Last weekend Justin and I drove down to Houston to visit his family.  Houston is a very nostalgic place for me since that is where he and I met and began our relationship.  Now since Im a sucker for sentiments, of course I loved driving the same roads and being in the same places we were all of last summer together, particularly since we celebrated our 12th month of dating last weekend 🙂 (Woohoo!!).

I have always been the kind of person who values the opinions of others, so naturally new relationships bring on nervousness in seeking approval from friends and family.  But as of this last weekend, I feel like my relationship with Justin is finally becoming legitimized to those around us, not that it wasn’t supported before, but just that now others are beginning to see us in a more serious note as we have seen ourselves for a while.  It’s a wonderful feeling.

On our way back to Dallas we both became quite contemplative, and began to talk about where we have been and where we feel like we’re going.  For him, this was encouraging, for me my own thoughts were disheartening.  I thought about the things I have done and the things I have coming for me in the future and the list seemed pretty dull. I was saddened by my lack of goals and disappointed that I haven’t really done much in the past year.  Justin was very encouraging in this pointing out that just because the world around me sees me doing “nothing” doesn’t mean my time was wasted this last year.  I often am hard on myself thinking that unless I am outwardly productive I am not productive at all, when in reality the time I spent this last year working on myself was what I really needed, and was productive in a very different way.  Nonetheless I was still saddened by my lack of goals, so together Justin and I made my list of 25 things to do in 2009 (we made it 25 because we’re half way through).  Here they are:

1. Upgrade my camera to a D80 with a new staple lens
2. start yoga once a week
3. Audition to sing at Crossroads
4. Begin to learn Piano
5. shoot an engagement photo shoot
6. blog at least once a week
7. detail my car
8. find an internship
9. finish classes with a 3.6
10. learn and master 5 new recipes
11. shoot a gun (in a controlled environment people, Justin is a hunter)
12. read 5 non-school books
13. read through 1st and 2nd Samuel, Kings and Chronicles
14. redecorate room
15. condense belongings to fit in my car
16. run a 5k
17. watch all lord of the rings movies
18. preach a sermon
19. continue being a pen-pal with my grandma- 6 letters total
20. try a food I’ve never tried before
21. figure out a way to go to Cambodia or somewhere to fight sex trafficking
22. update my resume and create a portfolio for future interviews
23. reduce diet coke consumption to 12 oz a day
24. maintain consistent devotional time with Justin
25. ________ anything I decide later that I want to accomplish

My hope is that 6 months from now my nostalgic moments won’t cause sadness in me, but rather joy at what I have experienced.  Please tell me, what are your goals for the next 6 months?

love,

Lauren Ashley