the one with a change of plans

I was supposed to graduate this upcoming April. By then, I will have finished my generals, major, and minor in eight semesters. I was feeling pretty good about myself because most people take some extra time to figure out what they want to do with their lives, but I knew from the beginning that I wanted to have an English Language major and an editing minor. I prided myself on the fact that I've only taken two classes outside of my major/minor/generals.

But two weeks ago, I found out I won't be able to graduate in April; apparently, you have to have 120 credits to graduate, and I will only have 110.5 credits. 

At first, I was furious. I cried in both the office where I found out you have to have 120 credits and the office that told me there is pretty much no way they'll make an exception. I was just devastated because I'm so ready to be done with school and move on with my life!

But slowly, I've come to terms with it. I am now excited to take a few fun classes (even though it seems like an expensive way to do things . . . ) like sewing and exercise classes. I think I'll also take another graphic design class. Maybe this way I'll leave school on a high note--because I'll be taking classes that are more fun and interesting to me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like my major/minor, and I do still want to be an editor, but it just seems like I've had to take a lot of classes that had nothing to do with what I like about editing. So I'm excited to branch out from required classes. Maybe I'll even take up Portuguese so I can talk to Russ in another language :)

And it has also just reaffirmed to me that God knows what's up. 

Lately, I've been worrying about what Russ and I will do after graduation. I've worried about the fact that Russ wants to take next semester off so that he can spend more time figuring out what he wants to do. I've worried about moving out of our current ward. I've worried about when we should start having kids.

Lots of worries. But when I found out that we had to change our plans, everything sort of fell into place. Since I won't graduate until December, it's now no problem for Russ to postpone graduation until then. Since we'll still be students til then, we'll get to stay in our ward til then. Since we have more time in school (and more time out of school) we'll have more time to figure out future plans. And staying in school actually works pretty well with when we want to start our family.

It's good to be reminded that He is in charge and that He has plans for me and Russ.

I'm feeling a lot more peace about something that originally infuriated me. Anyone else have stories about a major upset in your plans that actually turned into a blessing? :)


**ashleynicole