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.

Photo courtesy of www.twitter.com

The Good, the Bad, and the Stressed

My excuse for procrastination used to be that I preformed better under pressure, which I still would not say is an entirely false statement.

Having just registered for my spring semester classes, I am looking back at this time last year and wondering how I ever managed to get anything done with the massive amount of free time I had. You may think I am being sarcastic in that statement, however I am not lying to you when I say that my responsibilities outside of academics were few and far in between.

Yes, I was a writer for the newspaper, and yes, I also worked for athletics...but to be totally honest, I did a whole lot of nothing aside from those two things.

A Review of Summer

Maybe the fact that I have so many friends and family that follow my blog keeps me from writing as I want about what I want. Maybe my mind is set too strongly on "assignment" and "grades" that I feel as if I must prepare a serious piece prior to even sitting down to type it. Maybe I am still not confident enough in myself as a writer to trust my own ideas and opinions without being instructed on what to write about. Maybe I am just lazy.

Sales Associates Are Your Friends

Patron enters a store and is greeted; "Hey! Welcome to [insert store name]! Can I help you find anything?" At this point, the patron smiles politely and says "No," or "No, I am just looking around." and the worker who greeted will return to whatever task the patrons' entrance had interrupted.