Eight

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the love of my Heavenly Father. I've spent much of my life praying for guidance and direction and as I've been working on entries for this I've realized how literally everything goes back to him. More importantly, He blesses me with what he knows is best for me and it's nine times out of ten not on my time schedule. Sometimes, I receive answers when I'm not even expecting them or I don't recognize they're answers till I do something like this and look back on my life.

Recently, I've been thinking about my plans for the next year. There's a lot to be done and a lot to figure out and it's STRESSFUL - no way around that.

A few weeks ago I realized that after April 26, I'd be homeless, jobless, and more or less broke. Oh, and can't forget, I'm a college student on top of all that so naturally I have money owed there, too. Mind you, I'd been thinking about it for a while and knew that it'd come around eventually, but eventually was always later rather than sooner. I thought that since I got my academic plan figured out for the next two years, I'd just have everything else work out normally. Right? Ha. No. This is Real Life: Provo Edition.

So naturally I just put it off longer.

I prayed about it every night to hopefully get some guidance. In all honesty, the nightmare that is housing is what ultimately drove me to be an RA {more on that on a later date}. I knew that I had a few friends that might want to live with me but then you have to find all these contracts together that fit everyone's budgets and schedules and do you want to sign a year contract or month-to-month or maybe just the semester? What amenities do you want? How close do you want to be to campus? Like it really is the pits.

Growing up is rough. 

THEN, I needed to find a job. Like, I'd decided not to work anymore for reslife. So then I need to leave my apartment and find a new job all in one fell swoop. I'm a 19-year-old college student with barely enough credentials to get a job and now I'm going to be paying bills and rent and car insurance and working AND going to school. {Trust me, I know I'm not the only one. People do it all the time and I honestly would kiss the ground they walk on if I could point them out of a crowd. Shout to the parents for always covering that for me growing up.}

When Aj was here we tried to take the easy way out and just ask Mom if she'd buy us a condo we could rent from her. That definitely didn't fly. So then we started sending links to each other and figuring out what we needed and wanted and how much we wanted to pay and all that jazz. And even that is rough! There's no single website for BYU-contracted housing that I'm required to live in so you just have to search it out and knock doors and whatever else to make it happen.

-After some time, a lot of praying, and some talking to people-

It finally all came together! I have a place to live with someone near and dear to my heart. With literally everything that I wanted. And also openings for the people who had talked about living with me. What! It's amazing. And I didn't realize that this wasn't just some miracle or some happenstance that stumbled across my path. It was my answer. My miracle. And after talking to a few people and brainstorming I might even have a job that will work with the insanity that is my life with school and Camp Kesem and the minimal social life that I have.

The moment when the pieces actually come together remind me to thank those that have helped me but also the recognize the hand of the Lord in all things. I know that life is substantially harder without relying on Him for help. And I'm so grateful to know that I have such a wonderful support group behind me.