Tales of Happiness

Well, my first semester of college has come to end. So...I'm done!!! In a few hours I'll be on my way to sweet Sugar Land, Texas for the holidays. A whole month of Sugar Land sounds really incredible right now.

Roommates :)

I can't believe this first semester is already over. Even though a lot has happened, it feels like just yesterday I was moving into my dorm room and meeting this curly haired girl who has the same name as me. Flash forward four months, and now my beautiful roommate Caroline is one of my closest friends, and along with that I have two incredible suit mates and a lot of other kindred spirit friends that I've made here. Moral of the story: God knows what He's doing. Always. He's never left me hanging - He's always taken care of me. It's almost as if He's in love with me or something... :)

So, in order to put off packing a little while longer, I'm going to write about a few awesome experiences that I've had here lately. I'm also writing about it because...well I love writing down my experiences and keeping everyone who is praying for me updated on what's going on in my life.

Last week I went with my friend Emily to get my guitar strings changed. One of my strings broke way back in October, but I still hadn't gotten them changed because I don't have a car and didn't even know where to go to get it done. Luckily my friend Emily needed something from a music store here in Cleveland, so she offered to give me a ride (because she's awesome). I was hoping that there would be someone in the music store who could change them for me since it's been a long time since I learned to change strings and I didn't want to mess anything up. I was expecting this to be a pretty pricey deal, but worth it all the same.

My beautiful guitar that Dub even cleaned for me!

When we got to the music store the man sold me strings for about a third of the price I would've gotten in Sugar Land, which was really awesome considering I'm a college student and money never seems to stay in my pocket. He said he didn't have anyone in the shop who could change the strings for me, but he knew someone who would do it for $5 a guitar. He gave me the man's name and number, and next thing I know I'm calling a man named Dub and asking if I could drop my guitar off at his house to get my strings changed. Dub was an adorable elderly man who used to be a preacher, and said when he was young he had hair the same color as mine. He changed both mine and Emily's guitar's for $5 each, and couldn't have been any sweeter. I just wanted to go into his house, have some tea and hear his story. I didn't, but that would've been awesome.

So, the point to this story is that I love small towns. Really, they're awesome. Everyone is friendly, and when they say "How are you doing?" they really want to know. I'm so glad that God placed me in such a sweet town. The people here are teaching me to enjoy doing things for other's just because I want to help out - without asking anything, or very little, in return.

The next story is about this weekend when I got to go to Nashville!! My friend Lisa must've known that I've been wanting to go to Nashville all semester, and that I needed a getaway from a boring finals week, because she invited me on a trip that her hall was going on over the weekend. She didn't end up going, but somehow I was still invited to go to Nashville with a hall full of girls that I had just met, and it was so much fun. We went to the Opryland hotel to look at the Christmas decorations first - it was so beautiful. Then after that we went line dancing in downtown Nashville, which was an absolute blast.

Nashville is my favorite city in the world. I blew a kiss to the Grand Ole Opry and promised I'd be back. One of my goals is to live in Nashville for a little while after college. I don't know what I'd do there yet, except I know that I'd go to the Opry as much as I could and soak up the heaven that comes out of that place.

Downtown Nashville, such a beautiful place.

Opryland Hotel!

Tennessee sunset. See you in January :)

Anyways, I've had an incredible semester, and even though I'm more than thrilled to go home for a month, I can't wait to come back here next year for part two of freshman year. You know something...God really knows what He's doing.

If you've stuck with me this far, congratulations, because you're about to read the most important part. Here goes: some parts of this adventure of a first semester has felt like a compete free fall. I really didn't know what I was doing when I came to Lee University in Cleveland Tennessee, except that I was going where I felt the Lord was leading me.  But the thing about free falls is that once you get over the fear of the landing, they can be an incredible experience. All you can do is enjoy the fall, and trust that someone, or something, will catch you at the end of it. The Lord has repeatedly told me that He'll be there to catch me. And even better than that, He's come in and taken over completely--acting as my wings. So now, my free fall feels more like flying.

Well, that's all. Sorry this post was such a novel. Actually I guess I'm really not sorry, but I really do hope you stayed with me!

Love always to you and yours,
Caroline.

Now playing: "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" -Alan Jackson
First semester of college: check.