Skip to main content

23: Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

As my birthday is approaching in 2 days, I like to reflect back on what this past year of being 23 years old had in store.

I remember last year at this time I was in the stage of the unknown. I was in my last class of my credential and I did not know where the Lord wanted me to work or even if I was going to get a job that school year. For the first two months of being 23 all I did was sit at the computer and send job application after job application. Little did I know the Lord was asking me to sit and be patient because he had the perfect job for me...a Special Education Kindergarten Teacher in Riverside. This was a HUGE step out of my comfort zone because I was thinking I would be teaching in Orange County and I thought I would teach more older kids.

Well, let me tell you just when you think you know what you want the Lord bumps you and says "no, my dear Nicole, I have a better plan for you". So here I was taking a big step out of my comfort zone but it ended up being the best thing to happen to me. That school, staff, and kiddos have impacted my life in a million ways and I love every single day I get to go to work. It has truly become my second home and I cannot wait to go back for my second year of teaching. Thank goodness I trusted the Lord and took that leap of faith.

Then...something I really didn't expect happened in this year. I traveled to 3 different places all by myself...like WHAT? I never thought I could ever go travel on a plane independently let alone go to 3 different places (Colorado, Sacramento, and New Zealand). Also, the last place New Zealand was a huge journey to do independently and I did it!

If you wanna know what year 23 taught me. Well it taught me to never be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and go in to the unknown. It taught me to say yes even though you may not know what that yes may entail. If I could go and sit with myself a year ago and look into the eyes of my scared self I would say don't worry my dear for the Lord has something huge planned out for you this year that you will never expect. I am a braver and stronger woman today because of year 23 and I praise the Lord everyday for the unexpected journey he continues to take me on. I  look at the year 24 and I know not to worry for the Lord is my Shepherd and he has a plan much bigger than mine. So cheers to the unexpected journey of year 23 and bring on the beauty of year 24!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pregnancy & Birth

 Hi there! I know I do not blog on here on a regular basis anymore but my baby is napping and I wanted a place where I could remember the beauty of my pregnancy and birth. So here we go... June 20, 2023: I found out I was pregnant! Cue all the emotions (excited, nervous, scared) and the now what!  June-July 2023: I had just switched to my husband's insurance so I didn't have a doctor or anything. Luckily, with Kaiser I was able to get in pretty quickly. You see I wanted to be seen pretty quickly because I was on medication. I have been on medication since I was 15 for my spasticity/shakiness in my hands. Mind you I was 30 when I found out I was pregnant so I have been on this medication 3 times a day for half of my life 😲. I had no idea how my body would react to being off of it or even the process of getting off the medication. At first I was getting varying opinions about whether to stop cold turkey or to stay on it. Eventually, I spoke with my neurologist (who I wasn't ...

You talk funny

So I have always debated about doing a post on this subject but I always convince myself not to but my hope for this blog is to enlighten others about the disabled community so here it goes... Let's talk about my speech and how I talk... This is a rough topic because I never really have told others about this insecurity of mine but I have recently gotten peace about it and I feel like I finally embrace it You know having Cerebral Palsy it affects your muscles and one of those muscles it affects for me is my tongue. Thus is why I do talk differently. I went to a speech therapists from one I was in kindergarten all the way to about 5th grade. My speech has improved greatly from it but yes I do still talk differently. So can I tell you growing up and honestly until about a month ago I used to HATE hearing my voice on any recording. It would make me so uncomfortable because in my head the way that I hear myself I sound normal. So then when I go to hear my voice on a recording I...

Acceptance

For those of you that follow me on Instagram or Facebook you have probably seen my yoga videos that I have been putting up. On the recent one I had a friend comment about how much she loved my openness and confidence. This really got me thinking about what a road I have been on to get me to where I am at today. Back when I was a senior in high school I got nominated the most inspirational senior. Now when you are nominated for this award you have to write a speech and make the speech in front of the whole school at an assembly. I remember when I first found out I started bawling. Like what? People think I'm inspiring? At that time I was NOT comfortable speaking about my disability. In fact I couldn't even read the speech my principal had to because I was a wreck and was far from confident in myself. Even halfway through college I was not comfortable mentioning my disability. It was like the BIG elephant in the room. It made me nervous and I thought people already see that I...