Moments like these

It's Thursday afternoon around 4:30.  I'm marking my stack of papers, reading all about how my kids celebrate their holidays.  I have on an acoustic playlist of pop songs. 

The song that came on a few minutes ago was Taio Cruz's Dynamite.  This song immediately took me back to my sophomore year of college.  The year that was filled with the craziest laughs on my dorm unit and freakin awesome dance parties in the middle of the night.  I decided to take a walk down memory lane, so I logged onto Facebook and flipped through my albums from that year.  I saw photos like these, that remind me of those cherished moments from that high-energy year, where I really solidified some wonderful friendships.

Camping for Weekend Music Festival

Fancy evenings and dinners on campus

Christmas trip to light festival

Pillow Talk late at night

Dances and parties

Roadtrips

Then I went back to freshman year of college, when I first met so many of the wonderful friends I would keep for years.

Cartilage Piercing

And I started to have a breakdown moment.  All these times with these wonderful ladies built so many memories during the four years with them.  The same girls I threw leaves with in the park freshman year are the ones I threw my cap with at graduation.  I was so blessed to be with these ladies.

And now I live in Indonesia... thousands of miles away from most of them.  Janna is close, only a couple hour taxi ride across the city, and I am so blessed to have come here with her to continue our adventures together.  But it's so hard, looking back at these pictures.  Knowing that these times, what a lot of people say is the best time of your life, are now past.  

And as I follow friends on Facebook, and see how they still get together with their college friends, and see how they continue to celebrate birthdays together and go to concerts and stand as bridesmaids in all the weddings, my heart longs to be back in America where I can continue having adventures with the girls.

But as I was lamenting my college experience, I ended up clicking through photos of me from recently.  And I found some reminders of other amazing memories.  New memories.  New people.  New places,  New adventures.  All just as wonderful.  They're nothing that special, just normal life.  But I realized as I looked through them, how much God has continued to bless me with a wonderful group of friends.  And He's given me a chance to make some awesome memories, just by living normal life: Christmas party, trip to Bali (yes I realize I just assumed a trip to Bali is normal... but at less than a domestic US flight... we make it happen), teaching ourselves to play ukulele, a birthday dinner, soccer carnival, or simply going into work on a weekend.

 

Thank you Lord for your continued blessing in my life.  I know I haven't done anything to deserve this crazy life You've given me, not the life in college, nor the life in Indonesia.  But I want to take each moment and make the most of it, knowing that each of these good and perfect gifts is from You.