Friends

Today, I reconnected with several old friends. And it was the best. I just love the excitement of reunions with people you haven't seen in ages!

I saw that your true friends are the ones you can be separated from for months and still get together with and everything seems the exact same as the day you left. You can laugh and reminisce and nothing seems to have changed. Those are the keepers.

That's what I'm realizing on my first trip home from college. I'm drifting away from the friends that weren't my close friends and I'm finding myself even closer to others, despite thousands of miles and multiple months. And even though it's sad moving on, I understand that these friendships and relationships are part of my story. They have been placed in my life for a reason, and all of them have taught me something different about myself. As life is changing, and new chapters begin, I can appreciate the moments for what they were and move on. A new chapter has begun. Some of the people from the past will continue to be written into my story, but I'm letting others stay in the past.

Today, I got a glimpse into my past. And I'm choosing to take some friendships with me and let other ones go.

Meg

Giving Thanks

What a day! Stuffed tummy full of Thanksgiving essentials (including my mom's signature crumble top apple pie?): check. Laughing with family until I literally cried: check. Extreme thankfulness at the end of this day for everything I have: double check.

My journey from one coast to another brought not only a big time difference adjustment (try being ready for dinner at 9pm...) but also a significant change in temperature. I'll admit it; three months in a warm fall/winter climate makes returning to the cold pretty difficult to adjust to. And, while I'm complaining, I'd also like to state that if I have to come home to cold weather, at least put a little snow on the ground! Icy rain junk for two days makes me feel like I belong in Seattle.

Nevertheless, being home is amazing. Not only is there no swipe of my meal card necessary to get into the fridge, but I also don't have to wear shower shoes in the bathroom! Crazy, right?! It's amazing what college does to you. As much as I love it, I can honestly say it is so nice being home. Free laundry, reunions with friends and family, and even a car!

Today, naturally being Thanksgiving, I realized more fully just how thankful I am to be home. I have missed my family so much and having everyone together again was the best thing ever! I loved crowding into the kitchen cooking and baking with my family, snuggling up next to the fire for Psych and Kung Fu Panda, and just catching up with my family. Thankful? Absolutely. I still can't believe how lucky I am to have them for my family.

And so my story goes. Memories, like my sister throwing lima beans and them sticking on my eyelids onThanksgiving 2010, are being written into my story each and every day. I'm so very thankful for the new ones that just keep being added. Even though the journey home was a bit lengthy, I wouldn't trade being home with my family on Thanksgiving for anything.

I'm thankful for a beautiful place to call home. I'm blessed and oh so thankful for a family that laughs at my goofiness and loves me regardless. I might even be thankful for this gross weather...it means I'm home, right?!

Meg

THE RETURN!

Well, here it is.

Meghan’s official return to the blogging world. No, I did not die. Yes, I do have a list of pretty impressive excuses for why I have been MIA for so long. Ready for just a few of them? I thought so.

I got busy.

…Isn’t that such a good excuse? I love using that one because it is universally accepted as the lamest possible excuse for anything in the world. I was BUSY?! Who ISN’T busy? Do I actually believe that I am so much busier than everyone else in the world? I’m embarrassed to even write that phrase because it really just boils down to one word: laziness. Since I’m on such a roll here, I’ll throw out another one just for kicks.

I ran out of things to write about.

Um, false. Have you talked to me in person lately? It is impossible for me to ever run out of things to say. I talk entirely too much. My brain is constantly going, even when I’m sleeping (don’t believe me? Ask my roommate about the creepy conversations I have in my sleep!). Even I don’t believe myself when I say this excuse. The day I legitimately run out of things to say is the day you should be very worried (or extremely relieved, because chances are that day will be the one I die) about me.

I could continue on this rant of thrilling excuses, but I’ll spare you the boredom. Maybe I should just pitch all of the excuses and just admit my failure to be a dedicated blogger and start over fresh. I was getting bored of the way I was blogging before, so maybe it’s time for a revamp of my goal of blogging and begin anew.

SO. Here it goes.

I guess the thing that inspired my return to the blogosphere was the reread I’ve been doing of Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It seems to be my plane reading material…it got me through a 14-hour flight to Korea, and now it’s getting me through a red eye home from college for Thanksgiving. The book is one of my favorites, and I just love the premise of the book. Miller is such a creative and interesting writer, and even though a book written about stories seems like a bore, it is presented in such an interesting way I just love reading it over and over again.

The book talks mainly about how our lives, whether we realize it or not, are stories that other people are witnessing. All the things we choose to do add pages to our story, good or bad. Who knows if that actually sounds interesting to you, but it certainly is for me. I’m not going to spend time explaining the rest of the book, since I really think everyone should pick it up and read it for themselves. But the chapter I just finished and a conversation I just had with a friend really made me stop and think about the story I’m telling with my life. And Miller sums up what I’ve been feeling so well when he says, “Every life is a story. Whether it is a story worth telling and talking about, though, is up to you. People set out with grand dreams of changing the world, falling in love, doing something amazing. But the drift toward the merely acceptable happens almost without notice.”

You know. The life of just getting by. Making it to the weekend. Passing life, but not really living it. I just cannot stand the idea of doing this with my own life.

So this blog is my way of keeping myself accountable for the life I’m choosing to live to the fullest. By capturing the memories and big ideas in this blog, I hope to see my life come even more alive. I hope my story will get bigger and better with each day I live.

Everybody has a story. What’s yours?