Graduation is upon me...

So here I sit, less than 2 days before graduation from college. Holy cow.

I told one of my friends that I didn't like being in this limbo state of being done but not moved out. Plus I am doing a lot of moving this summer, living for a month at my mom's house then 2 months at my dad's before moving to Ukraine on Aug 15. That means a lot of packing and unpacking and packing and living out of a suitcase. I've got a lot of cleaning to do once I get home, by getting rid of things I really don't need or use any more.

I can't believe that in a few short days I won't be with my friends on a regular basis.

Issue #1: I'll miss going to dinner right at 5pm and sitting with my friends, and seeing others, including people within the ENC community that aren't necessarily students (like my quizzers and friends from Wolly). I already miss chapel and the opportunity to see everyone, like faculty and staff. It'll definitely be an adjustment to fit back into my "home" culture.

Issue #2: ENC has become home, and has been home these past couple years. At least, one of my homes (El Paso, Maryland, etc.). So this summer, I'm going home, wherever that is.

This past week has been a great time of concentrated social life...for instance, hiking on Tuesday with the senior class, the mascot-announcement ice cream social, a picnic on Wednesday with friends, movie on Wed. night with Education seniors, etc.

I'm going to miss having the beach nearby. Angel and I walked up there this evening, and just stood on the pier thing, looking out at the water and Boston. I'll miss the semi-quiet atmosphere, and the view of the city, and just riding in the car on Quincy Shore Drive and enjoying the view.

I'll miss the library and having access to a ton of books, even though I wasn't able to read all of the ones I wanted to. Plus, having access to Boston and all kinds of places close by is great.

Here are my grades for this semester:
Student Teaching: A
Student Teaching Seminar: A
Independent Study in Theology: A
:)

Umm, it's time for bed, because tomorrow my family's coming in! (and I have a lot of people to see and things to do...)

Being a college student is fun. Most of the time.

I am 99% finished my 10 lesson plans for Ed Psych. All I have to do "tomorrow" is tweak one a bit, do some formatting, and then print it to hand in. After that, I'm done most of my work!

At about 1 am, I decided that I needed to get the oxygen moving in my body again, so I ran around the front lawn twice. Where else can you do crazy things like that except at college?

Next week before I take my finals, I have to do some Arts and Music papers, study for Linear, and study for Christian Tradition. Then I'm DONE!!!!

I can't wait for the end of the semester to really be here, because it means I will be moving out of the dorm and into the KP's house for the rest of the month. I won't have any homework to do, but will be able to read FUN books again! I'll put that reading list up shortly.

On May 29th, I will be heading to Kansas City for my YOUTH IN MISSION trip to Mexico!!!!!!!!! I honestly haven't had time to be excited, or at least I haven't allowed myself time, due to school stresses. Not to mention, I've been trying to practice my Spanish, work on figuring out how to raise the money for the trip (but that's all done now! Yay God! Thank you for providing for me!), and a whole host of other things. Maybe the rest of this month will be a nice time of relaxing and preparing!

Last weekend was quizzing Regionals, and the short summary of the weekend is this: crazy, intense, stressful, fun, and we stayed in a sketchy hotel. But that's another story for another blog.

It's almost 2 am. I need to go to bed! I'm a little loopy right now, in case you can't tell. At least I can sleep in tomorrow till who knows when.

(yes I know I just typed this blog after writing about 7 pages of a paper, but I really just needed to do SOMETHING before I went to bed. it's a really pointless entry, I'll admit.)

festival of life weekend!

This weekend was pretty much amazing, since it was Festival of Life and lots of people from my home district came to visit and do competition stuff.

I saw Erlene from Maine, but couldn't remember how I knew her at first. haha oh dear. That's what happens when all these people I know from different places invade campus at the same time.

I got to see Brian Hull, who's one of the major head people (how do you like that title?) of NYC '07. I talked to him some about YIM, and tried to put him in contact with Missa, who's going on the NYC team this summer. Plus I met Dave Curtiss, who was an excellent speaker. I liked the background into Judaism, and the way he talked about the kingdom of heaven reminded me of Brian McLaren's works. He talked about how Christ has saved us TO do something, not just FROM sin, and that we need to help mend a broken world.
"Jesus living isn't comfortable"
"Your good deeds are the very deeds that plant the trees of heaven."

Most of the high schoolers I didn't know, except for Kevin and Alex, and kind of a few others. So I felt like hanging out with the youth pastor types, especially since this year with quizzing I've basically been doing youth ministry. Someday I think it'd be cool to help coordinate stuff for something like FOL, behind the scenes.

Saturday I did a lot of hanging out with the Mosers since Melissa was coaching the (champion) math/sci quiz team....especially Maddox (age 3)
me: "Are you having fun, Maddox?"
him: (in a glum tone) "Yeah...."
I had him on my back during the worship service, and Melissa noticed that he was closing his eyes. Haha. Then when Dave C. got up to speak, and we were sitting down, Maddox wanted a piggyback ride again, but I told him no, not till after the service. He ended up going to his parents in the pew in front of us, with his lower lip in a pouty face. I guess I broke his heart or something. haha.

It was also super to have Leslie and Roger up too, since they're closer to my age. Leslie and I took the T into Boston on Saturday afternoon, and walked from Park Street to Quincy Market, and near the water a bit too. We bought sweatshirts that say "BOSTON" across the front, and wandered around a good bit, running into people from our district. We took random pictures too. :)

I got to talk to Pastor Kevin for a while, about what he thought about evolution vs. creation, and what he'd tell his kids, and some ENC/Olivet stuff. Mostly he was saying that we don't know what went on at the time of creation, and that God's still creating. He also likes Brian McLaren's synthesis of the Bible in The Story We Find Ourselves In. We talked about how my church is gung ho about missions abroad, but yet we don't do stuff in Chestertown. We shouldn't be thinking that the world is out to get us or whatever. It was really cool to hear that his kids learn about God from him and Joy, and that they have spiritual conversations about stuff. Like their 6 year old asking, "If God loves me so much, why do I have these allergies?" Also something that is cool is that he'll be the guest speaker at Regionals Quizzing! Hooray!

We got back from Boston just in time for me to run to the front of Wolly and help hand out medals. That was fun, and at one point, Brian Hancock just accumulated the extra medals around his neck, so I asked him, "Why do you have those?" Kevin answered, "What, you think he doesn't deserve them?" He gave them back later. :)

Saturday night after the service, I said goodbye to people, and then stood there a while with Jen S, Josh B, and Leslie. We figured out that I was the only one in the bunch not certified in First Aid/CPR, and Leslie was divvying up who would do which part of CPR to save me: "You do this, you do that, and I'll--I'm not doing mouth to mouth."

We ran into Bryan, with Coco the Furby. Oh man. That was crazy. Leslie, Josh, and I ended up hanging out with Sam, Roger, and Leif for quite a while (till about 1:30), as the guys played music (mostly Calibrett0 13 songs) and we took pictures and video for them. It was a LOT of fun.

Now, however, is crunch time, as I have a final project paper due next Wednesday, and I'm only about 20% of the way done. Not to mention, my research and plan took a crazy turn today.

boston!

This weekend was pretty much amazing. Thursday night inaugurated the Honors weekend, which meant I got to see Erin!!! It was pretty cool to catch up with her, and we walked around Wolly area, and the beach, talking and stuff. Except she ended up having to stay in another room. :( Funny thing--I started telling her about YIM, and she was like, "Oh yeah! Merritt told me!" Crazy small (Nazarene) world.

Friday night a few of us honors students, along with the KP's, went to Blue Man Group, and saw the Honors students for all of about 30 seconds before we parted ways again. It was a good show--as it went on, I remembered stuff from the first time I saw it.

(me with a Blue Man after the show)

Saturday morning Jen and I joined the group to go to the Prudential Center Skywalk, so we could look out on the city. That was pretty much amazing. I am pretty sure I saw Wolly church from the top!!! Visibility was great: you could see for MILES.

(tweaked image--I'm not sure how the quality is, but that's basically what I saw with just my eyes. The large circle on the left is around UMass Boston. The one farthest on the right is the Keyspan oil thing. The closer small circle is around the two yacht clubs at Wolly beach, and the distant one is of that crane you can see at the Quincy Wal-Mart. The yellow rectangle is approximately where Wollaston is. Pretty crazy, right?)

(Copley Square area, I think this is my favoritest part of Boston...the red roofed building and the one attached to it is the Boston Public Library--HUGE!!!)

(someday I want to live in one of these brownstone types....when I can afford it...this is the Back Bay area)

(Hancock Building)

(we were up there!!! to my Arts and Music classmates, this photograph has a strong vertical composition)

Then we joined up with the MFA group at Park Street and walked some of the Freedom Trail before getting to Quincy Market. I re-discovered the intersection where the Boston Massacre took place (I have a picture from when I visited Boston in 8th grade, but didn't remember where exactly it was).

Dr. Wooster, retelling him asking a pretzel vendor: "I asked him, 'How salty are your pretzels?' '$2.50.' "

Alain, pretending to be Amy: "I always carry my game console in my handbag."

There were other good quotes too, and fun times with Jen...like when we were walking back down Elm Ave, and we linked arms so that one of us faced forward and the other faced backwards. We were singing, "Turn around," and changing directions. We also skipped around Boston. :)

other prof.quotes (Ed Psych & Christian Tradition)

Ed Psych:
"They don't like to have criminals in schools."

Christian Tradition:
"So it's a little trap I set to waste some of your time." (about something on the website)
"I don't know how they looked, so I don't know how aesthetic they were" (as opposed to ascetic)
"Everybody who talks about Plato has to talk about chairs."

Millie music-related quotes

› My mother wanted me to be a lawyer—a lawyer or a minister.
› about learning with repetition: “You learn breathing pretty quickly, right? Otherwise you’ve got about five minutes.”
› We’re not gonna make you learn to read music. That would be an interesting procedure, but…no.
› That would just be humongously huge.
› When words and music come together, music rules.
› Music is powerful, like drugs.
› We are music.
› We just took it (the word “tempo”) lock, stock, and barrel from Italian.
› Course I can’t talk and play the right note at the same time.
› I’m not a doctor by any stretch of the imagination.
› You don’t have to learn 26…actually you have to learn 88.
› Eventually we run out of breath permanently.
› After that the party is OVER!!
› Anybody here turned on by the idea of death?
› You turning us all into music majors?
› Use your Italian accent. No!!
› It’s very dumb, actually.
› I also cheat a little bit, but I won’t explain how.
› This a piece he actually wrote…
› I’ll play it very nice, but boring.
› Musicians are like everyone else—we abbreviate things.
› We have to be David Letterman.
› I knew it was coming, but it still struck me as funny.
› I don’t crack up the way I do with Haydn.
› Mozart and Bach—that’s perfection.

home quiz!

This weekend there was a quiz meet here at Wolly, which was really weird because it was like two of my worlds were colliding. We ate lunch in the caf, and Novice was in Angell Hall. I scorekept for about half the day on the second floor of Wolly, and then for about 5-6 rounds I quizmastered while Leta scorekept. I wasn't agreeing with some of the calls she made, but then when I was quizmastering, I felt like all I was doing was calling people wrong. Ah well. Luke said they were "fair."

Memorable moments from the past 24 hours:
~Joline stealing Preston away from Kerri (in a SKIT!)
Lori: "I'm going to have to speak to my daughter after this"
Andrew: "No, I'M going to have to speak to your daughter"

~Tenny: "Oh, Preston, Preston"

~Jocey, in Prof's office: "Oh look, a guy in a golden chair!" (pulls bookend out, and the books fall) "oops"

~"This bus felt like a capsizing ship as we went over that bump" (Lucas)

~said enthusiastically, "I'm running on pure adrenaline right now. WOOHOO!!" (Becky)

~Jocey about the earlier chapters, "I still got it" and "Hallelujah!"

~I really officially met Alain, and I got to see Nandi for all of about 30 seconds.

~to Becky about 6 yr old Anne pretending she couldn't get up: "She hangs out with you"

~coming back to the dorm and freaking out Magon and Rebekah
Rebekah: "Whose purse is this?"
Magon: "Not mine"
Me, showing up: "Mine"
Rebekah/Magon: "AAAHHH!!"

~Sondra: "Look at your HAIR!"
Joel: "I can't! It's on top of my head!"

~"Why is there a man with an elephant on his head?" (Jocey in Prof's office)

~Joel: "Our worlds are colliding! How'd I get another fork?"

~being amused by a water bottle. Joline was tossing it around on the floor, and managed to get it to stand up. "I bet I couldn't do that again in my LIFE if I tried!" then Matt, Katrina, Joel and I clapped for her and the waterbottle till she DID IT AGAIN!!! hahaha it was amazing.

~Preston: "Let's go! I'm hungry" (right after being really amused by the paddleball toy)
me: "He's probably going to get there, see the food, and change his mind."
Ten minutes later I get to the caf....
Joel: "Where's Preston?"
Kerri: "He left. He wasn't hungry"

~Joel: "I have no problem going back to prison"

~Pastor Steve said some reps from Kansas City are going to come check out MAD's Preteen quizzing program....pretty sweet.

what college is like

(this is basically a post to answer the question, "How's college?")

The past couple days I've been packing up, preparing to leave. Which is almost anticlimactic I suppose because I'm not leaving till Friday. Our room is looking bare, and it's sad. Rachel's leaving tomorrow, and I'll definitely miss her. I pretty much won't have a roommate till next fall.

I like things the way they are. I probably would've been all about political conservativism after the Congress of Vienna (sorry, that's what happens when you study too much...I started talking about generativity when Rachel had Everwood on last night). Or not. I've figured out how things work, whether it's floor/room dynamics, the SGA, classwork, etc.

(Second Willy 05-06)

I'm not sure what I want to be "when I grow up." I'm doing a lot of thinking, about what I really want to do, and where God wants me, and stuff like that.

I made it through a lot this first year at ENC. Dealing with events at home from a distance (Pastor's leaving, Sarah getting married) sort of gave me a different perspective. I found a church I really like (South Weymouth) and will probably stick with it while I'm here. I got involved in a couple of ministries: JUMP and Bible Quizzing. JUMP, that was fun, but I don't know that I'll do it next year (sorry Preston).

Quizzing--that was awesome. I went to kickoff in Maine (marking off yet another US state I've visited) with Liz, and that led me to become involved at Wolly. I scorekept at the quizzes, and was able to get to know teens from all over the district. I got to go to Regionals and get to know the New England quizzers better.

I came knowing a fair number of people, from either Nazarene stuff or other ENC weekends. And now, I think I have found my niche with people, though sometimes I choose to shove my face in books or just plain keep to myself. Some of my friendships here have changed, due to new friends coming in the picture or just not spending quality time with them. As far as boys go, I haven't had a boyfriend yet. To quote myself the other day, "Grrr boys." It makes things somewhat easier, but still. Though I do have a couple of good guy friends (as in they are good friends that happen to be guys that I don't necessary "like"), which is nice. I'll leave it at that.

Classes: I'm learning new stuff (which is a good thing), and I think I'm doing fairly well. Some of my classes (Physical Science and First Year Seminar, *cough*cough*) didn't impress me. Other classes, like Western Heritage and Contemporary Questions, made me do a lot of thinking, and often a lot of studying. I was surprised--well I mean, I had to force myself--that I did get homework done while I was at Regionals, and even took a calc 2 quiz.

As far as old friendships go, I'm not sure what's going to happen with them. People came up for FOL in March, and I switched between wanting to spend as much time with them as possible and wanting to just let them do their own thing. It was strange having Chelsea and Cassi here once, because it was like a combination of two worlds. It was great having the Central PA people here in October, because with A Capella gone that weekend, I could hang out with Pastor Mark, Norm, Pat, Sam, Ben, Cassie, and Olivia. Cassie still makes me laugh. So as far as Impact friends go, I think I can still have the friendships be in the same form. I sometimes feel like I've taken on a quasi-leader role with them and other teens in my church. Since I've been at college, I've changed; everyone else has changed.

I got a job babysitting once every week or so, and that was nice. I learned how to navigate the T bus system, and not get lost. I still like carrying my Boston map with me when I go into the city. Boston doesn't seem like that big of a city to me. Maybe it's because of its actual size, or maybe because I'm so used to it, but it really doesn't seem like it's that bad of a city. Yes, some parts are sketchy--majorly sketchy--but it's a pretty cool city to live near.

I've done a lot of crazy things this year: pulled an allnighter at Wolly beach, went into the city to watch part of the Marathon, said some random stuff.

I got to go to Belize and Guatemala too. That was amazing. My favorite parts were the three or so days on the island, and the three days in Guatemala. I love Spanish!!!! I was really nervous before I went, because I pretty much only knew Sarah R (and she's graduating now), but by the end, I got to know everyone else and especially Ann E. pretty well.

I also went to a couple of great concerts, without having to drive an hour away and clear it with my mom. Magon and I saw Mat Kearney live in Boston, and got our pictures with him (people asked, "who's that guy in the picture with you?"). Then Bethany Dillon, Shane and Shane, and Aaron Shust performed at Wolly Church, and we had fairly good seats.

This week is slowly a week of goodbyes. I said goodbye to the Wolly quizzers on Sunday. Melissa and Johanna are going to Olivet next year, so I probably won't see them that much.

Rachel leaves tomorrow, and today we packed up a lot in our room. It's like the beginning of the year again or something. Our hallway and lounge looks like a Goodwill donation center of sorts, with everyone's boxes and stuff. I'm kinda glad A Cappella will still be around when I leave, because that means I'm not one of the last to really leave.

(our sad room)

(our sad room #2)

This summer I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I really need a summer job, and hopefully I can work at Camp Wright. I also applied to Old Navy in Severna Park, so maybe if I get that job and not the camp, then I can stay at Daddy's and borrow his old van and take a couple college classes. But I need to find out soon.

I plan to go to Family Camp and see my teens and preteens and other families. Yayness. I think the only other ENCers I'll see this summer are Ben ("from MD"), Jocelyn, Troxler, Junior, Paul Sapp, the other two on the Summer Min team, Kerri, and that's probably it.

Next year is going to be kind of crazy, with a new chapel schedule (and therefore a new time schedule thing), new SGA, new students (yay for Meghan W.!!!), and a lack of the old seniors.

Dang, I wrote a freaking essay. Oh well. Now I'll leave you with this picture that I took walking home the other day. I love how everything is flowering and green around here. Though, today was rainy, cold, and gross. I really hope it clears up before I go, and especially for graduation.

quotations...!

Talking to Suzanne while she was behind Spange: "How can we find you if you're hiding?" (erm, isn't that the point?)

Me: "If you ever need ribbon, I have a bunch."
Rachel: (no response, then...) "Did I respond to you? Cuz I did in my head"

Magon: "Marie, that's a really nasty looking something something on your spoon."
"We could change our name to Eastern Mormon College"...Matt: "5 rings by spring or your money back!"

<-- Google backwards!

Goings-on of Thursday:
~went to Severson's lecture on cities of refuge and "the church as asylum"
~saw The Blue Light and other stories....GO SEE IT! IT's AMAZING!!!
~talked to Ann who went to Belize with me...I miss them so much....hopefully I'll see her next week and we'll go find people (ahem) during open dorms bwahaha.
~playing cards in Spange...and Sam and I doing tricks that no one else knew:

Shawn: "I'm going to go find someone else Nazarene and get them to explain it to me"

Shawn: "I have no idea what I just said, i'm so tired, stuff just came out of my mouth"
Sam: "Like spit?"

Awww....I was reading an article online about Romanian orphanages, and they had a picture of this little girl peeking from behind a chair. She was so adorable...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060217/sc_nm/orphans_dc
Yeah. Just thought I'd share with you....it was an interesting article too.

****edit****
Oh wow had some interesting adventures tonight....I rode the T into South Station, only to find out my mom was almost back at North Quincy, which I then went to...We got a ride from the hotel shuttle (driven by a Brazilian!), and went to the hotel for a little bit, then I caught the shuttle again back to the T, and went back to ENC.

I also got to talk to Olivia, part while I was in CVS, and part once I got back. It was good to talk to her. :)

Oh! my mom brought me lots of goodies...I'm most excited about a bunch of black ballpoint pens, my Joe Holt CD, laundry quarters, and my "portfolios" of sorts (my compilation of stories/papers I've written since I was a kid up to pre-graduating).

A whole bunch of us hung out in Spange tonight, and it was a lot of fun...

Cameron: "So, Jess, how bout that quiz today? It really ATE MY LUNCH!"

"Let's get mugged together!" (the idea of going on a TWIRP/MOP date to the T station)

Ben: "Who has my hat?"
Josh: "Jocelyn doesn't have it!"

Erin: "It looks like one of those...what are they called?....Ritz sandwiches"

Erin: "Jocelyn, you're the reason I get up in the morning"
Joe: "Is she that loud?"