EXCITEMENT

Oh my gosh I am so excited about my life right now. I have got so much going on that has got me almost jumping up and down with excitement.

Connection Group I finally joined a small group at my church. Several other sophomore girls with a junior leader. We're meeting from 8-10 every Monday night. Fellowship, prayer, Bible study-oh my word I am so excited. I cannot wait to get to know these girls. In addition, I'm also joining Highland as an official member.

Awana Awana starts this Wednesday. This year I am working with Journey (high school) and T&T girls (hopefully with the same girls I had in Sparks last year.) We had our kickoff luncheon after church today. The Journey group here doesn't seem like it's run anything close to like what my Journey group was like, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. :) It'll just be different.

XTax Comptetition A chance to use my speech and debate skills again. Five-person teams are handed a case and have two weeks to come up with a tax policy to address the case. They then present the case and defend it in a question-and-answer session. Sound really nerdy? That's probably why I'm so excited about it. :) The competition is sponsored by Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Baylor has historically done really well in the competition, and if we do really well there's potentially prize money and internships involved.

Swing Dance We have officially survived our first week. Turnout has been amazing at our first two meetings, and we had a ton of people sign up on the e-mail list during late night at the SLC. I love being an officer. Participation in an organization always takes on an added dimension when you serve in a leadership position.

New Student Organization? Don't know if this will happen this year or next year, but I recently got the idea to start a new organization on campus for students wanting to eventually work in non-profit organizations. Baylor has a major called non-profit marketing, but no student organization dedicated to helping develop their careers. I'd like to open up the organization to students in any major who want to work in non-profit organizations, though. I'll be e-mailing the advisor and hopefully talking with him soon. I have no clue what kind of timeline it will take to start this organization, but now that I've got the idea I'm determined to follow through with it.

Awana Conference The annual fall conference is being held in Waco this year. I'm teaching at least two workshops-24/7 basic training and an LIT workshop/forum. It's on October 10th-if you're an Awana leader in Texas you should come. :)

Still waiting for cooler weather to come around, but in the meantime, I wore a really cute sundress to church today. :)

My life is amazing.

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun...

What I really would like right now would be to walk outside and feel a biting cold wind blow across my face. I want to see gray clouds cover the sky, and I want to bundle up in warm clothes.

Most of my life has been spent in Texas. I've always preferred warm weather to cold. But recently I've been finding myself longing for cold weather more and more. Perhaps it's just a result of spending too much time walking around in the sun recently. But really, why do we associate days of sunshine with happiness and cold winter months with depression? Does it really have to be that way? Having sweat practically pour down your body because it's so hot can be just as miserable as weather that is too cold, and the winter months are not devoid of beauty. It's just a different kind of beauty.

Is God really calling me to move to Chicago when I graduate? I don't know for sure, but if He is, I really do think I'll be forever grateful.

In other news...I like my classes (yay for switching to a major I actually like!), I LOVE my apartment, my friends are amazing, Awana starts on Wednesday, I'm joining a Bible study at Highland really soon, I'm hoping to get involved in the student ministry at Highland as well, and I may have an opportunity to put my speech and debate skills to use again. :D

Life is good. Life also has a lot of assignments for me. So I'll go and prepare while I wait for cold weather to come grace my life with it's presence.

Fall 2009 Schedule

Subject to change within the next few weeks:

Accounting 2303-03-Financial Accounting-MWF 10:10-11:00-Jones
Economics 2306-02-Principles of Microeconomics-MWF 9:05-9:55-Mencken
Business 1301-02-Business, Economy, and World Affairs-TTh 11:00-12:15-McCormick
Math 1309-04-Calculus for Business Students-MWF 1:25-2:15-Brooks
Health Education 1145-01-Health and Human Behavior-MW 8:00-8:50-TBA
Quantitative Business Analysis 2302-08-Business Data Analysis 1-TTh 8:00-9:15-Kay

Summer Closes

Right now, I miss Awana headquarters so much. I miss Bryce and Ariane, who basically became like brother and sister to me. I miss Dale and Luann. I miss Kevin. I miss Olive, and I miss Faith Baptist Church. I miss living in headquarters. I miss the fountain with the fish on the bottom floor, the grass behind headquarters, Kevin's bookcase, and drinking a bunch of cups of tea every day. I miss Art Rorheim, and I miss getting to hug him and give him a kiss. I miss hearing his stories from the early days of Awana, and listening to him recite entire chapters of Scripture at a time.

I am not really all that excited about going back to Baylor. Baylor is not yet home. I love Baylor, don't get me wrong. I love the campus and the people...but it's not home. I'm not sure it will ever be. Despite having spent more time in one month at Baylor then I have spent at Awana headquarters over my entire lifetime, if I could choose I would rather fly back to Chicago then go back to Baylor. Maybe that's just because my memories of Illinois are more recent. Maybe it's because I felt closer to the "real world" up at my internship than I do at college. Maybe it's because I belong in Chicago.

I am super excited about a couple things go. First and most obvious, I am excited about seeing friends like Jordan, Stephen, Taylor, Sarah, Mindy, Erika, Erica, Emma, Shane, Carroll, Landon, Katie, Tracey, etc., etc., etc., again. I am also excited because I found out that one of the pastors at my church is leaving Grace to teach at Baylor-and he teaches in Morrisson Hall, right next to the business school.

But what I am really excited about is starting classes for my new major. I am excited about learning all about business. And I am really excited to start learning things I can actually apply to life and to my future job.

I am excited because I think that this summer God handed me everything I ever really wanted. And I'm excited to see how my time at Baylor will prepare me to step out into the "real world" and take on the assignments that God is handing to me.

Baylor is not home. But it is a stepping stone to where I'm going. And for that, it will be a place I love and cherish always.

My New Address!

So for anybody who would at all be interested in sending me a letter/postcard/package/etc. while I'm at college this year, this is my apartment address!

2201 S. University Parks Drive #10203C
Waco, TX 76706

:)