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. 

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!