January 16: Flying back to Texas. Our flight arrives at 4pm. Factor in a one-hour drive home, some time to pack the car, and a three-hour trip to Abilene, and it’ll be a rather long day.

January 17: The spring semester starts bright and early at 8am with my basic drawing class.

May 25: After a week or so back home from school, this day marks my departure from the States.

May 26: Full day layover in London. No big deal.

May 27: Early arrival at the Entebbe airport in Uganda, after which I’ll be headed to the Kasana Children’s Centre.

August 2: Back in Texas once again.

And that’s that.

In other news, you’ll see that the numbers in the sidebar to your right have changed a bit. Firstly, we reached $505 on December 31st, just in time to ring in the New Year! Secondly, with plane tickets on hold and prices a bit more predictable, my total estimated costs have dropped from $3,000 to $2,500. Pretty exciting, if you ask me.

I hope you all have been having a fabulous 2012 thus far! Personally, I love the feeling of a fresh calendar and a fresh schedule full of fresh opportunities. Let’s make 2012 a year of life lived to the fullest.

10. When professors show you the rubrik by which they will grade your work, they will indeed grade your work by this rubrik.

Sounds easy, right? It took two lousy grades to drive this point home for me.

9. If the cafeteria closes at 11:00 and it’s 10:52, you still have time to get dinner.

Note: power-walking skills may be required.

8. When you read “required textbook” on your syllabus, “required” doesn’t always mean what you think it means.

This was an expensive lesson to learn.

7. Finals week can be very relaxing.

Just five tests instead of 15 hours sitting in class? Yes please.

6. Going to bed early makes all the difference at 7am the next morning.

I discovered this during the last week of school. Definitely should have figured it out sooner.

5. On campus, it is socially acceptable to go around in public dressed in sweats, uggs, and a hoodie.

Never thought I’d stoop so low.

4. If you have confidential things to say, don’t say them in a dorm room.

I estimate the walls between rooms are approximately a quarter of an inch thick.

3. When your professor says you won’t be able to make an A if you write it the night before, he may very well be wrong.

What? Did I do this? Of course not…

2. Being a full-time student with a job and a social life is similar to running a never-ending marathon, but worse.

Not that I’ve ever run a marathon.

1. You are paying thousands of dollars to go to school here. For goodness’ sake, buy some coffee and enjoy yourself.

I recommend a raspberry white chocolate latte.

Basically, tonight is perfect.

I’ve been more than a little stressed lately, so I’m loving this. After tomorrow, there’s only one more week of school before finals. I can count my assignments due on one hand. That’s encouraging. My two weeks are in at work, which should leave me free during finals week to focus on studying. The is the home stretch.

Still, there’s so much happening, and it leaves me exhausted in every sense of the word. (Coming down with a cold really doesn’t help things.) Honestly, my biggest fears at this point are a little more long-term than impending final exams. I worry about next summer. I worry about raising the money for plane tickets before the end of the year, and paying for tuition next semester. I worry about balancing work and school and volunteer hours and time with friends. Okay, I worry a little about finals, too.

All that said, I’m not entirely certain what I’m trying to say here. It could be something really deep, but…probably not. (Possibly an indication that I should have thought a little harder about this blog post.)

I think I’ll keep listening to acoustic guitar now.

1. Painting experiments to warm up the brain. I played with bright colors and stencils, with a great degree of failure but much enjoyment nonetheless.

2. A live performance of the play “Private Eyes” on campus. All those plot twists are bound to wake up your thinking faculties.

3. The ever-loyal Macbook Pro. ‘Nuff said.

4. French vanilla hot chocolate.

Basically, tonight’s homework doesn’t even stand a chance.

My 1:00 class ended on Friday, and I headed across campus for orchestra practice. As I was walking through the parking lot, I saw one of my professors loading luggage into a big white bus—apparently he was going on a weekend trip. I didn’t think anything of it, and kept walking.

Just a few hours later, that same white bus would run off the highway, rolling over and ejecting most of its passengers. One student on board would never be coming back to campus. Others would be rushed to the hospital and placed in intensive care.

That night, I turned on the radio on my way back from work. The lyrics to a song by Skillet hit me a little closer to home:

Today, I’m gonna try a little harder
Gonna make every minute last longer
Gonna learn to forgive and forget
Because we don’t have long; gonna make the most of it.

Today, I’m gonna love my enemies
Reach out to somebody who needs me
Make a change, make the world a better place
Because tomorrow could be one day too late.

The ACU community is a strong one, and the tragedy has brought everyone a little closer and God a little nearer. Pray for the students, faculty, family members, and friends affected by the accident. Up-to-date information on the accident and those in the hospital can be found here.

Lately, everything seems to be running out.

I’m out of time to do homework. I’m out of black paint. I’m out of money. I’m out of creative things to write for my English papers. I’m out of ideas for our group project. I’m out of jalapeno chips, the sustenance of life. I’m out of energy. My car’s out of gas. This brings us back to “I’m out of money.”

Let’s just say that at this point in my college student life, I am scraping the bottom of my creativity, my time management skills, and my wallet.

Maybe it’s not a coincidence that this week, ACU is hosting its annual Summit conference with the simple theme “enough.” Writers, speakers and thinkers are on campus from just about everywhere, all bringing their particular insight to the conference. I’ve listened to talks on culture, faith, storytelling, psychology, and blogging–pretty cool, really.

I think it’s all come at a good time–encouraging me to keep my focus off my empty wallet/gas tank/creative brain and instead draw in to God. The riches of Your love will always be enough. We sang those words in chapel last week, and they keep running through my mind.

Is it true?

I don’t need enough time, enough money, enough creativity, enough energy.

All I need is enough Jesus.

(Which is good, because He’s easier to come by than a full tank of gas.)

At risk of showing how much of a homeschooler I truly am…all those things make me really excited.

The downside of college? It’s a bit unhappy to constantly have homework hanging over your head when you’d rather be blogging. Or hanging out. Or talking on the phone. Or going to Walmart to buy jalapeno chips, the sustenance of life.

Oh well.

That was legitimately the longest week of my life, but I can’t wait to do it again.

A short synopsis:

Professors…

My favorite would have to be my history Prof. On the first day of class, he sourly informed us that he was a grouchy old man and then proceeded to tell us the details of what we could expect from him this upcoming semester.

The second day was when I decided I liked him; He’s a story teller. In fact, he did the first lecture, which was on the events preceding Columbus’ voyage, in story format.

He was clear enough to follow and take notes on, but what made him my first impression favorite was that he was sarcastic, and asked us questions. He somehow involved all eighty of us students in the story he told. It was entertaining, interesting and intense ( I sat in the front row).

Housing…

I am blessed to be living in my Aunt and Uncle’s house for this semester and most likely the next. I room with my cousin Philip, and Catherine (other cousin) is right across the hall. But most importantly, Philip and I now occupy one of the most epic Man Cave’s you ever saw.

Yes. Be jealous.

Dad and I built this beautiful red loft and I built an oak bookshelf, which we put in Philips room. They turned out very well. The loft functions as our Man Cave (we do have sharp pointy objects to mount beneath it, and snacks ) And my bookshelf (the first of its kind) now holds my growing library.

Classes…

College is presenting a new kind of challenge that I am starting to look forward too. So far, the professors I’ve met are here because they love to teach and they expect a lot from us. My favorite class is Technical Writing. The lady who teaches it is quirky and a no-nonsense kind of professor. My not-so-favorite class is biology. The text book jams evolution down your throat and I didn’t care for that at all. If they were going to teach it, they should teach it like it should be taught: as a scientific THEORY, but they teach it as if it is a law. I was starting to flow my arguments (yeah, the debater in me came out) and I prepared to ask the professor about it, but I was relieved to find that she didn’t teach it like the textbook did. This put most of my concerns to rest. The others, I made sure to vocalize through inquiry in class.

Fun stuff, if done correctly and with the right attitude. So far, no conflict…

Most Memorable Moment…

… Was probably last night. I found a great church to go too and joined one of their home groups. Last night was our group’s Circus Party. One of the many contests involved a water balloon *toss* and we had all the water balloons ready in a cooler. Ben pilfered a water balloon and had it hidden in his pocket for some sinister end. We were standing in a circle and preparing for the pie fight (yes. We chunked pies at each other… ) , when all of a sudden, a waterfall exploded out the bottom of Ben’s pants! There was a VERY awkward silence for a second before we realized what had actually happened. But before we could say anything, someone snickered: “he, he. Ben’s water broke!”

We nearly died laughing, while Ben stood grinning in his puddle.

Good times.

…In conclusion…

I am enjoying college. New challenges are all over the place and God’s blessed me with some awesome people to tackle them with. I have been looking forward to college for some time, and now that I am here… I don’t quite know what to do with myself. But, that shall soon be remedied, once I learn the ropes.

Meanwhile… as a parting note. College IS all that it is made out to be, but my advise to you is this…

Come prepared.

There is evolution, atheism, discovery, excitement, fun, depression, suicide, belief, growth, and friendships out there; there are challenges in college, but my gosh… I am having the time of my life. So don’t come afraid of who or what you’ll meet…

Come prepared to meet them.

Dorms. Moving. iPad. ACU. Welcome Week. Friends. Late nights. Nail polish. Camo. H2. Awesome professors. Scary professors. Jalapeno chips. Walmart. Textbooks. Money. Spaghetti. Orchestra. Coloring pages. Schedules. Walking. New people. Homework. Command strips. Painting. Devotionals. School.

Basically, awesomeness.

Also, I turned 19 today, so I’m really starting to feel my age. Possible side effects could include a tendency to forget about this blog. But no worries! God’s up to some exciting things lately, and I’ll be posting about them here as soon as possible.

Until then, please pray that my statistics class doesn’t kill me. (I’m an English major, for crying out loud. Do I look like I can handle numbers?)

In the book, Chediak points out common mistakes that college students make, such as treating college like high school and living for grades. He also points out how not to make those mistakes.

Marie Curie once stated what I think is one of his biggest points:

“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”

To improve ourselves in college and make an impact for God–now and later–we must thrive at college by make wise choices–such as the friends we make and what we do–which is the purpose of this book. Thriving will not only improve ourselves but also impact others by what we do.

To God be the glory,
~R. E.