Push Forward Anyways

Economic Principles & Problems was the class, with J.R. Kearl as the professor. This was all I knew when I signed up for the class during regristration. But in the past few weeks I've heard plenty more. "Kearl is great, but the exams are soooo tough," said one. "You signed up for that class! What were you thinking!" another exclaimed. Nervous feelings began boiling. And these feelings just about spilled over when I went to a class on leadership given by Professor J.R. Kearl himself. Former students laughed when Kearl said his exams were hard. "They were horrible," they said. The room laughed mockingly, but I squirmed in my seat. Would I be able to make it?
I approached Professor Kearl after his lesson. "I'm an incoming freshman," I said shaking his hand, "And I was wondering if it was a bad idea signing up for your class this semester. Should I wait?"
He sighed, contemplating his words carefully. "We usually encourage freshman to wait, at least until their second semester of BYU, just so they can adjust to the rigors of college."
I thanked him for his advice and walked out of the room. Doubt and fear began to mold in my chest, festering on my thoughts and emotions. Did I make a mistake taking this class? Should I drop it right away?
I needed inspiration. Cue Randy L. Bott. He stood at the podium, ready to address an audience that included myself. As I sat there, fearful thoughts pounding away mercilessly at my tender brain, I suddenly knew that Randy L. Bott would say what I needed to hear. He would provide the inspiration.
Throughout his speech he repeated a phrase that softened my frantic mind: "God did not send you here to fail." The words left his mouth, soared through the air, and hit me between the eyes. Just what I needed to hear. Then Professor Bott's eyes made contact with mine. We held that two-way bridge as he said this, "Satan will try to get you to give up, to drop out. Push forward anyways."
It was then that the fear and doubt evaporated in the high-mountain air. I was going to take Economic Principles and Problems, and do everything to make it through. And if Satan objected, I would push him aside and succeed anyways.

Leaving Home

Walking down the aisle of the plane, I looked at the people around me. Some talked on cell phones, others buried their noses in the binding of a book, and the rest simply sat, waiting to ascend. None of them knew me. None of them knew I was about to leave home. No one knew.
But it was happening anyway. I sat down next to the window, preparing myself to wave goodbye to my home. Eighteen years of laughing and loving with family and friends. I did not know anything else. And now I was going to turn around and walk away, leaving  those past eighteen years to gather dust in my memory.
The plane started and began to move slowly along the runway. The girl sitting a row ahead of me began to make friendly conversation, laughing with the boy next to her. He laughed too. But my mouth didn't move. My entire body was focused on what appeared through that tiny peephole of a window. The plane began to accelerate, gaining momentum as the seconds ticked off the clock. I anxiously waited to enter the weightless world, when the wheels of the aircraft would separate from the hard earth, touching nothing but air. Moving faster and faster, contact with the ground became a thin grip, the wheels barely skimming the runway. It was at this moment that I let go, my grip on the past loosening to embrace the future. It was at this moment that the plane lifted off the ground, and I left home.
Gaining altitude brought an incredible change of perspective. The tiny buildings and antlike cars were all I could see of my home, all I could see of the past. But the endless horizon ahead gave grand hopes of a brilliant future. And as the plane moved closer to that horizon line, a gust of excitement rushed through my mind, blowing away doubts and fears to bring the warm wind of possibilty.