Felt like you should know...

"A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step."

I feel as if this school year, I've been on a journey of many thousands of miles. That I've learned more in the last six months about love, life, God, family, friends and myself than I've ever learned in my life.

I've learned that "love isn't about finding the perfect person, it's about learning to see an imperfect person perfectly," and that striving to be perfect for another individual isn't healthy or what love is about. One should not require you to fit a set of standards, and tear you down when you cannot reach the sky with only one try. That the Corinthians definition of love "Love is always patient; love is always kind; love is never envious or arrogant with pride. Nor is she conceited, and she is never rude; she never thinks just of herself or ever get annoyed.She never is resentful; is never glad with sin, but always glad to side with truth,whene'er the truth should win. She bears up under everything, believes the best in all, there is no limit to her hope,and she will never fall. " (International Standard Version) is true. I've learned that broken hearts, take time to heal and that the healing is different for everyone. I've learned that the saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me," is not true. At all. Words hurt. They leave a mark. That hurtful words, are not a part of love.

Life, that I've learned so far, is to be lived to the fullest. One should never be afraid to take chances, the worst that can happen, is that it doesn't work out.

God is always there. Always. And he never changes. Other people may change, but He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever as the Bible says in Hebrews 13:8. God does not base his love and care for us on conditions. He does not work with the "I love you until..." or "I love you but you need to do this in order for me to love you more." God loves, God cares, and God wants us to come to Him, even if we are angry.He wants us to share our feelings with Him. He will never turn His back on us.

I've learned that God gave us family for a reason. And that a family isn't about being the perfect all American family with a never divorced mom and dad, with 2.5 kids and a dog. A family comes in all shapes and sizes, all colors and interests.

I've learned that true friends are very rare.That some friends are only friends until inconvenient for them. That if something happens that you don't want to talk about, they won't hold that against you. They will stand by you, when the rest of the world walks out, even if they don't know what the bad thing was that happened. That when everyone else looks down on you, or says means things about you, to your face, or behind you back, true friends will be a shield to defend you, and a hand to pull you up. True friends will be the ones that drive an hour from their house to your school, because you called them on the phone crying, and even though they couldn't make sense of your words through your tears, it doesn't matter. They come to give you a hug. True friends are the ones that buy you pizza, when you haven't eaten for days, and take you out to midnight milkshakes. They're the ones that come to a family gathering, just for support, even if that means people they know will look down on them. They're the ones that come to see you, because they know that you can't come to them because of people you may run into. They are the people that offer the matches to burn somethings you need to let go of.

I've learned, that Dr. Seuss was a genius when he said "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those matter don't mind." I've learned to be content in who I am, and I will not apologize for that. I am your average girl, laughs when something is funny, cries when something hurts, lives for the next grand adventure.

I want to thank those that have been true friends through the past several months, Those that have accepted me as family. And apologize to those who I may have hurt.