Thanks be to God! -- I've been accepted!

I am beyond myself right now, seriously in a daze of happiness and thankfulness...

I have officially received all of my university admissions replies, and, still in awe, I'm pleased to announce that I've been accepted to all the schools I've applied to -- CSU East Bay, SF State Uni, and UC Davis.

This is a big deal for me honestly.  I've had such an uncertain path up to this point, full of painful times, doubts and worry, full of anxiety and fear, full of not really knowing what would come of my life.  There've been rock-bottom times. And there've been times when I've wanted to quit.  And the battle trying to start over and over again from the train wrecks, from the failures, with the accumulated weight of past efforts in my mind as psychological battle scars have made the journey indescribably difficult. And to me, what has happened, what is the surest thing I can say up to this point is that without God's help through it all, I would have never gotten this far; truly, it's been a difficult time, but with His help, He's been taking me to heights I can't even fathom, and even more so.

I want to take this time to say something to anybody who didn't get into their choice-university -- I have felt the same way before.  Four years ago before junior college, I had applied to UC Davis with the surest certainty a young, bold man could ever have had -- it was my dream school, and I thought I had all the qualifications.  But I got rejected.  This changed my life.  I remember everyone around me announcing all of their acceptances and wearing the sweater of the university they planned to attend, and I remember feeling so sad, not that I had a problem with people sharing their good news, but that the ember of the pain of not getting into my uni was rekindled.  And I want to say, don't give up. Even if I had not been accepted to my choice-university now, I still would have carried on to a university I had been accepted at -- it isn't so much as mulling over and trying to over-excessively control where you want to go to, so much as developing the openness and willingness to accept the way the dice fell and adapt, and to trust that everything happens for a reason, to trust God's will for you, that everything will be okay as long as you keep on trying and persevering the best you can.  I'd love to say that everything we want to happen will happen with enough hard work and perseverance, but that just isn't the world we live in, so we try our best and work with what we get.  And if I can apply a liberty here, what you get is exactly what you need for right now... use it wisely, thoroughly taste the experience, adapt, and everything will be okay. On another note, if you are a high school senior, just want to reiterate that junior college is not a bad idea, perhaps it isn't the ideal situation, but it can still turn out okay. Promise.

So now beings the process of working through my options, my financial aid, planning for moving... I'm in uncharted territory folks! :) I'm in my last community college semester, gearing up for uni either starting in August or September.  Cheers!