Growing Pains (Thanks Phe... ;)

By popular demand I have returned to my blog and posted yet another blurb about my take on the flavor of life.

I have found that there is one incredible aspect of life that is undeniably the most pleasant and painful concept known to man. It's times like these that we learn from our mistakes and gain extremely useful knowledge and life skills. Progression is often described as "bitter-sweet" because as we grow up we are forced to leave our comfortable environment and enter into a new frontier. By progression I mean the concept of growing up, getting older, moving on, taking on new challenges and learning new skills.

From my experience, these changes in our life are often scary and at times even unwanted. however, I have found that they are always beneficial in one way or another. In my life I have had a few of these "life changes experiences" one right after another. I have been growing up lately and its been happening fast.

I left on my mission in November of 2007 and I was in for the ride of my life. I was on my own in a foreign country learning how to get along with people and do my job. I was also expected to learn another language (something I have never even attempted to do before). It was easily the hardest thing I have yet done but also the most rewarding. I grew up in ways beyond explanation. I learned to love, study, support, and think for myself. I learned to micromanage different aspects of my own life from finances to love to my spiritual progression. These lessons are priceless and will be applicable for the duration of my life and further, through the lessons I will teach my children and will be carried on through them.

Now, I have been home just over six months and I am still growing up. I am still making mistakes and learning. I am currently engaged to be married on the 2nd of July, 2010 and I hope I can explain my feelings about this without making it sound like I am not excited. I am so very excited. I have been lucky enough to have won the heart of the love of my life. Paige and I have been through many of these experiences of which I have spoken in this post but, as with each and every one of us and our personal stories, these experiences have made us stronger. As the wedding draws nearer, I am slowly realizing the amount of "growing up" that will be required of me once I have a beautiful wife at my side. This scares me. I know I will be able to do it and that I will learn a great deal but that fear still looms.

The moral of this post is simple. When life gives you lemons... Make lemonade. Look for the good in every situation cause it always exists, I promise. And when you wouldn't catogorize something as a lemon (like my wedding), be excited and confidant that you can accomplish the task before you. keep your knees down and your chin up. all will be well.

Colton