39 Days until Christmas

So there is a new fever sweeping through the halls of Guffin 2nd...IT ALMOST CHRISTMAS TIME! We have been gearing up for the holiday season since we got here! Now, it is finally time to show our holiday spirit! We went to Walmart and bought a few things for our rooms each individually, and last night, we started decorating Guffin. We went around to most widows and sprayed a little faux snow and wrote positive Holiday safe messages in them. It was so much fun! Then we made paper chains for the ceiling (which we still have to finish). We all love the holiday spirit so much!

But there are people who do not appreciate our efforts! They are ba-humbugging because it's "too early". Well, it is never too early for this kind of spirit! Whenever one thinks about the holiday season, they have the power to make it a good one or a bad one, and for some reason, people always make it bad which essentially brings down the morale of the entire population. As my one hall mate Chelsea pointed out, "It's Jesus' birthday, you should be so excited right now!" And she is so right! We should all be getting excited about this wonderful season that is coming our way whether you like it or not. So choose to have a good attitude about Christmas...please? =)

Moral: ENJOY THIS TIME OF FESTIVE SPIRITS BECAUSE IT PASSES WAY TOO FAST!

Christian College Child Confessions

So, lately I have been thinking about a certain question that still makes no sense in my own mind, and I wanted to blog a little about it to help cope with the question. My question is: if God loves us so much then why does He put people or things in our life that hurt us?

Now there are many ways to respond to this question and also to prove it wrong. Some may say that it is to make us stronger, it is a trial that we have to overcome in order to become stronger for God. But, what happens once you have overcome this obstacle? Why does it still hurt afterwords? Shouldn't there be at least a brief period of reprieve? Some kind of temporary reward for the victory? Or what if I never win? What if I stay on the side of the road of life, never advancing forward?

Another way to respond to the question is by saying that everything happens for a reason. I am very much a believer in this statement, but when this thing is taking over your life, where is the relief? Where is God coming to the rescue at the exact time when you think you cannot hold on a second longer? If He doesn't come at this point when I feel hopeless, does it mean that the problem only gets worse, going deeper and deeper until you are drowning in a sea of despair?

Being spiritually stagnate is not a fun time in life. It's almost  inevitable especially at the college level because it is the responsibility of the student to take ownership of their own faith. It is no longer being forced to go to church on Sunday morning or CCD class, it all of a sudden becomes real and a seeming battle field in which is a fight from the second you wake up every morning to the moment you fall asleep, escaping the world's cruel purposes. It's scary...especially when you feel like you're losing God. It's even more scary when you feel like you are losing it because of something God made and put in your life for a reason. But why would God do that? Why would He create someone or something that would separate Him from me? Is it because "absence makes the heart grow fonder?" But what about "out of sight out of mind?" What if I never find my way back?

Moral: I don't have a moral this week, this was a way to write down my own thoughts and try to understand myself.

Learn Not To Lead

Happy Belated Halloween! It has been a crazy weekend here on G2nd to say the least. It was a busy weekend with various activities going. On Saturday, the Swing Dancing Club here at EU went to a Swing Club called SwingKat Ballroom on High. The experience was phenomenal! It was a costume party in honor of Halloween and there was a live band. The atmosphere was hopping as soon as people arrived and it was just an amazing feeling to be around so many people.
If you have ever done swing dance before, you know that there is a lead and a follow. Usually the female is the follow. This requires complete submission to the male when dancing which I will admit, is difficult. There are so many things to worry about when dancing including the placement of hands, the tension in between forearms, and also the safety of the girl when dipping. I dislike dipping strongly. I do not trust that anyone would be able to support my weight! But this past week, I just let myself free. I let the guy lead me, dip me, spin me, do whatever he wanted to do. This turned out to be one of the best nights since I have been at EU.
I guess I am tying all the lessons together here. Enjoy life's surprises and trust that in the end everything will work out. Enjoy life to the maximum and take risks. Life is too short to waste.

PS. 54 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!! =)

Getting Lost

Hello! It is a beautiful day here in Wayne and the colors of fall are being painted all around us! I absolutely love it!!! This past weekend was a pretty lazy. We watched "Paranormal Activity" and Ghost Adventures, watched the men's soccer game, and spent loving with each other! I had my friend Max over on Saturday to watch the soccer game and then after, we were supposed to go to Thornbury Township park, close to where I live. I was looking forward to this because it was a chance to get away from reality and college and just be 10 years old again. But after the soccer game, we didn't end up going to the park. Our hall was having a little bit of a dispute (as all halls do) and so I decided to stay put. After about an hour of argument, we finally decided that we were going to go out to dinner (to Peace a Pizza) to use our FREE PIZZA COUPONS!!!!! After about another half an hour (sorry Amanda) of getting ready, we were ready to hit the road.
So, on the way to the car, someone brought up the fact that no one knew how to get there, but Megan insisted that she knew the way. We took a right, then another right, then went straight, and as per Megan's instructions continued straight. It took us about 5 minutes to realize that Megan HAD NO IDEA WHERE SHE WAS GOING!! Now in her defense, we all contributed by saying "Oh yeah she's right keep on straight", but the problem is that there is 2 Peace a Pizza's around where we are and we were all navigating to different ones! So finally, Sammie whipped out her Iphone and it told us that we were navigating away from Peace a Pizza. While all this getting lost is going on, we're all screaming, laughing, and just being loud in general. We did eventually get there after passing it twice, but it will be something that I will never forget!
This is kind of a piggy back on last weeks lesson. A surprise (well, sort of we all knew that Megan's not good with directions =b shout out to Megan LOVE YOU!) was thrown at us and it was the way that we responded that made it fun. At first, there was tension and up tightness but soon, everyone was laughing along because we trusted that the GPS would get us there. We weren't literally blinded, but we didn't know where we were going and that was what made it memorable. It was our own mini adventure and it's something that we can all look back on.

Moral: Take Life's surprises with fun and trust that you will get where you need to be =)

Life's Surprises

This past weekend was fall free days and no one was on the floor, so it gave me a lot of time to reflect on life and this past year on a whole. As I was soul searching and such, I realized something very important. I was happiest most when I had random surprises (good and bad) thrown in my direction. I am a control freak, I need to know what's going on at all times and when it is going to happen and all the little details because I want to be in control no matter what. When life throws surprises at me, it is so unexpected and it's when I can't see, I can see God and His plan for me, which is a beautiful thing. I have made the most beautiful and unforgettable memories in these times and now as I am back in control again, I long for that blind bliss. This summer I was so blind to my future and I was completely okay with it. It didn't scare me like it usually does, and now as I am looking back, I wish that I had done things differently because if I had, I bet that I would be a lot more happy than I am right now (this is not to say that I am not happy right now).

More recently, I was given the opportunity to an event that could potentially enhance my career but I had cheerleading at the same time. I had missed the week before and this weekend was horrible because I had both sides tearing at me with the pros and cons of the situation and in this time of conflict, I didn't see God like I expected. I think He probably wanted to show me that I really do need Him and that I cannot always be the one in charge (--actually I should never be in charge). In the end I decided to go to the job event but I still felt horrible for letting my squad down for the second time in a row. But this was one of those last minute surprises and as a friend put it "You gotta do what you gotta do". I am very grateful for these random surprises and I cannot wait for the next one thrown my way!

Moral: Embrace life''s surprises with blindness and trust that everything will turn out the way it's supposed to.

A lesson without learning

So as many people know, this weekend was homecoming/parents/alumni weekend. This meant that for me, this past weekend was crazy!!!!! I had cheerleading and SAB set up and break down for the dance and soooo much homework! Friday and Saturday were both filled up with the festivities and on Sunday, my hall mates and I were able to sleep in until 12 pm (which was a complete first for me). After we woke up and went to brunch, we had to get started in our homework. As I whipped out my western civilization paper without a problem, but when it was time to start my college writing research paper part 1, I couldn't focus. I tried to move on to my french work but had little luck. At 5, I went to dinner very frustrated that I couldn't get any work done! After dinner, I was determined to take down this college writing assignment which was successful. At 8 pm, my crazy hall mates decided it was time to bake a cake...a cake?! I had so much left to do but deciding against my better judgement I went to bake this cake, without doing any of my homework. At around 10 pm, we returned to G2 to go to bed/finish homework. This is when the craziness started.
I'm not sure how it all started but somehow my hall mate Megan spilled ice cream on my head (on purpose). So I (being the competitive type) took Chelsea's spray bottle and sprayed Megan which backfired on my and Megan got the bottle spraying the remaining water on me. I decided to go bigger and spill the entire thing on her, which again backfired and I ended up drenched. So, I went back to my room, lathered up with shaving cream, knocked on her door for a long time, got a key to her door and attacked her with shaving cream. A long time passed before anything else happened. I was hiding in Chelsea's room when she knocked on the door with my phone. It was innocent enough. We called it truce...for only a few minutes. As I was leaving Chelsea's room, she took the cake we just baked and smeared it all over my face. Again, naturally being competitive I smeared some on her and it ended with cake all over the floor and the two of us rolling around laughing. This created a huge mess and not to mention the fact that I had so much to do still, but I learned a very important lesson during this epic battle.
I learned that college isn't all about studying and doing homework. It's about making memories and sharing experiences with others. Now as I look at the experience, I wondered what would have happened tonight if I hadn't of made the cake with my hall mates, or if I hadn't of decided to seek revenge on Megan. And in a way, life is the same as a college experience. You can study all you want but in the end, you want to be able to reflect on a life full of wonderful memories not a life full of studying.

Moral: Make time for fun or let unexpected fun come into your life even when you have things to do. These little times will make a huge impact!

Oh Michael Buble...how you put thoughts into my head =)

So, this past week, I came back from home and on the way there, my dad, mom, and I went to the King of Prussia mall. We ended up going into Tiffany Jewelers for some random reason and we looked around. As we were leaving, I saw a book about how to pick out wedding rings. Since then, weddings have been on my mind!! As soon as I got back to school, I ran to tell my hall mates what I had recently become obsessed with and my hall mate Samantha confessed she thought about weddings a lot too!!! We went on to a jewelry website and designed our own wedding rings after first designing the most expensive wedding we possibly could and we plan to make a book about our perfect wedding which would include the perfect groom!
I'm still thinking about weddings excessively. Especially after hearing the song "Everything" by Michael Buble. The song talks about how this girl is Mike's everything and how much he cares for her. It's impossible not to smile while listening to it! Right after hearing this song, my older sister posted a video of this song playing with scenes from The Office's couple, Jim and Pam. For anyone who has seen the show, they know that Jim and Pam have just recently gotten together after what seems like an eternity of waiting for it to happen! The best part of their relationship is how you can see how much Jim cares for Pam. In the first couple of seasons, Pam is actually engaged to Roy, a man she had been dating for eight years. But, Pam had acquired feelings for Jim over time, while Jim had been in love with her from the second he met her. Fortunately, Pam called off the wedding because of these feelings and Jim waited just long enough to get together. They do get married and have children!
Roy was mistreating Pam while they were dating and this can be a real situation for so many women. They are holding on to someone who mistreats them because they want to feel loved. But the thing is, there is another guy out there who is going to treat you right women! They will do anything to be with you and they want to cherish you! That is what we have to believe. This song gives us hope for this future relationship and it makes me so excited for my husband! I'm so in love with him and I haven't even met him! At the same time, it is important to be in love with God, but don't feel like God made you to live in misery alone. He made us to be in relationships with people! Ones that will help us grow, not put us down.

Moral: Wait for that guy who will treat you like you're his everything, don't hold onto people who hurt you because if you're holding on, the right one might accidentally pass you by!