Live in the Now

It has been a month since my last post due to the fact that we were getting ready to go on vacation, went on vacation, got back from vacation, and had to adjust to life back from vacation and get caught up on work, school, and everything.

Our time in Hawaii was amazing. We visited both Kauai and Oahu. The bulk of our trip was spent in Kauai and I am very grateful for that. Kauai is more laid back and a lot less congested than Oahu. It provided a more relaxing environment and enabled us to leave our worries and stress back home for a couple of weeks. I'm not going to do a full on post of how our trip went and include a ton of pictures at this time, but here are a few of my favorites that either Ben or I were able to capture:

Beautiful peacock at Smith's

Final sunset on Shipwreck Beach

Waves crashing at Brennecke's Beach

Hiking at the last lookout of Waimea Canyon

The Napali Coast

My private beach!

Date night!

Sunset at Shipwreck Beach

I'll do a more in-depth Hawaii post later this week (I hope).

The real purpose of this post is to share something that was said in one of my online lectures. The class is all about self improvement, and one of the very first lectures really made me think. The professor was discussing living in the now. Instead of focusing on what you want in the future (i.e. I want to be active in my community in the future. I want to live in this city in the future. I want to go to grad school in the future.) and planning for what you will do in that future, work on it now. Do it now. If you want to be more active in your community "in the future," get off the couch on your weekend and go do it. Etc. 

If you have talked to me or read the blog lately, you will know that it is my desire to further my education once I earn my bachelor's degree.  Instead of focusing on "When I get into X school, I will do Y", I should really focus and put my efforts fully into the coursework I am working on now. 

The same goes with Ben and me currently living in Cedar Rapids. Instead of focusing on when we can vacate and go live somewhere that seems more exciting, I should put my energy into making the most of our time here. We are close to both of our families, we have great friends, we have our lovely home. . . there is a lot to enjoy now. 

With all of that said, I am going to go enjoy time with my husband and fur babies for the remainder of my Sunday.