Come at me Bro

That probably doesn't make sense. Maybe because I am a little crazy and maybe because this semester life decided to try and crush me. Seriously life gave me a swift kick in the...well you know, ran me over with a freight train and when I tried to stand back up and brush myself off, I was met with a giant Chuck Norris round house kick. 

To explain, this semester was filled with a lot of stress and things going on at school and work and the too many extra curriculars I'm involved in. I worked two jobs to try and get by, found myself in a mess of family troubles, the person I loved most; my best friend and boyfriend of 3.5 years decided he no longer wanted a committed relationship, oh yeah and I got mono. These big events were accompanied by small misfortunes like my car breaking down, finding out I have a blood sugar disease and some other cool stuff. Let's be real the only thing left to go wrong was for my dog to run away and thank God I don't have a dog. My life was worse than a sad Taylor Swift song. 

But all of that is okay. You see all of this bad stuff happened but I could not be more glad that it did. This semester I have been tested, broken, well shattered into a million pieces more like, pushed beyond my limits and I am coming out on the other side a better person. However, this was not accomplished by myself. Not only have I had some great friends and family who have helped lift me up but I have had the all mighty powerful God in my corner.

See God has taken all these troubles and trials as a way to bring me back to him. By breaking me, he is now molding me into the person he had planned for me to be. While it's been rough I can already tell you that he has given me more blessings through these trials than I could have imagined. 

Through all this bad, good things happened too. This semester I also got baptized, have found some really great friends here in Kansas, got to be a normal college student for once and go home to Oregon for the weekend. I have been elected president of both my sorority and the agriculture communicators of tomorrow chapter at K-State, got to help put on a record-setting fundraising campaign to help financially burdened K-State students, have found a passion for running again, been given a great scholarship, and been blessed with a new, fun workplace. I am preparing to return to my passion of student development and facilitation, really begun to feel at home here in a church in Manhattan and so much more. 

I have found that with God, anything is possible and the strength and life I have found in truly having a relationship with him will get me through anything. 

Although I was saved when I was five years old, I've never been one who was good at handing over the reins to him. I always thought that it would be so hard to obey him and that I would lose some of the fun and excitement in my life. I couldn't have been more wrong. My life has been overflowing with excitement, opportunity and adventure since I made the choice to truly follow him. Never have I made an easier or better decision that has brought me more peace or strength. 

Whether or not this summer and next semester will bring as many obstacles as this last one did, I'm not worried because I've got God on my side. Whatever is next, a mountain or valley, all I can say to life is 'Come at me bro.'

♥Nicole

Come at me bro.