p e r s e v e r a n c e: final victory lap.

i woke up yesterday morning thinking a beautiful thought, that in just a few short hours, i would officially be half-way completed with nursing school. as well, in just a few short hours, i would be in my final senior year [3rd times the charm!]. what a great feeling it was. undergrad has been such a journey. a journey full of ups and downs, joys and triumphs, as well as heartaches and heartbreaks. it is such an invigorating feeling to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, to finally feel like you can sincerely begin making plans for post-graduation, and to feel like you can finally really begin to pursue the dreams you have for after graduation. my hope and prayer is that i can find the strength and motivation inside of me to finish my final year strong, especially when my body just aches with exhaustion most days of the week. i just have to keep telling myself that this is the season of life that i am in right now, and that God does not give us anything that we cannot handle. half-way there baby, half-way there.
anyway, to help celebrate this momentous occasion, i spent the evening with my old partner, and dear friend katie [an amazing woman who is going to be an incredible fire fighter one day might i add!]. she is such a blessing to me and we always have so much fun together! as well, it is so great to be able to have a friend to be pursuing the fire service with- she never fails to encourage me, push me, and hold me accountable. so, we started out our adventures with driving to glendale to pick up her paycheck, and then went to the redbox [which might i add is the best idea of all time! if you have never utilized the redbox please go rent a movie tonight, you will not regret it!] and rented sunshine cleaning [which was such a good movie, i recommend it]. we then proceeded to trader joes [which i have a slight obsession with, i am not going to lie], and picked up salads and ingredients to make some awesome sandwiches. we then headed back to her adorable bungalow in silver lake and chowed down our delicious dinner of sandwiches, salad, and blue moon while we watched our red box purchase. after dinner i then helped give her feedback on what to pack for her trip to iceland [i am so incredibly jealous!]. it was such a great night and a great way to kick off my 4 day summer vacation [before summer school starts back up on tuesday], and i was definitely reminded of how God has blessed me with some amazing friendships. love you smartner.
oh, and i almost forgot the highlight of the evening! katie has been going on for weeks that she got me a present, and last night i finally got to see what this awesome present was. it was a glendale fire department swearshirt, something that i told her i wanted when she went to work as an a/o for glendale fire. so it has now officially been given the job of keeping me warm as i drive to the station in the morning and when i am chilly at work, as well as a way to support my awesome smartner. i love it so much. go team thompson.