Education: A Future Worth Looking Forward to

At the age of 6, I moved with my family from my home country to the United States. Although children tend to adapt faster than adults, the change was still challenging for me, specially in school. I did not know the language so I was not able to communicate effectively and that did not help my academic progress. However, as the time went by, I developed my language skills and began to progress in my studies. Taking time to study and learning the value of an education got me motivated to look forward to and get more involved with where I wanted my education path to go. As I look back to where I came from and am today, I realized that dedication is a valuable part of my life.

Personally, I did not have a great understanding of what process I should follow to get higer education, but through different resources I was able to make my dreams start to come to life. Althoug I did not have a clear vision at first of how I was to do it, I knew that I would be going to school. I believe that God put me in the place I needed to be one Sunday afternoon where we had a guest speaker at my church. She was a young woman who had been in a very similiar situation to mine, but then shared how she had made it to college and she was now teacher. I took everything she said to heart and applied it during my remaining years of middle school and then all my highschool years. That knowledge and other research activities helped me get the necssary information to get to the school I wanted.

I feel like in the area where I grew up  many of the kids were in the same situation where they did not know how to get higher education. Although my school became more active in promoting higher education, the kids had other worries about what going though a higher education was like. Before graduation some of them dropped-out, while others began families and decided to stop their education. Each person's situation is different, so in no way is my intention to judge, but it made me sad to see how such a valuable opportunity was not taken advantage of. I understant that at times we face hardships in our lives, but we can still make choices that can help us deal with and overcome such challenges. The process might not be easy or very fast, but with time and dedication challenges can be overcome.

I am really grateful that early on I found people that shared their experiences of going to school and how they accomplished it. Their stories and knowledge that they shared changed the way I saw the world and where I could go. Although I am just starting my second year of school, I look forward to more years of learning. I'll also look forward to help inspire more people along the way to get higher education. Education can be a way to progress and I hope that as many people as possible can find a way to continue on that path to get more.

When?

Sundays are always the day to remember as I think back to quality family time. I can recall being a little too loud as my siblings and I made caves in the living room. We would bring our pillows and blankets out so that we could cover as much area as possible. We would go underneath and tell stories and talk about pretty much anything and laugh about anything. But, even laugh after laugh, we became impatieent as we waited for my parents to wake up so that we could play with them. Having all the family together was extremely fun, but having to wait was not. Patience was a virtue that we were slowly developing, and that has particularly helped me realize that waiting until it is the best time do act or allow things to happen. 

As I grew older and faced situations that were not under my control, having this skill was a way for me to find a little peace. I knew that things would follow their course and if I was faithful, they would come out in my favor. At times, wasn't about how long it takes for something to happen, but more about taking the time to complete it. Although we may not have control over the situatins we can have contro on how we endure them. 

I found the following video that I believe shows how having patience can bring blessings. 

Although we might find ourvelves in situations that can be tempting to stop our wait and give up, in the long run it can brings feelings of doubt and insecurity as one can get caught on the idea of what would have happened if I would have waited a little longer. Developing the willpower and mainting a vision of what can be can help us have more control and really continue in patience as advised by Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  I also agree with him that if we find ourselves in a situation where we might be losing hope, that we can seek a higher power-even Jesus Christ. He can help us if we have faith. 

As for Sunday quality time in my home, I have come to learn to be even more patient on when we get to spend time together. Because of different reasons, everyone isn't always at my parents home, but I know that as we all wait for the times that we are we have the best of times. 

If you would like to read more from the talk the video was created from, you can follow the link here. 

What we Make of it

Recently, I found myself in a situation that I had been in before. I went dancing with some of my friends, but of course we did not have an equal number of guys to girls, so we simply ended up doing a lot of group dancing. Although there were a lot of other guys at the dance, the number of times that we were asked to dance were very few. During our drive home we talked about our experience and came to the conclusion that in life, things are really what we make of them.  

As we had entered the dance, earlier that nigh, there was a decent size group of people. Most people were dancing, but a few were sitting. Not being too familiar with the location and the people there, a couple of us decided to observe for a little while. As we observed, we did not find too much success with getting to know many new people, so we jumped right into the dance floor. We started having a lot of fun! After a while, with sweat running down our faces, we decided to take a break. We took a seat and waited to see if anyone would ask us to dance. A guy after another passed and nothing happened, so we decided to go back dancing. After a while a couple of guys approached us and we danced with them for a while. Although you would have expected it to go really well, it wasn't all that great. It felt unfamiliar and uneasy. After that, although we were not closed to the option to dance with others, we simply stayed together as a group of friends.  

By the end we were exhausted because of how much we had danced. We had had a lot of fun! We all went home satisfied that we had gotten to see how we were doing and got a good work out. Altogether, we realized that the circumstances that we are in could only affect our personal enjoyment as much if we allowed it to.We are the ones that ultimately decide how we will react. 

Not too long ago, I came across this quote by Thomas S. Monson, "History swings on small hinges--and so will your life." In any situation that we might find ourselves, we can make make choices-even the smallest of choices, that will not only lead to temporary enjoyment, but to long, lasting happiness. The choice is really ours, because life is what we make of it. 

Sweet Motherly Love

You don't know what you have until you loose it! Well, I didn't have to. But, I must say, I do have the most wonderful mother in the world and I would not like to be too far from her. 

Most recently, my sister and I were going to embark on a lengthy road-trip to go back to school. I had made specific plans on how far we would go each day, where we would stop for gas, and where we were to rest. Our first road-trip and everything seemed to be perfect--I was pretty excited!

A day before, my Mother started acting concerned. She started looking down. We went to do our final shopping before heading out and her concern seemed to escalate. She began to point out that my Father wasn't making an effort to go on the trip with us, and, oh, how could he just let us go all by ourselves!

This was not the first time that we were leaving home, but seeing how overwhelmed she was I asked her, "Mom, why don't you just come with us?" Her response was an ecstatic "I would love to"! The next morning we all got ready and headed out the next morning. 

Our trip was nice and calm for the most part. We took turns driving. On one of those occasions, my Mother and sister fell asleep while I, the night-owl, kept driving. I drove out of Texas into New Mexico with no problem. I looked forward to getting to Albuquerque our resting place for the night. I was following the GPS and continued to move forward. NOT REALLY!!! Before I knew it, I began to see a lot of police lights, and orange signs that warned us to decrease our speed. Without a doubt we were facing a random police stop in Springer, New Mexico, which was about 3 hours North-East from where we were suppose to be. My Mom and Sister woke up to all the commotion and then I told them everything that I had come to realize and they began to look for alternative routes. We were exhausted and had to make new plans! We found a hotel and made new plans for the next day. Even though snow fell as we went through the Rockies in Colorado and it rained during our drive in Utah, we made it to our final destination--safe and sound. 

The next couple of days were great because my Mom was there. She went with us to do our book shopping, check in into our apartment, grocery shopping, and everything else that we did not have planned but that we wanted her to try. She just simply went with it. 

As we were examining her travel plans to get back home, she began to feel overwhelmed once again. This time, it was because she was so unsure about getting on a plane because of her motion sickness and flying would be a new experience for her. We talked to her and tried to make her feel as comfortable as possible. Once at the airport, I couldn't go pass the security check point so I just had to let her go, all by herself. Now, I was feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how this experience would turn out. I left the airport with my heart in my hand. 

I kept in constant communication while she was transferring on to a new flight and until she finally arrived home! Although she did not really enjoy the experience she was just happy to have gotten home much faster. I was happy that she had made it without loosing herself. 

Latter that night I began pondering on why my Mother had come with us and why she had decided to take a flight back home. I came to the realization that she was really willing to do anything for us. Of course she had done other things for us before, but this time I was able to have a much better understanding of what motherly love is. It is truly self-less. I am eternally grateful that once more, I got to see how charitable my Mother is. I love her so much!

I know that I won't have my precious Mother for all my life. I am eternally grateful that she is part of my life, and as much as I have her I will cherish her. 

Do you have any stories where you were able to see your mother's unconditional love, or recognize how immensely cool she is? Please comment and share. :)