A Day I Will Always Remember...

There have been many days in my short 22 years that have been important, impactful and all around-life changing. But a day I will always remember is a day that had no significance on the surface. That day things occurred that would change my life forever.

This day had seemed like so many before that I had lived so far. It was the winter during my junior year of high school. My family had been homeless for a few weeks by this time. We were living out of our car at the time. As we had no place to sleep, we would park in a parking lot so we could sleep in the car. By this time, I had spent more time in a parking lot than I ever wanted to.

Looking back, that day had been normal, well, as normal as a day can be for a homeless high schooler. I had woken up in one of the many parking lots we had stayed in. We then went to a convenience store so could use the bathroom to get ready for school. I then went to school, ate the two school provided meals that constituted my reliable meals during this period of my life, and went to class, pretending like everything was okay and that I really wasn’t homeless. I didn’t want to deal with what kids in high school would think about me if they found out. My mother picked me up from school and we went to another parking lot for the night. This is how most of my day went while my family and I were homeless.

These things are not what made this day memorable. It's what happened that night while I attempted to do my AP U.S. History homework. That night we were parked in a Walmart parking lot not far from my high school. I was wrapped in what blankets we had so I could stay warm. I could hear the buzzing of the light of above our cars. I could hear the light snores of my father attempting to sleep coming from the back of the car. I was having a hard time focusing on my homework. I don’t even remember what my homework was about.

After giving up on my homework for the night, I tried to sleep, but I could not achieve peaceful sleep. As I was staring into the black sky, I prayed to God. I said that if God gave me the chance to stop this kind of thing from happening to my future family, if I was to ever have one, I would give up my life to whatever plans he has for my life.

I did not understand at the time what I really was saying. But I am so glad I had trust in God and his plans for my life. My plans for my life took a 180® turn. I had wanted all my life to be a doctor and to be able to take care of my family that way. After I prayed He changed everything. I have always loved art, but this love grew from a hobby and something I enjoyed wanting to do to something I wanted to do every moment of my waking life. I had want to attend OU and then OU med school. That didn’t happen and I trusted His plan and ended-up going to OBU as an Art major.

My life hasn’t stopped changing. I thought I would just do art as my job, but I am now going to teach art in the inner city. I want to show high schoolers the love of God, and that if they want to achieve great things they can and no matter where they came from they could do anything.

I know that my life will keep changing, and that is exciting and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in my life.