I have a penchant for randomness. I also get very easily distracted. Currently as I attempt to punch out this blog post that has been lingering in my head like the funk of deep fry lingers around my kitchen after I make battered fish, I am extremely tempted to look up recipes for vegetarian rice bowls. I've been trying to eat more vegetables lately and save some green on our grocery budget by buying less meat. Last week I slipped in a rice and black bean enchilada dinner under Alex's carnivorous nose without him completely realizing the meal was vegetarian until after he had already devoured the savory wrap in all of it's beefless glory.
But this post isn't about eating more rabbit food (rabbit trails, maybe). It's about yet another twist in the story of my pencil-written life plans.
I was accepted into Grand Valley State University (Yay! Go, me!) and met with an adviser last week to talk about what classes I needed before I can apply for the nursing program. I have been assuming, based on careful calculations, that I would be ready to apply this fall and if accepted I would start in the winter. However, during my session with the adviser the word "prerequisite" and then the words "not met" were quickly followed by "have to take". Little did I know that the laziness of my youth would come back to bite me over a decade later.
When I was 16 I took AP Biology in high school. For some strange reason that I cannot recall now I didn't take the AP test for college credit. Somehow I managed to get through my first stint of college without this biology credit, but I will not be so lucky this time around. It has come back to haunt me in the form of BIO 120: General Biology I.
I tried to weasel my way out of this class. I emailed a myriad of people, made some phone calls and even checked to see if I could test out. The result? Utter and complete fail. It seem I have a summer date with an introduction to cell structure and physiology, growth and development, and genetics.
Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with this prospect. I passed Anatomy & Physiology with a perfect A: shouldn't that show my extreme prowess in the world of introductory biology classes? Apparently not. And this one, single little general biology class has thrown my carefully laid plans off track by one whole semester.
In addition I was informed that Grand Valley requires a semester gap between the time one is accepted into the nursing program and the semester that one begins the nursing program. Hence, I have now been pushed back TWO semesters. With this renewed schedule, assuming everything goes smoothly, I can expect to graduate from nursing school in the spring of 2013.
You should think that I would be used to this by now and that perhaps it wouldn't surprise me, having my plans derailed. But it's still rough when life forces you to readjust, especially when you are in a hurry. I was miffed. I was angry. And I was very, very unhappy.
It was time to have a what-the-frig-conversation with God.
I'm thankful God welcomes me into his presence no matter how I am feeling. He must be God if He can consistently do that. I know I am not that gracious, patient or loving with others. I prefer to deal with people who are happy, or at the very least are calm. I was neither of those things when I told God how I felt about His timing regarding me becoming a nurse.
The most wonderful thing I have discovered about unrestrained prayer like that, however, is that God does indeed meet with me. While I may not feel overly joyful after I have spent time spewing my frustration, 90% of the time I feel at peace. This occasion didn't fall into the 10% category.
Through the sheer grace of the Holy Spirit I was able say to myself, "Ok, there is nothing you can do about this. So instead of focusing on what you can't have you might as well focus on what you can do, instead." Quite suddenly the entire situation didn't seem to horrible. Basically being forced to be a part time student for the next year leaves me with a lot of time to focus on other things, or work part time should the need arise. I can take some other classes just for sheer interest if I choose, or I can increase my volunteer hours at the Pregnancy Resource Center.
I'd be completely lying if I said that I didn't mind the delay. But I also trust God. Lately I've been discovering how I can kinda wonder what God is doing but still feel at peace about it and trust that if He decided something is going to go down differently than I had planned or hoped, there is an amazingly good reason for it. More importantly than that I can trust that it is for my benefit.
I'm still flying by the seat of my pants. And in a way I guess you could say that I'm cool with it. I'm beginning to think that if I didn't delight in change as much as I do, things would be much harder. But God made me; He knows I prefer to do my best to just roll with the random things that come my way. And really, since He's the one who is in control, there is not a thing random about what happens in my life. I'll take my time getting into nursing school since that's what God wants. And I'll take my time finding just the right vegetarian rice bowl, too.
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