Valentine's Day, a.k.a. SAD, and All the Cliche Stuff

Valentine's Day was, weeelll, yesterday. It's also known as Single Awareness Day, 'cause when you single, you may feel *slightly* left out of all the festivities because you do not have a sweetheart to do the cliche Valentine-y things with.

And doing them by yourself is lame. I mean yeah, sometimes it's good to just treat yo-self, to be alone and show the world you're happy as a single pringle, but let's be honest, half of you guys who do that are just tryna covertly say, "HEY I'M SINGLE SOMEONE CHANGE THAT" without looking like a needy fool. 😅

Why am I saying that? Uh, 'cause I resisted the urge to post cliche "Single and happy about it", "Pros to being single on V-Day: Saving money I'd otherwise have to spend on a Valentine present" etc. pics to IG and SC all day. All day. Because if I'm honest, it'd be nice to have found 'the one' by now and to be doing life with this human.

But on the other hand, boy am I glad I'm not dating anybody or preparing for marriage to anybody in particular. Like, dude, I still gotta learn how to schedule my own doctor's appointment and talk to my own health insurance company, I can't handle that kind of responsibility right now. 😂

What's the point of this post? I had a point. I know I did. Oh yeah, Valentine's Day!

So if you're dating or married, congrats, I'm happy you got somebody for ya. I pray they treat you well and that you treat them well. Be excellent to each other, aight? Or else I'll hunt you down, slap you in your stupid face, beat you with a hardcover, annotated KJV Bible and throw glitter-filled water balloons at you that have verses written on them about how we're supposed to treat each other.

All in love, of course. I'd do this to my brother. Because I love him. 'Cause everything you do should flow out of love. Yup. I mean, it's either glitter or I kill you and repent later, which would you prefer? 😃

Ahem, anyways, aaaand if you're single like me... Use this time to focus on figuring out who you are. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do with your life? How do you do that thing you wanna do? How do you get to that place? What habits do you need to form that'll help you be a better, healthier person that accomplishes those awesome goals and dreams you have? How do you form those habits?

Cliche, I know. But Valentine's Day is all about the cliche. As is Single Awareness Day. Whether you're in a committed relationship or not, be a decent human. Love people the way Jesus does. Look at yourself the way Jesus looks at you. Go after Jesus with everything that's in you, and change the world.

Love you guys. Happy Valentine's Day, Happy S.A.D., (both a week late), and keep being awesome. 😜


Photo by Bart LaRue on Unsplash

Rejection or Divine Redirection?

Let's talk about the r-word.

Rejection.

Ouch. It hurts just thinking about it.

Everyone feels rejected at some point. Life isn't always about acceptance, you know. People aren't gonna like you 100% of the time. Maybe it's 'cause you accidentally cut them off in traffic. Maybe you pointed out a flaw in their logic. Maybe you're doing the best you can and for whatever reason, they just really don't like you. Or, it could be, you're doing your absolute best to reach out, be the light, be Jesus to everyone around you, and they reject you for it. Whatever the reason, you end up feeling rejected, dejected, and that ain't a fun place to be.

And you know who one of the most rejected-feeling groups of people is in this world?

Youth.

They got ALL this junk going on with their bodies, school, peer group, etc. They're trying to navigate through the ins and outs of becoming young adults, becoming more responsible, while also having the expectations that this world thrusts upon young people, to be irresponsible, make mistakes and live it up as much as possible. It's a nightmare. We're supposed to have fun in high school, make friends, be crazy teenagers, and then suddenly seventeen and eighteen hits and, whoa, we're supposed to have jobs, get college degrees and know exactly what we wanna do with our lives? You're crazy. This world is jacked up. Like, hon, it don't work like that, there are some habits that gotta be formed before we can effectively do that, yo.

Oh, and did I mention the whole being a Christian thing? When you're a Christian, you automatically stand out from the crowd. You will get rejected for what you believe, whether you're actively telling people about what you believe or not. It's just the world we live in.

But don't let rejection stop you from being who God's called you to be. If God has called you to preach, don't let discouragement from your peers to "shut up about this Jesus thing" stop you from continuing to talk about Jesus. If God's called you to reach your friends and teach Bible studies, don't let anyone's rejection of what the Bible says stop you from continuing to look for someone who will accept it.

It all comes down to this, guys: Sometimes, it's not rejection, sometimes it's a divine redirection. Sometimes, that rejection saves you from wasting time on people who really don't want it, and forces you to go find the ones who really want the truth. Sometimes, that rejection you get sets you up to do what God meant for you to do in the first place.

You have to perceive it differently. Jesus said that when you get rejected, shake the dust off your feet and keep going. He already told us we'd get rejected just for being His followers. But there are people who desperately need and want this beautiful Gospel we've been given. There are people that only you can reach, and who are you to deny them of their chance at Heaven, just because you were rejected?

I understand. Rejection hurts. It's hard getting your hopes up only to have them crushed, to really go after something you want only to see all your plans fall apart. It's hard to try to reach out to someone who seems like they need, no, they want help, but they reject your help. And then what about next time? What if you try to reach out to someone else and they slap your hand away like that other person did before? Yeeoosh. The prospect of rejection can freeze even the strongest warrior. You're not alone in feeling it or fearing it.

But don't let that fear, or that feeling of having been rejected, stop you from being who God called you to be, trying to go after God's plans for your life, from reaching out to people around you. Rejection is that testing ground to see how much you believe what God told you. It's the fire that'll burn the things that won't stand and leave the things that will. Rejection can show you what you need to work on if you let it. It can spin you around, and then push you towards someone else. Yeah, man, it's painful. But it's not the end. There's life after rejection, there's something we're supposed to do afterward. We can sit in a corner and sulk about how someone rejected us, or we can rise above it and try to find someone who wants to hear about Jesus.

For me, rejection makes me reevaluate everything. That can be good and bad, you already know what the bad is so I won't go into that. The good: what do I do now? What's the next step, where do I go from here? Like they say, when you hit rock bottom, the only way to go next is up. What's that for you? Or better yet: who is that for you? Who else do you think just might want a Bible study, or might want to come to church, or might want to hang out with you and the youth group?

You know something? Rejection, much as it hurt, might be our best teacher. 'Cause sometimes, it'll redirect us from people who don't want it to people who do. Sometimes, it's not rejection. Sometimes, it's a divine redirection.

An Open Future

I feel like the name of this blog is perfect for me because sometimes I just go for weeks and months on end without posting and then I come back like HEY SO GUYS like no time's passed at all. 😅😂

But anyways. Guys. I got my diploma in the mail, like, a month ago come Saturday. Let's just say it softened the blow of not being accepted to grad school. Can't go to grad school this semester but hey, at least I can now prove that I finished my BA last semester, right?

And I'll have you know, I only cried like five times in the 7 or so hours after I found out about not being accepted. 😅😭😳😶

This made me reevaluate basically my whole life. "What now?" I asked myself. I have a mini fridge in the living room, a microwave, and a cool Ninja blender (that I have been using the entire time during this year's 21 Day Challenge a.k.a. Daniel Fast 2.0, btw). I have some money saved up in the bank, my own debit card, a cool smartphone, and a bunch of big dreams. What am I supposed to do now?

See, I had the whole next 4-5 months planned out. Go to grad school. Take classes. Hang with my best friends. Stay up way too late doing assignments and studying, drinking coffee and laughing with awesome people. Cry my eyes out during chapel services, pray like I never had before with people in my age group. All that's basically out the window for now. I have at least 6 months to do... what?

So, I basically sat down with my questions and tried to figure out what I want to do with my life. What do I want to do career-wise? There are a few things, but one thing I think would be pretty stinkin' fantastic is this: Write. I want to write. I wanna write fiction. I want to "live by my pen" as Anne Hathaway said in her role as Jane Austen in the movie "Becoming Jane." How do I do that? Well, first off, I gotta write. I gotta edit the mess out of my work. I gotta make it publishable. Next step, publish the work. Market the work. Get paid for the work. Aaaaaand repeat until I can either live off of writing or live off it and some kind of other part-time or full-time job.

Sidenote: I love my job, absolutely love it. I'm learning all these crazy things about the world of printing and web design and all this stuff, I feel like a starry-eyed kid at Disney World half the time (the other half I'm working trying to make sure I'm doing my job right and as well as possible). I just have like, fifty different ideas of how my life could go and I'm tryna get 'em all out before they make my head explode. 😜

What else do I wanna do? I wanna travel. I wanna go on missions trips, see what it's like to be a missionary, help out missionaries, do missionary work.

So what have I done about this stuff? Well for one, I've looked into some mission trips. There are too many deadlines at the beginning of the year so unless someone walks up to me and says, "Hey, I want you to come with me to this foreign country this year," then I probably won't go overseas just quite yet. I've also looked into going overseas to teach ESL. Got some pointers from my uncle, who went overseas and taught English in Korea, and there are some pretty cool opportunities that I'm looking into a little bit more. I'd need a TESL or TEFL certification and a few other prereq's that would take a little time to get done, but lucky for me, that fits my schedule for the next two years haha. Oh, and as for writing, I've made it a goal to write and publish 5 books this year on various platforms, i.e. Wattpad, Amazon, possibly Inkitt, etc.

I might still go to grad school. Or I might just go to the undergrad area to get a certificate in Apostolic Studies so I can articulate my faith in a knowledgeable way and get some experience living on my own for a bit. Or I might just skip all that, work hard, get my TESL/TEFL and move to Eastern Asia for the rest of my life! (JK, I'd miss my American people too much... I'll just pack 'em all in suitcases and take 'em with me, muahaha)

The point of this post? It's an open future for me. I've got a direction I want to go in. And I know there's a direction God wants me to go in. The trick is making sure the two are one in the same. Do I think writing can change the world? Yes, yes I do. Do I think teaching can change the world? Tried and proven, both in the secular and the church worlds, teaching can completely change the world, because it changes young people who will go on to change the world. Do I think this is something I should pursue? Short answer: Yes. Time (and a whole lotta prayer) will tell if this is the direction God wants me to go in.

'Til next time, folks!

--Sonya 😁 💖

P.S. I'mma try to get better at writing this blog, or at least posting something on this blog. Bear with me, guys. 😜