We all have a destiny, we just have to find it
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Have you ever committed to something you didn't feel qualified for?
You find yourself overthinking, trying to study really hard, sometimes even freezing up when it gets overwhelming. Several months ago, I turned in an application to be a panelist for a fantasy and science fiction convention called LTUE or Life the Universe and Everything. Like the many scholarships I had turned in the past and got denied, I was expecting another disappointment. I talked to authors who told me the difficulty of becoming a panelist in the conference and how you have know certain people to get in, and so on. I still felt like I could do a workshop or a panel, especially if it had something to do with character development, writing plots, basically anything to do with writing. I was overjoyed when I found out I got accepted as a panelist, but it was on the one thing that was on the bottom of my list. Map Making. I have made maps, I have drawn them, experimented, but this wasn't just about how to make a map. It was the History of it. As it neared closer and I received the questions that were going to be asked, I suddenly felt like I was no longer qualified for such a panel. The panelists consisted of a professional cartographer who makes maps for a living and an author who has written for thirty years. How could I qualify for something like that!? I felt intimidated and anxious on participating in something like this. I studied, I studied hard, but I just wasn't fully understanding how some of the tools in History worked, or how the log and line worked. I needed visuals, understandings. I needed to do it myself to know what it was about. It was like back in school again, except with all my studying, I still didn't feel like this 'test' was going to pass for me. You know what helped me? The influence and support of others. My dad, my sister, my friends, they all were able to help me understand that I was chosen for this panel because of what I knew. But I'm sure the other panelists probably know what I know too and then some! And then I met a young woman who confirmed to me that I was more qualified for this than I thought. She said: "You are a missionary. That is what makes you different than the others. You have the Book of Mormon that has plenty of examples of how they saw their world and the maps that they had to make. They don't have that kind of knowledge as much as you understand it." And she was right! I am a missionary! I didn't even think how my missionary work could contribute to something not related to the Gospel. But I did, I incorporated the geography of the Book of Mormon in the panel. Sure, it wasn't doctrine, just the simple facts, but it caught peoples attention. I came across one man who said that he looked me up and found out I was a missionary, he thought it was so cool that I had such an opportunity to express what I knew in Map-Making still as a missionary. It was a good panel. It turned out, I was able to say things that I knew, even if it was just the simplistics. Some of them just wanted to know how to make a map while others wanted the more complicated details that the cartographer or the 30 years published author could explain. I made little jokes that made them laugh like "Rivers don't go uphill" and talking about passing a one sentence town for the reason of saying this: "This is a nice town... wasn't it?". But in order for me to have the confidence enough to do such a panel was the very reason of my friends and family. If Heavenly Father created you to figure things out entirely on your own, you wouldn't be sitting here reading this post. There are billions of people out there, and several of them have influenced you in your life in some way or another. Heavenly Father did not want Adam to be alone, because man was not destined to be. So he gave him Eve. Man was not made to be lonely. My sister gave me moral support, this woman that I met in the hall told me what I needed to hear. Without them, I would be timidly explaining things at a table. Don't think that your life needs to be entirely independent, that nobody can help you. We are all here for each other. When you receive those moments of discouragement, you don't have to endure it entirely alone. Allow others to help you, perhaps let them give you a different perspective, a supporting hand, a moment of comfort. It doesn't matter what you are going through, Rivers don't go uphill because they don't have the ability to do so, but you do. The journey is always going to be uphill, but we don't need to hike up that grueling hill all by ourselves. There are others who are willing to hold your hand and help you up it. That extra hand can be anyone, it can be a family member, a friend, a stranger, and often times, it can be our Savior Jesus Christ. Don't travel alone, that's not part of the journey. That's not part of the destiny that is placed for you. Hold tight, the plan through this mortal life is marvelous, but it shouldn't be traveled alone.
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Kaylee CasuttI have been writing for over eight years now and have been both building to publish my first book and serve as a service-missionary of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Everything I write will contribute to the journey destined I have been striving to find and build. Archives
May 2020
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