Those of you who know my journey know that this year has been a year of many great milestones and achievements. So far in the past 7 months I have: celebrated a milestone birthday (25), I have achieved one year free from self injury, I have turned my life around and chosen a life where I live clean and sober, I have completed my training with IMALIVE and become a certified volunteer, and now I have one more great milestone to add to the list!
I am OFFICIALLY a registered GRADUATE student at LIBERTY UNIVERSITY where i will be pursuing my Masters in Professional Counseling.
I am literally in awe at the turns my life has taken. I really don’t have the words to say what it is I am feeling in my heart, because I am frankly feeling so much.
When I entered college for the first time, my plan was very different. I had no dreams, no visions of the future. I knew I wanted to do something great…i just couldn’t put my finger on it. But, I was more concerned with trying to get through the day, than planning for a future. I was struggling with a depression that would grow so severe that i contemplated suicide my second year in college. Even in the midst of that depression, and a severe addiction to self injury…someone believed in my story, and my ability to overcome my circumstances. I remember hearing the story of To Write Love on Her Arms, and seeing the posters for the Overnight walks. and thinking deep deep down inside…that if i ever got better, maybe I could one day do something to help someone else. But even though I thought about it….i never really believed it. I silently believed that I would always be that broken shell of a person….
Until one day, I wrote a paper, and I told my story. You never know how much a few words can change a persons life. I had ONE professor who believed in me, even in the midst of my struggle, and told me I had the ability to be a great counselor one day. That statement made me re think my career path, embrace the calling that had been placed on my life, and gave me the courage to believe in myself. It was like the floodgates opened opened up, and I felt the passion to help people just flood through. I stopped thinking of myself as a broken person who wouldn’t amount to anything, and I believed for the first time that it was part of a bigger plan.
I sit here reading essays and papers from college and all my counseling classes, and though I have changed a lot over the last 7 years….one thing hasn’t. My heart still breaks for the broken, and I want to be that person whose story can bring light into a dark place. I continue to have hard times, but I know now that its all part of the process and part of my testimony.
I just want to tell you all out there… encourage one another, believe in one another, and support one another. You have no idea how your words can impact another’s life in such a positive way. By encouraging one another, we allow ourselves to become the catalyst in someones life. Sometimes a person just needs to know that they are loved unconditionally not only by God but by the friends and family He has surround them with. Sometimes a person needs to be reminded that they are special and beautiful in God’s sight. Sometimes a person just needs to know that someone believes in them…before they can begin to believe in themselves.
I have been blessed by so many people who have allowed themselves to be used by God, and they have become such important parts of my story.
My life is changing in so many ways, and though the way I got here, I would have never chosen, but I embrace where it is taking me . Before me is a world of possibilities. And I am free to explore the horizons.