Ch-ch-ch-changes

Okay, so I meant to blog a few days ago when this happened, but I have been having too much fun hanging with the fam and the kiddos, but thank goodness because something happened last night that just reaffirmed this whole situation/concept. So, on the long flight back home, I was thinking a lot about how much I have changed in the short two years I have been out of high school and away at school on my own. Not to sound all "Yahoo!! go me" but I feel like I have grown up and matured so much in the past 2 years. When I think about the way/person I was in high school, I keep asking myself, "What the heck?!?!" "Why did I care? or Why did I spend so much time worrying about that? or WHY did I waste my time hanging around those people?!" Don't get me wrong, high school was fun and stuff, but it wasn't EVERYTHING! Of course, at the time, high school was everything and was my entire life, and I couldn't see past that and see the BIG picture. Being at school, college is way better and high school is so miniscule in the big picture of my life. High school isn't everything and honestly, NO ONE cares what you were like in high school. I wasted a lot of time worrying about things back then that was a big fat waste of my time.
I am so glad I moved away and went to college though! I was able to start fresh and make a new beginning with people who knew nothing about me, about the mistakes I made, about the person I was in high school. I think about all the amazing people I have met in Idaho and all the great friendships that I have been able to form and I would not have been able to do that here in Iowa.
SOOOO, the experience I had that totally made this even more apparent to me was, last night, I went to dinner with some friends from high school and as we were talking, I was thinking, "Thank goodness I have learned the lessons I have learned in the last 2 years, because you clearly have yet to learn them." Don't get me wrong, I love these guys but they are still kind of caught up in high school and the high school drama--partying, barely getting an education, still hanging out with the same people they spent all 4 years of high school with, and not really moving on. And, I realized, we really do not have much in common anymore. I moved away and completely changed who I was. I have achieved things, made new friends, tried new things, actually gained a testimony of the church and most importantly, in the process, found myself and found the person I want to be. I didn't want to be and I am not going to be, the person at our 10 year or 20 year class reunion still thinking we are still teenagers living at Nevada High School.
I am so glad, i have been able to find the person I want to be; have been able to become independent and really just rely on ME and learn so many new things about myself. I am so incredibly grateful that I was able to go so far away to school (even though it was suuuuppper hard, and I hated it at first), but I was able to start fresh with people who didn't know what a, in my opinion, not great person I was in high school. I really have come out of my little 'shell' the past year and become comfortable with the person I am and have realized the potential that I have to do great things. I have discovered who my true friends are and who I can really rely on when I need it.