remembering how things used to be...

it is really hard for me to remember exactly how everything use to be... i do know that after the excitement of starting college and moving into the sorority wore off things in my life began changing...but definitely not for the better.

i started getting tired of going out to the frats all the time and the girls in my sorority began to criticize me and complain that i was never at the sorority anymore... when i did go out to parties with everyone it was almost as if i had to make up for what i had missed...i wanted to be fun and make the girls like me and want to hang out with me.

i started going home on the weekends and spending less and less time at the sorority, completely isolating myself from the others... it did not help that, on top of the criticism from my new friends, i was dealing with a lot of other stresses in my life...my parents had just gotten a divorce before i left for college, the house i had lived in my entire life was up for sale, my dad was getting re-married, and to top it off...the love of my life, patches my cat, got a stomach illness and had to be put down. needless to say things were not really going in my favor...

i was in a downward spiral mixed up of sadness about my past and present, depression from losing most of what i had known my whole life (house, parents, pets) and the pressure of trying to fit in that i reached the ultimate low.

i had the feeling in my gut that something had to change... that something was missing... and that something needed to be done quickly, or else it felt like i was headed for disaster...

an unlikely candidate...

i have to remind you i never thought i would be writing about this...this seems like an unlikely tale, especially when you rewind my life and look at who i used to be starting 3 years ago when i first started college...

i graduated high school and could not wait for college to start. before classes began i went through rush and joined a sorority notorious for "drinking like the boys do". sure enough this stereotype was not a myth.

a week after moving into the house the upperclassmen took the new freshmen out to the frats to show us off. i watched girls around me putting bottles of vodka and other alcohol up to their mouths and literally chugging them until they were sick. 2 weeks into this new lifestyle it was all normal to me...i was just a typical sorority girl living the greek life... my life was going great and i was living it up!

...at the time i would not have changed my life for anything...in fact if you would have tried to convince me that in the near future i would be talking with mormon missionaries regularly and reading the bible AND the book of mormon...

...guaranteed i would have had a laugh.

introductions....

only 2 years ago i was the typical college girl. living in a sorority, frat parties twice a week, going to spring break in mexico, and living life to "the fullest".

i would never, in a million years have thought that just 2 years later there would be no more parties, no more drinking, and no more "greek life"... but rather these things would be replaced with a new outlook on life plus going to church every sunday and actually enjoying it.

a little over a year ago i was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...you may be more familiar with another name...the mormon church.

today i am just the average person you see walking down the street.

no one would be able to pick me out of a crowd and say "hey she's mormon".

i am just a normal girl who made a decision that has and will change my life...forever.

this is my story.