The year was 2004. Bush was in office, I still lived at home, and the “Awkward Nathan” stage of my life was quickly coming to a close. During Christmas break that year, my family and I drove the exhausting 17 hour to Walt Disney World from Hillsboro, Texas. The trip was amazing. As I recall the lines at Disney were short and the weather was in the 60’s which was just swell. Anyways, on the way there we stopped in Tallahassee, Florida to see my childhood mecca: Doak Campbell Stadium. You see growing up, I had always dreamed of going to either Florida State or Michigan but after I stood under the statue of Renegade outside this glorious brick monument to the institution of the gridiron, I knew that one day I would come back as a Seminole.

As most of you know, I ended up going to Abilene Christian University for my undergraduate, but I still knew that one way or another I would eventually end up in Tallahassee. I now know that I ended up at ACU so I could meet my awesome wife Megan. I knew it was true love when one day we were talking in the computer lab in the WPAC and she was talking about the different options she had for grad school. She said “One of the best music schools is actually Florida State.” I could feel the grin on my face grow disgustingly to Joker proportions thinking “Okay, I already knew I loved this girl, but now it’s providential.” After hours of prayer and asking God why certain doors weren’t opening, Megan found out she got in to the FSU School of Music.

After she got in I started looking for a PR job in Tallahassee (you know… my major) and nothing was working out. I knew I was particularly in trouble when I called about a pretty low paying menial and they said I was one of 76 applicants. Then one night Megan turned to me and said “I think this is a sign for you to apply to grad school.” The next day I bought a GRE book and started the application process. I found out last week that I got in to the graduate program as a non-degree student which means I’ll take classes this semester and if my GPA is acceptable I’ll be able to be in the program as a full-time student.  I know this might not be ideal, but I regardless I am super stoked to be here. I know that God put us here for a reason and I am stoked to watch his plan unfold for us.

I say all that to say this: for so long I really didn’t think that my dream of going to Florida State would ever become possible. I had honestly come to terms that that dream wouldn’t ever happen. During that time I had applied for a lot of different jobs in all over the country, thinking that this or that job was the end all be all of jobs. Every time I didn’t get it I would get really frustrated, thinking that my career life was over. Now I know that these closed doors were just leading to the eventual (and the most awesome) open door. So just remember, there is an open door out there, it just might take you a while to find it.

Oh yeah, I know the last time I posted something was 11 months ago. I’ll be sure to work on that.

Thanks to “iEverything” I can’t stand the way the letter I looks capitalized. Is that weird? But that’s for another blog another time…