You're off to Great Places! Today is your day!

Today is a day that I have been waiting for for nearly six years. Today I begin my Mission Training Workshop {If you're new/behind, search Operation Smile on my blog, and you'll be allllll caught up}, and will know my destination for my life-changing mission before the weekend is over.

I can't believe it's here.

I've pulled myself up by my bootstraps, fought for this day over and over and over again, daydreamed about this, watched it slip just out of my grasp twice, but you know, they do say third times the charm, prayed for, hoped for, worked for every day since I realized my dream as a young eighth grader, a new member of our school club. I knew that's what I wanted to do before I was done with high school, and I was going to do whatever it took. There have been mountains, molehills, speed bumps, flat tires and every analogy you can name along the way. There were so many times I wanted to give up; let it just fly out the window, say 'oh, well, it's someone else's dream, not mine'.  Every time I wanted to give up, I suppose the Divine Order just prodded me and said one more time, you're not at the end of this road, yet. So I did. And failed a little bit more, but if you add up all the little failures, the dejection, it was just a lesson, and God saying "just not right now". This whole, confusing, complicated process has taught me so much. How to lose, how to accept losing, accepting failure, keeping the faith, trying it one more time, putting 115% effort and then some always pays off, and putting the little pieces together to make the masterpiece. 

As my dear Ronald Reagan said, “My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win.”

Today is my day, and I'm going to sit back and watch my dream unfold, all weekend long.

I'll be back on Monday!

xoxo,

Royar

{The Young Southern Prep}