A Letter To My Grandma

My Grandma's birthday is on Wednesday, March 24th. She will be turning 73 years old and to be honest, that scares me to death. To think that my grandma, my sole confidant, my partner in crime, the person who I've come to know as my everything, is turning one year older. And as we grow older, the years we have left are dwindling. For those of you who don't know, my grandma basically raised me. My family has always lived close to her. I don't think there has been a day in my life (besides college) that i hadn't seen my grandmother. And I am grateful for that. I lived with her for 7 years and those were the best seven years of my life. We spent basically every waking hour together.

So this is my letter to my grandma for her 73rd birthday.

Dear Grandma,

Your birthday is here! 73 years old, I know you didn't need me to remind you, or maybe you forgot since you stopped counting. I just wanted to let you know how much I love you. We have always been close and I feel like I am the most privileged person in the world because of my closeness with you. No one in the world means as much as you do to me. You are my everything, grandma. I can tell you anything, we can have conversations about anything and everything. We are so much alike and I feel like I've learned so many of my best traits and skills from you. You are an amazing grandma and you do so much for me. I love you for that and I feel blessed for you to be my grandmother. I couldn't have asked for a better one. Okay, I'm crying so hard right now. I hope the remainder that we have together will be just as great as what we have had already. I know that I wouldn't want it any other way.

I love you always and forever,
Your grandson,
Nathan

Strive Not To Be A Success, But Rather To Be Of Value

A friend and I met for coffee this evening. I hadn’t seen this friend in over a month and a half. It was very nice reconnecting with her, talking about her life and all of what is going on in it. Alyssa is such a caring, sweet person and I’m so glad I came to know her here at Ball State. She landed a Resident Assistant position today for next year in Johnson Hall. I know that she will do so well in the position. She has the energy, the motivation, and the kind attitude it takes to be one. Rock on, Alyssa!

Let’s now get down to the nitty gritty of my blog post. I’m going to list a couple of the many goals I have in life as of now. These are goals within the next year that I will stick to. And heck, they may not even be goals, just guidelines to live by. Anyway, just something I’ve been thinking about.

One thing that keeps crossing my mind is relationships. It doesn’t cross my mind in the aspect that I want one, but just the sense that I am going to make sure not to waste time on one. Basically what I’m saying is that I’ve wasted so much of my life going after someone either not interested in me or someone who does not have the same values as I do. I am not letting myself waste another minute on someone who is not going to benefit me and support me in everything that I do. If I do meet someone, I will take it slow and make sure that we are in sync. We will become friends first and then begin dating if the Lord leads us in that direction.

Another aspect of my life that I’m trying to strengthen is my faith. I know everyone is working on their faith at this point in their lives. And it really never ends. It is a constant challenge. I had a year away from faith. I had no faith during this year of “rebellion” I like to call it. During that year, I got into a lot of bad things. Drinking and doing drugs as well as rebelling against my parents’ wishes were just a few of the many things I had done wrong. I realize now that I did those things because I had no relationship with God. God was telling me that those things were wrong to do, but I shut him out. I wouldn’t listen to him. My faith had disappeared. Well, within this next year, I am trying to focus my attention to my faith. God is the most important relationship you can have in life and strengthening my relationship with Him is taking priority.

More to come…