You Make your Plans and you Hear God Laughing

       "You make your plans and you hear God laughing"-Thomas Rhett. One of my biggest blessings was not anything I had planned at all, but it was God's plan. Two years ago my rebellious 17 year old self thought that getting far away from the small town I live in would solve any and all of my problems, and that was exactly what I planned to do as soon as I graduated. It was a constant argument between my parents and myself. I had no interest in staying home for two more years and attending community college, but mostly just to keep peace, I applied to Northeast. Just like I did with my four year university choice, I applied for scholarships at Northeast as well. This being God's plan, I received a scholarship to Northeast that I couldn't possibly turn down. God blessed me with a scholarship that gave me an incredible group of friends and an opportunity to spend a whole lot of time working with and serving our community. There is nothing I love more than people and getting to meet new people.

       Freshmen year was a little bit of a rough start. Majority of my friends from high school had moved off to other schools. School had started back for most and not going back to high school felt really weird. There was also this break in-between school starting back and college starting where most of my friends had already moved off and I hadn't really met anyone new yet since college classes hadn't began. Once classes started things were still hard. For the first time in a really long time I was walking into classes where I didn't know anyone. I learned throughout freshman year that making friends in college is different than in high school. These aren't people that have known who you were since you were 5, they know nothing more than who you are now. One of my now closest friends sat across the room from me in biology, we had never talked before until after class on a day that we had just taken a really hard test. She became my usual lunch date to go over notes from class that day and just like that became one of my closest friends. I met lots of great people freshman year and as I mentioned earlier, my scholarship blessed me with an incredible group of friends. They are my Presidential Host family. Not only have the students I met been a blessing in my life but the staff as well. I can't talk about my love for my school without talking about the faculty too. Every staff member that I have met has personally gotten to know me. My professors generally care, they actually know our names, and they interact with us enough to know about our lives. I missed class once for a personal matter and my professor for that class continued to check and make sure everything was going well after that.

      I am now a sophomore and in my second year at Northeast. My plans since senior year have definitely changed a lot. One year of college completely changed my plans and kind of forced me to grow up a good bit. My once dream school is now not even anywhere I am interested in going. I am back to applying to four year universities again since it is almost time to transfer. I am so happy with how God's plan worked out and where I am with my life right now because of Northeast, the idea of leaving makes me sad. I will be graduating in May and moving on with my life, but I plan to make the most of my sophomore year until then. My current major is communication disorders. I hope to transfer to Auburn after Northeast to receive my bachelors and then my masters in speech pathology. I would love to one day open a pediatric therapy practice in this small town that I once so desperately wanted to leave. I plan to minor in health and fitness to hopefully one day train as a side job. Anyone that knows me knows the gym is my happy place. 

I am incredibly thankful that things did not workout the way I had planned, but the way that God had planned.

                                                                                                                                    xoxo, Brooklyn