Enjoy the Grit

Today I’m grateful for God’s timing. Too many times I’ve judged my success by how quickly I could check something off my to-do-list (I.e graduating with my bachelors at 20). But the problem with that is sometimes I completely forgot to enjoy the journey or thought something wasn’t worth doing because I didn’t meet my goal. How more wrong could I have been?

So many of my best adventures have come later than expected. I dreamt to celebrate my 21st birthday at Thailand’s New Year water festival (I didn’t get there until I was 24 ... but got to go with my absolute best friend who I didn’t even know at 21!) Another goal was to pay off my students in a year (it actually took me three ... maybe 4?!, but now I’m studying my butt off for the LSAT bc I value scholarships and hard work so much more now.) And twenty-year-old Nicole probably would have sworn on her life that she would be done with law school by now.

But here I am, twenty-five, and just starting! So instead of getting down on myself, I’m going to praise God for His timing. Too many of us are afraid to go after our dreams because we feel it’s too late or we’re afraid of failure. Perhaps i’ll never be a lawyer, but this journey has been pretty great. I don’t know if I’ve ever spent 300+ hours working towards something before ... but how cool that I’m actually trying? I’m going to give it my best and never have to wonder “What If ...” So with that, I have a new life motto: “Don’t be in a hurry to get anywhere. Find joy in the grit of the journey or do something else. You’ll never be satisfied if you’re just looking to check a bunch of boxes. We weren’t created to fit in a box.”