It's My Birthday!

Today is my 26th birthday! I'm spending the day with my students at work, then going out to dinner later tonight with my family. Being a teacher usually makes for good birthdays because the kids always make a big deal out of birthdays, giving me adorable hand made cards and singing to me in the cafeteria. Even though I am now officially closer to 30 than 20, I've decided that 26 is still part of the "mid-twenties" category rather than "late-twenties". This past year was a pretty difficult one for me. Life threw a lot of unexpected challenges my way, but I feel like these experiences have only made me stronger. I am hopeful that 26 will be a much better year, full of wonderful blessings.

I feel like birthdays are always a good time to reflect on the past year and make some goals for the future. I have always been a "list-maker". I make lists about everything. I have a life-long bucket list, a list of things I want to do before I turn 30, a list of things I want to do this summer, etc. Why do I spend so much time making lists? Why do I always have to put things on a timeline? Why am I assigning events in my life an expiration date? What is going to happen if I don't accomplish everything on my bucket list? In my past 26 years, the most valuable thing I have learned is that I can make all the lists and timelines for my life that I want, but ultimately it's not up to me. There is some things in life that we have absolutely no control over. Things that we don't expect happen. Things that we want to happen don't always happen when we want them to. So you can spend all the time you want making a life-time plan, but when it comes down to it the ultimate agenda planner for your life is God. Things happen for a reason and they will happen when they are good and ready.

I was always one of those kids who liked to plan things out way into the future. Was I the only weirdo that had my entire life planned out by 11th grade? I had quite the plan. Graduate college by age ___, get married by age ___, have kid #1 by ___, have kid #2 by age ___, etc. However, I have discovered that things don't always go according to my plan and there's no reason for me to be upset by that. Holding my life up to these expectations is only going to lead to disappointment. God has a much better plan for me than I ever could have imagined for myself. Everything will happen when His time is right, so until then I just get to sit back and enjoy the ride. Rather than rush, rush, rush to get to the next item on my checklist, I should stop and enjoy the little moments that are happening right now.

So where did 11th grade me see myself at 26? I saw myself with a college degree, married, living in a house in Jacksonville, teaching elementary school, at least one kid of my own, and all my family living close together. Some of my plans worked out, others have not (or not yet at least), and I have experienced some things that majority of people can't imagine experiencing in their first 26 years of life.

I've got the college degree, marriage and living in a house in the Jacksonville area checked off the list. Right according to plan. However, I definitely thought that I would have at least one kid by now. I never would have imagined that my dad wouldn't be here with us any more. I always thought that I might end up being a teacher, but I never would have dreamed that I would be teaching middle school at an urban, low-income school. I mean, who seriously dreams of teaching middle school? Middle school is like the worst age ever, but gosh I love those bratty little pre-teens. I never in a million years would have dreamed that I would ever be Teacher of the Year at my school especially at such a young age.

Sometimes we tend to focus on the negative or inconvenient things in our life, and forget about all the blessings we have been given. I am so guilty of this. However, when I think back on all the amazing places I have traveled, the experiences I have had and the wonderful people in my life, I can feel nothing else but extremely blessed. So rather than worry about the things that aren't going my way, that I can't control, I'm going to let God do His job and just enjoy each day I'm given. Here's to the next 26 years!

I hope you all have a wonderful spring day and feel free to have a cocktail in my honor today :) The birthday festivities will be continuing on the blog tomorrow with some throwback photos. Get excited.