On my new reality.

Growing up in a small town, you don’t get very many “fresh starts.” If you pee your pants in kindergarten it WILL be brought up in your sophomore history class and thoroughly laughed at by all. Having the same people around you your entire life has its advantages and its disadvantages. One advantage is that people know your weaknesses. One disadvantage is that people know your weaknesses. I wouldn’t have changed the first eighteen years of my life for anything. Sure, it got annoying having everyone know your entire life story, but at the same time, they only know your entire life story because they lived your entire life right alongside you. They know you. You don’t have to try and explain why you do and don’t like certain things because they can probably remember the events that took place in your life that formed those preferences. If you grew up in a small town, going home is like going back to the nest. I can’t go downtown without seeing at least ten people I know. I love it. It’s part of who I am.

Moving to L.A. was a fresh start. But that’s not even the fresh start I’m talking about. My first six months in L.A. were rough. Not because anything traumatic happened to me, just because I was trying to live life on my own. I thought I was an independent person and that I could survive life and do things my way, and I was excited to finally escape my tiny town and have the chance to do this. It turns out the old adage is true. No man is an island; God made us to live in community. I recently moved into a house with eleven other girls and I cannot even begin to explain how blessed I am to be here. Although I’ve been living in L.A. for six months already, I feel that this is finally the fresh start I’ve been waiting for. This fresh start isn’t about me. It’s not about “finding myself” or making a name for myself or somehow changing my reputation or the way people perceive me. This fresh start is about getting to meet new people everyday and living in community. This fresh start is about other people. In the past week and a half, I have met more people than in my entire first semester in L.A. I can’t even tell you how much I love everyone in my new community. It’s amazing. God is really moving here at USC and all over L.A. and I there are no words to describe how excited I am to be a part of it.

I asked God for a group of Christian friends and he BLEW MY MIND. We dream and God says “dream bigger.” I love that. I’m not promoting some kind of health and wealth doctrine. I’m saying that if you ask God to put you in community, He will. I used to feel like I lived alone and that no one could really meet me at my level. I now feel like I live with and for others and the love between these people that I’m meeting is insane.

God is good. He works in unexpected ways. I moved from Beverly Hills to South Central and I couldn’t be happier.

The only way you can truly experience a “fresh start” is by asking him to give you one. For me, that meant a whole new life.