Advice

I really dropped the ball, I mean blog, lately.  But I believe I have a legitimate excuse.  I'll get to that later though.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the advice I've been given throughout my life; how some of it has been complete rubbish and other parts have been real pearls of wisdom.  Take for example the following pieces of advice I have received and used:

1.  "The Master Cleanse is a great way to lose weight quick."

FALSE.  This piece of advice is much better stated as: "The Master Cleanse is a great way to waste away while having the worst breath of your entire life.  Oh, and you will also be miserable."  Perhaps the idea of drinking nothing but lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper for as long as you can sounds exhilarating to you, but this little piece of advice has only lead me to feeling weak, wasted, grumpy, hungry, and incredibly disappointed.  This has officially been given the seal of: BAD ADVICE.

2.  "Who is John Galt?"

I will always be grateful for the church leader that suggested I read the book "Atlas Shrugged".  That was a piece of GREAT ADVICE.

3.  "Complainers complain."

This little ditty is my Father's crowning glory.  Dad Gibb likes to say this whenever any of us start to throw a pity party.  At first I thought he was losing his marbles because it was the epitome of obvious.  Duh, of course complainers complain.  And whiners whine, singers sing, and runners run.  Yet after spending an afternoon or two thinking about what the heck my Dad could be meaning by this, I came to a simple conclusion.  What you spend the majority of your time doing, that will come to be a large part of who you are, a title even.  So if you're going to spend a great deal of the day complaining, you're very likely to become well known as a complainer.  Decide what you want to be known as and then start acting that way.  Thanks Pops, that was a piece of GREAT ADVICE.

As of late, the piece of advice I've spent the most time reflecting on came from this lovely woman, my Grandma Gibb.

Back in September I went down to visit my Grandparents and some cousins.  It was a great day.  We spent the afternoon catching up and then went down to the river bottom for a hot dog roast.  After eating the most delicious dogs and mallows, it eventually came time to go our separate ways.  I said good bye to my Grandparents and as I was walking away, my dear Grandma called me back.

"Kristen, be nice to Jon."

HA.  I had just starting dating this Jon character like a week earlier and my Grandma was already telling me to be nice to him.  I couldn't help but laugh a little before reassuring her that I would treat Jon nicely.

She seemed a little flustered, as if I didn't get her point, so she added,

"Kristen, it's okay to fall in love."

SAY WHAT?!  Maybe for other girls, just not for me.  Love is for crazy people, and besides, I had literally only started dating Jon about a week ago.

Well, to make a long story short, that little sentence stayed in the back of my head throughout the past few months.  At first, considering it was like thinking about a fairy tale, pleasant yet simply out of reach.  But as the weeks stretched on, Jon proved to be just too good to be true.  And that was scary.  Thank goodness for that little piece of advice reassuring me that "it's okay to fall in love", because I'm not sure I could have as gracefully without it.

Grandma Gibb, that was GREAT ADVICE.  I'm proud to say I took it and I'm exceedingly grateful that you offered it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this...

Jon proposed and I said yes.  And because I've just been so busy flirting with him and trying to win his heart these past few weeks, I haven't really had time to blog.  Which leads me to a piece of advice I'd like to offer:

"It's okay to let a boy become you're number one priority."

I love you Jon.