{a song in my heart}

smile...Smile...sMiLe....SmilE...SMILE!!!

The holidays are upon us. Something wonderful and expectant is in the air. Something hopeful, dramatic and utterly amazing is about to happen. Well, at least that is how I have been feeling lately. The sky has opened and the clouds have parted just enough for me to see the deep blue sky stretch into the darkness of space. The stars of my Milky Way are twinkling down at me. They know a secret. I wish I could read their minds. They understood what it is that is about to happen from the beginning that they were born into existance. Hopeful anticipation is making them glimmer even brighter. "What is it?" my heart asks. "I'm not too sure but whatever it is, I can feel it's going to wonderful!"

I wonder if it has something to do with my graduation coming up. Gosh, just about thirty days left. Can you imagine? Here I was, a year ago at this time just starting my undergraduate degree. And now, 64 credits and twelve months later, nearly a graduate. NEARLY! My heart is so full right now. So full and hopeful of what lies ahead. So many opportunities will be opening themselves up to me now. =) new life aside from the books. A chance to breathe and live away from scheduled academic patterns. I will be free to pursue my dreams professionally, personally, and individually. I have just begun a grand adventure. A new chapter, into the unknown of a greater story. I wonder what is in store? I wonder what it will be like? I wonder what I will do, experience and witness? I have a huge running list of all the things I want to see and do and experience that I haven't had the opportunity to do while I have been in college these past nine years. Yes, nine years! It is a rather long, obnoxious list I must agree. And half the things I probably will never get too. However, right now they are things that in my heart I have been dying to accomplish. Things that I want to do, that I have ALWAYS wanted to do. Not the popular things... but my things. Monday, I will share the list with you. It is longer than my arm. =) So many blogs I happen upon have a lovely "To Do" lists from their bloggers. Things they want to do before they get married, before they turn 30, or before they give birth. Honstly, my list is all those things, living things, I have never been able to do. Simple things, like staying up two whole days in a row until 5 o'clock in the morning if I want to. Going on a road trip for a week just for the heck of it. Rock climbing and kayaking on Lake Superior. =) Taking cooking classes and maybe surprising myself that I could be a chef! Who knows. Silly lists. In all seriousness though, I know when I am eighty and I look back on my life I can say I enjoyed a whirlwind of wonderful experiences. Experiences I will never look back on with regret but smile on with proud accomplishment. Sooooo looking forward to living a semi-normal life. Oh you have noooooo idea. I am soooo excited!

Image taken at Park Point, Duluth, Minnesota early October