ANNOUNCEMENT

I have decided that this blog format doesn't really suit my writing purposes. So I have changed to a Tumblr: http://wordsihavespoken.tumblr.com/ I'd really appreciate it if you would check it out.

Thoughts on Sophomore Year

School is in full swing and I am officially in my second year of college. It's really weird not being part of the youngest group on campus, and making friends with freshmen originally was kind of different. Knowing all that I know now about college from last year, I can relate to them, but at the same time, I feel like there is something of a gap because of how much a person grows in their first year of college. I've actually found that a lot of the freshmen are older than me, at least the international students. (I guess I'm on the younger side for my year). Which is sort of strange since I'm still a teenager technically and they are not, but most of the time I feel older.

Sophomore year is definitely harder. I'm taking a full credit load, and am involved in several extra-curricular activities and I have a job on campus, which apparently totals to 67.5 hours a week. Huh. Does not leave much time for sleep or socialization. I feel like this year I am going to have to be a lot more careful about budgeting my time well and efficiently so that I can still hang out with people and do things with my friends. I was really stressed out last week with homework, but I think as long as I keep up and work a little bit ahead to give my self some wiggle room I will be fine.

I've learned these first two weeks that you really have to make plans with your friends if you want to spend quality time with them. Since people are starting to get into their major specific classes and you have less and less classes with your friends, you have to start initiating getting together or it won't happen. I really want to work on this this current semester, and grow close to my friends that I already have. I also want to really commit to a bible study of sorts. I think it is really important to be part of a close community and I wish I had gotten involved in something serious last year. But live and learn. Now I know what is important to me and who is important to me. 

Anyways, I am really looking forward to this year. I hope it doesn't go too fast. I am so excited about the new friends I have made and for the friendships I will strengthen. 

Farewell to Summer

Well summer, it's been great spending time with you, and now it's time to get ready for the new school year. I'm going to start off by saying how shocked I am that I am no longer a first-year student and am starting my second year of college. It scares me, and I wonder if I am spending my time here on Earth purposefully. It really is making me reevaluate my life and how I approach my friends and school.

I am so glad I stayed here on campus for the summer. I really strengthened good friendships, made new friends, and just this past week, got to meet all the incoming first-year international students that come a week early for orientation. It has been so cool getting to know them, and I know for sure next year that I will be a mentor for the new students in 2016. I thought I wasn't extroverted enough to do it this year, but I think that I didn't give myself enough credit. I'm just hanging out with all of them anyway, so I might as well be a mentor, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I am somewhat of a good leader because leadership skills come with being the first born of a household of 7.

I'm actually a terrible leader, probably

I really feel like God has given me a passion for international students, and I really enjoy being around them, for some reason I can relate more to them than I can to the other American students on campus. They are more friendly, kind, caring for one another, and more seriously about the important stuff, a characteristic I really admire because I like to take school seriously and be diligent.

The fact that I am friends with the international students is sort of funny to me when I compare who I am now to who I was when I first started college. I remember filling out the online housing form before coming to college and selecting that I did not want to room with an international student, thinking that I would not be able to communicate clearly with them and that I wouldn't be helpful to someone from a different country. Little did I know that all of my really close friends would be international and that I was going to feel called to be friends with these awesome people.

God moves in mysterious ways. I know that God wanted me to be at college over the summer, and I have grown in so many ways and have learned to see a lot of things differently for the better. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for me next year and I am so excited to see how His plan unfolds.