Bummer

Well, I emailed the people in charge of credit for ASL. They said no.

I’ll admit, I cried. I was disappointed. Were the past two years of overloads a waste? What was the point of my taking 20 credits for over a year? Why didn't they understand? Was my email not clear? What more could I have said?

But I talked to my dad, and he reminded me that God’s plans are higher than mine, and those years weren't a waste. I’m fluent in another language! And I’m going to learn how to belly dance!

Also, I should make an amendment to my previous post. I was contradicting myself when I said that I was going to strive for excellence but not freak about this paper. I AM going to work excellently, and I DO care about it. My work is a representation of who I am in Christ, and so I will do all things to the glory of God.

Holy Canoli, Batman!

So I was reading my friends’ blogs, and I realized that it has been almost a MONTH since I’ve updated you! This should not happen! So let me tell you some fun and not-so-fun highlights from the past month…

My friend joined the Marine Corps (SO proud!) and I was kinda bummed because when I left home, his “D-Day” (D meaning departure) was in February, so I was going to be able to see him and say goodbye to him over Christmas Break. Well, the D-Day changed. To like the middle of October. As in, October when I’m still at school. As in, won’t see him at Christmas. As in, BUMMER!!!!! I was still really excited for him, because I know this is where God is calling him and he was uber excited to go, but I was still a little sad.

Then, the day he left, I checked my email and there was something from him! Happiness! I read it, and was kinda tearing up because I knew that as I read, he was getting on a plane, and then I read something that made me jump for joy- his secondary training is only 2.5 hours from my school!!!!! Ahhhh!!!! I would get to see my friend here!!!! I am so excited! I don’t know when he comes, but I’m definitely taking a road-trip to see him, or vice versa.

My mom won’t be able to come out to spend Thanksgiving with me, which is a bummer. However, my roomie and I are going to spend Break with a family that I ADORE, and I’m really excited that (a) I’ll be with a family (instead of just staying in the dorm), and (b) my room-mate and I will be able to spend some good quality time together. Only another couple weeks till Break!

Speaking of Break, I have to write a 12-15 page paper on monasteries in the Middle Ages… BEFORE Thanksgiving!!!! Augh! I’m meeting with the teacher tomorrow to go over the outline, so I feel a little bit better about that. But last night I realized that to some extent, it doesn't matter what grade I get on this paper, or even in this class. For one thing, this class is NOT a part of my major AT ALL. The other thing, no one will care or even remember my GPA in a couple years, or even months after I graduate! While I know that I will still work diligently on this paper, and I will strive for excellence, it’s really freeing to not have such an immense pressure hanging over me. I know that I put too much pressure and too many expectations on myself, so this revelation was really quite liberating. The only bad part? I still have to write this paper!

I love Pandora!!! I think my favorite station is Michael Buble… omg, I love that style! If I lived in the 1950’s, I’m pretty sure I would have a crush on Frank Sinatra!

I registered for classes yesterday. I was planning on taking an overload, but then stuff went wrong with the system, and I’m on the waiting list for one of the classes, and when I went to my boss, who is in charge of stuff like that, she made a phone call and then told me to email these two people about getting credit for ASL. The class that I was on the wait list for would fulfill my International Perspective, and I’m hoping ASL will fulfill that and then I won’t have to overload! I just sent the email this morning, and I believe that God is going to give me favor and I’m going to get credit. Amen, Lord, amen!

I love college! It’s stressful and busy and challenging, and I love it! Sometimes I hate it, but most of the time I love it! And it’s really funny- sometimes I can’t believe that I’m going to be DONE with COLLEGE in another year and a half…whoa! I’ll think of my elementary school years, or even of two years ago, and realize that back then, when I thought of “now,” it never looked like this! I love that God is so cool and mind-blowing!

I GO HOME IN 34 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope that this update satisfies for a little while… please pray for me when you think of me, and I hope to see you when I’m home for Christmas!

Thoughts

The next 48 hours are going to be so jam packed, and then the 48 hours after that are going to be the most fun EVER, and then I’m pretty sure that next week is going to be sooooo busy I might fall over…so yeah.

Tomorrow I’ve got 3 classes, except I’m skipping one to go on a Business Dept. field trip to a distribution center. Then in the evening I’ve got a House Council meeting… those are always, um, interesting. Stressful, to say the least. My VP has been VP for the past 3 years, so she can bring “experience” to the table, but usually she’s a nay-sayer and it gets old really fast. Thankfully the other girls on Council are pretty good about saying “we’re gonna do it anyway and it will be different this year,” which I really appreciate. I’m not afraid to say it, but I want to be careful since I am president and she is VP because she lost the vote for presidency…thin ice.

Friday is going to be CRAZY!!!!! Swim test in the morning, work for 2 hours, a doctor appointment, class, RENTAL CAR, AND DRIVE TO FREEDOM!!!! WOOT! My friend and I are driving to her home town about 4 hours away, and we’ll be there in time for her brother’s football game that night, and then it’s her nephew’s first birthday the next day, and then church on Sunday and then drive home. And then STUDY my brains out for a marketing test the next day.

I’m really excited about this weekend, because I've been looking forward to it for so long. At the beginning of MC, Pastor Norm spoke to my class about anticipation and potential, and how events and experiences really rise or lower to meet our expectations. So I’m really looking forward to this weekend!

I found out yesterday that my 12 page paper on medieval history is NOT due at the end of the semester like I thought. No. It is due before Thanksgiving. Wonderful. Ugh.

Well, I need to study for that marketing test. I’ll let you know how this weekend goes!

Life So Far

In my writing class earlier this week, my teacher informed the class that Christianity oppresses all other religions. I literally had no words.

I emailed my mentor and told him about it, and he replied with some great responses that I look forward to using in class. If my readers would like to read his comments, I can add them. He told me how to articulate what I was thinking, so I feel much better about the class.

Please pray for me to have the boldness and discernment to speak in class, and for the exact, Christ-like words for me to say.

On a lighter note, I love college!!!!!! :) I love the campus, and classes, and friends, and even dining in a cafeteria! I’m learning so much about my future, my personality, my friends, and life in general.

Also, tomorrow {October 15th} is To Write Love on Her Arms day. Check out their website to see what it’s all about. I’ll hopefully post some pictures sometime next week, so check it out and participate! Let’s make people aware!

Love you all, and miss you… thank you so much for your prayers and support.

Up To Speed

Ok, friends and fam, here’s what’s going on in life RIGHT NOW.
My sis turns 18 tomorrow… omg I feel old! :)

I LOVE Pandora. Wow… all you have to do is give a song a “thumb’s up” and it plays more like it, and it’s wonderful. Sigh of contentment.

I’m now the president of my dorm, which also makes me a part of the SGA, so this weekend I’ll be going on a little retreat with all the SGA members. It should be fun, but I don’t get to go to church with my usual church fam, and I won’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked with my friend’s family, because Saturday is Family Day and her family is coming up to see her. But I know that God works everything for His good, which means my good too, so it will work out.

Classes are quite exciting. We’re starting to work on our midterm projects, which is completely crazy to me, because most of my college friends at home haven’t even started school yet! How can I be working on things for the middle of the semester when they haven’t even had their beginning????

It looks like I’ll be studying abroad in the summer, which will be amazing if my BFF and I are in Europe at the same time (!!!!!!!!!!!!) but will be a bit of a bummer if I don’t get to come home at all… I really don’t want to miss another year of Family Camp, and I don’t want to miss my sis’s high school graduation. Still praying about this…

My adviser asked me to think about not doing a double-concentration. I’m a business major, and there are 4 concentrations one can choose from: accounting, economics, marketing, and management. I was planning on concentrating on marketing and management, which basically means I need 3 “more” classes than I would need for a single concentration. I’m trying to work it so I can do both and still study abroad and still get my degree in the next 3 semesters. Still praying about this too….

I need to sweep my floor. My roomie and I joke about our responsibilities and stuff, but we usually sweep the floor, take out the garbage and recycling, and generally polish up the room on Fridays. That would be tomorrow. I think I may get started early on this! :)

I misssssssssss to pieces my BFF!!!! You know who you are, Lola, and if I could hug you right this second, I definitely would, for approximately the next 5000000000 seconds!!!! Just sayin’.

I really think a goldfish would be an awesome addition to college life. It’s the only “animal” we’re allowed to have in the residence halls, and I’m totally considering it {in a half serious, half crazy way}. The only issue would be asking my roomie to feed the fishy on the weekends, since I’m usually off-campus Friday through Sunday. We’ll see. I’m not going to spend $45 on a stupid fish. But if I can work a deal, and lord knows I can deal, then maybe I’ll get one. I will keep you posted on this, and will include pictures if necessary. :)

Sisters, when you read this, and I know at least one of you will, please tell Mom that I miss her pasta. Her noodles and sauce and bread are soooooo much better than the mass-produced glob of pasta and soupy/gravy “sauce.”

I wear a pedometer now, because of my PE class. Coach said that we should be walking an average of 10,000 steps a day, and that if she ever sees us getting on or off an elevator, we’ll be in trouble. Take the stairs! I like wearing a pedometer, because I can check my progress throughout the day and see if I’m on track or if I need to walk around the dorm room a few laps. :)

Saturday night, my roomie and friend and I are going to have a movie night. We discovered that the library loans movies, and we figured this was the most amazing thing ever and why not take advantage of it??? So far we’ve got our choices “narrowed down” to Les Miserables, Return to Me, or one of the BCC’s Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, we are random. Yes, these were my ideas. Yes, the choices are dependent on what we find in the library! Yes, there will be popcorn. :D

That’s all I can think of right now. I hope this gives you a taste of what life has been like, and I hope that your life is just as full and fun as mine is. Blessings!

Outraged

I’m reading the book Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, and it just plain pissing me off! All it has talked about in the first four chapters is how oppressed certain people groups are, and how the whole system of society is oppressive and dominating one group over all the others. AUGH!!!

This bothers me, first of all because it assumes a victim mentality, secondly because of its grouping of homosexuals with those who cannot change their life, and thirdly because even as the book says issues aren't issues until they’re issues, they are MAKING issues the issue!!!!!! The inconsistency is killing me.

Yes, I can understand that there are some people who have not been raised to show kindness to everyone, but at the same time there are people who make themselves feel oppressed. It so frustrates me that people agree with what this book preaches. I’m angered by all this perceived oppression and by the idea of privilege.

I am truly at a loss for words; all my emotions and passions and convictions have taken the place of coherent thought right now. I’ll try to be more verbose and thorough another time. Right now it is all I can do to simply finish the reading.

Please leave your comments and thoughts- I’m really looking for some Kingdom perspective here! Thank you!

What I’m Up Against

Yesterday in Writing class, we played a game, if you can call it that. The class is focused on diversity in the college and the country, and the teacher explained that in order to understand other cultural groups, we must first be able to identify our own. So the students stood in a line across one side of the room, and the teacher read some statements, one at a time. If the statement applied to us, we were to walk across the room and face the rest of the class still at the original line. Clear as mud? So here we go.

“If you or any of your friends have ever been victims of sexual harassment or violence.”

“If anyone in your family has ever made a derogatory statement about another racial or ethnic group.”

“If religion is important to you.”

“If you have ever had derogatory statements made about you because of your gender.”

The list went on, and I was surprised at how many people responded to so many of the statements. There was a girl who went forward for almost all of the statements about derogatory remarks because of race, income, gender, religion, etc.

One of the last statements was “You believe a woman should have the right to choose.” What this has to do with diversity is beyond me, but my class doesn't seem to be too diverse on this issue. I was the only person who did not move to walk across the room. The rest of the class stood and looked at me, and in between heads I could see the professor looking at me, too. I held her gaze. It seemed that she held the silence for an extended time, but I don’t think she did it intentionally. Maybe she did. I don’t know. But then she said “thank you” and the rest of the class came back to stand with me.

The professor’s very last statement was “You felt uncomfortable answering any of these questions.” I am glad to say that I didn't cross the room for that, either. I was totally comfortable being the only one who wasn't pro-choice, and being one of a few declaring that religion is important to me. I am fine that people know my high school wasn't very racially diverse. I don’t really care what my classmates find out about me through this “game” because they’re going to get the same views when they speak to me.

Please pray for wisdom and discernment for me, and pray that I am an accurate representation of Christ and Truth. Thank you.