Stroke of Genius

FINALLY!!! I have a time to update my blog! I felt that it had become kind of useless since I had only 4 posts, and hadn't posted in over a month, but things got so crazy.
College, while fun, is super hard. Homework, projects, realizing you're not doing well in classes and stressing out, drama, stressing out more, finals, and packing up to go home? ....it's enough to just endure it all, let alone continue to have a social life along side it. Yet we all manage it somehow :)

Speaking of which - I just finished my first year of college! I can't even believe it! It's so weird to think that only 8 months ago, I was coming to BYU as a bright-eyed freshman, or that it was once super awkward between my roommates. And now, I am incredibly sad to leave them, and I can't wait to come back to BYU in the fall so that I can live with them in our new apartment that I am beyond excited to live in! I almost want these next 4 months of summer break to go by quickly... but I am still looking forward to not having classes and spending time with my family and some good high school buddies.

I have changed so much, grown a lot, and learned so many things over the past year. I hope that I remember all the great experiences I've had as a freshman. I absolutely love it. When I was talking with my sister the other day, I was complaining to her about the great stresses at college and how she should be grateful that high school is so easy. She groaned at how I was saying that it only just gets harder, especially since she's already so stressed in high school. But I could at least comfort her and say that while college is harder, it is so much more rewarding, and a million times more fun!

Anyway, so one thing that I really wanted to say - and I thought this was pretty profound. So I was in the kitchen today with a roommate as we were packing up all of our dishes and other things and she ran into an issue with finding a space for something. Then she got all excited, exclaiming that she had a "stroke of genius". She went on to do this thing, and then in the middle of it all...she realized that it may not have been the best idea after all. Then, kind of jokingly, I told her,

"Well, when they say you have a stroke of genius, it's not the entire masterpiece - it's just a stroke!"

She kind of chuckled...and then there was a silence. As I pondered what I had just said, my roommate asked me, "Wait...did you just come up with that right now?" And I had. And the more I thought about it, the more profound it seemed. I was actually pretty proud of myself!

If you really do think about it, a stroke of genius is just one small act in the larger picture. You don't make yourself on one single, large, great act. Our lives, our masterpieces are made up of thousands of small, seemingly insignificant strokes of a paintbrush. And really, while the larger strokes seem to get the job done faster, it's the smaller, more subtle strokes that make a painting more interesting, more intricate, and more beautiful. It's like my roommates that I am so sad to be leaving. They have helped me but more stokes on my canvas, and my life is so much more interesting because of it.

So when you are sad that you're making mistakes, and all of your seemingly great ideas seem to go downhill, just remember that you're giving texture to your great and grand masterpiece. And if you're despairing that you haven't had any strokes of genius yet, you haven't been giving yourself enough credit.

And that is my stroke of genius for the day :)
Hopefully I'll keeping my blog updated now.