Take Time

I always knew that moving to college would come with a lot of adjustments.  Whether it’s adjusting to living away from home, the classes or the friendships, one of the biggest adjustment I have found is actually something really small… a hand dryer.

I know this sounds silly, but using a hand dryer after washing my hands instead of a paper towel takes time (literally) to adjust to!  I was so used to quickly drying my hands on a towel and moving on with my day.  So when I came to college and I didn’t have the quick option anymore, I would do like everyone else; wash my hands, wipe them on my jeans and leave the bathroom.  However, I would always regret not drying my hands because everything I touched for the next few minutes would get wet. 

30 seconds.  That’s how long it takes to fully dry off my hands.  I could spend 30 seconds and dry my hands or I could save that time but regret it later… The obvious choice to me is to invest my time.  A lot of times in life we have to make the decision to invest our time to get the outcome we want. 

My freshman year of high school I took an art class.  Now I am by no means an artist, far from it actually.  But in my art class we were required to take one of our favorite pictures and draw it.  Naturally, my favorite picture at the time was of my show cow, Delilah, and me.  Now, I was so stressed about drawing this picture.  My drawing skills weren’t as good as everyone else’s and it was a big portion of our grade. 

For the first week I struggled and struggled with my picture.  The lines weren’t smooth like the girl next me was and it was hard to tell what I was even trying to draw.  I went up to my art teacher to ask for help and all she said was, “You just need more time put into it.”  So everyday that I came to class I fully invested myself into drawing my picture.  I stayed after school, came in during study time to work on it and got help from my peers.  In the end, I was proud of my picture. It may not be as pretty as everyone else’s but I had done the absolute best I could do.

Like I said, I am NOT an artist... but I am still proud of this!

Too often in life we think that the grass is greener on the other side.  But in reality if we just take the time to water our own grass it would be just as green.

If our goal is to make it to state in a CDE, spend an extra 15 minutes a day studying for it.  If we aren’t getting the grade’s we want, stay after class one day a week to ask for help.  If we miss a note every time we play a song, or can’t make a certain shot on the basketball court, all we need to do is invest our time.  Invest time into what you care about and I promise that will help so much in the long run. 

Take time to dry your hands and water your grass.

Stationed by the plow,