i was born,

in Thoroughly Modern Millie, a short time after Millie gets settled in NYC, she says:

well, I was born...and then I moved here!

sitting beneath the stage for a month in the fall of my senior year, I listened to my childhood friend Cami say this line probably 100 times. through countless rehearsals and a lot of performances, I always thought this was the most clever line, and it is now my favorite line from the entire show.

on the phone with my mom last night, I was trying to remember when it was I decided to go to college. I don't think I ever really did. decide that is. we figured that even though I never thought of not going, my mom's vision for me just became who I am, without me ever noticing. and I am grateful for that. in trying to remember, I realized I couldn't really remember anything that happened between my birth and now. when did I become who I am? I feel like...I was born, and then I came to college.

I've almost completed 2 years of college. 2 years. when did that happen?

If your eyes are always on your shoelaces, if all you can see is this class or that test, this date or that roommate, this disappointment or that dilemma, then it really is quite easy to throw in the towel and stop the fight. But what if it is the fight of your life? Or more precisely if it is the fight for your life, your eternal life at that? What if beyond this class or that test, this date or that roommate, this disappointment or that dilemma, you really can see and can hope for all the best and right things that God has to offer? Oh, it may be blurred a bit by the perspiration running into your eyes, and in a really difficult fight one of the eyes might even be closing a bit, but faintly, dimly, and ever so far away you can see the object of it all. And you say it is worth it, you do want it, you will fight on.

- Elder Holland, However Long and Hard the Road