Life's Choices

In life, one makes so many choices, and with each choice comes the consequences. And with time and experience I can vouch for the old adage, hindsight is 20/20. How could I have ever thought that high school would last forever? or that moving to utah was out of my reach at 18? or that I should keep dating THAT guy? or that baggy cargo pants and tiny tight t-shirts was super cool? or that I would never make it as a nurse, or that I ever wanted to be a public health nurse? or that I was ready to get married at 19? or that ironing my hair was a fantastic idea? What was I thinking? 


But luckily, for every one thing that I look back and laugh at, there are so many more that I am so grateful that I did, at the time, get it right. Enrolling in the nursing program at 18 yrs, moving in my girls, taking the job on 3C, finally realizing that that guy or that guy or that guy was not for me and to not settle for anything less than 'amazing', taking 4 months off and going to work with orphans, than only 5 months later taking more time off and traveling the world with my girls, and lastly realizing that Shawn was the one to finally convince me to settle down. The last one scared the bejeebers out of me. I was coming down from a fantastic trip, a massive accident and was just trying to get my life back in order when this man came into my life and swept me off my feet. He was so sure of what we had, so fast that it made me question it almost more; then when he asked me to marry him, in a month, I thought he was crazy. But I will be forever grateful that I was able to decide that getting married to him just might be the best idea yet. 


In the past 2 months of being married, the biggest decision we have made was the one to move to Saskabush. It was a big shock to the system, leaving my job behind and sitting around a tiny basement suite in the middle of a wintery wastleland (it's actually quite a beautiful city, but it's just too dang cold for me to venture out most days) but it was worth it because it was the best decision for our future. 


But last week, Shawn came home with the news that the University will not accept all his credits for last semester, which means that this year won't count as one of the two full academic years needed to apply for dental school. I will admit, it got me down at first. "This is because he moved home to Lethbridge last semester for me" "We didn't have to move out here" "We could have been in Lethbridge, and I could have been working this whole time and we would be in such a better financial situation" "That means we are another year away from being done". That sucked. I am a girl that loves to work and see the bank account rise. I love knowing that we have that financial stability and potential. But then I caught myself and started thinking of the good things that will come from this set-back. He can spread the remainder of his classes over the next two years so he can take more filler classes to up his GPA. And perhaps if I came in September, I wouldn't have gotten the job I got. And being here, Shawn can find out all the tips from all the guys who have learnt, and he can learn from their mistakes. 


I won't lie, I was quite disappointed at this speed bump, I have always been one to want to speed through and get to the desired end result but this is one time that a choice we made didn't quite turn out how we planned, right away, and I have to accept it and see how it is a blessing in disguise.