life lessons

there have been a lot of long posts lately. so, for all of you that like to read the bottom-line, here you go. ten life lessons {lately}.

1. being single is WAY ok. make the most of this precious gift of time.
2. having fun friends who like to travel & be spontaneous is the best.
3. friends who love you & challenge you are important to have in life.
4. following God's will is really hard sometimes, but it's the only place real satisfaction is found.
5. all people are valuable. they all have interesting stories. ask them.
6. setting goals in life can be a great motivation. don't freak out if you don't quite reach them.
7. allowing people to celebrate you is not going to kill you.
8. take time to breath & enjoy moments.
9. life lived worrying about other people's opinion of you is the pits. don't do it.
10. you will never really know what's around the corner in life. buckle up. trust the Lord. and enjoy the ride.

coming soon: my thoughts {goodbyes}, goals by twenty-six, and graduation season.

almost over

yes, some rumors are true. I just made my public announcement to the people I work with about this big life change coming up: law school. it seems like it was just yesterday I was sitting at the kitchen table with my dad throwing around this idea, but that was last August. and now here I am living in the reality of taking this jump. a question I get quite a bit when people find out is, "so, is this what you've always wanted to do? we've just never heard you talk about this!" well, this post will hopefully clear those types of questions up and reveal just what is going through my mind **warning: it's a crazy place sometimes. welcome**

September 2012. while watching the then current season of suits, I got the idea to go to law school. just because. I mentioned it to my mom to test the waters & see if it was safe to mention to my dad depending on her reaction. her reaction: "you just moved to Bentonville. obviously this is where God wants you right now. stop thinking about what's next." wise words from mom for the win. and that's exactly what I did.

summer of 2013. the thoughts began circulating, again, in my mind about what is next. honestly, I knew that my current job was not going to be a life-long career, and I wanted to figure out what was next and how I could be preparing for that. the thought crossed my mind to go back to school for counseling and maybe getting involved with International Justice Mission on the re-entry side of things. but honestly, I couldn't quite get excited about making that large of a time & money investment in getting my master's in counseling.

august 2013. I was home one weekend & mentioned getting a master's in counseling to my parents. their reaction caught me off-guard. my mom asked a bunch of questions, but my dad was quiet. the reason this was so strange to me was because my dad is never quiet about these things. I had prepared for all of his questions beforehand because he has always been the one to make sure we've done our research. but he was silent. at the kitchen table the next morning, my dad said this: "Alison **side-note: my family calls me Alison**, why don't you just go to law school?" me: "did mom tell you about that?" dad: "tell me about what?" ... long story short-ish, my parents hadn't talked about my thoughts from a year ago. my dad thought of that himself after I told him my passion for working alongside battered women either in an international human rights context or an inner-city legal aid aspent. we spent the rest of the morning looking at different options, and I tentatively began allowing myself to think about this possibility. later that month, I bought an LSAT Kaplan study book to see what this crazy test would be like. to my surprise, it wasn't going to take me a year to study/learn the material because it's mostly just analytical skills & logic games that I enjoy! I signed up for the October LSAT and began studying in all of my free-time. I've never been so disciplined in my life!

October 2013. I took the LSAT & waited for the results. no one that lives in NWA knows about this besides my brother. stress level was high. I didn't realize how bad I actually wanted this until now, while waiting for the score. this score would determine whether or not I was going to pursue a legal career. I had my first break-down moment the weekend before receiving my score. I was in my car, driving down Walton Blvd in Bentonville, crying my eyes out, & pouring my heart out to the Lord. It was the first time I allowed myself to admit how badly I wanted this. "Lord, I want this so bad. Please just help me get above a 150... I want to live in your will for my life, and I think this is it.. I hope this is it." I got above a 150.

December 2013. snow days. they were good for one thing, I got all six of my applications turned in: Baylor, Texas A&M, St. Mary's, Regent, UALR, & Samford.

January 2014. I received my first acceptance letter. and a scholarship offer. and a decision deadline of April 1st. over the course of this month, I received acceptance letters & scholarship offers from five of the six schools I applied to. what?? I told my boss that I was going to law school. I told the rest of my team I was going to law school.

February 2014. traveled to all the schools trying to decide where I was going to end up this fall. luckily, you can go back & read posts from those months because that's also when I first began this blog.

fast-forward to now. I will be attending Regent University School of Law beginning this August. my last day of work is June 15. I move to Virginia Beach the first week of August. if you want to know why Regent, go back and read here and here . God is good & everything He does is good. His will is good, pleasing, and perfect... even when it's hard.

weekend update

this past weekend was a whirlwind. one of my little sister's had her senior prom in Dallas, so I got to make the trek down to Texas to do hair & makeup for Elaine and her entourage. a little about my family: I am the oldest of four kids. my youngest sister, Chrissy, & I are called "the bookend twins" since we look very similar, but we could not be more different in personality. the second youngest, Elaine, is a carbon copy of our mom: short, blonde, beautiful smile, blue eyes... basically we could not look more different. then there is my brother, Andrew, a senior at the University of Arkansas **wps** who I am pretty close with and is a good mix of both of our parents. as you see in the picture above, Elaine is a gem. she is absolutely stunning on the inside & out. not really sure how we are going to handle the college guys wanting her attention in the coming years!

I have been blown away by how God has blessed me through my siblings. they each love the Lord wholeheartedly & challenge me to be a better follower of Jesus everyday. they teach me so much about life, and I thought I was supposed to do that for them! how did our parents do this? I'm not really sure they even know. the closer I get to twenty-five, the more I realize my parents had no idea what they were doing. my mom was twenty-six when I busted into their world. twenty-six! I cannot even imagine being married right now, let alone being responsible for another little life! but what I've come to realize is that God gives us grace in every season. He has lead my parents through the past twenty-eight-ish years of marriage and raising four crazies, and He is continuing to lead them as they go. as I work alongside young girls with different home situations, I am continuously reminded of how blessed I am to have two parents who love God, follow Him, and have taught me to do the same. not that they do things perfectly, but they strive to honor God & bring His name glory in every aspect of their lives.

so, here's to today, bringing honor & glory to God in every aspect of my life, admitting when I fail, and loving others in a way that points them to Him. happy may 6th, everyone!

weekend update {dc edition}

 

 

this past weekend taught me many new things. among them are: 1. having spontaneous friends who love to experience new things is the best, and 2. it's always worth saying yes to cheap round-trip tickets. as people ask how my trip was this past weekend, one of the things that continues to ring true is that I am so glad I went to DC as an adult rather than as a high school student. the high school version of myself would have looked at this stuff like it didn't mean anything, but the adult me knows better.

 

we did DC in 4 days. well, more like two full days & two half days. here's a rundown of the things we did:

Thursday - fly from Little Rock to Baltimore, took a shuttle with a new friend (Joan), checked into our hotel in Arlington, navigate the Metro rail system, & went to an area called "Georgetown" for a late dinner at numo **read: amazing**

Friday - leave hotel, quick breakfast, holocaust museum, later lunch, museum of natural history, national art gallery, hotel to get ready for dinner, Marvin's for dinner, & different patio bars that night.

Saturday - slower breakfast at a new place, walk around national mall while a protest was going on, museum of American history, the capitol building, botanical gardens, nap-time & ice cream truck time on the national mall, bus tour of monuments, late dinner at Hamilton's.

Sunday - best breakfast ever at Le Bon café on our way to church at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, lunch at Le Bon café, check out of hotel, shuttle to airport, fly from Baltimore to Little Rock.

 

this past weekend was so full, but if you're only going to spend a couple of days in DC that's the only way to do it. above are pictures from the national art gallery, which I wish we would have had more time in. the feeling of seeing a Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, & Picasso in real life was surreal. **note: do not even try to go here with only an hour until they close** this is one I will be re-visiting. another of my favorites was the holocaust museum. we spent three hours going through their main exhibit, & I still feel like we were rushing. I wish that there were words to describe how it feels to go through that museum & see what these people went through, but there aren't. there were videos at the end of the exhibit from real people who survived those terrible years, and I kept thinking "how do those people continue to live with those images and memories?" directly after the videos is a beautiful memorial room where people may sit & reflect on all they have just seen. beautiful people, mistreated & lost. reminds me of a sermon I recently listened to: "whenever a culture devalues something God has declared valuable, the outcome is catastrophic."

some (ten) trip highlights **there are a lot**

1. Le Bon Café - anytime you have to stop somewhere twice, you know it is good. we were those obnoxious girls who ate outside & told everyone who ventured by that they were missing out if they didn't stop here. to die for egg strata, melt in your mouth French toast, out of this world chocolate croissant, fresh fruit galore, and a big bowl of coffee... I mean how could you not go back?

2. The Hamilton - this is where we went for dinner on Saturday night. things that blew us away: their service was phenomenal, massive wine list, still seating people well past 11:00 at night for dinner, incredible fresh tuna sushi appetizer, & each of our meals.

3. eating lunch outside: that weather. those patios. district taco was the bomb. not to mention the art sculptures that we could enjoy while eating! spoiled much?

4. ice cream truck + nap time on the national mall... you know you're living well when you can stop & enjoy this moment. as I was laying down I could look to my right and see the Washington Monument, and to my left was the Capitol building. can I do this everyday please?

5. Capitol Hill Baptist Church - a traditional service with hymns that I actually enjoyed. why? because normally a traditional service like that is full of shallow teaching & not much challenge, but that could not be farther from what we experienced this past Sunday. everyone we ran into was authentic and welcoming, the prayer throughout the service was incredibly real straight from the people's hearts, the teaching didn't hold back any punches, and it was full of young people who live in DC. if that doesn't speak volumes about a church & the young people in America, I don't know what else will!

6. Marvin's - great little restaurant known for their muscles & fries. if you don't get one of their many different muscles & fries plates, you're wrong. also, bartender's choice beverage with bourbon, just do it.

7. the parks - a big city with tons of beautiful parks full of people running, biking & walking on their lunch breaks?? when can I move here? 

8. meeting random people - another reason I'm so thankful for my friends, they enjoy talking with people as much as I do, if not more! from the very beginning of our trip (sharing a shuttle with "joanie"), we decided that we had to keep our "interesting people quota" up each day. yes, these are my friends. yes, we may be obnoxiously loud, ask you many questions about your life, laugh with you at fun stories, but we are loving life!

9. The Metro - again, meeting random people, best. not having to drive in crazy traffic, also a win. getting to see what real life could be in DC, love.

10. walking everywhere - since going to school at the University of Arkansas, I have yet to live in a city where you walk miles upon miles every day. I miss it.

I believe that I fell in love with a city this past weekend. if I don't pursue living here for some period of my life, I would be shocked. when I've told people that over the past few days, the reactions I get are somewhere between shocked, confused, and surprised. most people would maybe say that about Chicago, New York, or Dallas, but it happens to be Washington DC for me. to say that I'm excited to live 3.5 hours away from here might be an understatement. to have the opportunity to maybe spend a summer or a semester there makes my heart beat fast. here's to the future, as exciting and unknown as it is.

the city that stole my heart

this past weekend I got the privilege of going to Washington DC for the first time with some dear friends. if you can fall in love with a city, I think I did this past weekend. from the stunning architecture to the underground metro to the beautiful history that runs rampant in DC, it just drew me in piece by piece. it's hard to say what was my favorite part because there were so many, but one thing that stuck out to me & my friends was that we knew it was a BIG city but it actually felt like a smaller city because we were walking everywhere & meeting tons of fun people!

I will say that one of my absolute favorite things about this trip had to be the fun friends that I traveled with. nothing was over-planned **and by that I mean we didn't really have a plan** & we were up for anything. we ate great food, walked for miles, laughed all weekend, & just simply had fun. these are my friends. they are stunning, inside & out. they are full of life and love to share that with others. they are literally the best. love y'all, mean it! 

needless to say, there is a weekend update coming with TONS of pictures, BUT I'm still working on that one.. so coming soon: weekend update {dc edition}, life lessons, & it's almost over.

why stress sucks

stress is like a catch-22 situation. stress makes you tired, but if you're too stressed you don't sleep well. because you are tired, you don't want to exercise, but you should because that will give you more energy. you don't exercise, you have less energy, so you eat something or drink something to wake you up. you aren't exercising, you have less energy, you are drinking diet coke like it's your day-job, and you feel fat. you are tired, you aren't exercising, you drink diet coke all day every day, you feel fat, and you don't have time to do anything. it's like this dumb, never-ending cycle. sometimes I just want to scream STOP, but then I guess people would look at me weird.

I just had one of these weeks, and it just sucks. sometimes you just have to duck your head & work until you get out of it. and then hopefully comes release & relief. and then hopefully you've learned to refuel. refuel through good-for-you food **think rainbow colors**. refuel through exercise **yoga is my fav right now**. refuel through the quiet. sometimes it is good to stop, sit in the quiet, and listen. praise the Lord for the quiet moments & the crazy moments that make me savor them more!

my fav things {local edition}

on the long list of my absolute fav things is my love of local good eats. maybe it's something that's been passed down through my mom, but if it's off the beaten path, quirky & local, count me in. my mom always made an effort to explore new places to eat when we were growing up and especially now that I am old enough to appreciate them. one of our absolute favorite places in Dallas to eat for lunch is café Max. hands down best salad place ever. if you haven't been, go. it won't disappoint.

once I moved to Bentonville, I began looking for those little local gems. oh my word. to say I've hit the jackpot in great local places to eat would be an understatement. crepes paulette was one of the first places I found & immediately called my family to brag on that first Saturday morning. the farmer's market in Fayetteville had been such a fun Saturday morning find, that I thought why not try out Bentonville's? Surely they will have some kind of bakery I can grab a coffee & muffin from. that's when I found crepes paulette. a little food truck on the downtown Bentonville square where a French man & his wife make the best, melt-in-your-mouth crepes I've ever had. ever. my family & I frequent this place, & it's become a non-negotiable that we go every time my dad comes in town :)

some of our favorite Dallas-area local eats: Breadwinner's (McKinney Ave location), Café Brazil, Spoons (in McKinney), Urban Crust (downtown McKinney), & the all-time fav (and maybe not so local) Gloria's.

some of my fav NWA spots: Green Bean, Crumpet Tea Room, Crepes Paulette, Pressroom, Kind Kitchen, Little Bread Co, Green Submarine, & Big Rub BBQ (bbq tacos, anyone?)