Winter Break

Hello again, everyone! I know it's been quite awhile, but I haven't been on my blog at all recently and as such have not blogged.

Break has been good - we have been getting lots of snow, lots of cold weather, and lots of fun. I find it difficult to believe that it's only 13 days until I fly off into the sky . . . well yes, I'm planning on coming back, but not for awhile :) It will be my first flight all by myself, which is very exciting. I probably should be scared, but I'm not: after all, the airport is very small and I I could scarcely get lost!

I'm planning to blog from London, but you know how I can be about blogging! It should be interesting to see if I actually do it, but I certainly will try. And if I get a camera from which I can get pictures to put here, then I will attempt to share pictures as well.

Hope you all are enjoying your winter, and happy new year!

Finals week

Ah, yes, the phrase that strikes terror into the hearts of college students . . . yes, it is finals week here at Houghton College!

My week has actually been going very well, and I'm enjoying my last few days here. It has been a mixture of hard work, late nights, and outrageous fun, which isn't all that bad of a combination for a college life!

Hmm - 1 minute until my final is supposed to start. Signing off . . . have a happy day!

A week of Sanity . . . ?

Well, I am in my last week of classes here at Houghton. I can't believe it's almost over! Next week will be finals, which will be interesting, and I will then be done with semester one. Wow. I'm happy that I don't have anything else due until finals. It should be a week that I can get started on my two take home finals and study for my three in class exams. Hopefully it will also be a time that I can get some sanity into my life, clean my room to leave for a year, and finish up all the paperwork that needs to be done in order to be off campus for a semester.

Today has been a good day for me: I slept for 10 hours last night, had a good review session for Biblical Literature after class, had lunch, started my finals work, practiced for the concert tomorrow, had Philharmonia basic conducting finals, dinner, played Squash, and various other miscellaneous things somewhere in there including Bethany braiding my hair!

Now I'm relaxing and blogging here and on my other blog and calming down and looking forward to a full night's rest tonight. We have lovely snow here now and I'm enjoying it still - particularly since I don't have to deal with it all that much! It is very beautiful and the weather in general has been very nice (especially for Western New York) :)

Hope you all are enjoying your days/evenings and for everyone at home, I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!

Last week of School

Well, hurrah hurrah! I am now in my last week of classes for the semester here at Houghton. Do you know what that means? It means that in two weeks I will leave Houghton College for the next eight months. Pretty incredible, isn't it? In response to Jessica's comment(s), I thought I would do well to blog again.

I had a big paper due today, but now I don't have anything due until finals week! That is incredibly exciting, although at the same time I have a lot to do and will need to start right away. In fact, I should be studying instead of blogging . . . but I am under the strictest of orders to blog, and so am sacrificing my grades, my scholarships, and my standing as an honors student. (Jessica, I hope you enjoy this post. It is a sacrifice, but I'm doing it for you.)

If anyone believed what I said in the previous paragraph, I'm sorry. I do not try to actually deceive people. In fact, I do have a little free time right now and can blog with a minimum of damage to my grades :)

My life has been busy with four papers to turn in today! I hadn't realized just how crazy the day was going to be. For some reason I thought it would be a little slow - not so! It was good, though, and I'm looking forward to the next week. Being done with my paper takes a lot of stress off.

I hope everyone understands that the reason I haven't blogged so long is because of that paper. And please be forewarned that when I go home for Christmas I will have very limited internet access! As such, I likely will not be blogging regularly! But I will try to get at least a few more posts in before I leave.

:)

Back from Break!

Well, after being gone for a week, here I am again!

Break was relaxing and so much fun. I got to spend time with my family and an evening with my friends, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner (and leftovers until I left . . . ): all those things Thanksgiving break is stereotyped to be if done properly. So, I was very satisfied with it. It is amazing to think that it's only about three weeks until I am done with the semester! It is weird to think that I won't be at Houghton again for eight months! I will certainly miss it, and all of my friends here. But I am very excited about the future, too! It is a happy mix.

Well, a psychology test lurks in the shadows of tomorrow morning and I still need to look over my notes and prepare. I did want to let you know that I am still alive and officially excited about life!

Have a great day. :)

I realize that I have been blogging on a theme recently. Can anyone tell that I'm very excited to go home? :) Well, I am. In 24 hours I'll be home, Lord willing. Today I walked out of my last class and felt unreal relief. It was unbelievable. I love college, and don't know why I would feel this way. It was slightly akin to the feeling when I finished my last problem of my math final and graduated from high school. Ridiculous, considering that this has just been a few months of college now. And I'm not tired of it in the least. On the contrary, it seems like we have just begun!

I am at the Christmas Prism rehearsal right now, listening to the Houghton College Choir run through "This is My Father's World". They are doing a lovely job. (If you are wondering why I am online during a rehearsal, it is because the rehearsal is three hours long. And, given that I'm only playing in three pieces and none of them are even close to an hour, I have plenty of downtime in there.)

I want to share a poem with you that I found some time ago. I have no idea who wrote it and no copyright infringement is intended (if it is copyrighted).

The Tandem Bike

At first, I saw God as my observer, my judge,
Keeping track of the things I did wrong,
So as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die.
He was out there sort of like a president,
I recognized his picture when I saw it, but I really didn’t know him.

But later on when I met Christ,
It seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride,
A tandem bike,
And I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal.

I don’t know when it was that he suggested we change places,
But life has not been the same since.
When I had control, I knew the way.
It was rather boring, but predictable,
The shortest distance between two points.
But when he took the lead, he know delightful long cuts –
Up mountains, and through rocky places at breakneck speeds.
It was all I could do to hang on!
Even though it looked like madness, he said “Pedal.”
I worried and asked, “Where are you taking me?”
He laughed and didn’t answer, and I started to learn to trust.
I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure.
And when I’d forget and say, “I’m scared,” he’d lean back and touch my hand.
He took me to people with gifts that I needed,
Gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy.
They gave me gifts to take on my journey, and we were off again.
He’s say, “Give the gifts away; they’re extra baggage, too much weight.”
So I did, to the people we met,
And I found that in giving I received – but still out burden was light.

I did not trust him, at first, in control of my life. I thought he’d wreck it.
But he knows biking secrets, knows how to take sharp corners,
Knows how to jump to clear rocks,
Even knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.
And I am learning to be quiet and pedal in the strangest places.
And I’m beginning to enjoy the view – and the cool breeze on my face –
With my companion Jesus Christ.
And when I’m sure I just can’t do any more, he must smiles and says, “Pedal.”

-Author unknown


It's a good reminder for me, and I hope it puts new perspective on your day!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week - I probably will be offline and not blogging again until sometime next week!

2 days to break!

Today is a mixture of church, reading, homework, thanksgiving hall dinner, and the closing of the Houghton Weslyann Church's three week 24/7 prayer vigil. I'm having a nice, relaxing afternoon with blogging, doing some math to prepare for my test tomorrow, and listening to fiddle music with violin and cello. It has been a good day so far. I woke up this morning to one of the nicest feelings ever - not at all tired, and looking forward to the day! I am feeling more and more alive. :)

I am so excited about going home for break in 2 days! Talking on the phone to my family isn't the same as seeing them, and I almost never talk to my other friends on the phone so it will be great to see them, too! For now - I have 6 classes (including a test) and chapel before I can go home! Oh and yes - I also have a Prism rehearsal, prism being Houghton's Christmas gala. It's quite a big deal around here, but I've been enjoying listening to Christmas music. It's not bad stuff to have stuck in my head!

Hope your day has been restful and enjoyable!

math project and general relief

Yes, the two go together! I had a big math project that was due today, and I turned it in this morning. So now life is much more relaxed, and I'm going to take a nap!

I go home in 4 days for Thanksgiving break! I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends, eating real food (no offense meant to Pioneer Caterers, who do an awesome job for cooking on a scale like they do) and having no homework! Actually, the homework thing isn't true because I have a term paper to write somewhere in there and two tests the day after I get back. But it should still be plenty of fun!

I got a room draw notice in the mail today. It's weird to think about signing up already for next fall! (Since I won't be here next spring what would usually be spring sign ups rolls into fall.)

Well, I know this is relatively short, but I'm tired . . . just wanted to let you know that I'm doing much better than I have been in quite awhile because of being done with that project. And I'm healthy now, too, so that is a definite positive. =)

Update on Life . . .

Sorry I disappeared! I know, I vanished off the world of blogging and should have at least told you it was going to happen. Unfortunately, (or maybe, for my grades, fortunately,) my schoolwork pretty much comes before blogging. And I had three papers and quiz so far this week, which should be ample explanation for my absence.

Life has been good here. The weather is lovely, absolutely amazing for this time of year in this location. (Believe me, I know what it is usually like!) It makes me laugh to hear other freshman saying 'oh, Western New York isn't so bad after all' . . . yeah, right! This is unusual. But I will not destroy their blissful innocence.

I am pretty much healthy: back to standing up in chapel when they say to stand up, feeling hungry at mealtimes, and waking up feeling rested. I still can go into coughing fits or dizzy spells sometimes, but it is much less frequent and I do not consider myself to be sick anymore! Thanks to Houghton's obsession with having hand sanitizer approximately every 20 yards, (or a strong immune system - but I'll let them have the credit), I now have declared myself healthy. In time for Thanksgiving break! Yay!

We had an incredible speaker in chapel this morning and in lecture last night, Dr. Jeremy Begbie. He is a professor at Duke, originally from England and still very much a Brit. He illustrated his points with music and did an awesome job. Now, I need to figure out how to get recordings of his lectures . . . I'm pretty sure it's possible. He was talking about culture and religion and the arts, and left me speechless and madly taking notes. And thinking like crazy. And trying to understand . . . and answer the challenge . . . and wondering how on earth to live the kind of life I know I really want (ie: A life where I am truly alive). So yes, I'm very glad I went to his lectures! I would highly recommend him to all of you.

Did you know that if you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19? You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

A Picture!

Unlike some of my friends, who post numerous pictures to their blogs, I have not. Therefore, this post is devoted to one thing: celebrating the first picture on my blog! Today Linden and I were out on a walk and she took the picture that is now my profile picture. I usually don't especially care for pictures of myself, but for some reason I really like this one!

I know that doesn't make for a very interesting post for all of you, but I'm happy. So here it is!!!

I Need Thee Every Hour

I was looking for a recording of this hymn and was delighted to find one as a part of such a wonderful medley! I hope you are blessed and encouraged by it, just as I was.

Holidays

Today I walked into Philharmonia rehearsal and heard one of the players practicing their parts for the Christmas Prism production coming up the beginning of December. It made me feel like it was already winter, which is a very conflicting feeling for me. I love some things about winter, and at the same time I know that I will end up longing for days with more sunlight! But I do like Christmas music a lot, so I am happy that we are already rehearsing it.

To pull back to a more current holiday, today I worked as a waitress at a banquet here. It was the senior citizen thanksgiving dinner, and I worked with two other girls serving coffee and tea and clearing plates and being generally useful and helpful. It was so much fun. I felt like I was walking into a treasure house to walk into a room full of older people. They have had so many life experiences, and there is so much I could learn from them! Hopefully I'll be able to get to know some of them over the next four years, as they all live in the Houghton area.

This evening was the first annual Houghton Freshman Tradition and the Passing on of the Eagles Legend and the Scarves. Okay, so that long title is mainly a product of my imagination. What it is is the first annual scarf giveaway. Well, that's not quite accurate either. The story is that many years ago there were several Houghton students who were killed in a car crash. To make sure these students aren't forgotten, a tradition is being started that every year the freshman class hears about these students. Then, we all get a Houghton scarf with our class year. My scarf is purple and gold plaid and very long and warm. (So is everybody else's.) I like it a lot.

I also colored a picture of a turkey today, which was fun and relaxing. Sometimes I think that people suffer great losses when they force themselves to 'grow up'. What's wrong with having fun with pretty colors? Isn't that basically the definition of people who paint? So yes, I had a lot of fun and don't regret it at all! It was a good day.

"Mom, I Need Money"

“Mommy, can I please have a quarter?” “What for?”

She asked, already knowing what I would say.

“I want to get gum at the grocery store” I

Replied, and she gave it to me.

“Hey, Mom, can I have five dollars?”She

Tried not to sigh as she asked, “What for?”

“I want to go to the movies,” I replied,

And she gave it to me.

“Mom, I need a twenty,” I tried, hoping

She was in a good mood. “I have a date

Tonight.” She gave me a tired look, but

She gave it to me.

“I’m out of gas for the car, and I

Have to go to work,” I said as I gave

Her a look. She pulled out money and

Gave it to me.

“I want to go to college and I need lots

Of money,” I wheedled. It was a stretch,

And I knew it. “Talk to your dad, dear. I’m

Out of money to give you.”

I wrote this last year - and no, it is not my true story! Hope you enjoyed reading it and are having a great day.

Prospective Students!

This weekend here at Houghton has been busy with prospective students. Earlier we had group of music prospectives, and now (starting last night) we have a bus trip! They showed up in big buses and long lines, and we welcomed them to the Houghton campus to have a look into our lives (and try to convince them it should be their life, too!)

Bethany and I have 4 girls staying with us, one of whom is her sister. The other three are friends of hers from home! So it is somewhat like a get together of friends. Last night I came back to our room and found them playing dutch blitz! It is like being in a family again, having so many people in one [small] space. It has been a lot of fun.

This morning I felt much, much better after having been put under enforced rest by my friends yesterday. To put it simply, I was able to walk down stairs this morning without clutching the railing! It was nice.

We had some prospective students in my political science class this afternoon. One student here wrote something that really made me think: are they prospective students, or perspective students? I thought that was a good distinction. When there is someone around that is not already a part of life here, I invariably see things differently.

Well, that's life here! Lots of people, lots of fun!

Enjoy the day!

Fall at Houghton College

This morning I walked out of my dorm and noticed that the sky was blue and the moon was still in the sky. It was a lovely, crisp fall morning, and I knew right away that today was going to be much better than the last week or so for me! I feel alive and (mostly) well, still a little sick but not too bad, and I feel like I have re-entered the land of the living with a bounce!

To show you just how much I mean that, I am copying something I wrote earlier today:

I feel alive for the first time in roughly a week minus two days, plus seventeen point five hours, minutes ninety minutes. It is now 1:21 pm on November 6. When did I start feeling sick?

Answer: one minute ago, when my mind turned 'sick' and wrote out that math problem!

Rejoice in the Lord; He keeps His promises. May your day be filled with peace.

The Beginnings of a Blog

Hello, everyone!
I have been toying with the idea of a blog for a long time, and my friends finally convinced me that I really should do it! So here I am, and I hope you enjoy. I know I'm crazy (some would say worse than crazy) to start a blog just as I committed to writing a novel with nanowrimo, and the semester is getting more difficult (with me being one of those OCG [obsessive compulsive grades] people). Ah, well. After all, if I have any spare time at all it is spare time, and I can do with it as I like - right? :)
I want to share a poem I wrote last winter about the place I was going to school.

A Lonely Day

I turn the corner of the sidewalk and
swerve. Two people are kissing,
wrapped up in each other;
never even saw me.

A girl sits on the bench where the
wind is strong, the smoke of her cigarette
lost in the snowflakes. She pulls
her jacket closer around her
shoulders and breathes in and slowly
out, looking at me vacantly.

I shiver at the hopelessness of being
out on a day like this, and reach
for the door. A guy is just ahead of me;
he holds the second door for me.
“Thank you,” I say, and he nods as
he walks on.

I curve around the long hallway.
“Try a latte or spiced cider,” I read.
“We serve pastries and bagels.” I sigh
and look around. Fifteen people pass by,
all of them texting or with their
hands in their pockets and their
eyes on the floor or humming
along with their iPods.

Three girls walk up to the counter.
They are laughing. One orders a
bagel sandwich, another a cappuccino,
and the third a bowl of soup. “I
have class at two,” one says.
“Aural theory. I still haven’t
done my homework.” They all laugh,
and I smile with relief. So
there are people here who have
interaction with others.

I walk down the long hallway,
aware. I am a passing face, a
Person that is a blur, an unknown
Being.

Sometimes I get tired of not knowing
people. I open the door, and a cold
rush of snow strikes my face and
numbs my hands. I step into the
flow of humanity, into an impersonal
wave that carries me along and where
I am alone.


I spent most of the year at school not really knowing anyone and feeling rather anonymous. Now that I am here at college with wonderful friends, I feel much different! I am an incredibly blessed girl. Have a wonderful day!