Life in California – Jr. Year is Here and Flying by Fast!

Life here at school is different than all my years past. Some of my closest friends either graduated or didn’t come back, and it’s amazing how much their absence makes a difference. Classes are different this year too, as I have no class with Doc Simons and my first class ever with Jesse Negron. Church is good, as always, reminding me of why I love life here in California.

School is going well. It’s a really different schedule this semester, one that keeps me on my toes in regards to homework. This is definitely a semester for learning time-management as most of my classes have long-term assignments (ones not due ‘til late in the semester or the end). This requires me to manage my time well now when homework is a little “lighter” so that I won’t be buried after Thanksgiving. It’s been good. I have a 400+ page book for New Testament that I have dissected in 27-pg regiments to be religiously followed every week. If I don’t stay on top of things I’m going to regret it later.

For my Interpersonal Communication class, we have to do 28 days of journaling our every “interpersonal communication,” which basically means any communication that reveals part of the deeper person of the one of the participants. We have to journal every night, which is pretty hard when my night doesn’t end ‘til about 1 am. I’m normally pretty tired by then and not really in the mood to spend a half-hour writing down conversations I definitely don’t remember word-for-word. I’ve tried to make it fun for Tuck, my prof, by making it funny or calling it “Confessions to Tuck” or doing all sorts of ridiculousness within my “journals.” I think in some ways I’ve enjoyed it too much; in other ways, I’ve just wanted it to be done. Ah, the paradoxes of college homework.

SLS is going well. Again, it’s a good learning semester. I’m trying to really have service and pursuit of the girls be on my mind regularly, which is hard to do when I’m trying to balance everything with work and school. It’s been really humbling to work alongside Valinda again this year. She’s so awesome! It’s been so neat to grow in not only our working relationship but our friendship too. Even though we’ve known each other since my freshman year (she was my ARA my freshman year and my RA two years in a row – we’ve never been on separate wings since I’ve been here), we’ve just been developing a close friendship this year. It’s been so cool, as we’ve even already worked through some communication issues and have had a really cool time of meeting together to pray for our girls, discuss plans for the wing, and just check up on each other’s lives.

Esther. She’s a whole subject in and of herself. How is that I didn’t get to know this girl that well last year? She is so amazing, constantly encouraging others to run after the Lord, consistently putting others before herself in a manner that convicts me, joining Valinda and I in pursuing the girls on the wing in a way that pushes me to do the same, making me smile with all the similarities we have, and keeping me laughing constantly with all her crazy antics.

It’s so good to be back at COC. Seriously. It’s nice to be sitting under teaching where you leave feeling like you had a spanking every Sunday. It’s nice to be challenged spiritually in that way. The last few weeks have been really good; this past week’s address putting aside the lusts of the flesh and the “sin that so easily entangles us” – except that he didn’t actually use that passage. That one just comes to mind a lot.

Work is going well. I’m loving it. We have so much fun, and it’s really nice to be working in a Christian environment. I remember during one of my first days at work, Hollie Gorsh, my boss’s boss, came and gave me a hug. I was so stunned; then I had to remember that I was working with believers. 🙂 It’s been very nice! It’s a little strange, I have to say, trying to hop into a well-oiled system and be both useful and needed. I’m learning to be creative, unselfish, and humble. Ah…all good lessons.

I’m pretty exhausted, so I’m gonna head to bed. I just want you all to know I miss you all.

‘Night!

P.S. The following pictures were taken by Josh Telle, a student here at school. I was helping him and Esther with a school photography project. (www.joshuatelle.com).