Category Archives: Real Life Musings

Real life musings about life as a whole, including parts of life that impact singles and married couples, experience are here. These writings are also for people who are experiencing relationship changes. You’ll find articles that focus on ways to connect with family better. Other topics you’ll discover encourage children to develop a love for reading books and navigating a career are some of the blog articles written and shared here. Take your time reading through the articles. They are designed to equip you with insights, motivations, tips and inspiration that strengthen your inner being.

Perhaps Not All High School Graduates Need to go to College

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By Denise Turney

Getting college and university degrees might be en vogue. However, getting college and university degrees doesn’t always lead to rewarding, high paying jobs. Economies don’t have to be hard for students to discover that the college degrees they spent thousands of dollars to attain aren’t worth what they thought they were. It can also be sobering for college students to learn that employers value work experience as much, if not more, as they value college degrees.

The Price of Earning College Degrees

As reported in the June 12, 2012 “Do Too Many Young People Go To College” Wall Street Journal article, it takes 40 percent of college students about six years to earn a degree. Family and work responsibilities could, of course, be a reason it’s taking college students longer to graduate. What’s more alarming is the fact that college tuition costs have tripled over the past 50 years. Add to this the fact that many college graduates will strive to enter the workforce, competing for jobs alongside adults who have years of work experience.

After awhile it could make good sense to ponder whether or not it’s in some high school graduates’ best interest to step into a rewarding career as soon as they get a high school diploma. In some ways (and aside from the large contracts professional athletes can receive), it’s similar to decisions talented college athletes make when they decide to leave college in order to take a paying job with a professional sports team.

Managing Costs of Earning College Degrees

Talented college athletes and talented high school graduates may find themselves asking the same question. Both may wonder whether it’s in their best interest to get expensive college degrees or start earning a salary right out of high school. For high school graduates who choose to enter the workforce right after they get their diplomas, it might be worth it to secure work with employers who offer tuition assistance programs. This way, high school graduates can continue their education at the same time they expand their work experience, not to mention the fact that students will be receiving a paycheck.

High school graduates who secure employment with employers who operate college tuition assistance programs can also avoid racking up pricey student loans. To say this choice could help high school graduates avoid going into debt within a year or less of their graduation is an understatement. After all the costs of a earning a college education has outpaced inflation.

Regardless of when they enroll in college or university, students are encouraged to research occupations using tools like the United States Department of Labor’s occupational handbooks. Using these tools, students, can discover which careers are expected to grow or decline over the coming years. They can also find out the types of degrees employers typically require job applicants to have before they hire them into certain occupations.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

Sources:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203960804577239253121093694.html

A Miracle Can Happen Anytime

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By Denise Turney

Miracles are all around us. The challenge is — seeing miracles. After all, we only see what we want to see. Scientists are discovering this more and more. Our perceptions, prejudices, intentions and expectations influence what we see, keep us from seeing what we don’t want to see. For example, if someone who stole from us started a community organization years later, it’s not likely that we would trust the person (even if she’d changed). Instead, we’d probably believe she was going to “get caught doing wrong” sooner or later, desperately wanting to have our questionable thoughts proven to be “right”.

Which raises another point — rather than to face the truth, seeing miracles all about us, we prefer to be “right” (even if we’re wrong).  So, are we waiting for miracles to happen in our lives or are waiting for our eyes to open so we can see more of the miracles that are all about us? Or are we waiting for our minds, our repetitive thoughts (also called beliefs) to change, so mental barriers dissolve and we finally see the miracles?

And how will this seeing change our lives? Will seeing (really seeing) cause us to stop being afraid of love? Will it cause us to stop thinking there’s something noble or kind in living small, especially as we step into the truth that we are limitless beings?

If miracles are all around us, then it would be our thinking that would need to change. Even when we accept this, we may be reluctant to take up the task of actually changing. If we do stir up our courage and take steps (i.e. meditating, uttering positive affirmations, creating vision boards, asking for what we want) to change, we might be surprised to discover that it may take longer than we expected for our minds to transform, letting go of old, unproductive beliefs.

However, quitting shouldn’t be an option. As we stay open, accept change, remain curious and willing to take on smart risks, our minds will transform. We’ll become increasingly courageous, and start to feel differently. It might take years of work, especially if we received unproductive programming when we were children, similar to what Raymond Clarke experiences in Love Pour Over Me, but it’s worth it. It’s worth it to start to really SEE. After all, there are so many miracles waiting for us to finally SEE them, so we can start living the lives we were meant to live, savor and enJOY!

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com, or any other online or offline bookseller and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

God Bless the Tough Independent Child

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By Denise Turney

book about independent children

You don’t  have to grow up in a single parent home to realize early in your life that your lot is to be one of the children Billie Holliday sang about in her hit song “God Bless the Child.” If you’re going to get on in this world, you’re going to have to fend for yourself. This realization might have come to you after you buried one or both of your parents. You might have realized this after you became a ward of the state, being moved from one foster home to another.

Growing Up as a Tough Independent Child

Or you might have struck out on your own, nothing except the clothes on your back serving as your wardrobe, after having yet another fight with your parents. The decision to remove yourself from an abusive relationship or home might have also helped push you into the streets. After all you’ve been through as a tough, independent child, leaving home may not have been as scary for you as it would be for other people simply because you’ve been fending for yourself since early childhood.

As with other people, you may have learned to be fiercely independent as you watched one or more of your parents struggle with an addiction. Or you might have learned how to be fiercely independent after a parent walked out when you were an infant or toddler, leaving you to spend your older years wondering if there’s something wrong with you, causing you to compel that parent to step out of your life.

You’re not alone. Both events happen to some children like Raymond Clarke, a boy struggling to grow up emotionally and psychologically balanced. Genetics aren’t against Raymond Clarke. It’s Raymond’s father’s inner conflicts that cause Raymond to feel abandoned, as if he’s in the world alone, all by himself. As many troubled parents do, Raymond’s father, Malcolm, takes his inner conflicts out on his growing son.

There is no mother to fend for Raymond; she walked out years ago. Just as you and many other children do, Raymond survives. Yet, his belief that everyone is, at their core, like his alcoholic father and absent mother, causes him to fear the very thing he needs . . . love.

As I hoped for Raymond, I hope that you learn how to receive love. I hope you don’t allow your independence to cause you to shun affection or to think that behind every kind act is a trick. Some people are genuine and sincere. Some people have no intentions to cause you harm. Some people are pulling for you, wishing, hoping and praying that you win.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

Sources:

http://www.verbalabuse.com/ (Verbal Abuse Site)

http://www.chistell.com/Love%20Pour%20Over%20Me.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

In Pursuit of Your Most Passionate Dreams

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By Denise Turney

Become aware of a dream you have deep inside your being and you might be tempted to think that the road to achieving your dream will be an easy one. The illusion could be so intense until you disregard the hard challenges and ongoing struggles, some lasting for years, that other people faced as they pursued their dreams. For example, while reading autobiographies and biographies about courageous people like Harriet Tubman, Joan of Arc, John Johnson, Mary Kay Ash and Harland David Sanders, you might focus solely or heavily on the triumphs in their lives.

Dream Fulfillment May Not be Easy

Do this and you might convince yourself that other people who fulfilled their dreams had it easy, were gifted with miraculous journeys that other folks don’t get to experience. However, if you look closer at many courageous people’s lives, you may find that this simply is not the case. Not only do courageous people, folks who do what it takes to fulfill their most passionate dreams, bury their loved ones and meet the responsibilities of caring for their children, they also experience financial challenges, have to find time to take care of their personal health and seek out creative ways to keep moving forward during changing and hard social and economic conditions.

Their lives are anything but easy. It’s a reason many consider them to be heroines and heroes.

As you continue to pursue your dreams, consider letting go of the idea that achieving your dream will be easy. Consider letting go of the idea that your journey to the success you want will be smooth. As Raymond Clarke, a man determined to make it on the professional track and field circuit discovered, It might not be. In fact, your physical journey might hold experiences, surprises, you are yet to know anything about. You might celebrate some of these experiences and curse others.

Pursuing Comfort Might Keep You from Fulfilling Your Dream

What you may not want to do, especially if you have conviction about your dream, is quit. Additionally, as you pursue your dream, you might not feel as if the journey was easy until your dream completely manifest itself, and even then, you’ll likely be starting another life journey. It’s a reason the goal for constant comfort and the process of achieving a dream may not marry well. The pursuit of constant comfort could find you seeking rest more than labor, lack of change more than change and routine instead of unexpected events.

However, it’s the unexpected, the non-routine and focused effort that, step-by-step (sometimes these steps feel frustrating and way too hard), lead to the fulfillment of dreams. As Raymond Clarke does in Love Pour Over Me, if you really want to fulfill your dreams . . . keep going.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

Keeping Peace with Family Members at Holiday Events

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By Denise Turney

holiday parties

People from different cultures and religions celebrate holidays at different times of year, strengthening local and family history. In the United States and abroad, the winter season is a time when millions of people travel long distances to visit with family and friends, eager to celebrate major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. If people have wonderful and joyous memories of times they spent gathered at a relative’s home during major holidays, thoughts about getting together with family can create welcomed emotions.

Creating Good Memories with Family at Holiday Events

However, not everyone enjoys peaceful, happy conversations and family history experiences while in the company of relatives. Comedians tell jokes about it, jokes that elicit rip roaring laughter from audiences. Movies and books retell, often exaggerating experiences, arguments and battles that take place when three or more relatives who purposely avoid each other all year long get together during the holidays. For onlookers, it can be hilarious. It can also be painful.

Funny thing is there’s usually only a few, sometimes just one, relatives disagreeing family members would rather not be around during the holidays (or any other time of year, for that matter). To be with these family members, people travel home by airplane, train or automobile, risking the chance that they might get into a heated argument with a relative. To keep the peace during holidays as families come together, people can:

  • Journal to express emotions they might have been keeping pent up for months or years
  • Write down at least three qualities they appreciate or love about each of their family members
  • Telephone family members throughout the year, taking the dynamite out of once a year get-togethers
  • Pray for peace between all family members throughout the year
  • Commit to spending time with family members absent arguments and fights; after all, they are helping to create family history

Gotta say this. Older relatives might also find it helpful to put a little butter on their tongue, softening the way they say things. For instance, I’ve heard some people complain about how, during holiday events, older relatives repeatedly call them fat, skinny or tell them how much they’ve changed (in unflattering ways) since they last saw them. Not sure if some folks think physical age gives them license to say whatever they wish to younger family members. However, just as older family members might feel disrespected if younger folks speak too-direct with them, young folks feel likewise.

People can also remind themselves that they are helping to create lasting memories and family history for children and other adults in their families each time they attend holiday family get togethers. If arguments during the holidays center around major events being held at the same person’s home, families can also start rotating whose home holiday events are held at.

It’s possible to have peace in the home during the holidays. It might take a little creativity and innovation, but it can be done. It’s also better than building memories of fights and ensuring arguments in the minds of children around the holidays. . . . Enjoy being with your loved ones during this and other holiday seasons.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

Complicated Relationships in Father Son Books

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By Denise Turney

Some father son books are getting it right despite the fact that few people may want to admit it. Fact is, some father and son relationships are painfully complicated. Strain in these male relationships exist whether the father is living in the home or has been absent from a son’s life for months or years. Perhaps complications come because some fathers see a competitor, someone vying for their wife’s attention, when they look at their sons. Other fathers might look at their sons and see a child who will, one day, be as physically strong and looming as they are, someone who could easily replace them in a position of power.

Impact Father and Son Relationships Have on Society

Glimpses of this might reveal themselves in relationships male animals have with their teenage sons. After all and although it’s not written in stone, there might be something to male lions, long considered the kings of the jungle, pushing their teenage sons out of the den. If the sons don’t go straightaway, it can create problems, causing male lions to attack and harm their own sons. This tradition ensures that fathers remain kings of their families in the animal world. As difficult as it is to watch a male lion force his sons away from family, often for the remainder of the sons’ lives, when considering the harshness of the wild, it can be understandable.

What’s not understandable is how some fathers vacate their sons’ (and daughters’) lives. This trend among human fathers and sons is especially hard to understand considering the negative impact that complicated father and son relationships have on families, communities and society at large. If fathers vacate their sons’ lives, it could cause sons, even after they reach adulthood, to search for the love and support they should have received but didn’t.

Complicated father and son relationships can also impact sons’ academic performance, whether or not sons abuse alcohol or drugs, economic conditions sons grow up in and sons’ self-esteem. Of course, many of these complicated father and son relationships occur whether fathers force their sons to vacate home prematurely or whether fathers exit the family structure. To force their sons to leave home prematurely, fathers might physically, psychology, financially or emotionally assault their sons, forcing their sons to see leaving home as the only way they can gain a semblance of peace.

Father Son Books Forcing Sons to Vie for Themselves in a Cold, Harsh World

Raymond Clark and his father, Malcolm, a bitter man facing the evils of untreated alcoholism, confront these and other dilemmas in Love Pour Over Me. Yet, Malcolm doesn’t leave. His presence brings pain, yet a comfort of sorts. What isn’t evidently clear is why Malcolm stays, why he doesn’t become another father who walks off and leaves his son, the very thing Raymond both fears and begs for.

As Malcolm and Raymond discover in Love Pour Over Me, one of the thought provoking father son books on the market, nothing short of probing and addressing the struggles fathers and sons share may help open fathers’ and sons’ eyes, allowing them to clearly see that the price of not working to heal complicated father and son relationships but instead continuing to attack and hurt each other is too high. . . for everyone.

Fortunately, organizations and initiatives like the National Fatherhood Initiative, Father and Sons Together, National Center for Fathering and Supporting Father Involvement are taking steps to encourage fathers to develop and maintain healthy relationships with their sons, beginning at infancy. After all, men are not animals, and, when nurtured and guided with love, sons generally grow up supporting their fathers, not competing with them for power as might happen in the jungle with male lions and their sons.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love. 

Sources:

http://www.healthyplace.com/parenting/dads/connection-between-father-and-son/ (Healthy Place: Relationship Between Father and Son)

http://www.fatherhood.org/media/consequences-of-father-absence-statistics (National Fatherhood Initiative: The Father Factor)

Why Is Life Like a Rollercoaster?

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By Denise Turney

Like a rollercoaster, life seems to vacillate, going up and down. It took me several years to figure this out.

When I was a kid, my major concern was continuing to find fun things to do to fill up my day. That concern was swept away like water running off a counter edge as I played with neighbors, my sister and my brothers. Having fun was so easy then. It was my only job, the only thing I had to do. Over the years, my life (as I’m sure yours has to) has filled up with work, family responsibilities and other projects, daily responsibilities that, over time, can easily find life in this world feeling like a rollercoaster.

Riding the Life Rollercoaster

The days seem to be gone when each day seemed the same as the day before, except for the new and exciting trick, game or other fun activity my siblings, friends and I engaged in. Gone are the days when the only thing that made life in this world feel like a rollercoaster to me were major changes in the weather. I can still see myself sitting close to my family’s living room window on Dow Street watching rain streak slowly down the glass pane. I’d look out at the rain and wish it would go away. Forget the fact that rain watered plants, trees and crop, filling the earth with color and food. I wanted to go outside and play.

Then I started school (not my choice) and I started dealing with feeling propelled (pushed might be a better word) to do things that I didn’t want to do. Discovered teachers had rules, some that I questioned. Then it was off to college (of course, so I could earn more money at a job). Like you may have, I worked while I went to college, had a work/study job in the college traffic ticket office. After college it was off to a full-time job and that’s when life started taking on more of a rollercoaster effect.


My days were no longer filled with just having fun. In fact, when I started paying bills all by myself, days swung up higher and down further, intensifying the rollercoaster effect. After awhile, I no longer felt as if I could predict how my upcoming days would go, thinking they would only consist of fun-fun-fun. When you think about it, this might be a good thing. After all, do we really want to know how our days are going to go before they happen upon us? I’d think that would be a bit boring. But, then again, we’d also probably feel more in control of our lives.

Well, friends, fact is life in this world is like a rollercoaster. We hit high notes and then may have experiences that we feel will knock the wind right out of us. We’re all in this together, having different individual experiences that have common themes to them. As Raymond Clarke and his friends do in the new book, Love Pour Over Me, we can take the edge off the ups and downs by supporting each other. We can also get back to having more fun.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

You’re Too Close to Your Life Goals to Quit Now

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By Denise Turney

As soon as we become aware of our life goals, we may feel excited, absolutely exhilarated with the idea that we have a specific function to fulfill. Let our life goals cause us to be placed at the center of attention, and we can become that much more enthused and inspired. It’s easy to understand why we experience those gushing, positive feelings. After all, we’ve just received a message as to what our life goals are. However, we haven’t taken steps to fulfill those goals yet.

Fulfilling Life Goals Doesn’t Always Feel Easy

We haven’t faced any opposition yet. We’ve simply received a dream filled with promise. Our imaginations go to work, telling us it’s going to be easy fulfilling our life goals. If we’re keen on organization, we might even sit down and create a setting life goals worksheet. Reading quotes about life and personal life goals examples that are written by leaders who put in the work and achieved their personal goals may become part of our daily practice. It’s this passion Raymond Clarke feels as a track and field star in the new book, Love Pour Over Me.

Then we take steps to actually move toward the fulfillment of our life goals. For example, if we want to be a New York Times bestselling author, we may take the time to discover that we’ll likely have to sell at least 250,000 copies of one of our books to hit that bestselling book list. Because we’ve never spent hours marketing and promoting our books, we may read a blog or article where another writer expressed how doing a few radio interviews, developing a website and using search engine optimized keywords in book press releases made selling thousands of copies of his novels effortless.

Of course, we don’t question the accuracy or honesty of what the author shared. Instead, we assume the author shared honest facts. So, off we go, creating accounts at every major social media network, writing one press release after another, hiring a web designer to create a search engine optimized website for us, scheduling radio and blog tour interviews and paying to sell our books at vending events.

It’s Always Too Early to Quit on Your Authentic Life Goals

Weeks then months pass. When we go to count how many books we’ve sold, we find that we haven’t even sold 100 copies of our books yet. Frustration starts to creep in. We may even wonder if we have the right life goals. Some of us will change our life goals, thinking that simply switching a personal goal will make fulfilling the goal easier. After the same cycle repeats itself, we might even start to think there’s something wrong with us. What’s wrong is our expectation, our belief that people who achieve success have an easy road to travel.

Yet, if we truly love what we do, if we really love what we’re going after, we won’t quit. Love itself will call us back. If we don’t quit pursuing life goals that are our function to fulfill, we’ll produce a good result. We won’t quit. We’ll do what it takes to move closer and closer to fulfilling our life goals. We’ll be and stay open to change (after all, who gets it all right the first time).

If this has been you – if you’ve been taking the steps to fulfill your life goals for a long time, take heart. You might be right at the edge of a breakthrough. You might be on the cusps of life changing events. You might be almost there. My friend, you just might be too close to your life goals to quit now. Raymond had to learn this in Love Pour Over Me; it might be time for you to learn this life lesson too.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

Track Runners Who Inspire Track Fans

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By Denise Turney

Track runners inspire track fans by refusing to quit in the face of great odds. For example, American track sprinter, Tyson Gay, didn’t make it to the Olympic finals in the 100 meters at the 2008 Olympics. During the four-by 100 meter relay, the men’s American relay team dropped the baton during his exchange. Yet, Tyson Gay didn’t quit. He underwent surgery to repair his hip, and hit the track again. Four years later, at the 2012 Olympics, Tyson Gay got his Olympic medal, and oddly, he got that medal in the four-by-100 meter relay. The fact that he made it to the Olympic finals after recovering from surgery is amazing all by itself.

More Track Runners Who Are Inspiring

Tyson Gay is just one of the track runners who’s inspiring track fans around the world, who’s showing people firsthand what focus, commitment, resilience and hard work can help achieve. Throughout history, track runners have overcome great odds to reach their goals. Wilma Rudolph, born with polio, was one of 22 children. She was also born prematurely. The sprinter from Tennessee who entered this physical world in 1940 appeared to have an uphill climb right from the start. It’s nothing short of a miracle that Wilma Rudolph went on to run at all, let alone win three gold medals and one bronze medal at the Olympics. As a member of Tennessee State University’s Tigerbelles, Wilma Rudolph raced her way into history. Italians nicknamed her “The Black Gazelle.” A stretch of highway in Clarksville, Tennessee is named after her. She was a woman who loved track and field until her passing in 1994. She earned her way into history books and inspired countless track fans and everyday folk along the way.

It’s hard to mention Wilma Rudolph without mentioning Jesse Owens. The two track sprinters may well be the greatest symbols of the sport in the minds of many track fans. Born James Cleveland Owens in Oakville, Alabama on September 12, 1913, Jesse Owens won four gold medals (no easy fete in track and field) at the 1936 Olympics. It would take more than 40 years before another track runner would win four gold medals at an Olympics; that happened in 1984 when Carl Lewis won four gold medals at the Olympics.

Jesse Owens’ wins uprooted Adolph Hitler’s statements about a master race. According to the Official Jesse Owens website, Jesse got his start in track and field while attending school in Cleveland, Ohio (my home state; had to put that in here). Perhaps more than the other track runners mentioned in this blog, it was Jesse Owens who had to race with courage, pride, dignity, passion, resilience and tenacity in ways the other track runners except for Wilma Rudolph (thankfully) have not had to. Jesse had to deal with racial discrimination before and after the Olympics. What he achieved and when he achieved it has set him apart. As with the other track runners mentioned here, Jesse Owens continues to inspire.

There are so many track runners whose exploits on the track and field inspire track fans as well as children, teens and adults who don’t run. To name a few, there’s Edwin Moses (unbeaten in the hurdles during his professional career; oh . . . he’s from Ohio too!), Evelyn Ashford, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner Kersey, Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt and Jim Thorpe. These track athletes meet their personal and family responsibilities then go on to achieve excellence at their sport. They truly are inspiring.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

College Friendships that Last a Lifetime

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By Denise Turney

Finding friends can be intimidating, especially during college. Yet, many of us are finding friends while exploring new communities and succeeding academically.

After all, college isn’t only a time when women and men meet, going on to date for years or marry. College is also a time when enriching friendships are formed. Some of these friendships change our lives forever.

Finding Friends in College

College friendships are similar to friendships we form with neighbors when we’re in kindergarten. We laugh and cry with these friends. After awhile, we build trust with these friends, trust that finds us sharing deep personal secrets with them. These are the people who pop into our minds when we’re reminiscing about sweet moments from our childhood.

Finding friends at college who engender this same trust in us is a sweet reward. If we’re at college right now, we probably text or call our friends before we head out for the weekend. They’re our study partners, the people we buy tickets to concerts and school sporting events with. Everybody who knows us on campus knows who our best friends are upon sight because we all spend so much time together. It’s almost like we’re brothers or sisters.

Let tough circumstances come into our lives, as they do with Raymond Clarke and his college friends, and we’ll put our heads together and try to figure a way out of the situation. If we’ve had our friends for years, we may never tell on each other. We might not even confront each other when one of us has clearly crossed a line.

Finding Friends at College, Friendships that Last a Lifetime

This can have positive and negative consequences. If we start protecting our college friends to the point where we start lying for them, we might find ourselves keeping deep secrets. On the other hand, our college friends can open us up to love and care in ways we hadn’t before experienced.

Choices we make as we continue finding friends in college can work like stepping stones as we head toward adulthood. Some of the choices we make will blend into the very fiber of all of our lives, becoming permanent bits of our personal histories. Years from now when our hair has started to gray, our college friends might be the people we call first when we’re putting together fun group events like barbecues and anniversaries.

After all, while finding friends at college, we have the chance to create rewarding relationships that last a lifetime. We might lean on and celebrate these friendships as we age. In fact, sometimes college friends, as they do in the new book, Love Pour Over Me, are meant to be in our lives . . . forever.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654