Catching Up on Life Here

It's been quite a week since my last post. Friday was girl's night, so we ate a bunch of junk food and watched a chick flick. It was fun to be able to hang out just girls for a little while. It didn't last all night, because the boys came up to apologize for some fairly harmless pranking. Then, they helped clean Callie's room, because it was a little dusty. They were up here a little late, because there was a considerable amount of cleaning that needed to be done...
I slept in a little on Saturday, because I knew I would be up late that night. At 2 on Saturday, I left for the school's ski trip. We went to Appalachian Ski Mountain and did the night skiing there! It was so much fun to be able to ski again, because it's been a year or so since I last went with my family. Brian had a few run ins with inanimate objects....like a tree and a snow blower....but we all greatly enjoyed ourselves!
Sunday was pretty normal. I woke up at 10 and got a text from Callie, because she wanted to dry her hair in my room so she wouldn't wake up her roommate. She came in and told me that her boyfriend had surprised her and was in her room at that time. He had gotten up really early and drove to school so that he could go to church with us. We all went to Elevation as usual and went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant on the way home. After that, I came back to school and was going to start on my homework, but i got distracted (as usual) and didn't get around to it till about 11. Jessie came to my room sometime in the early afternoon and said that she was going to go to a Bible study that night, and had heard that it was going to be good. I told her that I would go with her, and found out that it was Beth Moore study when I got there! I was so excited because my mom raves about how wonderful her studies are. It has been really good so far, and I've been able to keep up with the homework for each day. I think it has already brought new life to my walk, and I can't wait to continue in the study!
Monday definitely felt like a Monday. I woke up a little late and almost was late to my first test of the semester, which would have been really bad! It was a calculus test and i wasn't nervous about it going in, but i was a little worried after i started taking it. I finished a little early and took a nap before lunch. The rest of my day was fairly normal, until our hall meeting that night. Apparently, the people that live in my building are held responsible for anything that goes wrong anywhere in the building, including the lobby and offices. They didn't blame anyone on my hall, they just told us that they wanted us to let them know if we knew any information regarding the vandalism that had happened the week before. After that, I pretty much stayed in my room and did most of the homework that I should have done over the weekend.
Tuesday was fairly busy, I worked on my homework some more, because I didn't have any classes till 1:30. We had a quiz in Spanish, but the professor looked them over and decided that she would let us do corrections on them before grading them. After dinner, I had to go to a film for my history class. It showed some graphic scenes including an Aztec sacrifice that I found particularly disgusting. Eventually, I'll have to write a paper on it, we'll see how that turns out... Not long after the movie, I had a FLY meeting. We didn't do much, just were given a few announcements and then we played some games from our childhood like Hungry Hungry Hippos, Chutes and Ladders, Ants in the Pants, and others. It was a little bit of a flashback, but a lot of fun.
Today (Wednesday) was a pretty good day. I got my Calculus test back and I had gotten an A! I was kinda surprised because i was unsure with several of my answers. I had a Psychology test after lunch, so i had a little while to do some studying for that. It was multiple choice, so hopefully I did ok. I fixed my Spanish quiz as much as i could, and the professor actually took them up today. After Spanish, i was in the mood to work out, and i had enough time before dinner to go, so Jessie and i went to go relieve a little bit of stress. We had an all girls dinner, which was nice. After dinner, I went to a Lyceum. It was a motivational speaker named Sean Stephenson who spoke about getting off our "buts" and stop giving excuses. it was a really good presentation, and the hour I spent listening to him flew by. After it was over, I went and helped Brian with some of his homework, and went to Breathe to hear one of my friends speak. He did a really good job, and I am really glad that I heard what he had to say.
Tomorrow should be interesting. I have class from 1:30 to 4 and a Spanish review after that. I'm not sure why the teacher feels like we can't review in class, but she decided that we needed an extra hour to review for our test Friday. After that, I have another Lyceum to go to that I get extra credit for. It will most likely be boring compared to the one tonight, but I can't complain about getting extra points in two of my classes! On to tomorrow...

New Favorite

I must say, I absolutely love being able to turn on my itunes on shuffle and listen to it while I sit at my computer. Today I was in the mood for some Shane & Shane, so I switched it on. Not only did it remind me of the many times that I sang that particular song over Christmas break with my friends, but i truly love the song. Not just the words, but their voices, the way it makes me feel, and especially when they beat on their guitars. I just love the song! Here it is:


Name Sake

I come to seek Your face
Holy Spirit won't You fall on us
Speak wisdom to Your people, Your saints
Fill us with the knowledge of You
Fill us with the knowledge of You

Overwhelm our hearts
Overwhelm this place
With the passion for Your name
I need Your tender mercies
Holy Spirit won't you make a change
For Your name's sake

I just love whole song, look it up, because plain lyrics don't do it justice!

Yay!

So it started snowing at 12:30am last night. It was dumping out of the sky and quite exciting! I only had 15 minutes of my history class, and my spanish class was canceled! It was quite a good day, and i got to play in the snow! :)

Me and my roomie:

Let it Snow...PLEASE

Today has felt like an extremely long day. I woke up at about 9, got ready, and went shopping with my mom for a ski jacket. It's green and black and I love it! After that, I visited my work then went home and finished packing everything up. I left around 1 and didn't get back till school till about 3. I unpacked everything, met Becka's boyfriend, and just hung out till it was time for dinner. There was a little bit of pranking in there, nothing i had any part of...but it was sure funny to watch! It seems like dinner was forever ago, but it's only been a few hours. That's really been the long part of the day, not that it's been boring, because it certainly hasn't been, maybe it's because I just want it to start snowing and it seems like 3am will never come... It's not that i want to get out of class, its just a perk. I really just want it to snow because it's been so cold here the past few weeks and cold is supposed to equal snow! Whether it snows tonight or not, it should be a interesting day!

Coming Home

As i was checking e-mail and facebook tonight, I turned the shuffle on my itunes as i usually do. I came across a song that was played at Elevation last Sunday. I got home from church and immediately downloaded it, because it was a song that I had heard before on the radio and it really meant something to me, but i couldn't put my finger on it. As it played tonight, it brought tears to my eyes as i realized what Pastor Steven's message, Shut Up and Come Home, really meant. I'm not sure why it took me so long to understand, but God used that simple secular song to mean something to lil' old me. Something in me has seemed to be a little different since i first moved in to Wingate. I didn't become an extremely bad person or anything, but i kept my faith to myself. I'm not sure whether i was afraid of how other people would view me or i just needed to drift so i could let God come scoop me up. I was basically a lighthouse without a bulb, just standing there and didn't serve any real purpose, just a circular pile of bricks. Well I'm done with all that, I'm COMING HOME and i don't care how people view me. They don't really matter after all, it's more important that i pursue God and his purpose for my life.

Ironically, the song that came next was by The Newsboys and contains what i think is one of my favorite words from the Bible: Selah. It's a word that David frequently used in Psalm at the end of his songs. It means 'pause and reflect,' and reminds me of who i was in high school. At Core we talked about Selah and the meaning behind it, and started the practice of ending all our prayers of it. I had forgotten about it till that song started playing and the word immediately stood out.

None of it really makes sense, and it's rather ironic that God gave me hints when i got to my house in Greensboro, but all that matters is that when i step back on campus on Monday, I'm going to make a point to follow God no matter what people think of me. My Heavenly Father has been waiting, he found me, and I'm finally coming home!

Fun Times in Alumni

Today was a good day. It's actually days like this that make me feel like I made the right choice when i decided to come to Wingate. First off, I had about 10 minutes of homework to do, and that made me extremely happy. Other than that, It was a pretty normal day: went to class, dinner, worked out, watched American Idol, then hung out. The hanging out was where the day got really interesting.

I was helping my friend, Callie, figure out how to go home without using highway 74, and i was having trouble explaining it to her. I finally got it figured out, and my crazy roommate showed up with only leggings and a t-shirt on. She said something about how she was going to work out in leggings and shorts tomorrow and it made me think of an 80s workout video that some friends had filmed about a year and a half ago. I showed it to Callie, and then an Office spin off video that we had also filmed last year.

A few more of our friends started coming in Callie's room and we all sat down on the beds and were just talking. Brian looked up and noticed how dusty the overhead lights were, so he started messing with them and took down the grate that goes over them. After he had it all unattached, he made Callie stand on a chair and put it back up. It took a little while, but she got it, and Brian moved the chair and started to take down the other grate. She promptly pushed him off the chair and got on it herself so that he couldn't take down the light. Callie was facing Brian and the door, so Ryan started shaking the back of her chair and she freaked out. It was rather funny, and most of us got a good laugh out of it.

Brian and Ryan left to go say goodnight Jessie, who was in her bed watching tv. I missed the first part of it, but I went in to see what was going on and they had pulled her mattress almost all the way off of her bed and she promptly jumped off and got on her roommate's bed. A little while later, I was in Callie's room talking to her, and Ryan comes in and says that Brian had disappeared and Jessie couldn't find her phone. Jessie said she wanted to go to bed and that she needed her phone, because it was her alarm clock. Several of us tried calling Brian, but he wouldn't pick up. Ryan called Jessie's phone and left a few random messages while she was standing right there. It had been about 15 minutes at this point, and it was getting a little frustrating. Brian called me from his phone and was whispering saying that he was in the elevator then in the lobby and would come back up. I didn't really believe him, but we had looked almost everywhere on our hall and in his room and hadn't found him yet. He hung up on me before i could figure out where he was, but we realized that several people were in one of the end rooms and that they had stopped talking while Brian was talking to me on the phone. Jessie banged on the door and they let her in. Everyone was doing a pretty good job pretending to not have a clue, except Blair who had a big smile on her face the entire time. You don't have to know Blair very well to know that she isn't a good liar. When Jessie noticed how much she was smiling, she started to look around the room for Brian. It was about a minute till she found him hiding in a wardrobe. He said he didn't have her phone, but followed her back to her room to help her find it. I went back to Callie's room, and a few minutes later, Ryan came in and said that Brian did have it the whole time and hid it when he got back to Jessie's room. It was after curfew, so we all went to our rooms and the boys went downstairs to theirs.

The only negative thing that happened today was finding out that my little sister has taken over my room and doesn't want to give me my big bed back, oh well, i guess she sleeps at home more than i do, and i love her too much to steal it from her! Overall, It's days like this that help me get through hectic weeks! It almost felt like a Sunday night, so i hope that tomorrow doesn't feel like Monday morning! I'm so glad we don't have school next Monday, because I can't wait to go home and see some of my friends! :)

The Little Things

I can already tell it's going to be a long week. It's only Monday, but it feels like it should be Thursday! Today wasn't extremely eventful, i went to class, took a nap, ate lunch, did homework, pretty normal stuff. I did have one thing today that really made me smile. I always go check my mail after lunch, and usually there is nothing there, but today, i found this:



It's quite a sweet gesture, but it's 5 months early! Its highly possible that i put my birthday down wrong when i filled out my visitor information the first day i went. Or, my handwriting was messy because i filled it out quickly. Whatever the reason, i got a birthday wish over 5 months before my birthday, and it was just about the highlight of my day! I miss my church at home, but I've come to the realization that i can't compare it to Elevation, because they are completely different. I don't have my family or the kids in the nursery that i came to know so well now, but the sermons mean so much more to me, and they send out birthday postcards! I started out looking for a church where i felt at home, but there isn't another Westover because it's the people that are missing and Elevation is a wonderful church and i have new people that i go with. I have a new church home, it just didn't come about the way I figured it would. God works in mysterious ways, and I love him all the more for his little surprises!

An unforgetable adventure

Today has definitely been an interesting day! After I got out of Spanish class at 4, I headed to Concord Mills with several of my friends. It should have taken just over 1/2 an hour, but it took us over an hour and a half because we went the absolute wrong direction.

Here's a video of our frustration. It's really dark and turned sideways, but the audio works:


I was just a passenger in this whole thing, and a very hungry one at that! Once we got to the mall, we headed right for the food court and Becka and I enjoyed some delicious Chinese food! We shopped for a little while and had many interesting experiences:

The first of the night was when one of the girls bought a cute little pick bra from Victoria's Secret. She pulled it out of the bag and held it up to show us while we were sitting on a bench outside the store. Right after she held it up, 2 guys walked in full view of her holding up her bra. They smiled and did the little head nod that guys do. She turned bright red and threw it back into the bag completely embarrassed.

The second was while we were in search of Starbucks. Some of us were beginning to get a little tired and needed a coffee pick-me-up. We were just around the corner from it when a lady from one of the little sales islands came up to us and asked us if she could ask us a quick question. She wanted to know if any of us used straighteners. Most of us said no, but one girl said she uses one on occasion. She immediately swooped in and directed her to sit down in front of a mirror and started combing her hair. Then she pulled out a bright orange straightener and started straightening her hair! We were all a little intrigued, especially when she told us to feel her hair. It was so soft and completely frizz free where she had straightened. We kept watching as she flipped out then curled her hair. She must have been able to sense that we were gullible college students who were addicted to our straighteners. Because i have naturally straight hair, i don't use one much, but after she finished with the first girl, she moved on and started straightening strands of everyones hair. She sat me down and proceeded to flip under my hair and show me everything else i could do with it. Oh, and she kept saying how they were on a Christmas sale, and that they were going to go up over a hundred dollars in price the very next day. (i came home and checked their website, and found that they really are about $220, which is what she told us) She then asked us what kind of straighteners we had and one girl said she had a chi. The sales lady pulled out a chi and took a ceramic plate she had sitting on her table. She scratched it, and you could see the metal under the ceramic coating on the chi, then she did the same thing to the one she was trying to sell us, and it didn't scratch. I needed a new straightener, but i wasn't sure i wanted to buy one in the mall. Once she found out what brand i had, she kept pestering me and wouldn't let me stand up from the chair until she had convinced me that i really needed one. I ended up caving, because i really did need one, and i wanted her to leave me alone. It was on sale for $90 which isn't that bad for a good straightener. I love it, and hope that i won't regret it later on. Becka curls her hair fairly often, so she bought one as well.

Our third adventure of the night was the little mall cop. In movies spies and government people are often seen riding little futuristic scooter things. The cop that we saw had one, and it wouldn't have been that funny, but he was only going about 2 miles per hour, and was wearing a HELMET! Why on earth does he need a helmet?! I mean he's not going that fast, and he's only about 3 inches off the ground so if he falls he's NOT going to hurt himself! We were going the same direction as him, so we started pretending like we were on scooters too with our hands in front of us like we were steering it. Right after we returned to our normal behavior, we saw two guys going the opposite direction that did the exact same thing when they passed by him. We had a good laugh and were glad that we weren't the only immature ones there!

Imitating the cop:

Our fourth adventure was really the whole trip back. We had come in two cars, and traveled on the highway. The car i was in decided that we were going to go through the back roads instead of the busier roads. When we got to Albamarle, the girl that was driving said that we could stop and meet one of her friends from church. We were all for it, because it was only about 9:30 and we weren't ready to go back to school. We stopped in and met him and some of his friends. It was kinda awkward, but also fun. Becka did her nerd voice and helped break the ice for the rest of us to talk. While we were on our way there, we had been texting our friend from school who lives in Albamarle to see what he was up to and if he cared if we came and visited. Once he found out we were close, he wanted us to come save him from having to do his homework. So when we left the first house, we went and stopped by his at about 10:15. We didn't leave till an hour later after meeting his parents, getting a tour of the house, and being serenaded.

We finally got back a little after 12 and talked about a number of things. It's been quite a fun Friday night! I'm still not that tired, but we're meeting in the morning to go work out together, so I'm off to get some sleep...

Back into the swing

Classes started back yesterday, so I have been to all my classes. Some are interesting, and some I already know I am going to hate. My Spanish class is from 3-4 every afternoon, and i know its going to be my biggest challenge this semester. It's supposed to be a combination of Spanish 1 and 2, but I feel like we should be in Spanish 4. The very first day of class the teacher spoke a total of about 20 words in English and everything else in Spanish. I guess it's a good thing, because I'm getting better at picking out parts of what she says. Mexico is in the back of my mind every time i walk into that class. At the end of the year, my 13 person class is taking a trip to Mexico for two weeks, and we will be taking classes from Spanish speaking natives. I'm so excited, but it's going to be a long road to get there. My calculus and psychology classes should both be interesting. My psych teacher is one of the oldest teachers at the school, and he was actually a student here. He's a cute little old man and he likes to go off on little tangents. I have the same history teacher as i did last semester, but i actually have a few friends in there this time, so it shouldn't be quite as bad or boring.

Oh goodness, i realized that i didn't miss the cafe food at all! I actually miss my mom's food. I've only eaten like 5 meals in the cafeteria, and i already am tired of it. I do like being able to talk and catch up with my friends while i eat. Oh, so we walked into the cafeteria on Tuesday night, and there was a huge sign that said "DUDE WHERE'S MY TRAY?" and explained why they weren't using trays anymore. Apparently washing a tray wastes a lot of water. It's not that big of a deal to not have trays, I'm just learning how to have better balance when I'm carrying my plate and cup up to the window.

I guess that's all for now, because I've got a class at 9 tomorrow...

Choo Choo

Gee whiz it rained a lot today! I usually don't mind rain, but i hate it when I'm driving. I actually made good time too! It usually takes me about 2.5 hours to get here, but it only took 2 today! Maybe I've finally found a good route! Actually, I don't think I've ever traveled the same route more than once going the same direction. It may seem strange, but there are so many ways to get to a little school in the middle of nowhere!

So I'm finally back at school and unpacked. I haven't decided if I'm quite prepared to start the new semester tomorrow, but it's coming whether I'm ready or not. It's been really good to catch up with many of my friends on the hall and I was very glad to meet our new RA. It was also very good to see Taylor who came back to collect all her things. I held myself together, but I don't think it's really hit me yet. Her room looks really empty and her closet echos, but it still kinda feels like she is coming back.

I've realized that i enjoy my space here. In a way it's almost comforting to be back in my room. The ability to control the temperature (it's freezing in my house, and quite comfortable in my dorm). Not just the temperature, but the sound of the AC. Maybe that's why i had trouble sleeping at home, it was too quiet! Just a few minutes ago, the train went by, and i realized how much i missed that simple sound. It's loud and annoying today, but once i get used to it again it's quite comforting. Choo...Choo...Choo...ahhhh Maybe I'll actually go to bed early tonight :)

Change isn't always bad

So I never really thought that I would find myself writing a blog, but here it goes.

Today has been really busy as I'm packing up and getting ready to return to school. I'm really dreading that 2.5 hour drive that I have to make tomorrow as I leave all my family and friends behind. Don't get me wrong, I love college, but so many things have happened over the past few days that I just wish winter break didn't have to end.

School is going to be different. Good, even great things can come out of it. I'm beginning to try finding the positive side of life instead of dreading the negative. Maturing maybe? Who knows...

It started just over a month ago when one of my greatest friends on campus told me she was thinking about leaving because of issues with her roommate. I was really mad about her deciding to leave, and I couldn't picture school without her. I wanted her to stay, so I did everything I could think of that would make her stay. How selfish am I? She was miserable, and all I could think about was me, but God gave me a second chance. She decided to stay and I was elated! Just the other day, she informed me that she really isn't coming back, but for reasons that were out of her control. Maybe I have matured a little in the last few weeks, or maybe God gave me power from within, but it was a whole lot easier this time. I accepted it, and thought about her for once instead of myself. I'm so glad that I met her, and will never forget her.

Unfortunately, she's not the only one leaving from my hall, several people have decided that WU isn't their perfect fit. It's sad to see them go, and I wish they didn't have to, but my time there isn't up, and I have to continue on no matter how hard it is. It will be strange to not see some familiar faces, and to have to get to know new girls, but God's not leaving and I know he will help me every step of the way. It's not in my control, it's in His, and for that, I am so grateful!

I've loved hanging out with friends almost nonstop and sleeping in. It might sound crazy, but I've loved being able to go to work and almost slip back into the norm of my summer life. It's not summer anymore, and the weather isn't the only thing that proves that. I have new friends that may be far away today, but will live close by tomorrow. Getting texts from them over the break made me kinda miss school. It sounds crazy, but those girls on my hall are almost a new family to me. We fight an awful lot, but we also laugh and learn together. While I'm not ready to leave home, I am in a way ready to go back. I think way to much when I drive, I'm all by myself and my head just fills with all the negatives. It's the transition between two homes, and it gives me way too much to regret about having to leave that I can't even think about all the good things about being back. Sometimes I wish I could just walk out my door at home and immediately be at school. It would make it so much easier. If i can get the drive over with, everything else will fall back into place.