{"id":265,"date":"2011-08-25T17:33:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/?p=265"},"modified":"2011-08-25T17:33:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T17:33:00","slug":"beginnings-and-endings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"Beginnings and Endings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" trbidi=\"on\">Monday was my last first day of school. I&#8217;ve been in school a total of 21 years, including Kindergarten and this year. Wow, 21 years.<\/p>\n<p>If anyone had come up to me as an insecure 7th grader&#8211;braces, crazy afro hair, zits, awkward written all over me&#8211;and said:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>Laurel, you are one day going to have the focus of an arrow hitting the target<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><i>You will be so certain in God&#8217;s voice calling you to Christian ministry that it will become you&#8217;re life&#8217;s mission<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>You are going to meet all kinds of people&#8211;rich, poor, educated in school, learned from the streets, homed, homeless, black, white, brown, yellow, happy, angry, joyful, bitter, ignorant, open, small town, big city&#8211;and they will each teach you something very important<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>You are going to be given responsibility to meet real needs, and some of these needs are life or death<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>You are going to go to grad school for four years<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;I would be shocked.<\/p>\n<p>But that is what it has come down to, lots of opportunities, lots of learning moments, and even a few &#8220;Come to Jesus&#8221; meetings. And now I am in my last year of equipping from a formal education perspective, and I have so many emotions. I am the same person, but I have certainly been changed. I am excited about life, seeing Mountains Beyond Mountains. There is hope in hurt, and we experience that each day as ministerial and social work students. I have formed lasting bonds with professors, homeless people, supervisors (so many supervisors&#8230;), fellow classmates, coworkers, and friends. Each day is a new challenge and brings a new growing pain in muscles in my heart and mind that I didn&#8217;t even know I had.<\/p>\n<p>The closer I am to these degrees&#8211;pieces of paper&#8211;the less I want to talk about it.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s incredible how people treat you differently when they find out you&#8217;re in grad school. It&#8217;s sickening, really. I&#8217;m just me, and I sometimes have a messy car and sometimes show up late to something important, just like many of you. I am particular about my baked goods and get cravings for vegetables and will do anything to bring about justice and show some mercy, too. But God called me to graduate school. Even though I have fought Him for some of this time, have been in mourning some of this time, and have thrown my hands up in the air in confusion (&#8220;Why here, God? Why now?), I have learned some tough lessons and met some even tougher situations that have given me the strength and drive to press on.<\/p>\n<p>As I close this non-food related blog (Sorry, my lunch is consisting of mini blueberry muffins, corn &#038; black beans, and carrot salad&#8230;weird, I know.), I&#8217;ll leave you with something beautiful. This song helped me through my senior year of college (mostly the chorus) and continues to be a source of centering and encouragement today as I go honestly, humbly, to God.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Humble Me <\/strong><br \/><b>(Norah Jones)<\/b> <\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"50%\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"50%\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span>Went out on a limb<\/span><br \/><span> Gone too far<\/span><br \/><span> Broken down at the side of the road<\/span><br \/><span> Stranded at the outskirts and sun&#8217;s creepin&#8217; up<\/span><br \/><span> Baby&#8217;s in the backseat<\/span><br \/><span> Still fast asleep<\/span><br \/><span> Dreamin&#8217; of better days<\/span><br \/><span> I don&#8217;t want to call you but you&#8217;re all i have to turn to<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> What do you say<\/span><br \/><span> When it&#8217;s all gone away?<\/span><br \/><span> Baby i didn&#8217;t mean to hurt you<\/span><br \/><span> Truth spoke in whispers will tear you apart<\/span><br \/><span> No matter how hard you resist it<\/span><br \/><span> It never rains when you want it to<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> You humble me Lord<\/span><br \/><span> Humble me Lord<\/span><br \/><span> I&#8217;m on my knees empty<\/span><br \/><span> You humble me Lord<\/span><br \/><span> You humble me Lord<\/span><br \/><span> Please, please, please forgive me<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> Baby Teresa got your eyes<\/span><br \/><span> I see you all the time<\/span><br \/><span> When she asks about her daddy<\/span><br \/><span> I never know what to say<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> Heard you kicked the bottle<\/span><br \/><span> And helped to build the church<\/span><br \/><span> You carry an honest wage<\/span><br \/><span> Is it true you have someone keeping you company?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> What do you say<\/span><br \/><span> When its all gone away?<\/span><br \/><span> Baby i didn&#8217;t meant to hurt you<\/span><br \/><span> Truth spoke in whispers will tear you apart<\/span><br \/><span> No matter how hard you resist it<\/span><br \/><span> It never rains when you want it to<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> You humble me Lord<\/span><br \/><span> Humble me Lord<\/span><br \/><span> I&#8217;m on me knees empty<\/span><br \/><span> You humble me Lord<\/span><br \/><span> You humble me Lord<\/span><br \/><span> Please, please, please forgive me<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<div>~Laurel~<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monday was my last first day of school. I&#8217;ve been in school a total of 21 years, including Kindergarten and this year. Wow, 21 years. If anyone had come up to me as an insecure 7th grader&#8211;braces, crazy afro hair, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/?p=265\"><em>Continue&nbsp;reading&nbsp;<span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[203,132],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-lessons","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/memoirmunchies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}