I'm Supposed to Be Here

In December I treated myself to a trip to Boston. I was having a hard time here and needed some time away. It had been almost 3 years since I had left and I was ready to get back. Before I left I had several people nervous that I was trying to leave Georgia, that somehow this was a trip to scope out my next move. As I sat on the plane early that morning, I watched Boston come into view. The excitement was unreal! This was the place that I really became my own person. It was the place I launched my career. This was the place I started down my road to become the woman I wanted to be. I felt like I was coming home. All of a sudden my mind started wondering "maybe I could move back here". I spent that first day out to lunch with a dear friend and her adorable daughter. We had the best time! When I left her, I was heading to the family's house that I would be staying at (also the same family I'm going back to Boston for to watch their son). I sat on the beach that evening in my rental car just killing time. I had my journal in hand and was writing these thoughts and trying to make it work in my mind.
There aren't too many moments that come where I have a feeling or impression so strongly it seems to overpower me, but as I sat there that night considering bailing on my Georgia plan, I had the most overwhelming strong feeling that I am EXACTLY where I am supposed to be right now. It was absolutely incredible. So I finished my trip, loving every minute of it and soaking as much Boston into me as I could and then I came home.
Recently, I was contacted by a dear friend and former coworker about a work opportunity back in Utah. I wasn't looking to leave, but thinking about being back with my friends there, and with people my age, it was really tempting. I thought about it, weighed the options, and of course prayed about it and had the same feeling that I am EXACTLY where I am supposed to be.
I have said it before and I will say it again that I don't believe that Heavenly Father always has a certain place for us to be, or a certain job, major in school, or accomplishment to attain. In many instances, as long as you're on the right path, doing good with your life and following Him, He doesn't "care" (care as in no preference...He ALWAYS cares about you). But every once in a while He wants you to be somewhere specifically. At this time, for reasons so far above and beyond my understanding, He wants me in Waycross, Georgia. I've stopped looking for the exit route, the loop hole, or escape hatch. I've started making long term plans here. I'm settling in (finally) to my life the way it is, not the way I want it. I'm accepting the way things are and I'm working to fulfill whatever purposes He has for me. And until I figure that out (if I ever do), I will follow Him and do good continually.
He has a plan for you too! In almost every single one of Lori's letters home, she says that the Lord is in the details of our lives. A quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell says "The same God that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well." Surely we're all where we're supposed to be. My thought is, if you're where you are but do not feel strongly whether you're "in the right place" (because He will ALWAYS tell you if you're not in the right place), likely you're there for another person. Right now, I think my biggest purpose is to learn from the examples of so many people in my life that, had I not moved here, I would never have gotten to known. And if I figure other things out along the way, GREAT!