Inspiration: Pass It On

Inspiration: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

This semester, through a series of events I've really been learning about the importance of inspiration and what drives people to do what they do, or where they get their ideas and where their creativity spouts from.

For me, a lot of my inspiration comes from people around me that I live with - girls on the hall, my RA, girls on my team, my LAC, my mentors, etc - and how they maybe are living their lives differently from me, how I'd like to be more like them, and how I'd NOT like to be more like them.

Just a few examples:

I love watching the enjoyment that people get before and after running here, and I've picked up running again. (I ran a half marathon once, but that's another story).

Watching other girls get serious about their devotional time, even in college when their time is their own has encouraged me to do the same.

Hearing about how different people find solace and fulfillment in finding a home church at college has inspired me to find one myself. I have by the the way, and I love attending every Sunday.

Watching girls constantly panic and worry about what they're eating has shown me what an unhealthy relationship with food looks like, and how to avoid it. (Another post about my stance on this coming later).

I also (shallow, but there's a lot of creativity out there) get a lot of inspiration from Pinterest! Looking at what other people are doing in the world of DIY and fashion inspires me to get out there in that field as well.

The point is, I draw a lot of inspiration from a lot of different places. But, I've also found a giant blessing in being an inspiration to other girls in my life. I started blogging to be able to communicate to family and friends back home and because I like to write and I saw what other people were doing that I loved, so I thought I'd try it out. But, I've found that I've provided the same forum of inspiration for other girls here at APU! Check out "A Thousand Gifts", a blog done by one of my great friends at APU who started her blog after looking at mine!

My note here is not to brag about myself, but rather to encourage you readers and to serve as a reminder. One, I encourage you to be an inspiration to others around you. Two, in order to do that, do something you love, do something spectacular. Three, remember that people are watching what you do. Not in a creepy way, but be thinking about what kind of example you are being to those around you. Are you a light? An inspiration of how to live, what to do, what and how to create? Or are you one of those who is inspiring negatively? Inspiration: Pass it on.

Easy Dorm Decorations

We all have them - magazines from the plane rides home and back for Thanksgiving. Cut out a heart shape from a large notecard. Let's be serious, as a college student you should have those. Then grab a Sharpie and find cute patterns to cut out! Little tip: I traced the heart on the backside of the page I wanted to use so the sharpie wouldn't be on the image. Then tape then anywhere! I did 9 for a 3x3 pattern, but have creative reign!

Mutual Weirdness

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”

A note on weirdness: I love it. I am the weirdest person that I know.

I love cats. 

Star Wars is my favorite saga. 

When the newest Star Trek movie came out, I watched it almost every day for 2 weeks.

The new Avengers movie...I can't even.

I am a total nerd - I love school.

I love anything that is awkward.

Other than a turtle or a cat, my favorite animal is a mudskipper. Shout out to AP Bio 2012. 

I don't like Nutella - which I'm finding out is a staple in nutrition and is probably a large cause for concern for freshmen. 

I think you get it, I'm super weird. But, I like who I am and I boast in that. Without my little quirks and little pieces of weirdness, I wouldn't be who God intended me to be. 

And now, I'm so blessed to have a hall that (mostly) emulates these values like I do - maybe not to the same extent. My hall is all so different, but our differences are what allow us to get along and to have a fun, silly time together and to live well together. Because of this melding of weirdness, we have adopted this quote as our own for the hall. 

So this post is a shout out to one of my favorite people I've been blessed to get to know and one of the first people I met at Azusa - Meika Folkerts, my RA. She has facilitated this attitude and this mutual weirdness on my hall and is just so dandy and I am so thankful to have her.  

Love you Meiks! 

A Long Time Coming

Well...we (me and my multiple personalities) made some big decisions in the last couple of weeks. If you are my mom, my roommates, my RA, or in the LAC, you basically know how much I've been contemplating and deciding this thing that's been whirling around in my head. So, now that I've made a pseudo-concrete decision, I'll let you all in on it as well.

First some background: I love journalism, have loved journalism, and probably will love journalism for the rest of my life. I like hearing/reading about/watching news. I've said I wanted to be a journalist since I was four, says my mother. And, since I'm pretty stubborn, it stuck because no one (including myself sometimes) can change my mind.

So I spent my growing up years in high school focused on that goal. I started working on the paper freshman year and worked my way up to Editor-In-Chief by junior year, and continued that position senior year. I also joined the broadcast lab junior year and loved being on set as an anchor as well.

This last February, I also had an incredibly special opportunity to go the the Detroit Red Wings High School Journalist Day where I got to be a part of a press conference interviewing the CEO of the Red Wings, the head coach, 3 players, the media, and the public relations specialists that work for the Red Wings. While I was there, I really felt that I was supposed to work in media, in updating people with information and events, and I loved writing and asking questions. So for me, that was the day that solidified, "Yes, this is really what I'm supposed to be doing."

...And then I came to Azusa. And I suddenly felt really bored with the prospect of just writing about events and information for potentially the rest of my life. I wanted to be the one planning those events and involved in them! This is usually a common problem for me anyway because I'm a serial over-commiter and in high school I was involved in a lot of things that were worthy of being reported on.

Then joining the LAC (Living Area Council), I realized how great my strengths are in event planning and communicating with people. And then it hit me...what career joins forces with journalism and event planning and working/communicating with people? PUBLIC RELATIONS.

Once I realized what I really wanted, it was an easy switch to completely change life goals, which for me, is a huge deal. So now, I am still a journalism major (as public relations courses are part of the journalism major here at APU) and a marketing minor.

Just today I got to talk to Alexa Hinds, the Community Relations coordinator for the Detroit Red Wings, and just how she described her typical day (her job is essentially to provide volunteer opportunities for the Red Wings players while being able to get their name out), it sounded exactly like something I would love to do. Essentially, I'm pretty darn excited about the change.

So, that's about it. That's my big news of the day! Prayers in this new direction would be awesome too! Let me know what you think about the decision! 

Weekend Update: LAC Retreat

Driving Through Santa Barbara

Another weekend came and went too quickly! I swear there's never enough time in just two days for me to rest up, have fun, and get all the homework I need to get done, especially this one. But this was byfar one of my favorite weekends here at APU.

This weekend, the LAC (Living Area Council) from Trinity Hall went on a retreat to Santa Barbara! Our Community Advisor (CA), essentially my boss, hosted and planned the whole retreat. My CA's roommate is from Santa Barbara and her parents still live there so we got to stay at their house.

We left Azusa's campus Saturday morning after a quick Starbucks run, and started the 1.5 hour drive north to Santa Barbara. Once we got there, we started our planned service project for the weekend. Part of being on the LAC includes getting service credits, so clearly we need to serve and this was just one way we will be serving this year. For the project, earlier in the week we made 45 PB&J sandwiches to hand out to the the homeless people of downtown Santa Barbara. 

Service Project 

This was one of the most interesting, weird, funny, sad, reflective service projects I've ever done. We split up into groups and went to different areas of the city. My group was on State Street, and we just started walking down the sidewalk. The juxtaposition was insane. You could see well-dressed, wealthy people walking down the sidewalk past all the beautiful, expensive stores (Anthropology, Urban Outfitters, etc.) and you could see dirty, ragged homeless people digging through the trash and sitting against buildings with cardboard signs.

Essentially, for two hours, our role was to approach homeless people, ask them how they were doing, offer them a sandwich, and - if they were interested - start a conversation. We spoke with a couple of Christian homeless men and offered prayer for them. One of which, another man walking down the street broke off from his shopping and put his arm around us to pray with us. We ran into a family of a father, mother, and two young kids both under the age of three. We offered them four sandwiches and while we huddled over them to offer them prayer, a mother pushing her own child in a stroller veered off her shopping path to hand them a few dollar bills to help out. Most of the people we encountered we felt we made some sort of small impact.

Except for one. Charlie, Lauren and I approached one man and offered him a sandwich. No, I'm fine. Are you sure? Yes, I don't want it - I can't eat it without any teeth. Ok, well instead of a sandwich, can we offer you a word of prayer? Insert rant of how God doesn't love him and how essentially God's one goal in life is to make sure he lives a terrible life. None of us knew how to respond to that. In that case, we assumed that there was also a bit of mental instability involved. We couldn't argue, he was already yelling obscenities at passersby. We didn't want him to get more angry or frustrated with us. We left with a "May God bless you and know that He loves you," and scuttled off.

There were so many different people we encountered, nice people, humble people, scary people, who were all in the same circumstances and who had come to the wealthy Santa Barbara area to hopefully change their luck. It was incredible to see how little attention I had been paying to them. We were also thrown for another loop when Shayna, who had given us a letter before we parted groups, challenged us with a card that read: "You're probably pretty hungry. You can either choose to eat one of the sandwiches or to give it away." Of course, after watching all of that happen, we couldn't bring ourselves to eat one of the sandwiches when you could see a couple feet away a man eating out of the garbage.

The LAC! We couldn't take a functional picture if our lives depended on it.

We did also have one funny moment in our melancholy afternoon of passing out sandwiches. We approached one man who looked homeless, dirty, and was just sitting on a bench on State Street and offered a sandwich. He first unplugged his headphones that were plugged into a relatively broken and beat up media player that he kept inside a filthy Ziploc bag. "What do you want?" he asked in a gruff tone. We asked him if he wanted a sandwich. His response: "No thank you, I'm pretty full and I'm actually quite wealthy... I just look like shit." Yikes, that was awkward.

The Retreat

The rest of the retreat, we spent time as a group of the 11 of us at the beach and in downtown Santa Barbara. I'm in love with the LAC from Trinity. They're the greatest group of people I could ask to have around.

So, that was my weekend! 

Weekend Update: Homecoming and Parents' Weekend!

Watch out Azusa, James and Suze are coming in! 

I had the wonderful gift of having my parents here this last weekend for Homecoming/Parents' Weekend. It was so great to have a little piece of home here (plus, ok maybe possibly I might have kind of missed them a little bit). 

They arrived on Thursday where I went to go pick them up from LAX, a complete adventure in itself as their flight got in an hour late resulting in me circling the LAX arrival terminals for a full hour while listening to Taylor Swift. 

From there, we drove straight to their hotel in Pasadena (one of my new favorite cities), had a late lunch at Jonny Rockets (classy), went shopping in Old Colorado and headed back to Azusa for the Battle of the Bands event that was going on there, after a late-night snack of Applebee's (I know, also so classy), the parents went back to Pasadena while I stayed in my dorm to finish up on homework for my classes Friday.

On Friday, we met for chapel where the speaker was coincidentally from West Michigan, now living in California and a good friend of my home pastor. What a small world. In a pretty crazy day, we hit up Target, Chipotle, my trainer's house to bake cookies for the football players (the life of a cheerleader), and practice. After practice we went back out to Pasadena and had dinner at Trattoria Neopolis - delicious food, weird waiter. 

On Saturday, we woke up late and drove back into Azusa for lunch at a BBQ lunch and I spent the afternoon getting ready for the game and rallying through the Homecoming activities promoting the game. And then my parents finally got to see me be a college cheerleader! 

D-Group Dating Relfections

Here at APU, we have these wonderful things called D-Groups (or Discipleship Groups). It is essentially a bible study group that you meet with once a week to talk about your lives, sharing complaints, praises, blessings, problems, solutions, questions, answers, prayer requests and cookies.

I am blessed to have a D-Group consisting of 7 girls total - 3 cheerleaders (including myself), my roommate, a girl from my hall, and 2 other girls from Trinity. We meet Tuesdays and last night we had fantastic fellowship talking over what girls know best (and least) - boys and dating.

My D-Group leader Karli shared this link with us and it has some incredibly valuable advice and insight on the world of Christian dating. Number 2 really hit me, saying "True beauty emanates from a woman who boldly and unabashedly knows she is in Christ." Check it out, share your thoughts!

http://theresurgence.com/2012/03/19/for-the-gals-8-principles-for-dating

Sunshine Goldenrod, Turtles, and Querencia

Hello all! I'm going to tell a little bit about myself through a social "experiment" that was performed on me last week by Meika (my R.A.). If you are from 5th South - STOP READING! She wants to do this with you all individually as well! So don't ruin the pleasant surprise for yourselves!

Midday Tuesday of last week, Meika and I sat down on Cougar Walk for our regular (every other week) lunch date as LAC (Living Area Council) and RA (Resident Advisor). Typically, in this role we are supposed to talk about hall events and what she wants my role to look like on the hall, but we often get lost in getting to know each other because we are so similar in personality and experiences.

One way she decided to get to know me was by playing a question and answer game with me, a "social experiment," if you will. The game consists of three questions that you have to answer with descriptive words and describing how the thing you answered makes you feel. Then, there is meaning behind the questions and your answers, but you don't find out until after you answer! It will be more clear if you read on...

Do the game with me and find some things out about yourself! 

I would recommend at least three describing words for each question. Here are the questions:

1. What is your favorite color and why? 

My favorite color is yellow - specifically what I like to call Sunshine Goldenrod - because it is bright, sunny and reminds me of being happy. It really reminds me of the sun, most of all, and reminds me of warm weather.

2. What is your favorite animal and why?

My favorite animal is a sea turtle because they are so cute! They remind me of being carefree, just swimming around in the ocean, but they also seem wise because they can grow so old.

3. Where is your favorite (specific or general) place in nature? (i.e. the ocean, mountains, etc.)

There is this one spot on Eleuthera in the Bahamas that I absolutely love. We had to find this spot for Island School and it's called a "querencia," which means where you feel the most connected to Earth, where you can be alone. My spot was in the middle of the Bahamian "jungle," if you will. There were these sink holes made from debris from a decayed golf course that palm trees had grown out of. It was the perfect spot to set up a hammock and just swing and be alone. I like the solitude of it because I like reflection in quiet places. I also love being in nature because it is calming and refreshing. 

What does this all mean?

Ready for some perspective? The adjectives I used to describe my favorite color are words that describe myself - bright, sunny, warm. The adjectives for my favorite animal are what I'm looking for in an ideal partner or future mate - a combination of carefree and wise. The adjectives used to describe your favorite place in nature are used to also describe your relationship with God - one on one, reflection, He's a calming/refreshing presence. 

Comment and tell me what things you said! 

LAC Goes to LA

On our Study Day at Azusa Pacific, the LAC (Living Area Council) decided to adventure to and explore LA! With our RD as our guide, we took the metro into Union Station and then the subway into downtown. We visited the town hall - LA's first "skyscraper" back in the day - and went to the top to take photos. Then journeyed to a water fountain to eat lunch, and then after another quick jump on the subway, went to the park where the "500 Days of Summer" bench was!

Blog Makeover!

Just a heads up on the face lift that my blog has gotten! I was really feeling unhappy about some of the aesthetics and design of my blog before. I felt incredibly limited with the style of it, and with the limited knowledge I have of html and CSS webpage design (I'm slowly learning! It's a little hard to find spare time in college, who knew?), I felt I needed to research into making a change.

I looked into Designer Blogs, which I noticed a couple other blogs have used. Through them, I'm able to have this cute blog template that I can still customize with my own personal flair and have better control over what I want my posts to look like! Thanks Designer Blogs!

A Day In The Life

Mondays are insane for me, but I am currently in one of my very few moments of down time that I have on Mondays and thought I'd share with you what my day looks like today.

7:40 - My first alarm goes off.

8:30 - I finally roll out of bed after my roommates play me pump up music to get me ready for the day.

9:30 - Chapel on East Campus. We have to go to 3 chapels a week and I have been bad about going to Monday's - hello, it's Monday - but actually managed to pull myself together before it started today. Loved the worship today, it was kind of gospel/soul music that you just wanted to sway to. So uplifting and calming.

10:40 - Today I had a journalism exam worth 15% of my grade. What. Welcome to college, folks. I love this class, and is in the running for my favorite. The professor is this really snarky, sarcastic woman (my absolute favorite kind of humor) and mostly shows us videos from the Daily Show to let us know what journalists are doing wrong.

Some of my favorite people on campus who are also
cheerleaders with me. Melanie, Shelbie and Madi.

LUNCH - This is my weird space part of the day where I get out of class at 11:35 and my next class starts at 1:05. So I eat lunch with my friend Madi, book it over to West campus and then sit and talk with my friend Melanie. Did I mention they're my two best friends here at Azusa??


1:05 - Christianity and the Creative Process class is probably my hardest mentally and spiritually. It's seriously a kick in the butt about how I need to start loving God with my mind and my vocation and with the things I create. It's incredible cool and perfect for an artsy fartsy. Today we talked about "Lord of the Rings." Just Lord of the Rings and how it applies to film.

4:00 - Practice with my favorite people in the world. My team is awesome. Sometimes we do cool things like a giant push-up...You will, I'm sure be hearing more about them.

Group push-up!

Dinner - Kind of a weird space of time for me, but I get food! YUM.

7:30 - Graphics class with the homies. I love this class because it's something I've only dabbled in and so far I'm really loving what I'm learning about and what I'm doing in design. I'm sure I'll be posting things about this as well.

This is my first project that I did for my graphics class. I had to design a graphic around the word "melodic."

LAC - Living Area Council

Hey! Great news! I made the LAC (Living Area Council) for Trinity Hall at Azusa. There's one member for each wing of Trinity, so 6 girls and 4 guys and we are essentially mini RA's that help plan events for Trinity Hall. Just wanted to share that bit of information with all of you, and you'll be seeing a lot of photos and things of events that we host! Feel free to throw out ideas of things (if you're in college) you've seen living areas do or you have done, or if you go to Azusa what you'd like to do!

Scavenger Hunt!

The LAC had a scavenger hunt for our first event with the ten of us, and it turned into chaos of running, someone jumping in a pool, and sweat everywhere. But, it ended with ice cream sandwiches and funny photos. 

We couldn't find the person we needed to find, so we figured if we at least looked confused, maybe it would count.

One of the things we had to do was order a drink for Lord Voldemort. So, there it is. That's Trent, Calvin, Hannah and I. 

We also had to make a pyramid. How happy they were to have a cheerleader on the team.........

My Dorm!

I've officially been moved into my dorm for 4 weeks today! That seems absolutely crazy to me. I keep calling it "home" in conversation with friends. "Hey! I'll be home around 4 today!" Wait, I forgot. This isn't actually my home, but it certainly feels that way.

When I studied abroad (The Island School), one of the things we focused on as a community was sense of place - meaning knowing, appreciating, and being aware of where you are in the world at that time. The idea surrounding this concept that stuck with me the most was that home is where your toothbrush is. You often hear, home is where the heart is or home is where your mom is or the like. But, for me the toothbrush one rings the most true. I love my home in Michigan, but I've created my own little niche here and this is where I'm living, spending and investing my time, energy, knowledge, and spirit. So, where my toothbrush is, is home.

So as a tribute to my home, I thought I'd show you my dorm! Here are some photos. With my last dorm purchase made today (a butterfly chair from Target) it's officially unofficially done. Enjoy!

Covering Insecurities

Here's my APU update for all of you! I've officially been on campus for over two weeks (feels like forever) and I'm loving it so far! My roommates, Jamie and Meaghan, are really great girls that I get along well with! We had so much fun putting our dorm together and are enjoying getting to know each others' weird quirks and personalities.

So, one really cool thing we did tonight was what APU calls "Hermony" where all the girls from the three different residence halls that house the ladies of APU came together on Trinity lawn for some serious bonding. It started with worship all together and there is something really incredible about a bunch of soft, female voices lifting up praises (How He Loves by the David Crowder Band to be specific).

Following worship, one of the RA's launched into a speech that she claimed would "give it to us straight." She had all of close our eyes, and then asked who had ever looked at a girl and found some quality about her whether it be her looks or possessions or attitude that made us feel inadequate or superior. Yes, it felt a little like Mean Girls...who has ever felt personally victimized by Regina George? But, when all of us opened our eyes, we saw that every single girl around us had her hand raised.

It is interesting to see in our culture how many girls have insecurites - and most of us have the same ones. Much of the RA's discussion was about finding our identitiy in Christ instead of finding our identitiy in comparison to others. Guess what women! We are not defined but what we are not! We are defined by what we are to HIM - beautiful, perfectly made women that were sewn together intentionally by His plan and definition.

After a powerful slam poetry bit along similar lines by another one of the RA's, we gathered in random groups and discussed what burdened our hearts as far as these insecurites lie. In my group, I confessed that when I see a girl that I think is prettier than me, I'm terrified to approach her and be her friend. Another girl, stated that she immediately judged girls that she thought were better looking or better dressed as self-centered or even slightly pompous.

After that, we partnered with a girl from our discussion group and told her an insecurity that we have about the upcoming year and vice versa. For me, it's loneliness. I'm worried about making friends. For my partner, connecting with the people around her. We both had very similar concerns. Then after writing our worries down on a big sheet with about 40-50 other girls, we dipped our hands in paint and covered the other girl's worry or insecurity with our handprint - a symbolic way of saying, "I will be behind you on this. I will help you out and I see your need."

This piece of community effort was one of the most refreshing things I had ever been apart of, and I'm loving this atmosphere at APU so far. More to come later as more amazing things happen in my college life.

Tails of a College Cheerleader

Got all my cheer gear! We're completely
Nike'd out with backpacks, shoes and clothes.

Well, who knew Hunter would actually grow up and go to college?

Ok, probably everyone due to the fact that college has been my conversation topic of choice since I was two.

Dad and I moved the majority of my stuff into my dorm on Tuesday, August 21 so I could be (mostly) moved in by the time cheer camp started the next day - Wednesday. I dropped him off at the airport on Wednesday morning, got breakfast with some of my new freshmen teammates and ended the day with a meeting and team dinner for the first day of cheer camp.

Speaking of cheer camp....

Camp was probably one of the roughest things ever to hit me mentally and, more so, physically. We started actually working on Thursday morning where we started it off light - yeah, right. Our personal trainer, who I have a love-hate relationship with because the workouts are tough but she's one of the coolest people I've met so far, kicked all of our butts with a 6-mile morning run to start off the season followed by a little more conditioning. We continued the remainder of the day stunting with an amazing stunt coach - John Blake - who didn't just kick our butts, he kicked a little bit of everything with the most intense stunting sessions I've ever been apart of in my life.

The freshmen on the team! 

Before lunch, due to a little lack of food and my weird blood sugar issues, I slyly threw up in a nearby trash can on the way to lunch without anyone seeing (score!). After dinner, we ended the day with team bonding games and what we liked to call Story Time, where Coach Rosie put 10 minutes on a timer and one at a time girls shared about what makes them...well, them - their life story, their faith, their cheerleading history, etc.

Friday ran very much the same minus the puking, plus a black eye.

Just a few bumps and bruises from cheer camp.

Saturday, we stunted early in the morning instead of working out. And then, my favorite part of cheer camp, we all loaded up into cars and drove out to Hermosa Beach to do beach workouts with our trainer Bri. On the beach, we literally had a crowd watching from the pier as 20 cheerleaders in sports bras and Nike Pros worked out on the beach with their trainer blowing a whistle. After the workout, we had the day to enjoy the beach (my first time in the Pacific Ocean!).

Cheer camp lasted until Sunday, August 26 and ended with the whole team attending church together.

What's Going On Now:

At this point my mama flew in to LAX and I'm currently in the midst of running errands (more dorm supplies) and shopping with her! I'm so happy that she could be here and she'll be staying through orientation. So, that's what we've been doing so far! Orientation starts on Friday and that's when all the fun and activity will start. And when my really quiet hall of just me and my RA will fill with a ton of girls moving in.

I'll keep you posted on more! Keep praying for me!

2,160 Miles: Day 2

...And We're Off Again!

On our second day across the country, we departed from North Platte, Nebraska with the intention of just driving as far as we possibly could. This mindset left us deciding to make it all the way to Las Vegas - our original Day 3 destination. I'd say it's pretty impressive that we made it from Grand Rapids, MI to Las Vegas in 48 hours. But, that's just me.

Colorado

The Drive:

• 15 hours
• 1,014 miles
• 5 states: Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada
• Approx. $90.00 for gas

Other Info:

• HOLY COW! Driving through Colorado was absolutely amazing. There was nothing more humbling than driving through God's massive creation. I mean, sure I've seen the ocean and so many other parts of His world, but there was something spectacular about feeling so so so small in comparison of it and simply surround by it. 
• For a long while, Iowa was pretty boring. Absolutely no color anywhere - mostly just a lot of dust. But after a few hours in, we were surrounded by the greatest color of red. There were giant rock structures,  lots of curvy roads. It was just great. 
• Driving through Arizona at night through the mountains was purely terrifying. All you saw around you were the dark, giant masses of the mountains, and the roads were especially precarious and (as it had just down poured in that area) slippery. 
• WE LOVE VEGAS! We got in late, so got ice cream and fell asleep watching the Avengers. Perfect end to a really big driving day. 

Utah

Vegas, Baby!

We made it to Vegas! I'm going to post more information about the second leg of the journey a little later in the day, but first a little sun and spa for dad and I!

The photos are of Colorado, the most beautiful state I've ever driven through. The mountains were unreal.

And of course, the picture of my dad is him holding up his giant ice cream sundae we got from ILLY in our hotel in Las Vegas.

2,160 miles: Day One

...AND WE'RE OFF!

After much anticipation and counting down, my dad and I finally hit the road this morning! Our destination: Azusa California on Tuesday, August 21st. We left Grand Rapids, MI this morning a little before 7:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) and arrived in North Platt, Nebraska at 8:00 p.m. (Central Time). We made it way farther than we thought we would. We planned on stopping in Omaha, Nebraska but actually drove five to six hours past it. Tomorrow, we haven't really decided an endpoint. Before we started the trip, we planned on stopping in Denver, CO, but because we drove so far today, we are only 4 hours away from Denver, instead of the originally planned eight. Right now, we're going to get as close to Las Vegas (our scheduled 3rd night stop) as possible. 

Here is what our complete journey looks like:

Our Drive Today:

Logistics: 

• 15 hours
• 914 miles
• 5 States: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska
• Approx. $85.00 for gas

Other:

• Crossed the Mississippi River!
• While driving 80 mph on the highway (shh, don't tell my mom...in my defense it was a 75 mph speed limit.......), I almost got passed by a semi-truck. That is one seriously fast truck. No big deal, just a million pounds of death machine passing me. Needless to say, it was terrifiying.
• I decided that Iowa is absolutely gorgeous. The hills, the farms, the grass, the windmills, and the beautiful blue sky, it was just beautiful. 

Keep praying for us! We were so fortunate to have made it this far without any issues, and we know that God's hand is on our car. Please pray that it stays that way! 

Dorm Decorations:

Paint Swatch Calendar

I found this on Pinterst! It worked out so well, and I'm so excited to put it up in my dorm. Instead of buying a whiteboard or bulletin board calendar I'll use this!

Dorm Decorations

I got this idea from graduation open houses:

So many people had their photos strung up on strings with clothes pins. So, I bought some thinking I'd do the same. Then, when I was going through things in my room to either pack/throw away in preparation for college, I found all my old nail polish. Throw the two together and viola! You have cute dorm decorations. I'm going to hang photos, notes, etc. up on a string or ribbon in my dorm!

Watch out for more dorm decorations coming soon! 

Come To The River

Check Out The Video Of My Baptism Here:

 http://youtu.be/jo_Aj3RcDpQ

Blog post number two! I just wanted to continue to share a little bit about myself and what this last summer consisted of for me. While working at Hiawatha Youth camp in the U.P. I decided to get baptized. It was something that I had never done and therefore wanted to do, and it was something that (thankfully) my parents had decided to let me choose when to do on my own.

After making the decision to fully commit not only my present life to Christ, but also my whole future to Him and to what He has planned for me, to get baptized in Piatt Lake, the lake that the camp is on. I was blessed enough to have a close family friend who is a pastor baptize me in front of the Hiawatha staff and my parents, which made it even more special.

Here is my testimony that I shared before the big dip: 

As a senior in high school, I was doing what normal high school seniors do during the fall: filling out applications and looking into colleges. I’m being completely honest when I say that God was the farthest thing from my mind when I was applying to schools. I only thought about what I wanted and what college would give me the most success in my future. I had my plan set into place, and no one, including God, was going to mess that up.

But God had His own plans for me. When I went to my first Azusa event, I only went as a courtesy to a friend who was actually interested in going to Azusa. When one of my parents’ friends implied they were wrong for letting me even consider go to a non-Christian school, I was severely offended that they thought they could have any say in MY future. Then, when I went out to visit California to tour UCLA, Stanford, USC and Azusa Pacific (in that order), I had no desire to go to Azusa, I didn’t want to look into their journalism program. It’s campus and size paled in the face of the giant schools who surely could give me a better education 10-fold the one Azusa could provide me.

When my disinterest was the lowest is when God stepped in to kick me in the butt, but I still didn’t notice Him at work because I was too caught up in my own pride. When Azusa waived my application fee, I didn’t flinch. I attributed it to my high grades, my success. I finished my applications and acceptance letters started coming in, I brushed off the fact that a.) I got into early admission and b.) got one of the largest academic scholarships that Azusa can offer.

But finally, when the rejection letters came in from the schools I had planned to go to was when I was humbled enough to see what His plan and purpose was. After a few weeks of being bitter and angry about Him not letting me have what I wanted, I finally opened my hands and let it go. Because even if I couldn’t see it, He was doing all these things for my good because Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

My purpose in being baptized today is to start fresh, to be redeemed. Today, I am cleansed by His spirit. And from this day on, I pledge and dedicate myself to live for His sake and purpose and not my own.

About Me!

As of late, I have been incredibly inspired and it has been suggested by a few close friends that I should start a blog. So, here goes nothing!

My goal in blogging is to work on my writing on an almost daily basis, to share ideas, to inspire others, and hopefully learn a little something about myself and my life through it.

So for my first entry, I'll tell you a little bit about myself:

1. I'm a cheerleader to the core. I've been cheering since fourth grade and now have the amazing opportunity to be a college cheerleader!

2. I have worked for three summers on staff at a Christian youth camp called Hiawatha Youth Camp in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I was a camper there for six years as well, so it has been my summer home for most of my life.

3. During the fall of my junior year of high school, I was able to study abroad in the Bahamas at a semester program called The Island School. Many of my blog posts will be centered around this experience and it will be explained more later.

4. I graduated this year! Yay class of 2012.

5. I will be attending Azusa Pacific University (located in southern California). There, I will be studying journalism and cheering for the APU Spirit Squad.