W14 Reflection: Entrepreneurial Journal Final Blog

 Celebrate Your Life

Life has so many ups and downs, that's what it was designed to do.

I always thought of life as a fairy tail. I grow up on fairy tail stories and movies where there are adventures, trials, and triumphs at the end. I am an eternal optimist. I have lived hard times but was never left without. I grew up in and out of doctors offices and hospitals but miracles happen and I am able to life a healthy, happy life. I had easy pregnancies but hard deliveries and big babies but they were healthy and I was blessed through it all. I have had more surgeries than I want to name but I was given another chance at life and able to live with no major setbacks. I was able to go to college but never finished because of life decisions keeping me from that step. I went to New York for school on pure faith at 19-20yrs old and became a teacher to 35 children. I loved it but what I wanted more than anything was to be a mother and stay home with them to teach them. I was blessed to do that but through the 14+ years that choice has cost us a lot of days where money has been tight and we have been humbled in many ways. I am still in this situation. Life has not been easy but looking back at everything I have faced, I can see the hand of the Lord, blessings, miracles, triumphs, victories, guidance, friends, family, testimony building, and so much love that I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

New Adventures

Now I am taking a step into a new adventure of so many unforeseen possibilities. I am ending the era of having all our children living with us full time. I am trying to understand adult children and being their for them. I am graduating finally with a degree after years of study and work. I am trying to find my place outside of the home and into a world I really don't understand or want to be in but know it will benefit me and my family's future if I have a job/career. I have been blessed beyond my own words because I am able to be the person I am today. I am trying to understand my path and the place I need to be in right now. 

Finishers Wanted

I really found solace in this talk from Thomas S Monson, 1986. I do like finish work. Its the details that matter or make the project complete. I value a good hard days work but love the finished product of that days work. I like to be the finisher in everything I do. My dad is a framer. He makes the unseen part of the house good and sturdy. My mom always has been the finisher in all the houses he built. She would pay attention to the details, together they make a great team. I have learned that being a finisher is what people want and remember. In the talk he refers to a sign that said, "Finishers Wanted" I got from his words. Do you falter or finish the tasks of your life? Life will be hard, there will be things that come into our lives that will tempt us and discourage us, will you choose to finish to the end or falter?

"Times change and circumstances vary, but the true marks of a finisher remain. Note them well, for they are vital to our success."

1. The mark of vision
2. the mark of effort
3. the mark of faith
4. the mark of virtue
5. the mark of courage
6. the mark of prayer

Its not what you have but how you life your life that matters.

My final lecture

I know that education is important and has been said that it is a commandment of the Lord to learn all that you can while on this earth. I know that through my learning for this degree that I have been blessed with abilities I never know I was capable of having. I am grateful for the knowledge I learned from the studies, teachers, peer groups, and the spirit as I embarked on this journey of higher education. I would like to share that it is never too late to go back to school to gain an education. It is not an easy task but it is so worth it to learn things that you never knew or never thought was possible. I still don't know what my future will bring but as I keep moving forward in faith I know the Lord will bless me with what I was meant to become, in a way that only He knows best. I know that as we take that leap of faith to better improve ourselves we will find ourselves in the process, we will teach others, and we will understand things about ourselves that we never knew was possible. I know that I was inspired to return back to gain my higher education. I know that I will be able to bless others because of what I have learned. I know that with God, all things are possible if we just try.