I slept 8-9 hours for a week and this is what happened

About two weeks ago, I received yet another email from a group on App's campus inviting me to sign up for something. The email was an invitation to register for different studies the economics department would be conducting throughout the year and the email included that participants would be compensated for at least some of the studies, so of course I registered myself!

great strength in numbers

Photo by Eric Ortiz on the trail to Fire Tower

 

Thursday afternoon, I had the incredible privilege of getting coffee with a member of my Monday night Bible study through Alliance Baptist Church. With this past Monday being my first time at this study, I really needed to get to know the other girls and it worked out in my favor that every week, each girl is paired up with a different girl to have lunch or coffee or just simply get together. So as I headed to my coffee date, I was very excited because I knew I was in dire need of strong, faith-filled friends to guide me this year.

the mountains called, and now here I am

This Campbell Camel has officially placed the orange and black to the side and picked up the black and yellow of the Appalachian State Mountaineers.

Currently, I am surrounded by trees and water fountains as I sit in the Solarium of Plemmons Student Union, one of the most peaceful places to study or to just relax. This marks the official end to my first week at App State and I sit going over my calendar for the next week and I am enjoying this time of planning and reflection.

This photo was taken by the wonderful Eric Ortiz while we were hiking at Hebron Rock Colony on Friday and was edited with a cool app called Prisma

Leaving Campbell, I knew to expect basically a new world here in Boone, NC...however there are many aspects of life I did not know would be different.

twenty and so very very lost

I survived my teen years! How? I am not entirely sure...but here we are, not quite a month in to my 21st year of life. Unlike my first summer home from college, this one is proving to really bring me to a deep place of anxiety and depression as I figure out how to survive until I can head back off to the sanctuary of a college campus - filled with others who may be just as lost as I am.

I always thought that at this point, I would be set - some money in my savings account, a practical plan for tomorrow and maybe even the next year - basically I expected to see the pieces of my life really falling in to place. What I have found, at the wise old age of 20, is that I have been expecting all of the wrong things from my life.

Hurry Up and Wait

Patience is something that comes and goes within my arsenal of virtues. Around this time last year, I dealt with an incredibly frustrating situation where I was asked to simply wait with no concrete end in sight.

Philippians 4:13

Philippians 4:13 is the go-to verse for consolation and hope, regardless of one's circumstances. However, the focus always seems to end up on the first five words: I can do all things. Yeah, that IS what the verse says, but that is really not the point. Without the following five words: through Christ who strengthens me, the first five would be impossible.

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