No one ever said that the road to the top would be easy. No one ever said how hard it would be either. College is a journey that can take many twists and turns. Sometimes it can go great for one semester, and maybe even greater the next, and then sometimes one semester can take a total detour and you wind up on a road you never imagined you would end up on.
But despite what you encounter along your journey whether good or bad, and whether you were happy one moment, or sad the next, remember to keep pressing on towards your goal. It is not always about how you start, or even about what you endure along the way, but about how you finish at the end.
Along the journey to the path of your dreams, remember to enjoy the big and the little things, stop to enjoy a breath of fresh air, love yourself everyday, and always keep in mind that neither success nor failure is final.
~Do your best this semester, and only you know what your best is~
Trying to go throughout each day without a sufficient amount of rest is like trying to drive a car with little to no gas in it; you won’t get very far and you’ll end up destroying the engine in due time.
Rest is the most important thing that every individual must not neglect. Often times many of us, myself included, think of rest as a reward or as something that we should do only if we’ve finished all that needs to be done. But resting each day is something that no one should consider a treat, but rather an every day obligation.
Rest—a periodorintervalofinactivity,repose,solitude,ortranquility—is the curtailment of energy expenditures that allows the body to redirect energies to restoration.
Genesis 2: 2-3
~ By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.~
Has anyone ever asked you this question: Who are you?
What did you say?
When I was recently asked this question, my answer went something like this:
“My name is Raenika Ashley Butler, I am junior at San Francisco State University. I am studying Psychology and after I receive my BA degree, I hope to attend grad school here in the Gerontology program. I have a fraternal twin, a younger brother who's nineteen, and an older sister who's twenty-six….” And so on and so forth I went.
Once I had finished telling the person who I was, I realized that I hadn’t really explained who I was, and that I had only told the person what it is that I do, what I hope to do in the future, and how many siblings I have. I never really told them who I was.
Honestly, the question who are you is a tough question to answer, because the first things that often times come to mind are evolved around the social constructs-- school, work, and family-- that shape our lives.
For instance, many of us have been students for at least fourteen years. So many of us might begin answering the question by describing ourselves as students or as accountants, or psychologists, or biologists, even though a student, or an accountant, or a psychologist, or a biologist is not exactly who we are.
Taking a second shot at the question after deeper thought, my answer went something more like this:
My name is Raenika Ashley Butler. I am a sweet, loving and caring, goofy, strong-willed, and sensitive young woman. I am a simple gal and I enjoy simple things in life. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the center of my being and it is in Him that I live, move, and breath. I am a great friend to those that call me a friend. I am a great listener, and I can talk until the end of time, though I can also be quiet for hours. I desire to make a positive difference in someone’s life, even if the only thing that I do is make someone smile. This is who I am.
I now invite you to join me in defining who you are outside of the social constructs that we live in by leaving a comment below answering the question: Who are you?
