For Good

First off, notice anything different around here? :) I've been wanting to redesign my blog for probably a year now, but I just haven't been able to find the time. I loved the giraffe background, but I was getting tired of seeing it everyday. With so many things changing in my life, I thought it would be a good time to change it up. Knowing me it will be like this for the next 3 years now - ha!

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I'm sorry if you're getting tired of reading graduation posts on here. It's just the season of life I'm in right now, and I pretty much want to document everything for my memory. I'm not done with them yet either as I still have several more posts I need to write and publish, including some walks down memory lane! So if they are boring you, feel free to just come back a week or two from now, and I should be done by then - ha!

This is a post I've had swirling around in my head for awhile. Like I'm sure many of you, I absolutely love music. While I don't have the gift of producing music, I sure do love to listen to it all the time. I love how songs have the power to change your mood or capture exactly how you're feeling at any given moment.

Over the past month or so I've really started to pick up on songs or different lyrics that have really spoke to me because they reflect what I'm feeling now.

I'm sad that a big part of my life that I am very comfortable with is coming to an end. But I'm excited too at the prospect of things to come. I'm kind of torn between wanting to stay with the people I know and love right now, while also wanting to experience so many new things and new people.

So, I've pulled together some different music quotes that kind of show what I'm feeling. Now, some of these are just a few lines in a song. Some of the songs are not at all about graduating and leaving friends, but when a lyric or two is taken out of context, I have found that it relates so well to my current situation.

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Daylight - Maroon 5

Here I am waiting.

I'll have to leave soon.

Why am I holding on?

We knew this day would come.

We knew it all along.

How did it come so fast?

This is our last night but it's late.

And I'm trying not to sleep.

Cause I know, when I wake, I will have to slip away.

And when the daylight comes I'll have to go.

See You Again - Carrie Underwood

Said goodbye, turned around

And you were gone, gone, gone

Faded into the setting sun,

Slipped away.

But I won't cry

Cause I know I'll never be lonely

For you are the stars to me,

You are the light I follow.

I will see you again.

This is not where it ends.

I will carry you with me.

Till I see you again.

The View - Christa Black

I don't know how I got here

And I'm not sure how to start.

If you asked me to retrace my steps,

It'd probably be too far.

But I'm sitting on these wrinkled sheets and thinking to myself,

I might be happy here.

And I just have to say,

The view looks fine from here.

Everything seems nice this time of year.

And even though the future is unclear.

I might just stick around a while.

My Wish - Rascal Flatts

I hope you never look back, but you never forget,

All the ones who love you in the place you left,

I hope you always forgive, and never regret,

And you help somebody every chance you get,

Oh, you find God's grace in every mistake,

And always give more than you take.

Please Remember Me - Tim McGraw

When all our tears have reached the sea,

Part of you will live in me,

Way down deep inside my heart.

The days keep coming without fail.

A new wind is gonna find your sail.

That's where your journey starts.

Don't Forget to Remember Me - Carrie Underwood

Hey momma, don't forget to tell my baby sister I'll see her in the fall.

And tell Memaw that I miss her.

Yeah, I should giver her a call.

And make sure you tell Daddy that I'm still his little girl.

Yeah, I still feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be.

Don't forget to remember me.

This - Darius Rucker

For every stoplight I didn't make.

Every chance I did or I didn't take.

All the nights I went too far.

All the girls that broke my heart.

All the doors that I had to close.

All the things I knew but I didn't know.

Thank God for all I missed

Cause it led me here to this.

Don't Close the Book - Honor Society

Please don't tell me

It's the end of the story.

Don't close the book on me.

Don't you close the book on me.

We've gone our separate ways,

But we'll meet up on another page.

Don't close the book on me.

Don't you close the book on me.

You'll Be In My Heart - Phil Collins

When destiny calls you,

You must be strong.

I may not be with you,

But you've got to hold on.

Cause you'll be in my heart.

Yes, you'll be in my heart.

From this day on,

Now and forever more.

Change - Taylor Swift

Tonight we stand, get off our knees.

Fight for what we've worked for all these years.

And the battle was long, it's the fight of our lives.

But we'll stand up champions tonight.

It was the night things changed.

One of Those Nights - Tim McGraw

Cause someday when you're looking back on your life

At the memories, this is gonna be one of those nights.

You're Gonna Miss This - Trace Adkins

You're gonna miss this.

You're gonna want this back.

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.

These are some good times,

So take a good look around.

You may not know it now,

But you're gonna miss this.

Graduation - Vitamin C

I keep thinking times will never change,

Keep on thinking things will always be the same.

But when we leave this year we won't be coming back.

As we go on

We remember

All the times we

Had together.

And as our lives change,

Come whatever,

We will still be

Friends forever.

Letter to Me - Brad Paisley

You've got so much up ahead.

You'll make new friends.

You should see your kids and wife.

And I'd end by saying have no fear,

These are no where near the best years of your life.

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The song that I think best sums up what I'm feeling as I come to the end of this chapter though is For Good from Wicked. If you've never heard it before, you have to listen to it now. It's so good.

I've heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason,

Bringing something we must learn.

And we are lead

To those who help us most to grow

If we let them,

And we help them in return.

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true.

But I know I'm who I am today

Because I knew you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes the sun.

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood.

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you,

I have been changed for good.

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime.

So let me say before we part,

So much of me

Is made from what I learned from you.

You'll be with me

Like a handprint on my heart.

And now whatever way our stories end,

I know you have re-written mine

By being my friend.

Who can say if I've been

Changed for the better?

I do believe I have been

Changed for the better.

And because I knew you,

I have been changed for good.

I firmly believe that the friends, teachers, and staff members that were put into my life over the past 4 years were put there by God for a reason. I have learned so much from them, and I know that a part of them now lies in me.

And I do believe I have been changed for good and for the better because of them.