10 days and counting...

I just got home from spending the last couple of days in Portland with my twin brother Nick. I enjoyed myself but had the lingering thought that these will be the last moments we share together for a couple years. We won't be able to call and harrass eachother or provide support when needed. Although I have two other brothers that I love dearly, there is nothing like having a twin. We came in the world together and shared our worlds way before our grand entrance. We're more then just siblings, we're friends and saying goodbye was pretty hard. I was quite surprised that I didn't cry, I watched him from the escalator as he got back on the Max to head home and just told myself "2 years is not forever and he'll be o.k." I got a chance to see his life in Portland and feel comfortable knowing he has a security net of loving friends to keep him in line and provide the support he'll need. I'm getting pretty good at these goodbyes and I think I have cried once(he knows) but I just tell myself that it's time for me to live my life. This is something that I have wanted to do since I got to college, it's something I have researched and researched, and just as I was sure about other things in my life I couldn't have been more sure of this. This is where my heart is leading me and God is telling me to go. Many people have asked me would I be able to come home if I wanted to, of course. I'm not a prisoner, but every time I hear that question I think to myself"why would I come home?" I see this as a challenge and if you know me, you know that I don't back down from a challenge. Life has not always been the easiest and from the struggle comes triumph, I know that this experience just as the past ones, will shed a whole new light on how I view the world, the people around me, and what it is exactly I want out of life.
As I wrap up these next 10 days, I can't help but contemplate each moment when it happens. I think more deeply about how funny life can be at times, how in a year i'll be looking at the same moon but from a different perspective, how those that have brought me comfort and laughter will be thousands of miles away, and how I think too much about the moment and trying to appreciate it that i'm not actually in the moment and living it. As I challenge myself, I present a challenge to you. Many times in life we get caught up in the day to day life, going through the motions, but never really stop to think if this is making us happy. Do what makes you happy, if you're in relationship that makes you unhappy-leave, if you don't like your job-quit, don't like your living situation-move. Don't waste precious time in a preventable situation, don't sacrifice you're happiness for a possibility of future happiness. Enjoy happiness in the moment because there is no guarantee that there will be happiness in the future.