This is a first

Well, I never thought I'd get a blog...yet here I am. Maybe I have something to say, maybe I want someone to hear. I heard a saying once that you never really know a person until you have walked a mile (or some other long distance) in their shoes. So here you go, a walk in my shoes.

Maybe some of you know this about me, but I keep a notebook in my room and whenever I come across a good poem or quote I try to write it down. Sometimes I'll go back through and no matter what I'm feeling, I can find something to fit my mood. Today, this really caught my attention: "You were only given this life because you're strong enough to live it." There are so many times when I feel like I'm being tested beyond my limit. I see other people excel where I feel like I'm failing and it just doesn't seem fair. Yet somehow I manage to get through things. Many times it's not with bumps or bruises (metaphorically speaking anyway), yet I make it nonetheless. Now I'm starting to realize that sometimes the best lessons are learned after situations that may have seemed like the worst. I don't think God gives us situations that we can't handle, and He's always there to help if we ask for guidance. It's just that a lot of times we don't ask, or we think we can handle things on our own. I think I've really learned that over the past year. There's nothing wrong with asking for help.

John Donne might have said it best, but "no man is an island, entire of itself." So that means no matter how much I may want to shut myself off from everyone and become a hermit, it probably goes against my nature as a human being. We're meant to be social. We're meant to help each other; to celebrate the good times and cry during the bad. Trust me, I know it can be hard. If there was a medicine to treat shyness, I would be first in line. But sometimes the most rewarding experience can be opening up to someone and finding something you never knew was there. Try it. You might have been led to that person for a reason. Maybe they have exactly what you need to make it through whatever you're facing.