:) :) :)

I got a care package today!!! :)
and we are going to have a campfire with the guys downstairs this evening.
and I didn't oversleep my workstudy! [although it was WAY too close...]
and my laundry is done and my room is somewhat clean and I got almost eight hours of sleep last night and molly said we are gonna watch the cosby show sometime this week (?) and I sat with fun and funny people for supper and I love MAPLEWOOD and just...

<3

:)

Settlers!!!!!!!

Three posts in one day...that has to be a record. :D
I'm teaching Mariah, Molly, and Kathryn how to play Settlers! This day is so awesome!

Never Mind

i changed my mind....
this is a great day. someone left bread in the lounge with a sign, take, eat, and be merry; I finished my test in half an hour and so have extra time for lunch; its cool enough to wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants; I was the first one to finish my test; I think I had to have gotten an A- at least; Lucas [i'm pretty sure] is playing guitar on the second floor and I think writing a song - on the way up the stairs I heard words like "ideologies" and "what it means to be American," I am making hot chocolate for myself, its almost the weekend which means its almost time to watch NCIS with Molly, Thia, and Ruth, I have World Religions today, and basically...I love college.

:)

its a good day to be alive in the Shenandoah valley.

dark and depressing

Its raining today, and I have an exam.

oh, the sadness of it all...

happiness is...good music

listening to b song by bela fleck/edgar meyer on youtube is THE way to make me happy on a night when i have several chapters of stuff to read...so far the count is twice tonight. :)


excuse me. three times. ok, to quote the responses to that video,
"edgar meyer has chops of doom!"
"my brain fizzes through my skull everytime i hear this song."
"Whatever it was they did, you can't do that."
"This is nothing short of world class. This transcends playing instruments. These two ARE their instruments."

And finally:
"What makes me smile is the ridiculous looks that some of the most amazing musicians have. You'd think with that much success someone would tell Bela that his hair is just a wee bit awkward."

"dude, the hair is the reason he's so good."


man. i just love it. that song never fails to make me smile. i guess i should link the video for anyone out there not comfortable with youtube. here goes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AYz62UxLPg

and...now i'm listening again, as i finish up my bio hw. :D

>:(

I don't know where all my time went yesterday. Actually...yeah, I do...It was sucked into the black hole of Do-Fun-Stuff-With-My-Friends. I could have slept for 12 hours last night and instead got about 6.5 hours of sleep. :( That is so sad.

I did get to go to a hymn sing, though...that was pretty awesome. But unlucky as I am, I stood between two sopranos.

Can I just say that 8:00 classes are SO NOT COOL? ugh. I am going back to bed as soon as Honors is done.

*cringe*

i shrieked tonight. in the stairwell. where it echoed. i think the guys on the second floor thought i was being molested cause they all came running out and were like "ARE YOU OK? WHAT'S GOING ON?"

...leah POKED me!


my second personality is out of the bag.

In my happy place...

I went to the Early Church at OCP yesterday...what an experience. Remind me to never walk three miles in flip flops again.



I've been pretty good so far about not wasting time...but today I watched NCIS. Two episodes. 0_o.

I also hung out with Amanda Grace, Molly, and Thia! :) :) :) :) They are so awesome. Molly is my chem buddy [by the way I got to switch into another lab!!!!!!!!!!!!], Amanda went to my Aunt Donna's church in Richmond and actually was a part of her wedding along with me, and Thia...well Thia is just awesome. The four of us hung out for a while - read: about an hour? - and then Thia and I talked for a LONG time. We decided that Peter is like the most amazing person ever, and the force of his mind is like a superpower. Actually that last part was just me, but...its still pretty true.

I love Monday nights because I almost never have anything due the next day.

That. Rocks.


I think I'll get to go to the beach this weekend! Man, how could this day get any better?

procrastination...

is an art. :)
but i feel sort of entitled to be lazy after spending six hours in the science center today. read again: SIX HOURS. and i can't stand my chem lab partner. luckily - ? - we are only working together three hours a week...

i still have so much to do but no motivation.

tomorrow will be better i think. i'm learning to think like a Jew in World Religions. should be interesting.

.....i wish it was saturday.

ooooo. Scawy.

AHHH! World Religions is so intimidating! :O
and I need to spend another $50 for four more textbooks. :/


the title is in reference to my cousin jackson... ;)

Paradigm Shift

Today was SO good. Like - this is why I came to college good. I don't know if I can even get down in words why I loved this day, but I'll try...

So. First was church at Park View Mennonite. The church itself didn't jump out at me as amazing, but the singing - I left thinking man, I think I've been cheated cause I didn't get to experience this before. The acoustics in that building made every note resonate, and hearing all the harmonies fit together...yeah, I really can't describe it. Moving on.

Fellowship meal! Meeting several EMU faculty at church! Sitting at a table with EMU juniors who were happy to talk to me!

Then the best part. Today the guys and girls halls for the "Walking Disciples" intentional communities met for the first time to figure out together what we want to get out of this year. It was so good. I came away - already! - with questions and new ideas. I got to share what I learned at convention, that community can be seen as "knowing and being known."

We talked for an hour and a half and then broke for dinner. I went to the dining hall with the girls from my floor and after we sat down, four guys from downstairs sat down with us. There was discussion of what we had talked of earlier, and a lot of talk about an organization called Our Community Place (OCP). In the process of talking, one of the guys pulled out a textbook for a class involving justice and peacebuilding and began to read random snippets to us. He read something about libertarianism, and some interesting comments got tossed around the table. Someone said "created by white men for white men!" The guy sitting next to me (Nathan?) brought up a point that I had never thought about. He said that the author is assuming that people can all make it on their own. He said "[Libertarianism] presupposes a world that does not exist."

I was like - wow. That is huge. Assuming that people can all make it on their own. Isn't the point of intentional community that people do better when we are not on our own? Isn't the point of Chrisianity living in community? I had this personal paradigm shift...When I was at gov school we talked about how there are ideas that frame how we think and it takes a paradigm shift to help us frame our issues in new ways. Come to think of it - we were basically learning about Ruling Ideas. Anyway. Walking back from the dining hall I just kept thinking about this question of "can we make it on our own?" For me this question has a lot of political overtones as well as religious, because I feel like a big ideological split between Republicans and Democrats in the US involves this question - yet somehow the question is never framed in these words. I am not positive that I can say this exactly how I mean, but here is my attempt. Really, when I think about all the huge issues dividing our country right now, many, if not most, have a root in the idea that people can or can't survive on their own. Health care - Democrats think that people can't survive on their own, and therefore the government should help them out. Isn't that the deep reason as to why they want reform? We can debate if the government should or should not be the one to provide the support net, but the point is that the people currently in power have seen that man cannot make it alone.

So this idea of paradigm shift, of ruling ideas...yeah, I just had my way of thinking about government totally set on a new path, and I made connections between PGSHC and Honors and I've just figured out why Judy Mullet keeps asking us if it is the ideas that rule or the people who have these ideas and ... wow. What a day.

I love EMU. I feel a whole lot less intelligent that I did last month at this time, but I love it here. :D :D :D

introducing the overachiever...

I'm adding another class! Now I'm up to 18 credit hours. :)
It is World Religions, taught by Peter Dula. I've mapped out the classes I'm taking for my next four years and I think I can major in Biology and get a double minor - Chemistry and Bible&Religion. World Relgions is my first step on the road to my B&R minor. So...double :)!!!

I've wasted a few hours over the past few days agonizing over what class I should add, so now I need to go and do homework.

Signed -
The Overachiever

first foray into other cultures

Today at lunch I sat down with a table of girls that I sort of knew, but not really. More people kept joining us, and by the time I was done eating, there were six other people and ALL of them had traveled internationally. Amanda had lived in India for a year, Claire did an internship-thing in South Africa and taught English for a summer in India, and the other girls had traveled everywhere from Costa Rica to South Korea. :O

Yesterday we had a picnic for supper and I sat with Thia in a circle of students from South Korea. It felt sort of like the time I went to the Korean church in Pittsburg - awkward and a little weird, but super cool at the same time. Kelly and Jenna live on the third floor of Maplewood with me, and one of the Isaacs lives on the second floor. All four of them are friendly and speak English amazingly well. They said that they love EMU. :)

On Wednesday I am going to go to chapel and hear about the bike trip to Paraguay for the Mennonite World Conference. Although I don't know the students who will be presenting, I'm sure I will be amazed and blessed by what they have to say.


All this to say - I feel incredibly multi-cultural!

Practice Resurrection

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC30/Berry.htm

good stuff, yeah?
in honors today we talked of learning as discipleship. we read the story of zaccheus and i taught what i learned at convention; seeing salvation as healing. we gathered together and learned in an anabaptist way - community. we spoke of lifelines and lanterns. we ate together. breakfast of waffles with chocolate chips is a sort of communion. and in the back of my mind i am meditating on the poetry of Wendell Berry -

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it....

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias....

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts....

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Classes begin

I had my first class today...
Honors 101 - Ruling Ideas. At 8:00. I was tired and nervous and had a headache; all in all not my finest first impression. But I can tell that the class will be awesome, as will the people. After Honors was over, I headed to the cafeteria with two other people from the class, Darien and Erika. Eating breakfast with them Tuesday and Thursday may become a very pleasant tradition. :)

Then I went back to my room and slept. Then lunch. Then transitions, where noting of import ever seems to happen. Then reading for honors, more sleeping (remember, I felt sort of sick) and then BARBEQUE! and SOCCER GAME! :D

College life rocks.