Celestial University and Me

At the beginning of 2009, our really wonderful Relief Society Presidency at church started a take on the Pursuit of Excellence program they called Celestial University. I've always loved Pursuit of Excellence, ever since I first discovered it upon entering the Relief Society at age 18. However, I always started goals with gusto and then fizzled. For some reason, this "university" program really inspired me, and I worked on it quite diligently all year. At our graduation this past Saturday, I discovered that I had apparently misunderstood the whole set-up, as many women received numerous degrees (the way I was doing it, only one degree was possible). But it didn't really matter, because I have felt really good about all the things I accomplished this year. Many of the goals were small, but they were things I've wanted to do and not done for some reason or other. For example, I've never been a teeth-flosser, and after completing my goal of flossing every day for a month, I now am in the habit of flossing every day. I caught up on my mountain of ironing, and kept it up for over a month. I learned new sewing skills, kept a potted plant alive for over a year (!), learned a new vocabulary word every day for a month, practiced and performed several flute solos, headed up several community service projects, subscribed to the paper and read several news articles a week, kept my flower bed weed-free for 3 months, refinished my dining room table, read Jesus the Christ from cover to cover, etc., etc. In all, I completed over 80 specific goals, with many more still in the works. This has been so good for me, and I'm excited to be helping out in our branch with 2010's program.

It has also been fun to see the other sisters in our branch, particularly the ones from the inner-city, who worked so hard on their goals and were so proud of all they accomplished. It's amazing to see a group of ladies with vastly different backgrounds, circumstances, and interests come together and do some much good as a whole. I love the name of the program: Pursuit of Excellence. We may never get there in every area in this life, but at least we can pursue excellence and head in the right direction.