Growth

For my Senior year Spring Break trip, two friends and I went to Rexburg, Idaho.

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I'm sort of imagining what people's faces did as they read that first sentence.

Three of us gals from Utah went to Rexburg, Idaho for SPRING BREAK.

The first night, we ate a tofu dinner and stayed in Logan, Utah with my uncle and his family.

The second night, we stayed in Idaho Falls at my favorite person's house - my Great Aunt Lois and my Great Uncle Ray. You guys... there is no better place on this planet.

Uncle Ray took us gals on a drive around town!

In his Lincoln Continental.

We literally felt like celebrities!

Aunt Lois made us a seven-course dinner, as she always does and a five-course breakfast, per usual.

Then, we gals headed 30 minutes north to the crazy-party College town of Rexburg.

One of my friends had a sister who was attending College at the time.

She lived in a dorm.

We seriously thought we were the coolest EVER.

Staying in a dorm with College girls.

In Rexburg, Idaho.

Turns out we met three College boys.

They asked us three gals on a date.

Oh my goodness!

We were asked on dates with three College boys!

They picked us up in a two-door car. 

Six of us.

In a two-door car.

We began driving... well, the one guy began driving.

It was nighttime.

We gals had no idea where we were.

Out to the sand dunes we went!

Listening to Boys To Men on the cassette tape.

Two of us gals sitting on two of the guys laps in the back, bent pretty much in half because we couldn't sit straight up in the car.

Let's cut to the chase, here.

There are no restrooms in the sand dunes.

There was a lot of laughing.

I wet my pants - well one of the dorm roommates pants, since I wanted to be cool and dress like a College girl - on the lap of this guy who I had never met before.

Wet my pants.

Completely emptied my bladder.

On the guy. 

In a small car.

In another girl's pants.

On a long ride home.

The next day, we went to church.

"We" meaning us gals.

We walked right up to our previous night dates.

They literally pretended like they had never met us before in our lives.

Ever.

In the history of ever.

Never seen us before ever.

That night, I learned a couple of lessons:

ALWAYS pee before leaving home.

No matter what.

Pee.

Empty that bladder.

Two-

Don't EVER sit on a guy's lap.

Especially if you have not emptied your bladder fully and completely.

Three-

Do not wear a stranger's pants ever.

Poor girl.

She loved those pants.

I often hear people say that they failed.

Or that they are a failure.

Or that they are sick of failing.

I have often heard myself saying this over the four decades I've been alive.

In fact, more than I've said anything to myself... I'm pretty sure.

Failure is not a thing.

"Just because you did something wrong in the past doesn't mean you can't advocate against it now. It doesn't make you a hypocrite. You grew. Don't let people use your past to invalidate your current mindset... Growth: A concept. Embrace it."

Making mistakes is expected.

Making bad choices is expected.

No one is exempt from doing those two things.

Some of us are a little more semi-pro at it than others!

But, that does not equal failure.

It doesn't mean that we tell someone that we will wait at the bottom of the cliff for them because that's where they always end up...

Everyone has the ability to grow.

Everyone has the ability to do better.

Everyone has the ability to make different choices.

Like, not wetting their pants on the lap of a stranger!

Pay close attention to those who don't root for your rise.

Then place boundaries.

Growth: 

A concept. Embrace it.