A Weight is Lifted...

Today was the first day in the last 4 days that I've felt at all relaxed. After an emotional Skype chat with my dad this morning I decided to drop the econ class from hell and pick up a psychology class (hopefully!). I spent the last three days attempting to do homework that I didn't understand, getting a rude email response from the professor when I asked questions, and just stressing in general. I feel so much better now that I dropped the class; I can relax a little bit and focus on my other classes. As for the rest of my weekend, I spent Saturday studying all day and writing a thought provoking paper for philosophy. That night I went to New Vintage for church and met up with Erica while I was there. It was nice to see a familiar face and it was exciting to see how close she and Micah are to having their first baby! It was also really good to be at church in general... I will admit that it made me homesick for The Well, but I felt like just being able to worship and put my worries in God's hands made me feel better than I had all week. As a conclusion to my night of worship and feeling God really pull me close during my time of stress, I watched two people from the dorm across from me get taken out on stretchers. Apparently they were on LSD... talk about a way to start the school year! But today, however was a lot less eventful. I got to relax, talk to friends on Skype, and talk to Devinn for 2 hours (he's been in Oklahoma all summer for army training). After dinner in the caf, Kaitlin, Chloe, and I went to target so I could put together a care package for Devinn and buy a few other things I needed. That takes me up to where I am now... Just finishing up some homework for tomorrow, getting ready to take a nice warm shower, and hopefully getting some reading in before I fall asleep (I REALLY miss being able to read for fun... I can't seem to stay awake long enough to make it through more than 5 pages at a time lately). I have an early class tomorrow, but I know that I will be able to sleep a little better tonight knowing that I won't have econ homework tomorrow! (:

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." -Hebrews 11:1 .... Feel like that verse has really kept me going lately. You have got to have faith to make it through the difficult times.

PS... That picture at the top is from the other night. It is my friend Liz and I in our incredibly cool snuggies. Yes, snuggies like the infomercial.. be jealous!

All I Wanna do is Sleep...

All in all today was a pretty good day. I had two classes this morning, philosophy then math and both were 50 minutes long so it was not bad at all. After class I walked with Chloe to the caf to have lunch with some of our friends then I went home to study and fit in a little homework time. After that I took Kaitlin and Chloe and dropped them off at Safeway while I got my car smogged. It was SO hot and humid here today (nothing compared to Clovis though!) so waiting for my car kind of sucked, but it wasn't too bad. When we got home, Chloe and Kaitlin made pasta for a bunch of our friends and the guys who live next door (haha they just happened to stop by!) while Chelsea (my other suitemate) made pumpkin swirl cheescake... It was all so amazing! I got to get some advice on school work from the sophomore girls from intervarsity; and I felt like one of the girls, Jenny, was so reassuring and so sweet that it just made me feel a lot better about everything in that moment. After dinner we went out to the sauv green (a big patch of grass near my dorm) and watched the movie I Love You Man which was hilarious. Now I'm back in my dorm and I'm extremely tired. This is the first night in the past week that I can stay up as late as I want and be able to sleep in the next day and right now all I want to do is sleep! I would love to be able to stay up and read if I could, but I know I'll be out as soon as my head hits the pillow. As for tomorrow, I'm skipping a trip to the lake with Intervarsity so I can study and hopefully go find myself and econ tutor. Three days into college classes and I'm already making sacrifices so I can stay on top of things, but I guess it's neccessary since I keep getting more and more assignments tacked on from every teacher. I wouldn't be at all surprised if my ballet teacher emailed us tomorrow and said that she wanted a ten page paper by Monday... that's just how ridiculous this is all getting. But oh well, I must say that I am proud of myself, however, because it is the first Friday night of college and I am in my dorm and not out getting wasted at "The Farm House". I may be going a little bit crazy from sleep depravation and intense amounts of studying, but I'm still sane enough to stay away from all the parties.

It's Just One of Those Days...

Second day of classes and I already had a mini meltdown over my econ class. Before I write about that I'll kinda map out how my morning went. I woke up at 6 for my 7:20 am class and almost rolled off the bed.. my hair was a HUGE mess, already a bad way to start the day right? Things were just downhill from there. I went out to the kitchen with all my stuff and went back to my room to really quick to grab a water bottle, while in there I threw my keys on my bed then walked out and shut my door.. BIG mistake. My door locked, which means I was locked out since I need my ID card to get in. I called police services and they said I had to go to the housing office (across campus) to get a temporary card; which I wouldn't be able to do until after my classes were over. So I just decided to forget about it and walk to class... let me tell you, it is FREEZING here in the morning so that puts me in an even worse mood. I get to my class and realize that there is 215 people in it and only 6 of them are freshmen. My teacher then proceeds to tell us that his tests are impossible to pass and he fails probably more students than any other teacher on campus. On top of all this, econ (that's the class I was in) is my worst subject! So now I'm just upset, tired, and mad.. not a good combination early in the morning. So I run to the store to grab a starbucks double shot and go to my next class. It was a university class for freshmen and it was seriously a nice break, plus we got out over an hour early. So I met my friends for lunch and got my whole room key thing figured out. Then I had a little emotional breakdown in my room about how difficult econ is going to be and how I wished I was at home (don't worry mom, I'm better now). When all my tears were gone, I studied for 2 hours and did some homework... and this is where the day gets better! I skyped my best friends then went to Walmart with Kim and bought a blue beach cruiser! SO cute! Then we met Erica and her husband Micah at New Vintage for a church BBQ.. It was nice to eat some normal food! I also got to get involved with the church kid's ministry; I am so excited for that. I spent so much time praying today for God to give me strength to endure all this school stuff and that He would use me in some way, and I felt like tonight He was calling me to work with the 5th and 6th graders. It's a challenging age, but I think it will be rewarding. So all in all it was just one of those days.. but I'm praying for a better day tomorrow!

"And I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain, but if that's what it takes to praise You.. Jesus, bring the rain" ...definitely describes my day!

Beach Balls and College Classes

Today was my first official day as a college student, and it was actually a pretty easy day... not that I'm expecting it to be like that for the whole semester. I started off the morning with philosophy 101; my teacher has a weird accent (from Holland), the class is surprisingly evenly filled with guys and girls, and I think it's going to actually be an interesting class. He started our day by asking a question that seriously made us evaluate our morals, I really liked it. After going home for a quick bowl of cereal, I made my way to math. My teacher was late and also locked himself out of the classroom... but altogether he was really nice and straightforward. I think I'll like that class just because math can only be explained a few ways and you're either right or you're wrong. After class I went home to meet Chloe so we could go to lunch, stop by the post office, and fit in a quick workout. I was surprised when I got to the post office to see that my mom had sent me a cute little scoobydoo ball that was signed by all my friends! I loved it! After working out with Chloe, I took a 2 hour nap to regain some energy before my 2 hour ballet class... which I loved! It was so nice to be back in dance again; it's a familiar feeling and it really helps me relax. The only thing is that I get out of that class at 6:50, so none of my suitemates are home and I can't make it over to the caf in time for dinner... I ended up eating a salad I made (prechopped lettuce and apples) in my room while having a nice little phone convo with my momma. After Chloe got home we walked to the other side of campus to meet Liz, then walked to a little room where Intervarsity was playing bingo and eating rootbeer floats. We were a little late for rootbeer floats, but we got to meet our Bible study leaders and hang out with some amazing people. I'm happy that I've found some Christian friends who are like me here.. that was probably my biggest fear was that I wouldn't be able to find anyone who believed the same things as me. But God definitely gave me the discernment to be able to tell who will influence my life in a good way.. and who will try to suck me into the whole party scene. Thank God for answered prayers (:

Meetings and New Friends (:

I am absolutely loving Sonoma State as of right now. I had meetings this morning (SO boring) but then I went on a little adventure with Chloe to go find our classes, pick up our books, and head to the caf for some pasta (surprisingly good). Then we went to the duck pond on campus haha and we played sardines with intervarsity club. The game was kind of boring, but we got to hang out with some amazing sophomore girls that we met. Chloe and I absolutely love them! We went to their on campus apartment after to hang out for a bit then made our way back home to get ready for bed. We have our first day of classes tomorrow, and it literally feels like I am getting ready for my first day of kindergarten all over again. I have that wave of nervous excitement washing over me already. I'm just happy I found all my classes today so I don't get lost! So even though I'm missing my friends and family at home, I'm having a great time here. Plus skype and texting are really helping me to keep in touch with everyone. I gave my brother a nice little tour of my suite via skype tonight. I'm surprisingly not as homesick as I thought I would be though... I'm just having so much fun here that it's hard to be upset about anything. I know that everything I'm getting involved with here will make for some amazing memories (:

Ameci's and Adventures

This marks day three of my college adventures... and I must say, so far so good! I admit that the first night was definitely the toughest. It's not like home where I know everyone and I always have someone to hang out with; I had to start over completely here and make all new friends. But I think because everyone is in the same situation, it makes the whole meeting people thing way easier. My suitemate Chloe, new friends Kim and Kaitlin, and I went to Target today for a mini shopping trip then made our way to Santa Rosa so I could drop off an application at a bridal shop. (: After that we headed over to an event at the school, ordered an amazing pizza from Ameci's (the on campus pizza place conveniently located right around the corner from my dorm!), and headed out to play capture the flag with intervarsity. Intervarsity is the Christian group on campus... I already love it! The people are all so friendly and open to meeting new people, plus they all don't party. I spent months praying that God would lead me to find Christian friends here at SSU and He provided! This all just makes me that much more excited about being here; a new place, new friends, and one amazing experience.