fruitful communion with others.

Travel

Normally when I think of traveling it gets me super excited! The places that I have had the fortune to go see and the experiences that I have gained that will last forever. Somehow the thought of traveling after spending two weeks out of town at conferences for work seems excruciating. I have still not made it home safely to my dog and house, both of which I miss terribly.

When traveling the idea of home often comes to mind and for the past couple of years the image that comes to my mind when I say home is blank. I grew up in the same house for 18 years and as soon as I went off to college my mom bought a new house down at the lake. Therefore it was the lake house and my home as I knew it vanished. Ever since then I have been struggling to find my idea of a home. Even though I bought a house a couple of years ago it still wasn't home because it had furniture I didn't pick out in it and I wasn't to sure how long I was going to be there so I didn't want to get to attached.

Now that I know I will be in the house for a lot longer with my new job and the idea of it becoming my home has become a reality. Being gone for two weeks has solidified my thinking of my house as my new home that I love.

The lesson that I have learned is that change is a good thing. Something that you may find enjoyable like travel can turn out to be stressful and something that has been lost can be found, like a home. I am however still waiting to build a house of my own that can be a real long lasting home and what an adventure that will be!

Older

Dancing on a brick wall and making the neighborhood kids come and watch. Sliding down a long steep driveway in the snow on a makeshift sled. Painting pottery poolside in Mexico. Trying limoncello while dreaming about tomorrow. These are some of the fond memories I have with a childhood friend that told me that she is getting married! I am a first time bridesmaid and I am super pumped! I received the news while at my first business conference among coworkers and it came as a shock.

I love the life that I have chosen for myself and it is even more apparent while I sat next to a screaming child on the plane on my way back home today. I am incredibly happy for those moving on into the married part of their lives, but I am not ready to continue on into the children realm quite yet. After the business trip that consisted of being up before six most days and continued on well past dinner, I was less than thrilled to be seated next to said child.

Lesson for the day be happy for others and be happy for your decisions. At the end of the day I am glad I made the choices that I did and I am glad to be a young professional trying to make her way in the world.

Learning

It never stops. I am constantly learning new things. When choosing a profession, you are dedicating yourself to learning above and beyond the average person's knowledge about a particular topic. This week I have dedicated myself to learning about insurance, because that is the profession that I am getting my license in. However I would like to be knowledgeable in a lot of different trades. I would love to take cooking classes, obtain a green thumb and be able to make the perfect latte.

It is impossible to think that you will ever be able to obtain the knowledge about every topic in the world. That is where people come in. The more people that you meet that have different backgrounds and way of doing things, the more you learn about life. I am constantly meeting new people, and like my father it is hard for me to meet a stranger. I find enjoyment from hearing stories and am passionate about gaining knowledge from others. My lesson for today is to be open. Always be open to learn something new. Life will be a much smoother ride if you are open minded and willing to soak in what the world has to offer.

Growing

This past weekend, I spent time with my grandmother. She is the only grandmother I have alive and she flew down along with my aunt from Virginia to see me. It is fascinating to think how much she has seen over the course of her lifetime. Also this weekend, one of my best friends Holly's sister had a baby shower. I enjoyed getting to see people I haven't gotten to see in a long time and celebrate the new life that is shortly going to be coming into this world.

In one weekend, I experienced growing old and growing up. Both of which scare me completely. At the baby shower it was talked about how Holly and I are the next in line to have children because we are the oldest. It is true we are, but it is crazy to think about such things. At the age of 24, if I was my grandmother I would have had two children already ages seven and five. If I was my mother I would have been married for three years already. I know that nobody should compare themselves to anybody else but part of me is screaming that I need to hurry up and do something!

The part of being a young professional is setting yourself up to have a great life to give your future spouse and children. The question is how long do you have to wait? How long do I have to wait until I am set up as much as I need to be? Will anybody be waiting for me when I am done with this journey? Those are the questions that I constantly ask myself, but I need to quit. The lesson I learned today is that everything will come in perfect timing, because it is not up to me. God will decide my fate. What I have to do is prepare my life and mind for the right things to fall into place.

Taken

Today it was simply taken, ripped out of my grasp. It was just sucked out of my account without warning. I was perfectly happy when just the normal bills would come out but this time it was different. This time it was a huge payment, the mortgage payment. It was finally switched over to come out of my account. In this simple moment of noticing the drastic decrease in my checking account, I knew I was embarking on a new journey. My life as a young professional has begun.

I wanted to create this blog to document my journey through adulthood and some of the lessons that I will learn along the way. The first lesson is my mother can never be replaced. Not only has she financially supported me for the past 24 years of my life but the emotional support she has provided out weighs any dollar amount. I was really sick last week and she drove up almost three hours to take me to the ER. She loves me like nobody ever will and for that I am thankful.

I hope you join me in this crazy journey and feel free to comment with your own tales.