So how 'bout that? Pretty cool, huh?

This entire semester has been full of nights just like Tuesday night was. Not the losses, so much... Just the times where I catch myself saying, "That's the last time that's going to happen!" Sure, it's sad and odd. But at the same time, it's exciting and nerve-racking.

So with my days numbered as a student at Murray State University, and as a resident of Hester College, this is my last hoorah, as they say. I currently have no clue what is next: I'll figure that out soon enough! I just felt like I should recognize the feelings that Goodbye's have brought me this semester. By acknowledging the fear and the small amount of sadness in each "Goodbye!" I have resorted to my pretty hefty bank of excitement that I have stored up for the last few years.

Every day the scenery of my life is changing. But I CHOOSE to welcome it. I am destined for greatness. Are you with me??

LET'S DO THIS THING!!

We have done it! Our long, hard years of painful growth spurts and physical clumsiness are over (well not me all the time, but you know me...)!

Granted, we'll be physically changing on some level forever. Our faces will fill out, we'll get wrinkles, and our hair will either turn gray or fall out. But all things said, we've reached physical maturation.

But where does that leave us?

We're finally comfortable with where our bodies have left us off, and it hits us! For me, it was a few weeks into college my college career. I found myself on a picnic table behind my dorm challenging people's beliefs on abortion. This was the first time I had ever found myself defending my beliefs to people that I knew very little about. And now, five years later, I'm only deeper into my psyche. Being challenged in my beliefs daily. And you know what? It doesn't stop there!...

I feel like every day now my CORE is tested. My HEART is (let's see if i can find the word...) challenged. Everything from finding what is becoming my own faith to answering the questions the lie on the surface of my soul. The unanswered questions that seem to come to the surface every day.

Just like when we were teens, we're changing every moment. Although this time it's not our physical appearance that is changing. It is our presence of mind. Every day that passes, we are one day closer to where this "Emotional Puberty" will drop us off. This is where we are... This is what people our age do!

And when all is said and done, we will have become Emotionally Mature. Just like the growing pains of our teenage years left our bodies off at a certain height with a certain look that will slowly change in time, these emotional changes will leave us standing as a mature adult, ready to take on the world we will build for ourselves.

Once again, I'm growing towards a person that I am loving more and more every day (does that sound full of myself? I hope not!).

"How do we do it?"

"Isn't it supposed to be easier than this?"

These are just a few of the questions that I have found myself posing to.... Myself, in the last couple months. I've come to think of these times as "growing pains". (Insert: a funny Kirk Cameron reference that I could not think of here). Every one of us, at some point and time comes to a spot that's a gut check. You know, the times that are really rough, but we somehow come out on the other end changed, yet improved? That's right! Improved. That's where I get confused, too.

So that leads me to more questions:

How is it that the toughest times in our journey here truly mold us to be what we are? Wouldn't you think that the times we are happiest would have a lot more to do with what we become?

So as I've continued take each day for what it's worth, I'm beginning to find that the answers to these questions have very little to do with me. In fact, it's not about me at all.

I've begun to look around my life and take pleasure in some of the smallest things. A few examples?...

• I just had a brownie that someone gave me over the weekend that I had forgotten about. DELICIOUS!
• Today, when I got back from work, T.O. had dinner in my room "just 'cuz... you know."
• Steve, who in more ways than one inspired this post, took several hours out of his Saturday last weekend to share his knowledge with a colleague and me, that saved us weeks of CLUELESS labor.
• Oh, and I can't forget about how good it made me feel when Emily and Squirt each caught a pass EXACTLY as coached.

I'm slowly figuring out that it's these little things and the people that are responsible for them that "get us through". We go through each day, crossing paths with people. Some of them we know, most of them we don't know. But it's those people that we find in our lives every day, who share themselves with us, make us smile when we don't feel like it, and give us the opportunity to support them through their "Ruff" times right back!

So this is me, saying thank you to those of you who have made me who I am today, and more importantly, who I will be tomorrow. Without you guys, who knows where I'd be? But what I do know is this: It's family, friends, girlfriends, teammates, roommates, and those people you find yourself surrounded by on the hardest days that get us through. THAT'S how we do it. And it's EASIER because of them.

Thank you all... I like who I am, and who I am becoming, and I owe you the world for it!