Catch Up

Hey everyone! I know my blog posts have been MIA for a little while but I am going to start them again. These last couple of weeks were interesting, I stayed up for almost 48 hours straight for the first time ever, I rocked all of my finals, I had the best birthday EVER, and I got to go home for a week. Now I'm just waiting for Orientation to start!

I have made some amazing friends since I came here in August. My best friend here on campus, Karli, who gave me permission to talk about her in my blog, coordinated the best surprise party for me EVER. It was so nice to get together with my friends and just have fun and drink butter beer (which is a non-alcoholic mixture of cream soda and yummy goodness for those of you who aren't Harry Potter fans) and eat red velvet cake. She even made a video for me that you can see on my facebook that had me in tears. I have the most wonderful friends here, and I love every single one of them so much. My friends mean the world to me. And again, thank you to everyone who helped make my birthday so special, and thank you to Karli who is one of the coolest gals I know!

So finals week was interesting, I ended up scoring very well on all my finals and I couldn't be much happier with my grades this semester. I worked so hard this semester, and I'm proud to say that it paid off. This last semester I learned so much about myself, time management, and my own personal capabilities. But that doesn't mean it didn't come with a price. I've learned how my body responds to stress as far as academics go. My Chemistry and Trigonometry exams were scheduled for the same day, and I had to turn in a paper at the day before, so I only slept a total of 5 hours between Saturday morning and Sunday night. Yikes! I would try and sleep, but when I closed my eyes all I could see was triangles and chemical equations and graphs about the one child policy in China. Because of this, I did learn that counting sheep at night actually helps me fall asleep, it keeps my mind concentrated on something other than my exams. I'm pretty sure I started to get delusional after I finished my chemistry exam, so I went to my room and slept for a good 12 hours. It was intense, but I did it, and I closed out my freshmen year with a bang!

After finals, I was able to go home for a week and spend some time with my family. The longer I am away from them the more I miss them. I got to spend some quality time with my parents, my brothers, my grandparents, and even some extended family. Sometimes, when life gets busy, it's easy to forget to slow down and relax, and spending time with my family always reminds me how important it is to do that. College is difficult sometimes because everything you do is going to affect your future for the most part; there aren't many decisions made in college that don't directly affect
where your life goes. I love going home and spending time with my family, even if it's just watching TV together, or eating dinner. I miss them all the time, and look forward to coming home when I have the chance.

As far as my spiritual life goes I've been doing better. I can tell I'm making progress for sure. I still feel a little lost, but I know God will get me back on the right track. I feel that it is harder for me to get back on track spiritually then before. A lot of times, this part of my blog is hard to write, my spiritual walk with God is something that is very personal to me, and sometimes its hard to even admit to myself that I haven't been doing everything I should to get back on track, so writing it on here for the world to see is difficult. But there comes a point where I have to admit it to myself, and to God, and it is very hard for me. I don't know if it is my pride, or my own selfish desires that make it difficult to talk about, but I know what I need to do to get my heart back in the right place. This past year and a half, closer to two years now, have been a struggle between being on track, and then getting distracted. I feel as if I used to be so on fire for God, and I feel as if that fire is dimmed a bit (or a lot). There are things that I know about God, I know that he exists, and that he created me and everyone and everything around me, and that he loved everyone so much that he sent his son to die for us, so that he could spend eternity with us and so that we can be connected directly too him, and that he can give us a better life than we can imagine for ourselves. I know all of these things and more, but I'm struggling to understand why I am at this point as far as my relationship with God goes, and how to fix it. I know that if I look to God, he will look back and meet me where I am, maybe it's just having faith in him that is difficult for me now. Like I said, it's hard for me to be so open about it, especially on here for everyone to see, but God said that following him wasn't exactly easy, I can understand that a lot better the older I get. So, I hope that wasn't too much to put here, but I want to be honest with where I am at this point. I know that no matter what happens though, God loves me and he isn't going anywhere, and that's comforting.

Now, since my last post I haven't gone running nearly as much. I have been able to go a few times, but not much at all. I had the pleasure of taking my dog with me while I was home although I almost tripped over him a couple times. Because of finals and being at home I haven't been keeping track of my running, so starting tomorrow I am going to get back on the bandwagon and keep track of my running. I am also going to have to start paying more attention to what I eat, which is hard when you don't have a meal plan anymore. I am going to have to track not only what I'm eating, but how much my food is costing as well since I will be financing my own food this summer. So this summer will definitely be a summer of learning in that regard.

Speaking of the summer, I am anxiously awaiting the start of Orientation. I can't wait to meet all of the incoming freshmen and formerly introduce them too the school, and I definitely can't wait to spend the next two months with my famOLy. But for now, I will just have to wait!

Because of how hectic my summer will be balancing two jobs, I will probably not be updating my blog every Tuesday. But I will be sure to update it once a week, and I will continue to post my updates on facebook and twitter for y'all to see. Thanks for reading! :)