A Decade Later

Yesterday was the ten year anniversary of my return home from my mission. At one of my very last zone meetings, a President Wright (my notes do not indicate what he was President of) gave a presentation about Becoming. As part of that talk he had us write a list of what we wanted to do and become over the next decade. Behold! The list of things I was planning to do with my life when I was an earnest, 22-year-old, almost-finished missionary! (And in parentheses how my life actually measured up to that.)

• get married in the temple (nope)
• have a son (nope)
• smile a lot (Definitely this, and that's something I'm proud of.)
• write a book (nope)
• bear my testimony often (Not every month in Testimony meeting like I was probably thinking, but definitely I've had plenty of opportunities to share it elsewhere.)
• always carry pass along cards in my purse (nope)
• be part of someone's conversion by my mission anniversary every year (I've definitely seen many people get baptized since coming home, but probably not every year.)
• be a (future) mission president's wife (nope)
• get a Master's degree (nope. though I did recently decide what I would get a Master's degree in when/if the time is right.)
• start a non-profit (nope)
• travel outside of the United States (Absolutely! So many awesome trips and experiences.)
• teach seminary (nope)
• work with the youth (Young Women's President! What!)
• teach Relief Society (and rocked it)
• do my visiting teaching (I'm gonna give me a B+ here)
• be a fun wife (nope)
• make bread for my family (nope. I don't even make it for me.)
• teach institute (nope)
• be my daughter's best friend, but still be the mom (nope)
• live on the east coast (Going on eight years!)
• read the standard works annually (bah hahaha!)
• write in my journal (I have at least one year of daily journal entries.)
• stay out of debt (YES!!!)
• praise my children daily (nope)
• plant a garden every year (I did a couple of years, that totally counts, right?)
• open a college/mission fund for each of my kids when they are born (nope)
• become more humble (Recalling who I was 10 years ago, I can definitely I'm more humble now than then)
• have good communication with my husband (nope)
• get high-priest-sized scriptures (nope)
• donate my hair (Twice!)
• visit Star Valley, Wyoming (nope)

So clearly, I envisioned a different future for myself than what it turned out like and I'll probably have more thoughts on that later. But I'm pretty pleased with the things I did accomplish after all.