My First Vacation

Weekend/Life Update: Currently in Corona Del Mar, resting and relaxing with my good friend Ellen (Check out her blog, A Thousand Gifts) on spring break. 

There are a couple incredible things about this experience

1. We are staying at my friend Madi's house. She lives in Arizona and is currently home with her family on spring break. The Masons have been so hospitable in offering up their beach house for us to lay low in for the week. Otherwise, this girl would be trapped in the dorms. Yikes. Thanks so much to the Masons for their incredible gift and for providing us with a safe, beautiful place to stay. PS - I can see the ocean from the front door. Dope. 
2. I get to spend a whole week with my friend Ellen. She is going to be one of my roommates next year (along with Sarah Smith who you'll find out about later) and it is fun to be able to do this "trial run" with her and be able to live, cook, do laundry, etc together for the next few days.
3. This is my first vacation on my own. That is taking a little bit of time to sink in. Any vacation I have ever taken has been with at least one member of my family. So this whole being on my own thing is something that I'm getting used to. I guess more than anything, it solidifies the fact that I am really on my own out here. I am 2,000 miles away and I am an adult and have the ability to be on my own. Ellen and I cooked a full meal tonight, we are making decisions on how we will spend our time and are even having "company" over for the day to cook them dinner and fellowship with each other. 

I feel silly in saying this is a big thing in my life, but almost every other experience I've had on my own has been structured and monitored, not me on my own. I'm surrounded by stand-in parents at the camp I work at, Island School was incredibly structured and I had faculty watching out for and providing for me, and at college I'm on my own, but in a dorm and monitored by an RA. Here in this house this week, I am the authority of what I do, when I do it and how I do it. If I want to sleep in, I can totally do so. If I want to sit on the couch, blog and watch "She's The Man" (which is what we are currently doing), I can! This week I'm looking forward to some free time of lounging about and some time to learn how to cook, studying the Word (for my self and for my Luke/Acts test when I get back to school) and figuring out what's important in my day.

If you could! Pray for sunshine! It's a little chilly and cloudy and Ellen and I would love to get out to the beach this week!