Where I Come From

Today, I'm linking up with all of the lovely ladies over at The Influence Network. I cannot wait to meet all of you in September at Influence Conference! Don't even get me started on how excited I am, cause I won't be able to stop!

So, onto today's topic: Where I Come From. 

I'm a born and bred California girl. I was raised in San Diego, where I spent the first 18 years of my life looking like this most of the time:

After high school, I picked up and moved to a little place called Santa Barbara for college. Been there ever since. 

For the record, the Santa Barbara Mission is really beautiful. Definitely a must visit if you make it out to this neck of the woods!

(Give me a shout out if you do!)

And fun fact, my parents were married there!

It's kind of funny (isn't God always funny?), but I never intended on staying in Santa Barbara after college. I planned to move closer to home, some where further south. I imagined myself in Los Angeles or back in San Diego, but never did I see myself staying here. So much so that when I was applying to jobs, I intentionally stalled on my applications for companies here in town. 

But God always has a bigger and better plan, huh? A company reached out to me and seemed very interested, and I think most people would agree that a new college grad will never turn down an interested prospect. Not in today's economy, am I right? 

So I went after the job and ended up having the most wonderful experience at my first full-time job. Here I am on job number 2 (only 2 years post college, ha! God has a thing with finding me jobs, and I won't object to that!), and still in Santa Barbara. 

If I had left town, I would have never found my incredible church. The church that taught me what it looks like to let the Spirit into your heart, to surrender your entire life, and showed me how to stand back and be amazed as God is constantly changing my heart.  

If I had left Santa Barbara, I never would have found this incredible community of brothers and sisters that inspire me, challenge me, pray for me and point me closer to Jesus on a daily basis. 

And I feel pretty darn blessed that in addition to those incredible blessings, I still get to enjoy this:

I come from So Cal, where do you come from?