Unbound Stories: Avery Ternberg

“While standing in the lunch food line during  APEX 2016, I struck up a conversation with a young lady named Avery Ternberg. I”m not sure how, but after that I couldn’t stop hanging out with her. From walking on the beach talking about our families to sitting in my backyard, soaking in a hot tub laughing about how little we know about life, and yet how we’re going to take it on, I’m incredibly blessed to have her in my life. You will never meet a more caring and strong person. And she has one of the most amazing stories to tell. One where even though everything can be spinning around her, she will forever make God her refuge. And I can’t think of a better way to live.”  –Angie Novotny

What has been one of your biggest mountains to climb?

“One of my biggest mountains I’ve had to climb, and will be climbing my entire life is my health. Mental health, physical health and emotional health, they all are so intricately intertwined. It’s been a long long long 6 years of doctors appointments in 5 different states (one even on the other side of the country), of lots of injuries, of missing out on things that I once enjoyed so much, or maybe something I won’t ever be able to do even though I want to. I’ve had doctors tell me the pain isn’t actually there, that I’ll grow out of it, that it can’t be that bad, that I’m faking it, and if I’m being honest some of those are like a slap in the face. It’s something I am still learning to navigate. It’s hard to explain pain to someone who can’t feel it or even see it. I’ve been told I carry it well, and a lot of people wouldn’t even know I’m sick. I’ve learned to be a little easier on myself, that some days I’m going to conquer the world because i don’t feel the pain as much, and sometimes I’m going to feel like the world is smooshing me and won’t be able to accomplish anything and i need to be okay with. It’s something I’ve learned to rely on God more with, I am not in control especially with this and I can trust him to keep me safe. We’ve recently found a new doctor and physical therapist that have given us so much hope, and think they may have found out 2 new things that they could maybe finally diagnose me with! So there will always be a continuous climb, but I’m not climbing alone because God’s leading and I have friends and family on all sides.”

How do you plan on attacking your school? Have you chosen a degree?

“I haven’t completely decided yet. I originally had a plan, but sometimes our plans don’t work out, and so at the moment I’m reevaluating!

I have decided on a degree in Communications with a concentration in Media studies! A few months ago my health started to take a turn for the not so good once again, so I made the decision to put school on hold for awhile, get my footing again and be able to focus on trying to get healthy again, I think it’s been a great decision.

But I honestly am super excited to start my school work back up again, when I get the chance!“

What kind of work keeps you occupied?

“That’s kind of a hard one to answer with the whole health problem…. when I feel good I work with my dad, and for myself I guess now at this point. We do international network marketing for a company called Morinda. It’s pretty awesome, and the products have actually helped me with a lot of my health issues. (A big reason why I didn’t get more sick sooner in life!!! Praise the Lord that He put my dad in this company!)

Earlier this year, I even had the opportunity to speak in front of the most elite people in the company from all around the globe, I had 14 different translators for it!

Being the youngest in the company can be pretty nerve wracking since they all have so much experience. But I know I have things to bring to the table that they can’t and I’m excited to see where it takes me.

Besides that, my dad and I are planning on opening a blender bowl café in my home town and if it does well, we hope to expand to several other locations.

Also, if you consider traveling work, I’d say that keeps me occupied too. I’m always on the move and learning about the world.”

Got any tips you’d like to share with your fellow students?

“Some days you will feel on top of the world, like nothing could ever go wrong, you have meetings to attend, you go to lunch with friends, hop on conference calls, walk your dog, go exercise, do school work, spend time with your family, or whatever makes your day productive, and you are so proud of yourself. Then there will be some days that it takes you 4 hours to convince yourself to get out of bed and another 3 hours to convince yourself to shower and after all of that all you want do is go back to bed. And days like that are okay too.

Don’t be hard on yourself, we don’t always have to have it together, we’re not suppose to have it together all the time. So if you need to go back to bed and take that day off and rest, and then when you can you go back to whatever it is you need to do.

No one has it all together, we are not in control so there’s no possible way we could, but God is in control, and He has it all together.

More importantly God has YOU. So it’s okay to sit and breathe.”