Day Thirty -- Your highs and lows for the month/year

For it being mid-April, there have been a variety of highs and lows so far for the 2016 year.  Fortunately, for the moment, the highs are somewhat outweighing the lows, which is a complete blessing! 

For this blog, I actually am not going to really focus on the lows, as I don’t want to seem super negative, and in reality, the low moments have mostly been associated with the ways of the world and how it seems more and more evil is overtaking the good.  We have to stand strong and continue to try to find the positive in a negative situation.  Trying hard to make the best out of situations that aren’t always so particularly pleasant.  Stand strong in your faith and be true to yourself.  Don’t let the situations of the world and the jealousy of others bring you down.  Be true to yourself, be who you are and don’t let others try to persuade you otherwise.  Focus on God and allow Him to control you.  He will help turns those low moments into high moments!

For me, putting aside the petty low moments that have plagued me off and on all year, I have been blessed to have some absolutely incredible moments thus far in to 2016. 

I have been absolutely blessed to spend a good portion of the first three months of this year at various women’s collegiate basketball games with dear friends.  We have gone to countless games both locally in the Raleigh area, as well as travelled to games at UNC, Duke, Wake Forest and the amazing ACC Tournament in Greensboro.  I am so grateful for the friends that God has brought in to my life through the realm of basketball.  We go and have the best of times just cheering on our teams (or against the teams we don’t like), laughing at crazy Barbie dolls on sticks in the stands (don’t even ask!) or just anything in particular.  In those moments is where I have felt absolutely free and relaxed this year.  I can scream and holler and act crazy and am accepted for who I am.  April has arrived and basketball season has ended, but I can guarantee the memories we made from the games this year, adding new people in to our cheering squad, etc. will be memories that last for a lifetime.  Now the countdown is on to the fall of 2016 when the next basketball season takes place!

Additionally, coinciding with basketball and my friends, is how our little cheering section has adopted one of our NC State players in to our family.  Our favorite Canadian, Jennifer Mathurin, has become our favorite player.  To show how crazy we can be, we proudly wave our Canada shirts and flags at games for her.  We even reserved a seat at the ACC Tournament to display our Canada sweatshirt and flags.  Needless to say the fellow fans around us think we are absolutely insane and are constantly asking us why we are waving Canadian flags. Even one of the security guards stopped us at one game asking why we had Canada flags. They just don't obviously appreciate the sport and players like we do, or maybe we truly are crazy! Either way, we are dedicated to our players and our sport.  I just hope and pray we haven't embarrassed (or even scared!) Jenn!   

I think one of the highest of highs for 2016 was finally meeting and being able to spend a little time with the amazing Coach Sue Semrau from Florida State University.  Patti and I attended many of the Seminoles North Carolina games and we met many of their players and were greeted warmly with hugs as if they had known us their entire lives.  I think they get most of their personality from Coach Sue, who is an absolute inspiration in so many people’s lives, including mine.  Coach Sue is a ball of energy.  She is one you just love watching on the sidelines because she genuinely cares for her players and is constantly coaching and mentoring them. She is passionate about the game of basketball, and it shows each time she steps foot on the sidelines.  If I ever have a daughter, I would want her to play for Coach Sue because she is a teacher as much as she is a coach and she truly impacts the lives of her players.  Meeting her in Raleigh was just so awesome because she is such a compassionate person. That has been one of the highlights of my year.  Thank you, Coach Sue, for all you’ve done (and will continue to do) for women’s basketball and thank you for being such a positive role model in my life! 

While I could go on and on about highs of 2016, I just want to capture those two moments as much of 2016 has revolved exclusively around basketball.  I am so humbled by the opportunities that have been presented to me in many ways.  God truly has blessed my life in ways that I often overlook and don’t thank Him enough for.  Even those low moments, He can use them for our good and help make us stronger individuals.  Keep looking ahead and do what you can to accept the low moments and build upon them.  Turn those low moments in to positive moments.  Continue to strive to make each day a great day and enjoy what all that surrounds.  Do what you can to make your 2016 full of more highs than lows!  You still have over half the year left, so I know you can do it!  

And many thanks to those of you who have followed me along this 30 day writing challenge.  Yes, it has spread for more than 30 days, but I stated initially that it would do that.  It has actually been another of the high moments for me as it helps me just get some thoughts out and eases my mind from the daily stresses along the way.  I can’t promise what may come next in the blog as I’m about to embark on a hiatus for a trip to the West Coast, but stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll come up with something!