Facing Change and Learning to Go with the Flow

By Claire Enos

Today marks 2 weeks until school starts, and also happens to be my sister's 19th birthday. I have big changes headed my way. A new semester up at school, this time with roommates I'm not sure I'll get along with but can only pray I will. (Based on the conversations I've had with them already I'm sure I will!) I've never been really good with change, unless it's the huge kind that includes a new school, lots of new people to meet, and a new house. It's the small changes that annoy me. Like new leaders in church, friends moving away (I've always been the one to move away, not the one left behind), and new faces after being away for a few months. I feel out of my element in those situations and I don't like it. The kind of change requiring moving away is my life. I've been doing it every 2-3 years since I was born. So this makes sense to me.

I'm not good with change, and neither are a lot of people I know, so here are a couple tips I've found to be useful to me:

• Use a period of change as a stepping stone to spending more time on areas you feel you've neglected. Say your moving to a new place where no one knows you, don't think of it as a scary situation where you don't know anyone and will have a tough time meeting new people. Think of it as an adventure in which you can fix the things you should have been fixing in the first place. Like exercising more, spending more time with your family/loved ones, spending more time focusing on the spiritual things in life.
• Learn to accept the change. There's no way you can fix it, so just accept it! Think positively about the change. Good is less likely to come of change that you think negatively towards. So keep a positive attitude and learn something new, or meet someone new. Who knows? Maybe change could bring a new hobby or friend.

Soon I'll be moving back up to Idaho for my 5th semester of school. I've decided it's time for me to make a few adjustments to my life. Adjustments that will result in being a better person. Eating healthier, exercising more, studying harder, reading the scriptures more often, and praying more in order to become closer to our Heavenly Father and grow in faith.

1. Eating healthier will include more fruits and vegetables, less sugar (no more boxes of canned soda under my bed), less eating out, and less gluten (not entirely cutting it out, but cutting out a lot of it).
2. Exercising will include some ballet muscle-building exercises meant to tone your leg muscles, yoga, and maybe some cycling and experimentation with equipment in the gym up at BYU-Idaho. It may also include some jogging around the indoor track this winter.
3. Studying harder is self-explanatory I think. I will focus more on my studies than on my social life. Spend more time studying outside of class, so that when I do go to class I get more out of the lectures. And hopefully earn better grades than in previous semesters.
4. Reading the scriptures more often means just that. I don't read them very much, and I'd love to get into the habit of reading them at least once a day. Maybe in the morning before or after I do yoga.
5. Praying- I don't pray nearly as much as I should.  Mostly just when I'm extremely thankful for something big that has happened or when something terrible has happened or I have a big question I need help with. I'd like to make this a twice daily habit. 

I'm not sure how many people I've told (a lot to be sure!) but I've been thinking about serving a mission for almost a year now. I've talked to my Bishop in my family's ward about this and he thinks it's a great idea. I'll be 21 in October, and I'm planning on filling out my mission papers next summer. I think this is the biggest decision I've yet to make in my life, and it will also be the most life-changing. Starting this semester I'll be attending Mission Prep. in Sunday School and Temple Prep. as well.

With all the wonderful changes happening in my life in the next year or two, I feel that I need to focus more on my growth, so that I may become the kind of Woman a Daughter of God should strive to be. So, wish me luck, as I make this wonderful journey and strive to become woman God sent me down here to be!

<3Claire