Falling for leaves

The SPU campus is rather gorgeous in autumn. I unashamedly love colorful leaves! I do wish I had a better camera to do them justice, but my phone will have to do. Enjoy!

By the way, Thanksgiving is in 12 days!

An insider's look at the first month of college.

Hello there blog world. Long time no write. (I love being cliche) :)

College has been my for just over a month. I seriously can't believe that it's been that long! I'm half-way through the quarter! Midterms are happening this week! I'm feeling so collegiate.

I would assume you want some sort of update, so I'll try to give you one. I warn you though, there may be little organization to these thoughts. Someday I hope to be a writer that makes sense, but today is not that day.

Let me give you a list of a few things I've learned:

1) God is good. I already knew this, of course, but it especially shows in the way He orchestrated where and with whom I am living.

2) I'm love learning! I get irritated at times with homework and scheduling, but it pays off. (Of course, I'm paying for it paying off...)

3) It is incredibly important to be present and be content. If I'm in class, if I'm relaxing (or being crazy) on the floor and spending time with the girls, if I'm watching TV, or if I'm studying, I need to be absorbed and invested in those things. I don't need to feel guilty when I'm relaxing (if it's time to relax) and I should be committed to focusing when I'm studying.

4) The walk up to Ashton hurts everyday. Enough said.

5) There must be almost as many squirrels on campus. I have a theory that there is a secret  underground university on campus just for squirrels. I've yet find concrete evidence to support that yet, but we'll see.


Okay, I'm signing out. I'll just leave you with this last comment: Engage the Culture, Change the World. Yeah, that's right.

A humble jazz recommendation:

My new favorite study music: Gilad Hekselman (and the Pandora station I created based on his music). He's kind of like Coltrane, but with a guitar (maybe not as great as Coltrane, but he still has lovely music). Look him up. Feel relaxed. Be inspired.

Thank you for reading my simple word of the day. I hope yours was great.

Split Life

Here I am, sitting at a coffee shop on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle (It's Starbucks, I felt uncreative). Something inside of me feels very grown up, and I suppose I'm getting there. However, there's that other part of me that's feeling very, very young. I suppose that's the part of me that's trying to read and comprehend Tocqueville's writing and the Federalist Papers, and really wordy essays about ecology and theology (it's not quite as impressive as it sounds), and learning difficult piano pieces, and trying to live on a floor with 30 other girls, and the part of me that misses home and my parents (geez, someone should teach this college student about run-on sentences). All of this learning, both socially and intellectually, is actually quite "fun" and interesting, but it's really showing me how someone can feel split down the middle. Split between enjoying school and getting frustrated it, between loving the experience of this new time in my life and missing home, and between feeling so old and very young.

Surreal.

What am I doing right now? I'm eating a cookie. What's so crazy about that? The cookies were made by girls on my dorm floor in my dorm lounge and I'm surrounded by a bunch of college students! Oh, and I'm one of them. Surreal, right?!

For those of you who don't know, I'm a freshman at Seattle Pacific University, and since you asked, no, I don't know what my major is. I live in Ashton Hall on 3rd East with incredibly amazing girls and an awesome PA (Peer Adviser) and SMC (Student Ministry Coordinator). Last, but extraordinarily not least, fantastic room mates, Heather and Libby.

We've had a week of classes so far. There's not much to say a

bout that, at the moment. I mean, college isn't really about school, right?! (Juuuust kidding.) I'll talk about the weekend, then.

Saturday morning, our floor went on a bike ride/run/walk to Gasworks park.

This is a few of us:

and here's my room mate Libby and one of our neighbors Tori

Well, now my first blog post is over. I have to go now and bond with my girlies about cute actors. my next blog post will be more interesting, I promise.

Oh, here's what my blog title means: Let your heart be broken (sorry it's someone else's blog)