Navigating New Territory

Well hello all! It's been awhile, but here we are. I've been waiting to find out a couple of things before I blogged about looking ahead to next year. And now, with only three weeks left of school, it seems to be the appropriate time! Here are some things that I am certainly looking forward to in the next year!

Major/Minor Update

I feel like every blog post I have written I have changed my minor or my double major, but don't worry. Hopefully this one will stick. I have decided NOT to double major, but instead to add two minors toward marketing and graphic design. Here's to hoping that the combination of journalism, marketing and graphic design makes me as hire-able as possible post-grad!

Heading Abroad! 

I'm so excited because in about one month I will be on a plane to New Zealand, shortly followed by a trip to Australia! I'm going to New Zealand for three weeks with a study abroad program through APU!  I will be working (interning) at Wandering Sheep Productions in Auckland and staying with other students and three professors from APU. We will be doing plenty of exploring when we are off the clock, however, including visiting Hobbiton and going to a hot water beach and going on a small kayaking trip for one day!

Right after, a group of friends who are going on the New Zealand trip with me are puddle jumping over to Australia to stay in Sydney and Cairns. Consequently, I will be out of the country from May 16 to June 16, so see ya later! Much much much more information and blogging will be taking place while I am there and I promise to take a ton of photos! If you have any advice for what to do or see or where to go in Australia, let me know!

Junior Year

I got the jobs of my dreams! I am lightening my class load (no worries, I'll still be graduating on time) and will be working more than 30 hours a week between being the marketing intern in the Office of Career Services on campus and being editor-in-chief of the Clause next year! I am so so so happy that everything fell into place exactly as I had hoped.

Although I am nervous, I know that these positions are going to push and challenge me in ways that I never have been before. I am already learning about what I want to pursue in terms of leadership on campus and cannot wait to put that into action next year! So, if you need a job, stop by Career Services next year! Or, if you have a story that needs telling, stop by the Clause office!

I am also so excited since I will be moving back into the freshman dorms next year to live with my sweet friend Crystal Reed, who will be the RA of an all-girl freshman hall in Trinity next year! She has been my best friend since early on my freshman year and I am so excited to live with her and support her as she leads about 50 girls through their own freshman journey.

Bring on the New

Although I have the very thing that I crave most, having everything all lined up and planned out, I find myself extremely nervous to be thrust out of my element, serving in a capacity I never have before. Although I have experience in both of my jobs already, this next year will be on a much larger scale. What I am realizing is how hard it is to have grace for yourself. I think I find it so easy to quickly to forgive others for little mistakes (well, sometimes). What I struggle with most, however, is forgiving my own.

What is being constantly reiterated to me in this season is that I will undoubtedly fail at some point in some capacity this summer and next fall in my new adventures and positions of leadership on campus. However, what is more reassuring is that I do not have to be perfect and that I have a community to lean into.

Perfection is impossible. Boom. The pressure is off. Thankfully, Christ took that burden off my shoulders a long time ago, and I can be at ease. And furthermore, Christ set us up to live in a community that forgives, is merciful and is a complete support to me. It is now my responsibility to 1.) continually remind myself of this truth, and 2.) to offer this same hand of grace to others.

This last week has been filled with affirmation that I am moving in the right direction and that I have a community who will support me as I navigate in the upcoming months. Thanks so much for those that encouraged me to do the things I thought were crazy, and for those of you who have been so kind and supportive as I have taken on these new roles.

Good luck with finals everyone! May the odds be ever in your favor.

xoxo,
Hunter 

Family and Friends and Fall

My weekend trip to Michigan was filled with orange leaves, chilly air, little brothers, ma and pop, close friends, a few tears and lots and lots of love. 

I was able to fly home two weekends ago for the dual purpose of seeing my family and going to see my sweet friends Ashleigh and Josh get married. They are officially the first of my friends to get married as I enter this weird season of life so casually called, "My Twenties." (Holy cow, I want to barf.) 

During the weekend, I got to go to my favorite hot yoga studio (my Grand Rapids friends, click the word "yoga" and then go there immediately); go to my favorite food places (Noodles and Company, Yesterdog, and Bombay Cuisine); get manicures and pedicures with my mom and grandma; see my high school's football game; spend time with two of my oldest friends; spend time alone with just me and the brothers; see my sweet friends get married; dance with some of my favorite people. 

Here are a couple things I have learned from the great state of Michigan and those people living in it:  

Family is the most important thing. I have four little brothers that are my favorite human beings and a mom and dad that are a constant blessing. After being away for so long and realizing the number of weeks a year I'll be living in that house is slowly going down, I am much more appreciate of all the loved ones in the mitten. Shout out to the Feet, you da best.



Pets are family too. One of my favorite parts of the weekend - I wish I was kidding - was coming home and having my dogs and cats recognize who I was. I came in the house while Nelly was still locked up so I could properly hug all my family, but when my mom let her out she ran straight at me to give me plenty of licks. College makes you miss those annoying but cuddly, furry little critters.



Dancing like an idiot is good. At the wedding, I got to dance around with some of my oldest and greatest friends. After watching my sweet friends say, "I do," it seemed only right that we dance it out. Thank God for dancing at weddings. Additionally, when my parents tried to get me to come off the dance floor when they needed to go, my dad came onto the dance floor and basically busted the same caliber of moves Kevin James pulled out in Hitch.

Hard goodbyes are a blessing. I always have a hard time leaving home. Why? Because I love it so much and I love all the people in it. But, I never want an easy goodbye. I never want to be so distant that departing from loved ones is easy. However, I've realized the best friends and the best relationships I have are not ones I have to see every day, but the ones who you don't see for awhile...and then when I do see them, nothing has changed.

See ya in December, Michigan. It was a blast. 

Welcome to the Nest

I am out of the dorms and into the apartment! At APU, sophomores get to live in on-campus apartments and I moved into my home sweet home this last week. My roommates, Ellen and Sarah, moved in as well and we are just so excited to be living together. We have deemed the apartment "The Nest." We wanted to name the apartment something that would be appropriate and we loved the imagery of it being something we made together, and it's somewhere where we can snuggle in and feel safe.

We furnished the apartment to suit seating for large groups as Sarah and I will be Discipleship Group leaders this year and Ellen is an Alpha leader. This means that we will have three different groups of freshmen in our apartment each week. Ellen will have around 10 "Alphies" under her wing, and Sarah and I will have up to seven under our own. We are so excited to see the community that The Nest is able to facilitate!

Here's a little of what we've done so far!

This wall will eventually be full of our photos. 

We made this with a little bit of Modge Podge,  a few pieces of scrapbook paper and a lot of Jane Austen love.

These are each of our states with a golden glitter heart at each of our hometowns: Grand Rapids, MI; Ft. Collins, CO; Tacoma, Washington. 

The terrifying cat you see behind the adorable Ikea milk bottles is Lucifer.  

Nostalgia and Homesickness

Above: These are my biological brothers (Hayden, Jack and Nate), but I have a lot of boys that I call my "brothers" even when there is no DNA involved. Below: These are just a handful of women that mean the world to me (Paige, Laura, Emily, Morgan and Ali). 

One of the things that I pride myself on a lot is my lack of attachment. That sounds strict, awful, cold and many other things, but it's not. All it means is that I don't get homesick very easily. During my experience at the Island School, I like to say that it "beat" the homesickness out of me. We had no Internet, no cell phones, virtually no contact with the outside world save for one 20-minute phone call a week. 

During my phone call, my friends would go to my house and everyone would sit around the kitchen table while I was on speakerphone. The 20 minutes were never long enough, but never short enough either. It was the perfect amount of time to get homesick enough that you wish you hadn't called or that you could simply transport yourself through the receiver of the phone. It was an incredibly hard process for 14 weeks and I never failed to cry my eyes out afterward. 

This tough love in the form of distance was good for me, however. It taught me how to be on my own and how not to rely on my family as much as I had. So, when everyone else around me thought the idea of moving from Michigan to California was going to be so crazy and lonely, I simply brushed it off. 

Being away from my family did not have a profound effect on me at all last semester, as I predicted. But this semester is way harder. With only five weeks left, I'm anxious to get back to my home state and to be with my family. I have three little brothers who are all growing so fast, which seems impossible that they would grow while I'm away. My mom and dad are the people I love most in this world. I simply have an incredible family. Being so close to see them, but still having to wait is killing me. 

Not only that, but I miss my friends back home in Michigan. I have nine girls and a couple guy friends whose friendship is hard to explain, but irreplaceable. I've grown up with all of them. Those girls know who I am to my core probably more than anyone else in this world, and my guy friends are just additional brothers I count as family. I have a staff at the camp I work at that build me up in ways that I can never explain. There's something so powerful in serving with others. I can't wait to spend the summer with them again. 

I miss the changes of the seasons in Michigan - there isn't much of that here. I miss Yesterdog, my favorite hot dog place. I miss being just a short seven-minute car ride away from Noodles and Company, here I have to drive two hours to San Diego to get to one. I miss my cats and my dogs. I miss the woods surrounding my house. I miss driving down my long, winding driveway past the fields and seeing my neighbors' cows. 

It's incredibly hard for me right now 1.) to be away, and 2.) to even admit that it's hard. Prayers and words of encouragement would be invaluable right now. I only have five more weeks, but it's going to be a long five weeks. 

PS - Tell your friends and family you miss them today. You probably take for granted every day what it's like to have a structured group of people around you. 

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Back Into The Swing

Just got my DisneyLand pass fresh off the press.

First, I need to apologize - but not that sincerely - for not posting for a long, long time. I thoroughly enjoyed my Christmas break and didn't want to take precious time away from my family and spent very little time on a computer. And since getting into a new semester is mostly a juggle, I have been hard-pressed to find a good time to sit down and write. But now, here I am in the library and finding myself in a little bit of a reflective mood.

Classes

I am already loving the classes I am taking this semester, even though most of the are gen eds. I took a little bit of a bigger load (which anything would be a bigger load) than first semester and am in love with how busy I am. I am blissfully stressed in the best way. So, here are the classes I'm taking:

Public Communication - Otherwise known as Public Humiliation. It's just like it sounds and I just gave my first speech today. The speech topic was "Meaningful Words," and we had to share a favorite quote/verse/lyric that speaks to us and why. I spoke about how much I'm loving APU even though it wasn't my first choice and used the quote spoken by Douglas Adams: "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

Practically crying while watching the
fireworks at the end of the day!

PLuke/Acts - My second bible class. This one as the title suggests is a study of Luke and Acts, specifically of the life and culture during the time of Jesus. I'm already loving this class as I've seemed to fall in love with my Bible and Ministry classes here. For an assignment last week we had to read all of Luke in one sitting. It took me an hour and a half. The real powerful part, however, was the how different and how impactful the story of Jesus is when it's all condensed into one sitting. I found myself bawling at the crucifixion scene in the middle of the library. So embarrassing, but so humbling on so many levels. I'm looking forward to what else this class will teach me.

Journalism Workshop - The class we've all been waiting for! I get to write for the school's newspaper called The Clause. I will be posting a link to everything I write on here as well. So far, nothing has been done yet, so more to come.

Christian Life, Faith and Ministry (CLFM) - I chose to take this class with the hardest CLFM professor at APU. So far my faith has been shattered, picked back up and reassembled already within the first 3 weeks of school. Bruner, my professor, is making us ask the tough questions about what it means to be a Christian and how our faith is lived out. We are reading Wishful Thinking by Buechner and Amazing Grace by Norris. I think I prefer Buechner so far, but both a recommended read by anyone looking to strengthen their faith through challenging it.

Health - Blah.

On the tea cups! 

Psychology - I don't know if I like the subject yet, but I'm learning a bunch of new things. I actually have a quiz tomorrow. I'm sure more will come on this one later as well.

Church

I am currently attending Foothill Church in Azusa, CA and I'm really lucky in the timing that I came back to attend. For the first three weekends of January, the sermon focused on the core values of the church and what they are striving for. We learned about gospel-centered friendships, truth and spirituality. Essentially, these sermons just made me like this church more because I think what they are about is what I'm about.

D-Group

My D-Group, or Discipleship Group, as I've mentioned before is reading a book called The Christian Atheist. More or less, it's a kick in the butt and is all about people who claim to be Christians, but don't live as though they are. Yikes. Loving that. One of the girls in my D-Group actually came to Christ, she realized, for the first time just a few weeks ago and we are rejoicing in that and I just love every single one of them.

Etc. 

Eating ice cream at Crystal's birthday party.

Well, here are a few things that have happened since I came back. I will be blogging more so soon and will keep updated. I also have some new and exciting ideas for some (hopefully) weekly posts starting soon. 

1. I celebrated my sweet friend Crystal's birthday. I love her to pieces and you definitely count on her being an active ingredient in my life in the years to come. 

2. I WENT TO DISNEYLAND FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. It was magical. I saw all the princesses and now I'm determined to live there. That is all. 

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: 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! 

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."

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!

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.