This is my new roommate and I at her Sophomore Ring Ceremony. Isn't she pretty!! It is a lot more fun having a roommate than living by yourself. Let me just say the the first part of this semester and last fall was rather lonely. A roommate helps make a room feel full and alive. The fact that we look alike is really only a strange coincidence. A rather funny one though. Just thought I'd share this picture with everyone. 

Reflections

Wow I haven't updated this thing in a really long time. There is so much that has happened in my life since this past fall. I will try to list a few of the big things. These past couple of months has been a time of many big decisions. I finished off last semester with a bang pulling all A's in my classes but feeling frustrated and ready to be done with college at the same time. I even went so far as to calculate that if I pushed it a little for the next two semesters I could graduate early and be done in Dec. '06. But this of course would cut my senior year of college short and I would also not be able to do many of the things that I love doing because I would not be there for the full year. So after some prayer and much thought and the much needed Christmas break I decided against this option. But one good thing has come out of calculating credit hours and classes needed and stuff. I learned that I can take the bare minimum credit hours each semester required to stay a full time student and still have just over enough to graduate. Plus for my major I only have to take one class a semester, for my minor I just need one class a semester and that leaves all my other classes each semester for me to have some fun with. My only other two requirements are one more honors course and one more general science class for GEP credit. I am working on my junior paper for history this spring and will do my senior history paper in the fall. This leaves the rest of my college career relatively pressureless, academically speaking and I can take classes for things that I am interested in and really enjoy. Like this semester I am taking Drawing 1 so I can learn to draw, and I love it.
I have often found it hard for me to pick just one specific area of study that I love or feel more strongly about than another. History is definitely both a joy and something that I have a talent in. But I also just as strongly enjoy Physics and scientific thinking. And on a totally different end of the spectrum I also really enjoy art and music and appreciate greatly the development of these fields. I feel a theme for my life could be balance or well roundedness; I strive to use and exorcise both sides of my brain! This is probably why I enjoy history so much because it is able to bring a lot of these things together. You can study the history of almost anything and in the process learn a great deal about it. But I didn't come into college wanting to do history, nope; I came in wanting to do Interior Design. And in high school I had strong thoughts about possibly going into the military and doing nuclear physics and engineering with the Navy or being a navy pilot. I even took the ASVAB just to see what I would get and I made a 96. Probably the most fun standardized test I have ever taken. Thank you Dad, for teaching me some mechanics and about cars and helping me to get my HAM radio license.
But see this is where I start having problems, I love and have a little bit of knowledge about a lot of things, just enough to get by decently in a conversation or on a test. I have an uncanny ability to remember stuff that I have read about, even in casual reading. But there is not one thing that sticks out in my life that I love doing more or am more talented or good at than anything else I can do if I put my mind to it. History, as I start on this junior paper and through the enthusiasm and mentorship of my professor has slowly begun to stand out from the rest and be something that I can actually see myself pursuing, maybe even to teach. I still don’t feel a strong enough calling to it to go to grad school or anything though, but I could see myself taking this training and being a pseudo historian!! That would be fun.
Of course the biggest calling on my life is to go into full time missions overseas. I know that this is what the Lord has called me to. But what I am supposed to do in the mean time or the path that my life will take to get there is still very hazy. There are so many things that I have yet to experience and dreams yet to be fulfilled or tried out. I long to be married, have a family, and be the supporter of my husbands ministry, where ever and what ever that may be. To be a mother and to be a strong role model is a desire that I pray that the Lord will grant me someday. But for the moment I know that I have a lot of learning and growing to do before I am ready for the task. So I wait patiently as slowly the path before me becomes clear with each step of faith that is taken.