Wishing you were here, or I was there, or just somewhere.

Warning: This is another sappy blog.

Some of my hard core fans may know the fact that my birthday was a couple days ago. I turned the ripe age of 20. Yay! But I have to say, despite that it was a fun day, it was my worst birthday yet. I’ll explain.

I didn't get a chance to mention this last time, but I am currently spending 10 weeks out of my summer in Oklahoma.  I’m doing research at the University of Oklahoma. It’s sort of a long story/another blog to get into what I am researching, so I’ll cover that later. But my birthday was the three week mark of being in Oklahoma. Being in Oklahoma, I mean away from my best friends that I share my life with, my roommates, and my family. It also means I was three weeks into living with complete strangers. I celebrated my big day with these strangers. Don’t get me wrong, we made it fun, and I was grateful that I had someone to celebrate with, but there was a hole in my heart.

I often stress that I don’t want much for my birthday. All I want is to spend time with friends and family. Being “alone” on my birthday allowed me to realize how much I really do love my friends and family, and also that I may take them for granted. I think someone once said something about you don’t realize what you have until it is gone.

I don’t mean to complain about having this great experience in Oklahoma. Yet on that day, I wished so many times that I was back in Utah or at least one of my best friends would make the trip out here. Unfortunately, none of those wishes came true, but oh well, it was asking for a lot. So now, I am sucking it up;  “patiently”  counting down the days until I see my family and  friends. Along the way, I’m just being thankful f that I have such people in my life. I love you guys, and I mean that!

The lesson I hope you learn from my experience is that I hope you take advantage of the time you have with your loved ones! Maybe you get called to another state on some-what  short notice, or someone passes. You will regret not doing the things you've always wanted to do together.

Here's to fun times with good friends and loving families.