The Joy Behind Learning to Love Something, You Once Hated

Forgive me, I have not written in about 6 months. My goal is to be better at posting in my blog, so if I don't update next week please bother me about it :) Also forgive me because I feel that the title of this blog is super cliché. However, I couldn't think of anything better and I wanted to get my thoughts out before they died down. Also, warning: I'm not feeling very eloquent tonight, so another reason to apologize if it's cliché. I really just want to write and get this out of me.

I want to share a story and then the lesson I learned from that story.

It is incredible to me, the ability behind learning to really passionately love something that at one point in time you absolutely despised.

For me, it comes in the form of a class that I have taken this semester--- Plant Identification & Ecology.

Story: I graduate in about a year and signed up for this class as an elective for my major, because I'm done with my major requirements... in short, this class was not required for me. But I LOVE learning new things, and after taking ecology and learning that I loved that too, I thought it wouldn't be so bad. "Cool, I get to learn about some cool plants and more about how plants work.. why not?" 

Unfortunately, the first month of the semester was a disaster. I thought the class was about learning concepts, and discovered it was mostly memorization. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to memorize the set of plants AND be able to recognize them for our weekly quizzes. I really hated this class. I'm not even kidding, I would have nightmares about it.

But through time, things got better. In fact, the transition was quite slow, but now I can honestly say I love this class. Why? Because of the beauty that comes behind learning about something you hate. 

Lesson:
Why do I love this class? Because to me, it is a manifestation of the Love of God. I feel this class has given me at least a taste at how intricate and vast this world is. Not so much in the sense of 'look at how intricate plants can be' but also from the idea of how incredible it is to discover that anything is possible... is this not love?

For LDS readers who are reading this, this concept reminds me of 2 things: 2 Ne 2:2.."..and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for they gain" the word consecrate means, 'to make holy.' So basically, He will make holy our afflictions, for our gain. For me, my gain was learning about the Love of God. Not only through the manifestation of learning something hard, but through the manifestation of His great hand in the creation, and that He made this world for us. (Moses 1:39)

The other thing I think of, is the 4th Verse of 'How Firm a foundation':

When through the deep waters, I call thee to go

The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless

And sanctify to thee, and sanctify to thee, 

And sanctify to thee, thy deepest distress.

Isn't it beautiful? That's what it's all about. Having the hard things in life become beautiful to you, because they were hard. Loving something because you hated it. In reality, this is power.. because you can become a powerful person by doing hard things, and by learning to love. 

That's all, sorry if it's a little cheesy or cliché.

Sphaeralcea coccinea- scarlet globemallow

The plant that defines the turning point of the semester for me. The amazing thing about it, is that the hairs are 'stellate' which means they come out of its pores like a star, or a firework. It's beautiful.