Tucked in & Settled Down

Hey Y'all! ;)
Classes have been running for a week and today is my first afternoon of Labor Day weekend. I'd like to share with you about what my time back has been like.

Praise the Lord and because of your greatly appreciated prayers, my flight landed delayed but, safe in my final destination. Though some of my time has not been restful (sleep-wise), but Lord has been good to me this week.

My roommate's name is Tylar and she's the sweetest. She's a transfer that is studying business and she's a year above me, between my year and the next. She has a soft southern voice and loves cats. We get along quite well and we haven't had any big disagreements, since rooming together. We've gone on a walk around campus on the trails (here's a picture I'm borrowing from her):

We both like adventuring and photography, so there won't be anything short of excitement this year. 

I've been signed up for 5 classes this semester:

• Communicating God's Word-it teaches us how to write out a Bible Study and present one
• 5 Great Novels-analyzing literature: Huckleberry Finn, Wise Blood, The Professor's House, The Joy Luck Club, The Great Gatsby
• General Psychology-studying Freud, Jung, Viktor something.. and their ideas of how the human mind functions and motives behind human actions
• Hermeneutics-how to interpret the Bible for its meaning and organize information from the Word for better understanding
• Counseling Youth and Families: What makes a good Youth and family counselor, attributes of teenagers etc. *

*Counseling Youth & Families is by far my favorite class so far. We start each class with a 15 walk with 2-3 other classmates where we share our answers to questions such as:

1. What was your view of God; yourself; parents during MS/HS?
2. What were you good at in high school?
3. What were your biggest fears when you were in HS?
   I love how it makes the class relational and interactive and not just endless lectures and testing.

The first few days back have seemed unnatural when I get a chance to sit down and realize that I'm not HOME. It's still a bit of a shock to me that I'd been home with my friends and family for almost a semester-length summer and now I'm back to this different setting. I know change will happen this year and much of it will be nothing I can imagine. I really missed the bi-weekly pasta nights and I'm glad I'm back to enjoy them.

The nights are still warm and there isn't a breeze yet so we sleep with the A/C on.."only in SC
 haha X)

We had our first chapels this week (Mon-Thurs) and they've been great and re-energizing. I love the new chapel team and it's great to welcome the new year in fellowship.

There was a Sophomore bonfire I attended on Thursday. I met a girl named Sarah who's a transfer from Oklahoma~who was formally an English major but now is under the new major Business ICD-International Culture Development. She's really nice and you might hear about her again soon. :)

I'm starting to get back into the motion of school and it's starting to be a joyful, yet growing journey!

The Pursuit of Happiness

For the past few days, I have done a lot of thinking about previous conversations and exchanges that have discussed the topic of happiness (to some extent).

In these discussions, I have been able to come to agreement to a few things, and these thought provoking comments have helped me grow a bit in knowing some ideas I stand with.

A few days ago, my godmother and I were sitting down talking about happiness and it's difference from joy. I remembered previous discussions at college group a few times throughout the past few years that differentiated it by: joy not being circumstantial, but having it be a consistency of life. And true joy comes from the Lord. My godmother made me aware of how often I want to be happy and try to achieve that by making fun plans and going out to do things. But I learned that I need to be content with just "being". Be in the moment, enjoy it for what it is--it's not necessary to always be in constant activity and good to find peace in being still.

I have found myself content with the solidarity in painting, organizing thoughts into categorical lists, going on thoughtful walks and collecting ideas for future DIY activities.

Thinking of the conversation that we held at college group about being a good listener and how the fully-attentive (not just responsive) are usually the people that friends and peers like to go and share thoughts and feelings with, made me think. It helped me catch myself when I form half a sentence while someone's almost done talking and back up and bring it back to them.

Communication is a vital part of living and it reflects more than just thoughts. Being good listeners avails us to be the confidante or friend that people choose to share their troubles and celebrate their happiness in achievements, happiness in leisure with, and share joy in life events. I am also incredibly thankful for the grace and forgiveness I am shown when I fail in being a good listener.

As this summer is winding down, I'm trying to choose joy and watch the happiness trickle in steadily with it...carrying that from the summer into the school year.

Packing my bags and getting ready for the journey ahead, but still breathing in the cool suburban 54 degree night/morning air, in my remaining 4 full days I begin a time to: listen deeply, hug tightly, sit quietly, laugh freely and write frequently. And thank God for all the reasons to :)

The Countdown Begins...

I've been away from this blog for a long time. Some of the time spent was trying to figure out what this blog should be. I want it to be more than a list of events that I go to, so this year...that will change.

This summer has been good, not quite what I expected, but when is anything really?
I spend much of my time working as a cashier and on the replenishment team at the local Michael's and at my other job (which was an answer to my prayers--Thank you God for providing!) The rest of the time, I have been working on paintings and giving them away as gifts, baking yummy food like banana bread and cinnamon rolls, and making lists of goals etc.

I think this summer I've really connected with my creative side more than I have at once and this has been really exciting for me. I've been able to use painting as a form of expression (which I haven't given a chance at before). And I thank God that enjoying the task is all you need to carry on with something rather than having to be *amazing at it*. This is one of the greatest blessings that I see that have come out from my first retail job experience. Being so often surrounded by art supplies really encouraged me to venture out of writing and reading, letting the colors guide me across the sheets of paper and canvases. I hope to continue this when school starts, in my free time.

I painted this with only the image of the flower
in mind, and then the rest of it came about.
Now this lives on the writing desk in my dad's room.

I made this painting from an image I found on Google.
I was in the mood to draw something scenic with the ocean
and a sunset.

I never really liked countdowns when I was little, and maybe even up through now. To me, they signify the coming of something anticipated and then the counting stops when you get there. It should continue to seem like something exciting beyond the beginning :)

Less than 10 days from now, I will be airborne back to school and I have mixed feelings toward that fact. People have told me that the first summer back from college is going to be the weirdest, and honestly I don't completely disbelieve them. During Winter Break (my first time home), there were some moments that I was living in that made me feel deja vu about something about college, such as a song we sang at church. It felt like the memories were visually colliding in my mind. It was an awe-striking moment to realize that memories you make away from home are completely unknown to the people that are there, unless you choose to share with them. A year passes by so fast and I've found it difficult to wrap up a whole year's experience/events in a time any short of half an hour to maybe even a couple hours.

But today, I've been able to reflect on this summer and having the inability to gauge how "great" this summer has been. I was able to come up with a short list for you though:

A few things I love about being back:

1. Getting to hug the people I've loved the longest/most (i.e.getting home and hugging my dad) 
2. Getting to hear the adventures and achievements of my friends from home, while getting to celebrate with them, and growing together
3. Going back to my home church
4. Knowing where everything in town is

Adjectives to describe my time back:

1. productive- earning money for myself and being reminded how much work it takes to make it
2. well-fed- nothing compares to home cooked meals, and on top of that, making own treats/meals
3. Pinterest- I'm surprised myself with engaging so much with Pinterest this summer in search of recipes, summer activities, etc..and some of those have inspired me :)
4. loved- I've spent some time reconnecting with people and each of those times were nothing short of great!

So that's a little from me for now, but I'll be posting again soon.

Signing of now and off to enjoy the remains of this Monday -> ->

Ended With a Winter Retreat (2/3/2014-2/9/2014)

OOPS I forgot to post this

This week wasn't really anything out of the ordinary during the weekdays. On Friday after class though, I went on a winter retreat with 60 other students from my school. We signed up out of interest to go to Gatlinberg, Tennessee. 15 cars drove up and the pictures below are of the girls I shared a car with. We rode up playing Contact (the car game). We stayed at a cabin for the three-ish days.

We explored the city and went to Mellowmushroom for dinner, watched the Olympics, did/didn't do our homework and enjoyed the hot tub.