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thick & thin things

I'm finally starting to understand, at least a little bit, why people use to tell me "Enjoy it while it lasts." I remember laughing when people told me how fast high school would go by, I remember wishing to be in middle school so I could ride the bus. I always dreamed of getting my first kiss, having my own car, and loving life. I never thought these days would come. Everything always seems so far away, until it is right in front of us. Lately I have been gaining a better understanding of what my dear pal Neal A. Maxwell taught when he said, "Don't get caught in the thick of thin things." 

 I use to think he meant to simply not get caught in bad situations. Which is a very important thing to learn, but I think there was something a little more applicable to my life hidden in the short snippet of spiritual direction. This year it has came to mean that I must focus on the things that go by quickly. It came to mean that we must not make the unimportant things seem important. It was telling us that we must relish life as we are able to live it.

 * EPIPHANY * - I've come to the realization that maybe people weren't warning me just about the time aspect of high school, but simply telling me to enjoy every moment. It also turns out I wasn't excited for middle school just because of the bus, but because of the rides to and from school with some of my best friends. It wasn't about getting my first kiss but about who it was with, maybe it wasn't about having a car but about where I would go in the car, and maybe it wasn't about loving life all of the time but simply recognizing when I was happy with my imperfect life. 

 This year I tried to not get caught up with the unimportant things. The things that wouldn't provide fun memories, exciting experiencing, or greater relationships. This year I chose to spend more of my precious time doing things that were, "thicker" so to speak. This year I didn't care about the colors matching on my Instagram (can you believe I cared about that at one point in my life? Me neither). I didn't care about doing things just because other people wanted me to. I didn't let the people I cared about question if I cared about them (by this, I mean I showed up at peoples door with things A LOT because everyone needs to know they are loved, even if it was just a hug) 

 So maybe I posted randomly, maybe even double posted (*gasp*) but to me remembering the moments became much more important than what other people had to say. This year I might have annoyed lots of people by caring too much, but I didn't mind because maybe there was one person who felt like they weren't being cared for enough. In the end, my advice to the kids still in high school will be the same as in years past, but with a little bit of urgency in my voice I will say, "please love every second. Time moves fast and you shouldn't spend too much of that time in the thick of thin things." And I will really mean that with all the sincerity I can muster because this year has taught me that we shouldn't be afraid, we should simply live. 

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