Chasing Sunsets 3

"Just keep me where the light is."
--John Mayer

I think this was my favourite sunset so far in the series. I edited these photos very slightly so the colours you see on them are almost straight out of camera. I took the photos from my residence building so I had to edit out some of the window glare, but that's about it! 

I was very thankful to see this gorgeous sunset--it came at a very good time (I'll explain this throughout the post, but be warned, it might sound a little rant-y). 

***

I haven't been this stressed in a long time. It's exam week for my summer school term and I can feel myself slowly withering as the days go by. There's an exam that's pretty much do-or-die; we have to get a 70+ on it or else we can't move on to fourth year clinical placement. We all studied so hard for this and we all really wanted to pass. All our the hard work for the last three years came down to this one test and guess what...it was unexpectedly hard. All the more reason to freak out. 

After I wrote the test yesterday afternoon, I was pretty bummed, even somewhat angry that after three long, painstaking years, we still had to stress over going to fourth year. The finish line is so close but it seemed so far. I had another exam to study for today and I didn't want anything to do with it. The majority of the students in our program were feeling very low, anxious, and terrified. The worst thing was we had to wait for the results later on this week. It was killing us. As I was scrolling through my notes on the computer, I saw the rosy hue of the sky to my left and I immediately got excited. 

I walked out to the hallway of my residence building and saw this (there's a light glare at the top right corner, sorry). Pretty wicked awesome, right?

Too awesome for words. 

Here's a panorama of the sunset. Click on the picture to view it large. 

I feel like seeing the gorgeous sunset was a reminder that the world still exists outside my head. If worse comes to worst and I don't succeed, what is the worst that can happen? The expectations of "success" drives us to the brink of insanity. Why do we let ourselves be consumed by meaningless anxiety? The book of Matthew says, "Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself." If God's telling us to not worry I think it's safe to trust in Him. 

Yes, it is still very difficult for me to not think about failing but I should at least try to focus on the endless blessings I have received. Life goes on--the sun will keep shining and the sunsets will always be beautiful. God's love never changes and His mercy will never end. In the end, that's all that really matters. 

All the best. 

-e.m.