Stepping Forward into Growth

Sunrise
2015
Acrylic Paint

Stepping Forward into Growth

I have been trying to be a lot more brave recently. I've been trying to do things that push me outside of my comfort zone, and if I'm being honest, it's freaking scary!

I really love this quote by Abraham Maslow: 
"You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety."

I've been putting myself out there trying to do things I am passionate about, and it's hard. There is always the fear of failure, and that other people won't love what I love. But in the end, it's important to keep trying to move forward. Nothing ever happened by sitting still. 

This picture for this post is the sunrise on the way to my high school. This is the place where I met one of my very best friends, and we have now been friends for 7 years. I once heard that if you are friends with someone for 7 years, then you will be friends for life, and that is okay with me! She has been with me through thick and thin. We spent high school together, nerding out over Marvel, Sherlock, and Merlin, and honestly, we still nerd out over those things.

After we graduated together, we became roommates up at Utah State University. That was a blast! There were several occasions when we were together in the apartment, just us, and we would talk about something funny, and go into full on laughing fits. One thing after another would make us gasp for breath as we laughed, and most of the time, the thing we thought was funny made no sense, and likely wasn't funny to anyone else had they walked in the room. 

My bestie then went on a mission, the longest year and a half of my life! I am super proud of her and all she did there. We would email back and forth, and I would keep her up to date on all that was going on in my life and get the hear about her awesome experiences.

Then she came home!! Finally! I got to consistently talk to her, and then she moved back into town. I got her hooked on watching the Bachelor with me, and now she comes over every week to watch the drama. We joke around that we make Nate feel like the third wheel around us.

My friend makes me brave. She sets such a great example of bravery, and whenever I talk to her about the things I want to do, she always encourages me to do it. She supports me, and we can talk about literally anything. She always helps me, no matter what. 

I was definitely blessed to have met my best friend. Sometimes I think about what might have happened had we ran in different circles in high school, or had either of us wound up at a different high school. Or what if we hadn't become roommates? It's wild to me. I know the Lord was watching out for me when he led us in high school to meet each other and become besties. 

I have been fortunate enough to have a few of these amazing, supportive friends throughout my life. I grew up with two of them, both of which lived down the street from me at one point or another. They are basically family.

I met another lifelong friend about two years ago. I had applied to a job I really didn't know much about. I was just applying to as many jobs as I could. Life at that time was crazy, with getting married, family members with sudden health problems, moving, etc. But this future-friend stuck with me and kept in contact to have me interview. Two years later, she is one of the greatest, most supportive friends I have.

 I really do have some amazing people in my life. I have been so blessed by all the weird circumstances that have let me to these people.

When I was in junior high, I thought that there was no way that I would be able to handle high school. It was too scary, and too hard. Then high school came around, and it became less hard. It even became normal. But I thought, college is way scary. It'll be so rough, and there would be so much discomfort in that growing process. But guess what, I survived, and even loved, that too. It became normal. When we keep pushing ourselves, the hard and scary stuff becomes our new normal and we can keep growing. 

In the spirit of trying to be brave and go outside of my comfort zone and grow, I started this blog. Though I don't post a lot, it has become less scary and more normal. So I've started trying to push myself some more. I have been starting to look into what it would take to make prints of my art to sell someday. I applied to have my art hung up in a local restaurant for people to see and possibly purchase. I have started an Etsy account, and though it's a slow process, I hope to get my art up for purchase on there as well. 

Like that Chinese proverb says:

"Be not afraid of growing slowly, 

be afraid only of standing still."