right now

i am not who i was growing up in new jersey.

i am not the person i was living in ohio.

i am not the same person who lived in new jersey the last two years.

i have been a different person since living in new york the last month and then some.

i could be on the verge of someone new, right now, at this very moment.

all me, and yet... not me.

the crazy and sweet thing about life is that it offers us second chances, opportunities to start over, moments of growth and change, seasons. a lot of my different me's have been attached to locations, but i think more often it is a choice of the mind and heart, as well as Who or what you surrender yourself to, that allows us to explore new parts of ourselves.

i've struggled for some time as my life has seemed so hard to live in, but i find hope in the fact that seasons end, and new ones begin. i find strength in the fact that i can control my thoughts, the way i see and think about the world and my life and am privileged to know the mind of the One whose thoughts are so much higher and greater than my own. i find encouragement that i am able to look back at other times in my life and feel gratitude for the way that they have shaped me; that this time, too, will make me who i am. 

embrace it, kid. face the challenges, be creative in solutions, and don't stop loving people. oh yeah, and don't. run. away.