Today's Path: Rediscovering Childhood.

Mini Golf, Batting Cages, Playgrounds and more…

I am in my last year of college and am now realizing the importance of childhood. Life has been so stressful trying to go to school, work and finish my internship. In doing this, I have forgotten the importance of fun. So in order to bring back the fun, I have taken time this week to just be a kid.

It has been so relaxing.

Baseball games, bowing, surfing the web…

There is still one more day left in the week and I am in need of a few things to do to fill a Saturday Night. Suggestions are appreciated.

Take some time to be a kid.
And as my grandfather says, “You have to grow old, but you never have to grow up.”
Thanks Gramps!!

Today's Path: Fresh Air

The past few weeks I have been pretty much out of it. I haven't felt like me. I was stressed and blue, and I was tired of being that way.

So I took a few days off from my job, and I did some spontaneous fun things.

Last night, I went to the Balloon Glow in Forest Park. WOW! First we went to Fitz's in the Loop and enjoyed dinner out on the patio. From there we biked to Forest Park. After making a wrong turn and riding 5-10 minutes out of the way we turned around and made it back to the park.

As the balloons inflated the wind picked up. So the balloons went down. Even though we didn't get to see a lot of balloons at the balloon glow, we saw enough to be impressed.

But the glow and the ride were not what did it for me, it was the fresh air. I have spent way too much time sitting inside working and working. The time I took just to be outside in the park and ride my bike was amazing. I feel like ME again.

Take some time and spend it outside. Go to the park and regain the you inside.

Today's Path: Our Perfectionist Side

My freshman year of college my Speech Professor, Professor Haedike, gave me an assignment to go and find two people have them answer the following questions:
My strengths are_____________.
My weaknesses are____________.
I am ______________________.

At first I did not want to know the answer to these questions, but I did finally go and ask my bosses to answer them. I learned a lot from their answers. One thing did fall under strengths and weaknesses, it was perfectionism.

It is my belief that no matter who you are, you have a side of you that is a perfectionist. Some people's perfectionist side is stronger than others. There are times in which our perfectionism is quieter, and there are times when it seems to scream from the heavens.

Lately, it seems like my perfectionist side has been screaming at the top of its lungs. Every time I go to do something, I am afraid it isn't going to be right, or I am not going to be successful.

My perfectionist side makes me want to know what the future holds, but the future is only in tomorrow and will not be today.

The moment is now and in order to escape the perfectionist control freak in me, I need to live in the now. We all need to live in the now to escape the craziness inside.

Today's Path: Something New

I am one for staying in the box. I try new things every now and then but not very often. Stepping outside of the box is like people on this side of the Missouri River do not go to the other side of the river. When things go outside of the box I get worried and tense, but it usually turns out okay.

Yesterday, Chad and I went golfing. Wait somethings wrong, this is way outside of my box!! I am the Happy Gilmore of golf. I went to the driving range a couple times last summer. Not a good thing. I threw a couple drivers onto the driving range. Another time I sliced one so good that it hit my dad in the next stall over, that's right I am that good.

After last summer, I gave up golf even though it was only my first time, until yesterday. We went to a little golf course called Yorktown.

I thought that I was going to hate golfing and I was going to loose some clubs due to throwing them, but it turned out okay.

What I am trying to say is the box you build around you is smaller than it should be. Golfing took to the other side of my box and it turned out alright. Step outside your box. It might surprise you what you can do.

What other things take you outside your box? Try stepping to the other side of the line.

Today's Path: Worry Not About Tomorrow

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
-Matthew 6:26

Some good friends and I are in our senior year of college, and we are preparing for after college. We are interning, doing more hands-on projects and some of my friends are applying for positions. As my friends are applying for positions many are not hearing back from the companies and are in turn afraid that they have chosen the wrong career path. They begin to worry about tomorrow.

”Who of you by worrying can add an hour to your life?”

- Matthew 6:27

God, Himself, told us that there is no reason to worry because he takes care of all of us and in the end everything will fall into place.

In June of this year, I started my panic about the future. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, and the only experience I had was in Youth Sports. I had not idea what to do. Then in July things started to fall into place. I began volunteering with the Chamber of Commerce, and then I received an internship at KMOX 1120, “The Voice of St. Louis.”

I never thought I would figure out what I wanted to do but the pieces of the puzzle now falling into place.

*For my good friends out there, everything is going to be okay. God will take care of you. Be patient!

Today's Path: The Juggling Act

It is the beginning of a new year (because life runs on a school calendar unless you are out of school and do not have children), and the juggling act is becoming calmer.

Each year I have to figure out how to manage school, work and social life. And each year it takes about a week to figure out how long to hold onto each ball before tossing it back into the air and how high to throw the ball.

I finally today figured out the juggling act for the semester. I was juggling four balls, school, work, internship and a possible knee surgery. Today, the knee surgery ball disappeared (thank you Lord) making the juggling act of three balls a lot easier. However, I still am not the greatest juggler. If you ever have seen me juggling it doesn't last very long. Sometimes I have to bring in someone to help.

When it comes to juggling balls, sometimes you need someone to pick the ones up you drop and toss them back into the mix. The same is true with life. When things get rough it takes someone who can pick the balls up you drop. Sometimes it is just talking to someone and other times it is giving them a ball to juggle or having them become part of your team to juggle each others balls with them, like they do at the circus. (I wish I were as good as those who juggle at the circus).

*Take the time this week or early next week and look at the balls you are juggling. Do you need help with them? Do you need to pick up a lighter ball in place of a heavier one? Or are you ambitious enough to add one or take a heavier one?

What ever you are doing, I wish you the best.

Today's Path: Life's Book

The other day I was talking with one of my professor about different things, and she said she wanted to write several books in her lifetime. (She is on her way. She has contributed a chapter to a book already.)
Then tonight, I was flipping through the channels and stopped on Grey's Anatomy. There was a quote about writing our own history everyday.
I have been struggling lately with the future and not wanting to royally screw up. I realized I was spending too much time preparing to write my history than I was writing it.

If we go through life and never write a book or an article or anything that gets published, we have still succeeded in writing. We have written our own book about ourselves. If we are too scared to take a step off into the unknown, is anyone going to want to read our book? Take a step in a new direction who knows what could happen, at least you will learn something.

Good ideas do not come when you stress over needing an idea; they come when you just relax and let them come to you.
So over the course of you life, remember the best book you ever will write is the one you work on everyday.