"Promptness to go to a friend in adversity is appreciated."

Hello reader,

You are probably reading this and the only thing occupying your mind is:

"What is up with her title? They're not usually of any emotional context... Besides, that sounds like something you'd get from a fortune cookie. Lame!"

Well, my dear reader friend, you are quite correct in a couple of aspects.
1. Yes, that did indeed come from a fortune cookie.
2. No, my titles don't usually have any deep, emotional context... That you are aware of...
Let me give you a bit of a back story.

On Tuesday nights I have a night class which is three hours long. This class is called Intro to Public Speaking... scary title, I know. This Tuesday was the first night of class which meant that we spent an hour being informed of class expactations, rules, blah blah blah, the second hour in a lecture about common misconceptions and whatnot, but the third hour was strange. My professor held up two bags and said "Fortune Cookies!" he then outlined a two minute improv speech which would be orchestrated within the next hour. We were to grab a fortune cookie, go into the hallway for two minutes, come out, and tell the class audience what our fortune was and what spoke to us about our fortune. I do not like speeches. I do not like talking to people that I don't know... let alone larger groups of people, so naturally, I was nervous.
When I went into the hall, I busted open that fortune cookie-- I needed every second I could get. I was actually in such a rush that I may/may not've ripped my fortune in the unveiling process...
My fortune said: "Promptness to go to a friend in adversity is appreciated."
As I stared at this fortune, with a blank stare, I started to think about myself and the past week or so at Whitworth. I started to note that adversity is currently surrounding not only myself, but my friends, acquaintances, and classmates as well. I took this fortune in two ways:

1. I realized how incredibly important it is to free yourself from your secluding walls and reach out to others when you need them. Not many people have the ability to see through others-- especially others that they aren't incredibly close to. Not many people are going to know, despite your assurance that you are doing okay, that you are actually dying inside. And not many people are going to see how severely whatever you're dealing is affecting you. You are signing yourself up for a longer ride on the sad-wagon by secluding yourself or putting up false fronts and there is absolutely no good in that.

2. How incredibly important it is to try to not be a colleague/cousin/acquaintance/floor mate and rather be a friend-- a true friend. The friend that is the exception to the "not many people can see through your walls" concept. A friend that you truly know and care about them-- but more importantly a friend who makes it known that you care about said friend(s). This will change someone's life. But, more importantly, this could save someone's life.

I don't know why I'm blogging about this, really. I guess because it was a mind-molder in me and I blog about significant life changes-- but maybe also to encourage you as a reader to look deep in yourself and stretch this part of you. Allow yourself to be you around others-- to trust them. And most importantly, to make sure others know that they can trust you. This is something that we can all work on for the rest of our lives.

Thanks again for reading. You really are great.
-Ashley

P.S. I always post pictures, so here is my fortune...


I told you it may've ripped, didn't I?