As (hopefully) most of you know, I am no longer in North Carolina. I'm going to school in BYU-Idaho this fall and (probably) winter semesters. Anyway, my adventure started on thursday, August 24th. My family drove me to the airport in Raleigh where my flight was delayed from a 4:05 departure to a 6:50 departure. That meant that I would miss my connecting flight in Chicago. It ended up that I hung out with the family for awhile before returning to the airport and rebook my flight for the next morning at 6:45am. The only really bad thing about the early departure was that I had to get up at 4:40am EST. I honestly didn't feel too sleepy. The morning flight was nearly empty and went from Raleigh to Nashville and then to Las Vegas and then to Salt Lake City. On the way from Nashville to Las Vegas, I pulled out the laptop and watched several episodes of TV shows I had downloaded to my hard drive. It really helped to pass the time.
It was funny landing in Vegas. I (not having left NC much) thought it was funny that even the airport had built-in casinos. I even saw a 90-year-old woman staring down her slot machine. From Nashville to Vegas I sat beside a really nice couple. We talked about college and what not and they related to mom in being sad when children leave home for college. The last of her children had just left for college and she sympathized with my feelings of sadness at leaving home.
In Vegas I spent the better part of my time charging my laptop battery for the flight from Vegas to Salt Lake. In turned out I didn't even get to finish one episode of the TV show I was watching. Oh yeah, if anyone is looking for gift ideas...House Season 2 is looking really good right now. Or software to decode DVDs and copy them to the hard drive.
Anyway, I made it to Ethan's apartment successfully then I had to drive him to work. I went from there to Best Buy and bought a wireless router for his apartment and since I would need one in Idaho anyway. Probably the craziest part of the day was how little food I had. Kristen bought me a biscuit that morning around 5:30am and the next food I had was in Vegas at 9:30 (12:30 EST). All I had there was a pink lemonade and a handful of combos. My next meal was a chalupa at Taco Bell...weeee!
I'm starting to ramble, but I would like to share a few of my thoughts before I close. Leaving for college is scary and daunting, yes. But through hard and difficult circumstances can come great joy. As I used to quote "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." This applies to me, I know. One "known" blessing is the blessing of coming home for Christmas. I know that the absence of college will make the reunion much sweeter. Of course other blessings may occur while at college, but those are up to me as I allow the Lord to work through me. My attitudes and desires will bear the greatest effect on how sensitive I am to the Spirit and how much I learn and grow from my surroundings. Life is like dinner. If all we ate was dessert (even though it tastes amazing) we would be unhealthy and suffer in the no-so-distant future. However, struggling down fruits and vegetables (although not as tasty as pie and ice cream) helps us both mentally and physically. Adversity can equal tremendous growth. It's all in how we handle the situations we face. Maybe leaving home and going to BYU-I isn't cake, but I can still enjoy the BYU-I broccoli salad. Just as long as it doesn't become celery, we should all be fine ;)