"This is real life, Caroline. Idiot."

Those wise words came from my younger brother, Zach. He's so full of genius...

But don't be fooled by his harsh realism, he is also a lover of all things of whimsy.

He's basically awesome.
I'll be landing in Texas at around 9 PM tonight. I can't wait to see my family!!!

Remember that time I asked to be stretched?

I do. I remember saying "Hey God, use me. I want to make a difference for Your Kingdom. Take me completely out of my comfort zone."

Well the awesome thing about God is that He never fails to answer prayers. The thing is, I don't think I knew just what I was praying for. While I still definitely want everything I asked Him for, to be taken out of my comfort zone, I wasn't exactly thinking about the journey it would take to get there. 

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

 Everything about where I am is new right now. New faces, new places, new relationships, new experiences, new struggles, new joys; it's all just a bunch of newness. (Wow, I'm eloquent).

But this is my life now, and no matter how new and different everything is, I have to adapt. I think I'm doing pretty well so far, with the help of the Lord. He's provided for me so much since I've been here; it blows my mind how much He's taking care of me. He's making me feel comfortable being outside of my comfort zone, if that makes sense.

My life here is great. I would never complain about it, because it was my choice to pack up and move so far away from home. I'm still finding my place, but I thank God everyday for what He is doing here. I have to be stretched in order for Him to fulfill His purpose with me here. Sometimes being stretched makes you sore (look out, corny analogy), but it's always worth it. You can't get anywhere by staying within your comfort zone.

Even if I have to wake up each morning and tell myself over again, I know that I'm where I'm supposed to be.

And your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

Well, that was a lot of disorganized rambling. This is basically what I've been thinking about a lot lately. I'm going home today, and I'm so excited. I can't wait to see all of my family and friends back in Texas, but I also can't wait to get back here and see how God continues to work in my life. He really is incredible.

You put a rift inside me everyday, but then you choose to stay.

I love this song. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with heartbreaking songs, but I am. I first heard this song in an episode of Everwood, this dramatic show I used to love because I'm super cool like that.

"I think sometimes that ignoring something gives it too much power... pretty soon all that we can remember is what it is we were trying to forget." --Andy Brown 

(As in the dad from Everwood. More cool points for me.)

In the Light of the Sun

This post is pretty much going to be a collection of my completely random thoughts about life lately.

First, I'm going home in a week!! I'm so thankful that my school has Fall break, so I get to go home for a little bit. I'm so excited to see all of these faces!

My Fall break falls on the same weekend as my high school's homecoming, so I'm really excited to go back and see a bunch of my friends still in school, as well as my family and my incredible friends who are coming down from college that weekend. I'm also pretty excited to see my cat because I'm just so cool. I really really just can't wait to be home.



While I am super excited to be home, I'm loving life here. This is definitely where God wants me to be right now, more on that later. Here's what's been going on here:

I love Tennessee.

My roommate Caroline Kindiger shared a bunch of great music with me this week because she's awesome. This is my new favorite.

 

Last night Caroline and I discovered Rainymoods.com. It's pretty much the greatest website ever. We both had it playing all night last night, and this morning we woke up to a rainy campus. Our fault? Possibly. 

That's pretty much it. Life is good, God is faithful, and I'm going to take a nap. See you soon, Texas!

Here's to being held captive in my dorm room for the next 5 hours...

This post is really just a way to procrastinate all of the work I have to do, which is about 4354305985974533 different writing assignments. That's what I get for being a journalism major.

Oh well, at least I like writing. God rewards diligence, right? Guess I better get to it then...
See you next Spring!

I hope it's nice where you are

I shared this with Caroline Kindiger this morning, and I'm pretty sure we've listened to it 57 times today.

"All that I know is I don't know how to be something you miss."

Sometimes heartbreaking songs make me happy, in a backwards sort of way. 

Oh, and apparently I only like Taylor Swift songs when other people sing them.

Peace&Love

It's Fall!!

Fall is officially here in Tennessee! Actually it's been here for about a week, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. And of course I have to blog about it because I'm so excited!!


I love everything about Fall, and I've never been more excited for a Fall season in my life. I finally get to see leaves change colors and enjoy real Fall weather! (No offense to Texas, I still love you.) But seriously, what's not to love about scarves, pumpkin spice lattes, boots, cool breezes, orange-reddish leaves and everything else that comes with the season? It's the greatest.

My favorite thing about Fall is that it means that winter is almost here, and if you think I like Fall . . . just wait till winter. I won't even get started on my love of Christmas. (Not yet, anyways. I don't want to freak out my 2 followers.)

Well, time to wrap a scarf around my neck and walk through a flurry of trees and red brick buildings to get to my New Testament class. I'm so happy.

There's always a reason to be happy.