IN 25 Years....

With my 25th Birthday today, it has me reflective on my life thus far and my life yet to come.........

It all began while I was in high school. I started to work towards my goal of becoming a veterinarian. I was in a school program called YAP, Youth Apprenticeship Program. I was able to be in this program for the last two semesters of my high school career. Each of those semesters I was able to spend the time I would have spent in a classroom at a veterinary clinic. Because I was in this program for two semesters, I was able to shadow at two different veterinary offices. I graduate in the top 50 of my class in May 2004. In August of 2004, I started my first semester of college at ABAC in Tifton, GA(Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College). During this semester, my grandfather passed away. This is was really hard on my family and me.( This was four years after my other grandfather and my great-grandmother had passed away when I was a freshmen in high school) I was really close to my grandfather so hard to be away from home during the healing time. I just got some resolve that I wanted to make him proud and reach my goal. In Jan 2005, a month after my grandfather passed, my brother got married to the coolest sister-in-law anyone could ask for in life. So, I had alot of emotional and spiritual things to deal with during the next year while I lived away from home. In May 2006, I finished my last semester at ABAC and moved back home. I got my A.S. in Veterinary Medicine that month too. In August 2006, I started VSU(Valdosta State University) and I got a part-time job at a local veterinarian's office as a kennel tech. I was really excited to be getting experience that I knew would help me in my future goals. I spent the next two years working and going to school. I spent alot time working and studying and not alot of time hanging out with my friends. I was able to develop some friendships during that time. In March 2008, my first niece, Stevie was born. I was so happy to be able to be at the hospital to welcome her into this world. In August 2008, I submitted my application to VMCAS(veterinary medical college application services) to six different veterinary schools. In Dec 2008, I graduated with my B.S in biology and I also got my first rejection from one of the schools I applied to. Over the next few months, I continued to work part-time and waited to hear the news from the rest of the schools I applied to. Slowly over the course of about 3-4 months, I got my notifications from the remaining schools. I got wait listed for one and the last four I got rejected from. This last rejection letter came in March 2009 from UGA. I took it really hard. The door to my life's dream was shut and I didn't know what I was doing to do with my life. I had planned my life out, but I had not let God plan it out. I was in just a broken and shattered state. I remember after I read the UGA letter, I tore it into pieces. My dad hugged me for little while, and I went upstairs and cried on my bed for the next several hours. I keep asking God why He would do this to me, why He would close this door after I had worked for so long and so hard. I received that letter on a saturday and I was not able to verbalize to anyone what it said until monday when I told my mom. I scribbled it on a note and slipped it to my then boss when I was leaving work that monday. I knew she would let everyone at the office know since I wasn't at a place to tell anyone yet. It took a few days for the shock of everything to sink in. The devil was kicking hard and kept bombarding me with thought like I had let everyone down, that I was less of person, I was not good enough. I was ashamed and embarrassed. God brought to my attention to scenes from the movie Facing the Giants, The first is when the head coach asks his wife in the field where he is reading his bible, if she would still love God even if God doesn't give her any children. And the second scene is a little later in the movie, when she comes out of the doctor's office after hearing some bad news, she leans over the truck and tells God that she would still love Him. My spirit didn't want to give up on God, but my flesh sure did. I thought of some options that I could do, I could stay at my current part-time job and wait until the next year and apply again. I could just quit everything and abandon my dreams and goals that I had worked so long and hard towards obtaining, or I could just trust God and know that everything was going to be okay. On my day off the week after I received the letter, I went out for a walk which at that time I didnt really do regularly. God and I had a long conversation and I cried for most of time. Finally, I told God that I would still love him even if I never got into vet school. When I got back inside, my mom sat with me and we talked for awhile. After some more talks with my parents and lots of prayer, I started looking around for vet tech schools to begin applying. I started doing some research and emailing different schools. Most of the schools all told me the same thing that their application deadlines had passed for that year and that I would need to wait and reapply the following year. After a few days of searching, God placed in on my heart to look for schools in Colorado. I contacted several schools that I found. The next day I got an email back from an admission advisor here at Bel-Rea. She told me that I met and exceeded all the qualifications for enrollment, and that the deadlines for applications had not passed. I still had time to get all my application into the school. She sent me an application package in the mail. So, the next few days I got all my transcripts, essays, and all my other papers together. I went ahead and mailed them off to her and waited for the application package. I got in about a week later. I filled it out and mailed it off to the school the next day. Once she received it, she sent me a email telling me that I unofficially accepted into the school and that the she was waiting for officially confirmation. A few days later, I got a phone call from her telling me that I was officially accepted in the school. I was so excited! I hung up the phone and started dancing around. Luckily, I was housesitting for some family friends so no one saw me looking like a happy fool. I immediately called my parents who were out-of-town for some conference. I told them the news. I talked to them for while. I hung up the phone with them and immediately called my work. I told my coworker who answered the phone(It was a small office so everyone knew everyone else and at this point I had been employed there for almost 3 years). She was excited, and by the time I got into work that afternoon everyone at the office knew my good news. So I spent April 2009 getting ready to move across the country- finding a place to live, figuring out what I needed to bring, trying to look for a church etc. In that month, I got a letter from Bel-Rea telling me that they had a record number of applicants for the Fall 2009 in which I was planning to enroll. The letter asked for any applicants that if they could move to the summer 2009 start date, but the school had to know by April 30. I told me parents and they said that if I could find a place to live that it was okay with them. So, I went into a search for anything I could find. In a few days, I found a house in Aurora that owners rented out the rooms. I show it to my parents who thought it was ok. I contacted the owners and I had the room. I contacted the school and moved up my plans by three months. In May/June 2009, I spent my time working, packing, and saying goodbye to friends, family, and coworkers. The second week of June 2009, my parents and I cramped into my grandmother's minivan that I had packed full and set off to CO. It was hard to be so far away from home with no family, no friends, and no car. Luckily, my aunt was visiting some of her in-laws here in Denver the week after I moved here. I was able to spend time with her and see different sites of Denver. At the end of June 2009, I started my first quarter at Bel-Rea, because of all the education I already had I was able to skip about five classes and take second quarter classes. From June until August 2009, I got back into the routine of doing schoolwork and studying and adjusting to the quarter system from the semester system. I got to know some people at school. I was having trouble finding a church and all of the places I checked out just didn't really "click." I found one, and I went there for about a month or so since it was the only place I really could get to from my house on the bus. After that, I started going to another church that was over a hour bus ride from my house. I went there for about a month or so too. I went to their college group for a couple of weeks. At the end of August 2009, I started my second quarter here at school. At the end of Oct 2009, I was able to get a car. I was so happy to have the freedom of a car again! So from August 2009- Dec 2009 I worked on my second quarter. I checked out a new church right before I left for christmas in dec. It clicked! Once, I got back in Jan 2010, I checked out a college aged small group. Fast forward to Nov 2010, I was working on my 7th quarter here at Bel-Rea. In Dec 2010, I took my biggest test up to that point-my CPE(clinical profiency exam). Although, the test was pass or fail, I had to make a 70 or greater to pass. This test was an cumulation of everything I learned at Bel-Rea. If I didn't pass, I would have to repeat the latest quarter completely over and take the CPE over once more. If you didn't pass on the second go around, you weer dismissed from the program and could never re-apply. So, albeit, I was really nervous going into the test. I knew I that I understand the material, but I was scard that my nerves would get the better of me and I would miss read a question or misspell something. So the day of the test came on a thrusday, I woke up around 3 or 4 in the morning, I couldn't go back to sleep. I studied some more and make sure I had all my paperwork together. Then about 7 or so, I got ready to go to the school. The tests started at 9am. I had to be there at 8am. We had about two breaks during the tests after we got done with the first two rooms. I finally got done around 1 or 2pm. I went to my car and called my parents, my grandmother, and a few of my friends. I waited for a few hours on campus for the grades to be posted. Finally, they got posted! All, I had to make was a 70. I wanted a 90 so bad jsut so I could say I made an A on the CPE. Well, I made an 88. Two points shy! It still gets me that i was two points away from my goal. But I passed and that was all that mattered! I went out later on that evening with some friends. I was in a state of euphoria. I had done it and I had finished all the class work with a 4.0! In Jan 2011, I started by 10 week internship rotation at Kipling Veterinary Hospital in Lakewood, CO. I had a pretty rough schedule because not only was I at my intern site for 40 hours a week, but I also worked a my job at Special Friends Veterinary Clinic two nights a week for 3 hours. For two nights a week, I left my place around 6am and I returned around 11pm-12am. My fellow intern and I swayed schedules mid-way through the 10-week. After the swap, I had wednesdays and thrusday mornings off. I was so grateful for that. I could rest. My wallet also took a big cut during this time. I learned quickly how to have a budget and stick to it. I lived on about 90 dollars every two weeks. I would get so excited when I got exra money from different places because that meant I could go to the grocery store. I didn't love living like that, but it has helped me learn many things. During that 10-weeks, I started applying for a job after graduation. I started looking around Denver, then expanded to the whole state of CO, and then finally to other states. I saw on ad on the CACVT website(CO Association of CVTs) for a tech position in Anchorage, AK. I first thought no way, but God pressed on my spirit to apply. So I did, and through the next few weeks I apply to other places as well, I stayed in comunciation with the people from AK. In March 14 2011, I graduated from Bel-Rea. My parents came out to Denver for the weekend, we got to go do some fun things around Denver. Then, I found out about on March 17, that I had been accepted for the position in AK. I had about 2 weeks to get everything together so that I could get up here to get to work. I had to sell my car, get plane tickets, get packed up, sell/donate/throw away anything that I was not taking with me, and find a place to live. On March 31, I left CO and headed here to AK. I arrived here on April 1, 2011. I started working on April 5, 2011.  It was been a wild ride. I would have never imagined where my life has taken me. Here, I am 25, with a great job and a great apartment. I am still saving money for my own car. I have found one great church that meets in a the pastors house and it is really good. In the last 2 weeks, I have found another church that is about a 3min walk away. Graham and I have been to one of there generation meeting. I really liked it, even though these meetings invite people from middle aged kids to college age young adults. I have been in contact with the pastor involved, He has told me that this church plans on splitting the college-age group into there separate group this fall. I have been to two sunday services and I liked them as well. I am happy where I am and I am excited to see what God has for me in the future.