Make good things happen.

“Make good things happen. Be someone who is going somewhere.”

I’ve been home for 7 months now (from the greatest mission in the world ;)) My coworker and I were talking the other day how you transition from counting days you’ve been home to weeks you’ve been home to transfers you’ve been home … then it becomes months, and eventually, years.

The time has gone incredibly fast! As I face the first summer back, I really AM excited for all the unknown (there seems to be a lot of that right now!). Yesterday in church, we read a talk that was pretty perfect for my life. Yesterday afternoon, I decided to do one of the tips mentioned to “make my young adult years productive” which was making a 1-,3- and 5-year plan. It reminded me of making “visions, goals, and plans” on the mission (we did this at the start of every transfer, each Thursday for every investigator/recent convert/member we were teaching, and countless other times).

And, because I want to be accountable to someone else (even if it’s unidentifiable blog readers), I thought I’d share some of my 1-year plans with you:

Educational goals:  Start grad school fall 2016. This means I have to ...apply to grad school (which also means I have to, you know, pick something to study!). This idea has been floating in my mind since, well, 2012? As my mission neared its end, people would ask my future plans. I told them, “Oh, go to grad school…” but didn’t have a set plan as to where or what I would study. Coming home, I assumed I’d continue with communication. I came home, bought a GRE-prep book, and began studying. But, I didn’t feel satisfied in a communication grad program. I loved my undergrad studies of communication, but is that what I wanted to do for another 2 years of school? As I thought about it, I realized perhaps it was time for some stretching. I have always been fascinated with nutrition; I began looking at nutrition programs. Most of them require prerequisites, of which I don’t have (being a comm major) so … I have two options:

1. I can take required pre-reqs from either a university or community college.If going with this route, I wouldn’t start grad school until a later time, depending on how many classes I’d need to take first.
2. I looked for similar programs that don’t require pre-reqs. I found one at th U called “health promotion & education.” You know, I’m not sure what that entails, but I’m going to look into it cause it sounds interesting and along the same lines.

Applying to grad school also means really tackling my GRE-prep book and actually taking the test. Here’s to a summer of that!

Along with educational pursuits, I’ve set a few spiritual goals. This includes: continuing weekly temple attendance, visiting all completed Utah temples within the year 2015 (I only have Vernal, Draper, Payson, and Monticello to go), becoming a temple worker, and completing more family history work.

I’ve set a few more personal goals for my 1-year plan and I’m excited to see how those turn out. But, I really do think there is something to be said for actually making a plan. It’s not enough to just say we’re going to do something. We have to DO the work. It’s not just thinking; but being actively engaged in our goals that will help us achieve them.