I Need a Break, But I'd Rather Have a Breakthrough

**So much for blogging every week. It's been a month since my last post. Whoopsies. (Don't get it twisted though, life at 25 hasn't gotten any busier, just lazier.)**

As you may or may not know, Life at 25 is approaching a birthday this month. Yay! Along with the celebrations come some makeovers. Especially a makeover of this blog. And when I say 'makeover,' I really mean just a new title. I've been giving it a lot of thought (the 10 minute drive home this evening) but I couldn't quite select the correct verb/adjective/phrase so it's still in progress. Anyway, on to the real reason why you're here...

In the last 12 months, there have been ups and downs but relatively no drastic changes. I'm still single, I still have braces, I'm still chasing after my dream, and I'm still fitting into the same jeans. Can't really complain. However, I think the next 12 months might bring something else to the table. Have you ever had the feeling that something really good is about to happen to you? When you just know that you're on the verge of some big changes in your life? When you can just feel you're about to have a breakthrough and turn a corner to something greater? I have had some nights recently when I lay in bed and I have to tell myself, "You better enjoy these early nights to bed and this queen-size bed all to yourself cause you won't have many more of them, girl." Shoot, maybe that's just me fooling myself. But maybe it's not. Maybe it's something bigger. I like to believe that that's God putting those hints and thoughts in my mind. That's Him sending a warning down to me that says, "You better cuddle with that body pillow as much as you can cause it's about to be replaced with some hairy, bony, sharp-toenailed legs." But honestly, if I don't find love this next year, so what? What I really want to find this year is a damn design job. (And God, if you're reading this and I know you are...could you speed up the process a little bit. I'm just penting up all this creative energy and before too long, I'm gonna explode. Thanks.)

Like I said earlier, on my drive home this evening I had a lot of thoughts running through my mind. But one stood out the most. I'm going to put it in question form and I challenge anyone and everyone who reads this to send me a Facebook message (Kenna Corley) with your response. Actually, it's going to be a couple questions. Here goes...

Are you just surviving or are you really living?

Are you still chasing your dreams or have you already achieved them or have you just plain given up on your dreams and settled for what the universe gave you?

I strongly encourage everyone to respond to me with answers to those questions. At 25, I feel like I'm approaching not only a birthday, but a fork in the road. Do I just want to survive or do I wanna really live?! The answer has to be obvious. For the last couple years, I've lived in fear. Fear of success. Fear of going after my dreams. I'm soooo over that. That's called lack of confidence and girl, I'm just too old for that now. But what I'm looking for is encouragement. Encouragement to keep fighting and chasing after those dreams. Whether it be success stories or stories of failure and your testimonies of how you got to where you are now and what advice you would give to a friend.

After reading this post, I felt like I needed to add just a little something more (I hope it all connects somehow). A very good friend of mine recently began blogging for the first time (I'm so proud of her ;)) and her title was "Surviving at 25." Her boyfriend had just been deployed once again. And before I had even read her first post, just knowing the title, I really thought she got it all wrong. Her attitude and outlook on her life right now was all wrong. "Surviving?! Girl, you're 25. You have everything going for you. What is there to be surviving?" But then I thought...I don't have a boyfriend, especially one that is deployed in a country across the world. There's no way I can relate to that. So the guilt kicked in. Then the compassion. Then I finally found a connecting thread between her struggles and my struggles. We are both just surviving. She hit the nail on the head. But instead of 'surviving,' I like to call it 'functioning.'

A recent message I heard at church was so perfectly written and directed for me that I could barely fight back the tears. The pastor had told a story of people that had to leave their home and go to Babylon. (Babylon at that time was the last place any believer wanted to be. Pretty much Hell.) But God had told the people to go anyway and that He would take care of them. He wouldn't tell them when He would take them out of Babylon, He just told them that He had good plans for them and they just need to function, basically to put one foot in front of the other and function.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11

So as my friend stuggles with her boyfriend being across the world and I struggle with searching for a design job that I want so very badly, we must simply function and get through our days. God isn't saying to just sit around by the phone and wait for him to call and change your life. You still have to do what needs to be done. But just keep going, keep hanging in there, and keep a postive attitude. Because God has seen your future and my future and He has engineered it for good! And He will bring you to it! That's His promise.