Tuesday, August 28, 2012

like tumbleweed

I feel a bit like tumbleweed.
Can't settle, always moving.
Changing, gathering, growing.

Well this was going to be just a poem, but I'm not really feeling the poetry wave right now, so I'm just gonna write some. So yeah. Tumbleweed. My life. I'm back in Waco and while I am enjoying it, I feel out of place. I don't really get it. I mean, maybe it's the whole being gone a semester when so much happened and so many people I loved transitioned out of college so I feel a bit like a newbie even though clearly I'm not. I wasn't in contact as easily and even when I was back in the States for the summer, I still didn't have Texas contact very much. But let's be real, I know Baylor. But I feel like everything I don't anymore. This is one of those moments where I'm like oh yeah, well God's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow so shoot, even though I feel like I'm just floating around in all the weird feelings, I've still got God who's always been the same whether I'm in Scotland, having the greatest summer of my life, or back in the Wack. I can hold onto Him and trust Him to bring me foundation. Consistency? I'm not really sure; all I know is that I'm a mix of all sorts of feelings about anything and everything going on in my life right now, so ask me how I'm feeling and anything could really go. Because I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm upset, I'm excited, I'm scared, I'm frustrated, I'm wishful.
So much has happened in myself since I was last in Waco and so much has happened in Waco since I was here too. It's like I've grown, and now my clothes don't fit? Is that a weird metaphor? Maybe, but it kind of works. Like the things I'm used to are still here, they're just not the same. I'm kind of tired of change. I thrive on sameness, routine, whatever you want to call it. So the fact that I feel uprooted is hard. Being back in the States after Scotland is hard. Being back in Waco after an amazing summer is hard. But I'll get back into the swing of things eventually, I can only pray. I've gotten used to always meeting new people and being in new situations for the longest time; I feel like that's all my life is and while it's got its pluses [shout out Scottish/study abroad friends, SpringHill buds!], I'm stuck in a rut of missing it all when I'm back to what I called my second home, but it doesn't feel that way. I'm trying to live in the now, but it's hard when I'm not comfortable with it all yet again and everything I held so close is so many miles away. What is this? I sound so weird right now. I don't even know if that's really what it is...it just kinda came out like that? But I'm too lazy to try to think of a better way to describe it.
Well, if there's one thing I'm missing that isn't a person or whatever, it's definitely the UK/European educational system. I've got to go do a bunch of homework and study for a big quiz...and wake my napping roommate. Ha.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

study abroad videos

I should probably post this on my study abroad blog, but that's gone into hiatus so no one's going to read it anymore and I'm really only posting these videos for those of you who read my blog and maybe don't get on facebook or have one at all, but would enjoy these videos! Also, the second one got removed because I don't have copyright to technically use the songs I did in it so that's a bummer. Hope it is still okay to try to put it on here. I'm not trying to break copyright; I just want to have a cool video!


Sunday, August 5, 2012

springhill lovin' had me a blast

Time certainly flies when you're having fun. This summer is pretty much over and I'm in shock at how quickly it went. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was driving to Seymour with a future coworker I barely knew, and now I know so many more people and every time we're together it is the best! I remember being overwhelmed going to training knowing no one, but now here I am finished with Week 8 and thus, my summer with SpringHill, and all those unfamiliar faces are the faces of good friends. I love looking back and seeing that change. I remember in training, they talked about how by week 5 or 6 you have everything down and you barely even need your curriculum book...I didn't think that'd ever come...but it's so true! I still use it, but I pretty much know the stories like the back of my hand and I love it. Our memory verse this summer has been Jeremiah 29:11-13 and believe me, I can recite it on a dime complete with motions, yet it has only been in the last week or so that I've really thought about what it says. It's such a promise-filled few verses and a great reminder for the future and all. I am constantly reminded of how I need to seek God and seek Him wholeheartedly to really find Him. I know He has a great plan for me, but hey, sometimes we all forget when things get crazy...He's not going to harm us! His plan will prosper us; His plan gives us hope! Oh what a beautiful thing.
I can't begin to tell you how thankful I have been for this summer. I knew from the minute I got off the phone after my interview, that I was supposed to work for SpringHill and I am ever so thankful that things didn't end up working out with another camp that I had wanted to work for maybe a little more at the start. I say it a lot but, I'll say it again, the Indy Day Camps team is the best. I love every one so much. It's going to be weird going back to school and 'normal' life without them. I have been so blessed by the encouragement my teammates give me and how challenged we are to grow in our faith daily. I needed that this summer for sure.
Going through SpringHill withdrawal. It's weird not being at the next site setting up Eurobungy, unpacking the trailer and finding out who my co for the week is. I'm done. I can sleep in Monday morning. I might even miss having dance parties every morning. Not seeing the people I've seen pretty much every day for the past 9 weeks is going to take some getting used to. Honestly though, saying goodbye on Friday wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Maybe I'm just weird and don't get emotional over goodbyes...but that's not true because the week before when it was only like 4 people leaving, I was on the verge of tears. Maybe it was because I knew I still had one more week and this week, almost everyone was done with camp so it wasn't like I was still working or missing out on as much? Who knows, but it creeps me out a little that I wasn't sadder. Maybe it just hasn't hit me; I'm not really a crier though, and I am missing everyone. 
My prayer for myself as I will soon be heading back to Texas for school is that I won't forget everything I learned this summer; I want to be able to apply the things I applied to myself this summer to my school life...like constantly relying on God for strength, trying to step out of my comfort zone, also that I will be able to keep in touch with friends from the summer too! I don't want these friendships to just be short-lived, so many of these people I met mean so much to me and I can only pray that our friendships are meant to last!
I know this summer will be one that I won't forget and I am so blessed by it. Let's end this post with some fun photos of the summer, sure?

Week 1

hi-ad team minus steph

Michigan Smith skit

rock wall pros

awesome area!