Its That Time of Year Again!

In one month, my big brother will be graduating from UNC-Wilmington, and in two months my little brother will be graduating high school and my sister will be finishing up her last few days of elementary school. It's this time of year that makes me feel really old! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by, and how much God has worked in my life! Right after my big brother graduates, I'll be jetting off to Norway for a class I'm taking at Wingate. I'm really excited to be going out of the country again, it seems like Costa Rica was a lot longer than two years ago! I'm really excited to see a country with so much natural beauty and be able to take it all in through the stuff our teacher has planned! Two days after I return, I'll be headed to Williamsburg, Virginia to be a SummerShiner for the third year in a row! I'm excited to work with 13 other Christians serving the campers that come by for a taste of colonial times! In all the craziness of life, I keep Nehemiah 8:10 posted at my desk "The JOY of the Lord is my strength," and truly He is the one that keeps me going and gives me energy!

Through Thick and Thin

This school year, especially this semester has been the toughest time in my life, yet it's been when I have sensed God the most. Through everything that has happened, I can see where He was preparing me for each step that He planned for me to take. It's so amazing to see Him at work in my life and the lives of those around me! The friends that have stood by me through thick and thin will be friends for life, I'm more sure of it now than ever! With everything that has happened this year, I'm feeling more prepared than I ever would have thought possible for this summer. I reapplied to be a part of SummerShine again this summer, and I found out just a few weeks ago that I'll be serving God in beautiful Mt. Rushmore this summer! I'm so excited to see what's in store for the summer, and know God is going to do big things!

This verse from The Message has helped me though and has become one of my new life verses:

"Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. Don't give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He's right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you." -Deuteronomy 31:6

God's going to be all over Mt. Rushmore this summer, I can hardly wait!!

And it begins again

I've been back at school a little over a week now, so i'm just about settled. I'm loving living in an apartment instead of the dorm, and i'm getting along fairly well with all of my roommates. There are 8 of us total in a 4 bedroom 4 bathroom apartment. We share a common living room and a huge kitchen. I'm glad we decided to live where we are, because it's a workout to get anywhere on campus (that's a good thing :D). All of my classes are going well too, although it is still school! My two favorite classes are Computer Science and Accounting (shocker!).

My friend Jessie and I have started a practice of going over to the apartment of several of our guy friends and playing spoons almost every night after we finish our homework. It's a good way to relieve stress and get a good laugh! The many hours we spend in there make me understand why people love college so much, and also why people usually keep in contact with their friends from college more than those from high school.

Although i'm sad to not be in Cherokee anymore, i'm so happy to be back at school and back into the swing of things. I think it's going to turn out to be a great year!!

The end is so near

Actually it's tomorrow...just over 12 hours from now.

After 12 weeks of being in Cherokee, my time here is coming to an end. I never thought i'd see the day, because three months feels like eternity, but i'm finally done. Today was my last day of work, and my mind still tells me that i'll be in there tomorrow renting tubes and booking tours, when in reality my body will be in the car headed for Greensboro. In retrospect, this summer has flown by, but I promise the weeks got longer the more time I spent on the campground. God has really blessed me with everything that happened this summer, both good and bad. He's taught me a lot about who I am and who He should be in my life. I've met some really amazing people that I hope I will be friends with for a very long time, because they taught me how much God truely cares about me and wants to have a relationship with me. I've been quite blessed to have spent my summer with such amazing people! Although many of them are gone and have been for about a week or so, I can't seem to wrap my mind that it's going to be a long while till I see many of them again. For some reason, I keep expecting them to just walk right in the door and start talking like they were never gone. I'm really ready to go home, but I also wish that this summer hadn't gone by so quickly.

While it's sad to leave, I'm so excited to be going home! There are so many of my friends that I feel like I haven't seen in forever that I will get to see while I'm home, and I'll get to spend a little time with my family before I have to leave again for school. I'm so excited about going back to school, I just saw pictures of what my apartment looks like and I honestly couldn't be happier! It still needs some decorating and a few touches here and there, but i'm so ready to move in!! It's going to be nice having a set schedule that doesn't change from week to week.

It's kinda bitter-sweet, but I guess it had to end sometime...

It's been a while...

Whoops! It's definately picked up around here since the 4th of July, so I haven't had much time to blog. Working at the KOA is still a lot of fun, it's just starting to wear me out. Work is much easier now that i've completely figured out the system, it's just a little more stressful since the campground is almost always busy.

Lately, the computer system keeps going down and we have had to do a lot of our sales by hand. Usually, the people are pretty understanding and don't complain about how long it takes us to fill out everything we need to, but it takes a while to imput everything in when they do come up. For example, yesterday morning we rented tubes to 30 or so different groups of people. The computers came back up at about 1pm and were only up for about 10 mins before they went down again. They came back up later and were up for most of the day before they crashed again at 7, right before closing. It was a little hectic, but it was good math practice!

I can't wait to get home for a week and see my family and friends in Greensboro before heading back to Wingate. The summer has flown by!!