Snapple

When I wake up this morning, I feel like Alexander - sure that it will be a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, and VERY bad day. No real surprises there - that's normally how you feel after a rough night's rest and a late start in the morning. And it had been a very rough night.
After waking up, I make the brilliant decision to stay in bed for a few more seconds, you know - so I can "plan out my day", and all that jazz. Two seconds later and it's now 11. I'm to meet with some classmates in 10 minutes to run over our lines, so I roll out of bed, throw on a sweatshirt and jeans and run out the door. It quickly proves to be colder than sweatshirt weather, but I'm already late so I decide to just cut through buildings and tough it out. When I reach the library to print off my lines for class, I find the only available computer shut down. So I reboot it and decided to order a breakfast from the library cafe while I wait. I figure it'd be smart to get something in my body.
I try to mentally let the lady behind the counter know how much of a hurry I'm in, while also glancing precariously at the computer screen booting up, hoping to see the words 'log in' appear.
But they never come.
I walk back over and do the silly 'hit random buttons and shake the mouse' dance we all do when we're desperate for something to change, but it only makes things worse - so I just shut the whole thing down again and move over to the one next to me (the girl there having just left). She seems to have shut hers down too, so I push the reboot button then shuffle back to the counter to pick up my bagel and ice cold strawberry kiwi snapple drink: you know - the drink from heaven? The one I've been dreaming about all morning? I place it in my drink pocket - knowing I'm in a hurry and wont have time to sip until later.
Coming back to the screen I find it still loading - and I'm now five more minutes late for my meeting, so I give up and run out the door. Luckily my class is in the building right to me, so I'm only out in the snow for a few seconds before reaching the warm hallway: just enough time to note how pretty yet cold it looks outside.
I start climbing the stairs, and next thing I know I'm on the floor - something shattering beneath me. Snapple drink is quickly decorating the stair way, and I groan as I realize I've tripped over my feet again. I've become rather adapt at that.
Just when I'm about to sink back down to the floor, the girl nearest me immediately stops to help. Saying something beautiful like "I'll go grab paper towels", she runs back up the stairs and disappears. I'm still staring at the floor when no less than four more girls offer to help. I politely decline, saying someone's already gone for towels, but a few of them stop anyway, and set down their bags. Three more disappear for towels as I begin picking up the broken pieces of glass. Another helps me guide people around the mess and on through the stairs. Every single person, coming up and down, offers to help or - if in a rush like me, gives an appreciated look of sorrow. Feeling an enormous love for these strangers, I thank them but show them we're fine, and begin to pick up even more bits of broken glass. That's when I see the blood running down my hand. Apparently picking up glass with your bare hands is not the way to go.
Some more girls appear with paper towels, and I grab one to stop the bleeding. I'm still feeling so grateful for these awesome strangers when another shows up at the bottom of the stairs with a towel and says she's called the janitor and he'll be here in a minute. She starts cleaning up what's fallen to the bottom floor, as the first girl turns back to me and says something beautiful again - something like "Are you late for class? Why don't you go get that finger cleaned up and we'll finish up." I want to run and hug this angel, but they kept telling me to go, and I know the rest of my group was waiting for me outside of class. We only had two minutes now to run over our lines before presenting.
I walk into the room with a bloody hand and a destroyed meal - but a grateful heart.
Realizing, however, that I still don't have my lines, I momentarily panic - whipping out my computer and planning on simply reading from the screen if needs be. But then my professor saves the day by deciding to start class with a review - giving me plenty of time to copy my notes onto note cards before we begin.
And then another girl in my class makes my day even more amazing by whipping out a bag of snickerdoodles and anouncing that she had made treats for us all to share.
And then my teacher lets us out early to get started on our final papers for next week.
And then I walk down the stairs and see the cleaned steps and I wanted to hug everyone again.
And then I go outside and its no longer snowing.
And then I go home and log on my computer - ready to start my mountain of papers. But even then - with the prospect of hours of homework ahead - God will not let me mope! It seems he is determined to remind me how pointless sorrow can be - and how crucial a good attitude.
I log onto my student e-mail to see I have a message from the financial aid department. Thinking it's merely some more fees I owe, I switch over to my awards page to see the amount.
$500.
$500 in my account. Wait...what? In? Yup! Right there - next to the amount is the word 'award' - Faith Aagard Gormley award - $500! I have NO idea what I did to receive this grant, NO idea how the money got in my account, by I'm secretly hugging every single person in a ten mile radius, and thanking whoever Faith Gormley is for being the most awesome human being on the planet right now. Then I google her and find out she's dead - which I should have guessed simply because it's some award - so I thank her for being the most awesome person in Heaven right now.

So, sitting here, typing with band-aids on my fingers and an empty stomach, I can't help but be glad.

Rexburg is a beautiful place, no? While I still have four papers to write, a film to watch, three tests to study, six chapters and one book to read, I am grateful to find myself surrounded by people just as busy as I with such generous hearts. This school is remarkable, and I am thankful every day to be a part of it.

I don't know what it is - but God has something great planned for me. He has something great planned for all of us - and I'm grateful I've finally wised up enough to stop trying to get there myself.

He knows what he's doing, even if I don't. He knows what I need - broken pieces of glass and all.