Hope and Other Good Stuff

So I am feeling kinda stressed out and worried and down about some things in my life right now. Mostly I feel bad about how I never seem to ever be able to learn anything important. Why can I not transfer the knowledge in my head into real life? So frustrating.

However, amongst all these things that are bad, bad, bad, there are things going on that are kinda exciting and good and give me hope.

One of those things is what's going on with Josh. Josh is a working artist, although I have come to appreciate the reality that many working artists would be starving artists without a second source of income. Josh is making the kind of money that starting comic book artists can expect to make, which is to say, practically nothing. But he's working and that is awesome. What is more awesome is that the company he is doing work for wants to pay for Josh to attend a huge convention in Texas this summer. They will pay his airfare and lodging and get him a table so he can show his art work and what not. Does anyone else find this incredible? It is incredbile to me and also surreal. Apparently, Comic Book Divas displayed Josh's art work at a smaller convention recently and there was a lot of buzz about how amazing it was. I mean, his work his amazing and it should create a lot of buzz, but wow. Since when is this the kind of thing that happens to us? Josh's quasi-agent told him about all this the other night and told him he was going to be a celebrity, a star, that everyone was going to know who he was. Now see, if this guy was like a real agent, you'd be like, "okay, whatever, dude," but this guy is just another artist who also happens to find work for fellow artists who he thinks are talented. So what he says kinda means something.

But you know what Josh said to me when he told me this story? He said, "I don't want to be a celebrity. I don't want to be one of those guys who walks around conventions thinking he's better than everybody." Which is just cute. Don't you just love Josh? If not, you really should. He is the best.

Another good thing is working in Young Women's. I love the girls. I'm also getting to know one of the leaders much better and we are becoming good friends. She is a pretty amazing person. I really need a friend besides Josh, so that is a real blessing.

I have also had many reminders over the past couple of weeks that Heavenly Father really loves me, that I really am His daughter and that He will not give up on me. Having that knowledge is a powerful and wonderful thing. There is so much hope and peace and comfort in having a testimony of the gospel and in knowing who you are. I may be a slow learner, but I'm a daughter of God and I have a Savior and it will be okay if I put my trust in them. I'm grateful for the temple, for words of living prophets, for music, for a breathtakingly beautiful world, for friends and family, and for scriptures that keep bringing me back to what I know is true.

So despite my stress, I'm hanging in there. God keeps giving me tools to drive the fear away and to remember how really blessed I am.