How to Survive Your Senior Year

Here I am, getting ready to leave for college in less than a week and I find myself reflecting on the last year.

It has been crazy and full of so so so many decisions.

It's been, at time, stressful.

But then others have been simply beautiful, memories that I will remember forever.

Reminiscing on this past year, however, is not the purpose of this post.

This post is for you, yes you, the rising senior (and even junior!) in high school. For as I thought back on my senior year, there were so many things that I wanted to share with you. So after much thought and consideration on just what I would share...it came down to this: a list of five things to keep in mind as you close out your high school chapter.

1. I suppose we'll start on a non-serious note and I'll say this: have fun. Enjoy yourself! Let these last one/two years of your high school career be the best yet. No matter what's going on, make sure you take time aside from studying, applying to colleges, visiting colleges, and stressing about life in general to spend time with friends, be goofy, watch sad movies, laugh until you cry, eat WAY to much candy, and be a kid because soon people will expect you to be very much like an adult.

2. And that brings us to #2. All of your 18 years people expect you to listen to your parents/teachers, let them make your decisions for you and, well, quite honestly, they still (for the most part) treat you like a child.

But something interesting happens about half way through your junior year in high school. Everyone, and I mean, everyone, is going to ask you this: "So what are you doing with the rest of your life? Where are you going to college? What are you majoring in?"

All of the sudden you're being treated like an adult, expected to have all of the answers and know exactly what's going on. These questions won't end...they still haven't for me! Some days you'll get tired of the endless questions, but know this: these people only want the best for you. Let them ask questions, care deeply, and ask how they can pray for you. Because when you leave for college, knowing you have a crowd of prayer warriors will mean the world. So answer the endless questions, let people treat you like an adult even though it may seem hard to act like one.

3. But also know this: it's going to look like everyone else your age knows exactly what they want to do and exactly how they're going to do it. My friend, that is not the case!

From your perspective, it'll seem that everyone else has everything together, but in reality, they're just as wigged out as you are.

It may not seem like it, but while you're scrambling to submit college applications and trying to squeeze in as many credits as possible, and about to lose your mind...everybody else is feeling/thinking/doing the exact same things. 

So friend, you are not alone! Don't let this overwhelm you. Talk about it with your friends and rant together about senior year struggles. We weren't made to do this alone.

4. Treasure every single moment with your family, friends...again, we weren't made to do life by ourselves. Time with those we love should be well treasured, because trust me, when it comes time to leave...or get a job...or do whatever God calls you to do...you'll have wished you would have spent less time on Instagram and Facebook and more with the people you deeply care about.

Friendships are priceless. Family is gold. Time goes by so much faster than we ever think it would. But these relationships are the things you'll remember- and hopefully have- forever. So make them beautiful, memorable, and super fun memories. {I wrote a whole post on this here.}

5. Give it to Jesus.

My friend, turning to people for help is awesome. I highly recommend it. But above that- turn to Jesus. I cannot emphasize that enough.

Turn. To. Jesus. 

Let Him have every single detail of your fragile life. He will make it into the most stunning mosaic you've ever seen. Trust me.

I took the long route. I tried to do this whole college, tuition, huge life changes thing by myself. I tried for SO long before I realized: well this isn't working. To say I failed miserably would be an understatement.

No matter how crazy it may sound, this failing was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Because when I turned to give it to Him, He was waiting with open arms, waiting for me to trust Him and let Him take hold of every detail of my life and work it out better than I could have ever imagined. (See Ephesians 3:20-21)

If you take anything from this post, take this: Give it to Jesus. What is IT? Everything. Admissions. Tuition. Nerves. Stress. All of it. He wants to show you just how good He is at creating marvelous stories.


So, as you enter into your final year(s) of high school, I hope this put some peace into your soul. I hope it reminded you to treasure the little things, to have fun, but most importantly: to trust Jesus with your everything. He wants to give you the best possible future.

And as I head to college next week, I'm so excited to be entering this future He has had prepared for me for such a long time.

~Bailey

If you've been looking for updates on With All of Your Heart, here it is! Book #2 is officially published and available on amazon.com. I'm so excited for all of you to read this new story.

Thanks for supporting me in this journey!

With All of Your Heart Preview

Just to keep you excited for With All of Your Heart...here's a short preview of chapter 1!

- - - - - -

“We’re proud to present to you this year’s graduating class!” 

Finally! I thought, I’m finished.

I watched as all of our caps flew into the air and shouts of joy were let out from the people in the crowd along with a few of those graduating.  A smile was plastered on my face as I walked off stage (after a photo opp of course) to greet all those who came to see me.  To greet them as an official high school graduate. 

“My babies are all grown up!”  Mom said, engulfing me in a hug, tears brimming in her eyes.

“They sure are,” Dad agreed as he hugged both of us.

“Congrats,” Nathan, Carly’s boyfriend, said to me as he and Carly walked up to join the family pow-wow. 

“Thanks!”  I responded as Carly placed her arm around my shoulder and we walked off the school property for hopefully the last time ever.  

“Where are we headed for lunch? This better be good,” Dad asked as we searched for our car. 

“Um,” all I could think about was getting that awful graduation robe off. Number one, it’s not fashionable.  Number two, I was sweating like a dog underneath that black curtain.  “I don’t know. First I’ve got to get this robe off before I die of heat stroke.”  

“Better?”  Mom asked laughing as she helped me out of it.

“Much,” I said, adjusting my floral dress and necklace.

“So, where to for lunch?”  Dad asked as he started the car.

“He must be really hungry,” I leaned over and whispered to Carly and she laughed.

“Red Robin maybe?” 

“Why don’t I get a say in this?”  Carly asked.  “I thought this was a double graduation lunch?” 

Carly had just graduated from Gardner-Webb University a few weeks earlier.  She graduated with her degree in education and was trying to find a teaching job at an elementary school in the fall.

“Well, where would you like to go?”  Mom asked.

“I guess Red Robin would be okay,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“You’re ridiculous,” I said rolling my eyes as I laughed at her.

“Sounds good,” Mom ignored me as we all loaded into the car. 

“Are you getting excited about Uganda?”  Nathan asked me.

My heart beat faster just thinking about it, “Oh yeah. I can’t wait until next week.”

“Speaking of Uganda,” Mom turned around and looked at us all in the backseat.  “Carter wants to Skype us when we get to the restaurant.”

“I know!” 

“We also need to go shopping this week to get all that stuff you said you needed.”

“Yeah.”  A thought popped in my head just as my phone vibrated in my purse at my feet. The screen read: Meg!

Hey girl.  Hope graduation went well this morning.  Wanted to see what day this week would be good to talk about what I need to get for Uganda.  Just let me know which day will work best for you.  Love ya!

My fingers flew across the keys as I responded.  Would Monday morning work?  We could grab coffee!

Ding!

Perfect!  See you then.

All right! 

We pulled into the Red Robin parking lot a few minutes later and all piled out of the car. 

“I’m going to go get connected to the wi-fi so we can skype Carter,” I said walking quickly to the door.

“All right,” Dad said with a smile as I pulled open the big swinging door.

I took a seat on the bench inside the entrance, relaxing in the cool air. 

“Got it, Chrissy?”  Carly asked, sitting down beside me.

“Yep.” 

A few clicks later and everything was set up for me to talk to my brother again.

“Remember this time last year?”  Carly asked.

“Yeah,” I said smiling, picturing our family sitting in this restaurant just a year earlier.  I could only think about how different all of our lives were. 

Carter was home from Uganda for a month.  I had just finished my junior year and was still dating Hunter.  Carly was getting ready to be a senior and had just started dating Nathan. 

We hadn’t gotten in a car wreck.  I hadn’t gone to Uganda.  I hadn’t broken up with Hunter. James wasn’t in my life.  God wasn’t important.  My heart was as hard as stone. 

But then I went to Uganda; I met Ava and James.  God changed my heart.  He guided me in a totally different direction than I would have ever imagined.  He put me on a path that was taking me back to Uganda for the summer.  He brought me an amazing friend who kept me accountable in my newly found relationship with God.  Not to mention, he gave her an opportunity to join me in Uganda for a few weeks. 

This past year had been unbelievable.

And I couldn’t wait to leave in just over a week to return to the country that I had grown to love dearly.

- - - - - -

~Bailey

What's next?

"So what's next?"

I feel like I was just asking myself that question a couple of months ago concerning the publication of For I Know the Plans. And here we are today, over one hundred people have my book in their homes. That alone blows me away.

Here we are today and so many of you have read my book and recommended it to other people. It makes me SO excited and SO very thankful to my Jesus who has done all of this.

"There's still time in the summer to read one more book and this needs to be it. Not only to support a wonderful young lady in her writing debut, but to let God work on your heart in a BIG way. Read it but be prepared to be moved, to be touched, to be changed. To be amazed." (Words about my book from a friend at church.)

Less than than three months ago, I didn't think I'd have this book done before the beginning of the school year. Then God said, "Oh really? Watch THIS!" And He did so much in so little time- I am AMAZED by Him!

But in these last couple of days I've found myself asking the same question- what's next?

Book #1 is published and people are reading it.

This post is to let all of you know that yes, there is a book #2 coming! Tentatively titled, With All of Your Heart (continuing on with the Jeremiah 29:11-13 thing).

So many of you have gotten to the end of For I Know the Plans and said, "I just wished there was more!" Well, apparently I did, too because I'm working on the sequel.

The rough draft is getting there. It's at around 47,000 words (the final draft of book #1 was 56,000) and I'm absolutely loving this story. If you've fallen in love with the characters in the first book, I hope this second book will only make you love them more! There's lots in store for Chrissy in this next installment and I'm excited to share that with you.

Now. I've also had people ask me, "When????" The answer to that question...

I don't know. Though God did some incredible things, the last couple of months of editing For I Know the Plans were VERY stressful and frustrating for me. I want this experience of writing/editing my next book to be enjoyable and not rushed.

My hope for publication is this time next year. I say hope because it may be sooner...it may be later. I don't want to keep anyone waiting longer than necessary but I want this to be the best that it can be, not for my glory but for His.

I still have a lot of work left to do on this one...lots of editing and scene writing and plot developing. Being homeschooled, my mom has allowed me to incorporate 45 minutes of editing into my daily school schedule this year and I'm super excited about that.

All of this being said, I guess I'm really not sure what's next.

I know I'll be writing. I know I'll be doing school(officially a senior, by the way- WHAT?!). I also know that I'll be looking to Him for guidance in all of the decisions to be made. I'll be spending time in His Word and in His Presence.

But like I said a while back, while I may write other stories- this one isn't mine, it isn't for me. This story is His, it's for Him. He knows what's next and I rest in the comfort of that promise.

And while I rest, I write in hopes to glorify Him and see where this grand adventure of life will take me next.

~Bailey

Run with Endurance.

To those of you who have been faithful to my blog over the last couple months, you probably remember this post: A Beautiful Delay. 

At that point I had just begun the editing process with my sweet editor friend.

Now, here we are five(ish) months later.

I would love to be writing this to say that I am almost done- that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But no. Oh the light seems so far off.

Much to my own dismay, I'm only about half way through. My goal for the end of July seems to be slipping out of my grasp but I constantly remind myself that my God is bigger. He is stronger!

While I'm struggling to accept that His timing might not be my own, I know His plan will be perfect and it will play out more beautifully than you or I could ever imagine.

I have to tell you this. I sat down to rant and complain about how stinkin' long this is taking and how frustrated I am that I'm not done yet...

But God doesn't let me keep that mindset for long.

While I want to complain and be frustrated, He keeps reminding me that this is for His glory and not mine...for His honor and praise and not my own.

So I'm praying that I will be accepting to whatever He is doing and that in these next few months things will go faster than they have so far so I can still meet my August date.

Thank you for hanging in there. So many of you have asked and said you can't wait to read it- trust me, I can't wait for you to read it either!

Hebrews 12:1-2
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

I'm running friends, running with endurance to this goal He has set before me.

~Bailey

And on a very exciting side note: {as if editing one book wasn't enough} I finished the roughest draft of the sequel to "For I Know the Plans" about two weeks ago. As of now it is titled, "With All of Your Heart," continuing on with the verses in Jeremiah 29:11-13. I'm in love with both of these stories and their characters. My dear friends, I cannot wait for you to read them!!

I'm also working on a story about a girl with cancer...here's a little blip about it:

This is the story of Audrey Jordyn. The story of how she learned to live. The story of how she learned to love. The story of how she learned to give up fear and instead trust Him...even in the face of death.

While it's different from what I normally write, I'm absolutely loving this new writing adventure. I don't plan to make it a full novel, maybe just a novella. I'm just planning on writing until I'm finished and seeing where that leaves me! *Plot credit for this book goes to my best friend, Emily Grace.*