Sometimes Life is Beautiful

I'm laying here on a terrificly, uncomfortable couch in a dark and empty apartment that was once filled with five other bodies to occupy the space. My bed is stripped of its sheets and there is only a suitcase lying in the middle of the room to mark my existence here.  As the semester has come to an end only yesterday, another chapter of my life closes and a new one will begin in a matter of eight days. I said goodbye to my roommates, congratulating the ones who graduated this semester and bid farewell to those who will be returning home for the ensuing months.
After the break I will move into another apartment with five different girls, only two of whom I've ever met.
If you were to tell me a year ago that this is where my life would take me, I never would have believed you. I never would have believed that I would be strong enough to do this. That I would have faith enough to trust Him in the way that I needed to, to get me here.
The older I get the more I realize that life rarely, if ever, goes the way you intend. And isn't it beautiful?
Isn't it lovely that we have to struggle every now and then? Isn't the unknown sort of a charming concept? I find that as I mature in years the more excited I become to grasp a greater understanding of who I am and who I want to be.
I have found that the more days that pass with the absence of the man of my dreams in my life, the more excited I am to find him.
I have found that life is harder than anticipated. And that the rewards are also more wonderful.
I have found that family is the single most important thing in this life and without them I would be nothing.
I have found that distance does in fact, make the heart grow fonder.
I have found that the Lord will always answer your prayers and that within them there is to be found a best friend. Talk to Him.
I have found that we are stronger than we think we are. And that we are capable of doing literally, and I do mean literally, anything. Endure.
I have found that life can sometimes be lonely. But that those times of loneliness are the times the Lord is trying to tell us something. Listen.
I have found that every experience is meant to prepare you for something greater and in some cases, harder. Pay attention.
And I have found that this life is not a time meant to find ourselves but rather a time meant to create ourselves. We decide who we want to be. Every decision we have made thus far has led us to where we now are. We decide our lives.
And that is what makes life so beautiful.