Be Grateful for an Extraordinary Life

(from the Courier Journal)

All these pictures are the "little things" in my life 

Have you ever gotten something stuck in your head and you can't get it out? (and for once I don't mean that super catchy 90s n*sync song) I've had one phrase stuck in my head...so much so that I'm writing a blog post at 1am so I can get it out.

Summer concerts

It all started when I was sitting in our new relaxing room the other day, writing a letter. In my letter I was complaining about how things were...situations I wasn't happy about. In retrospect, it's funny because the whole time the newspaper was sitting next to be and I didn't look at it until I was almost finished. When I did look over I noticed that one of the headlines said "Be grateful for an extraordinary life".

JJ "Snow" Angels

Do you ever have those God moments? Where God seems to literally speak to you and tell you exactly what you need to hear? That was it for me. I almost scratched out my whole letter and started over. Why was I sitting there complaining when I should have been writing about all the extraordinary things in my life?

Wine tasting

The other funny thing is that that sentence seemed to be the words I had been searching for since I got back from Italy. When I was there I constantly said I lived in Never Never Land and was never coming home. I read later too, where someone that wrote that they felt like Dorothy after she left Oz. How interesting...have you ever thought about how Dorothy would have felt after seeing everything in Oz then just going back to Kansas?? If she was anything like me then maybe thankful to be home to what is comfortable but at sporadic times "homesick" for that temporary home where everything seemed to be magical.

Sword fights with cardboard tubes

It's been hard last semester and this semester for me to stick it out in school. Somehow I have "senioritius" and I'm not even about to graduate. Work wise, last semester was hard, really hard. I just constantly wanted to go back to Louisville because I had spent so much time away in the summer. And this semester is hard in a different way...my classes are so much easier, but I don't like a single one. Sometimes it's easy to wish away time, especially when you're looking forward to something like I am this summer.

Karaoke in the studio

But as hard as it may be, I have to constantly remind myself (as a very smart friend put it) to enjoy the season I'm in. Which brings me back full circle to my point: be grateful for an extraordinary life. I brought up Italy because it was easy to think of life as extraordinary while I was there. I was doing something completely different than what everyone was doing so obviously my life wasn't ordinary. But here's the thing...my life is still extraordinary every day, even when I'm not abroad. The question is whether I choose to look it at that way or not.

Impromptu bourbon tastings

I am blessed in more ways than I can count. Incredible family and friends, good health, talents, and every advantage in the world. And as I think about what makes every day special, it's the people I'm around that are constantly keeping me on my toes, building me up, and just keeping my life amusing. Did you know you're supposed to spend a minimum of 6 hours around other people every day? Crazy.

Having little visitors in class

There are so many little things that happen every day to be thankful for. And it's all the little things that add up to an extraordinary life. I want my life to be an adventure but it's never going to be one unless I make sure that's what my mindset is. If I take the time to enjoy all the little things every day instead of just waiting for big, exciting things to happen then I realize how truly exceptional life can be.