The Theme of My Week: Why am I here?

For those of you who don't know, I have been getting involved in a group called "FLG" these last couple weeks. FLG stands for "Freshmen Leadership Group," and is an organization sponsored by The Rock, the church I have been attending. Basically this group of freshmen get together every Tuesday night with John, the pastor at The Rock and talk about whatever topic is that he picked for us I guess. Anyway, this week's topic really stuck with me, and I felt like it covered exactly what I am going through right now. In fact, I felt like it related to my life so much that I would even blog about it! So here I am. 

This week's first focal point was: "What is the meaning of life?" I thought this was such a brilliant topic for this week. So many of us are questioning this right now, and with this new transition into college and growing up, it couldn't have been more perfect. I know that I have especially been struggling with this lately. Asking myself the questions, "Why am I here? What is my purpose?" even led me to change my major, and it's only the second week of school! I truly believe I have a purpose here on earth, and I want to make sure I find it. Maybe I still don't have it right, maybe I should have stuck with Communication and never looked back. I think only time will tell, but I do still have time to change my career path, so that's reassuring. This week's talk was so nice though. To be assured that many people struggle with the quest to figure out why they are here, and that it's a normal part of life made me feel so much better about it. I don't have to know yet, and I think that is awesome. I do think I am starting to get a better understanding though, by seeking out the answers myself and not sitting around waiting for them to appear to me. I have a feeling I am really going to love FLG.

Now listen, I'm not trying to preach at anyone by any means, but I do like to let people know a little bit about what is going on in my life right now. And, if in any way, someone else could relate, or if it could help someone, I would always want to share that. As far as the rest of my life goes, things have been so great. It is such a great feeling to know that I have come to the right place. My classes are maybe a little more stressful than high school, but I love them so much. Anyways, I made a little video of my own "MTV CRIBS" haha. If you care to see my room, you should watch. I hope you are all having a fantastic week! Love you all!

Let's count how many times I say "pretty cool" in this video. Haha!

And now for some pictures... :)

Our new door sign!

Brooke, Morgan, Me, Abby and Eric!

Chillin like a villain :)

My first Cotton House Party with 
Rokeith, Brooke, Tori and Jordan :)

A New Chapter

I have officially completed one full week at my new home. It has been filled with tons of joy, fun, new friends, and walking. My first few days here were almost entirely spent in sorority houses. It didn't take me long to realize that I didn't really belong there, but I do have a lot of new light to shed on them. Although I made the decision late Wednesday night to withdraw from recruitment, I do have a new found respect for the sororities here on campus. Most of the girls I met through the whole process were surprisingly cool and down to earth, unlike their stereotype would make them seem. I don't regret spending time going through recruitment, because I really do have a better understanding of the whole process now. Thursday, Brooke and I spent the day exploring downtown CoMo. We have found great shopping, an awesome costume store, a cupcake shop, sushi, and coffee places. We have also made nearly a million new friends. We learned quickly that the best way to make friends on our hall was for one, to go to the bathroom, and two, keep our door open. I am so excited for the girls on our hall to all be friends. They all seem to be extremely nice, I can't wait to get to know them better. The last few nights have been spent playing sand volleyball late into the night, spending time with my brother and some awesome new friends from The Rock, going to the Ben Kweller concert (his opening act, She's A Keeper, was fantastic), and not seeing The Hunger Games at Jesse Auditorium because we were late and they wouldn't let us in.

Overall, this last week has been seriously amazing. I never imagined that I would have this many friends already. I am missing some people from home, you all know who you are. If you have Skype and feel so inclined to Skype me, I would love to hear from you and see you. I am also just a phone call or letter away, so that works too. By the way, if anyone wants my address, message me on facebook or something :). I love mail now that I have my own mailbox. Classes start tomorrow, so I will probably be pretty busy, but I can always make time for old friends!

Back to the main topic of this post: I am so excited for the things to come. I am so happy to feel so confident in having made the right choice in schools. God has blessed me in so many ways and I am so thankful that some of the best years of my life are still to come! I am going to wrap this up for now, but to all my friends from home: Again, I would seriously love to hear from all of you. I will also be making an effort to get ahold of some of you. Love always!

Here are some pictures if you haven't seen them on facebook. Our room is messy right now, but I will post pictures of it next time!

Packing, Packing, Reminiscing.

I am currently packing for college. I actually just finished putting my collection of boots into a plastic storage container with purple wheels. I had to have the one with purple wheels! Between packing and seeing a lot of my friends and family for the last time before I leave, I really am starting to get a little sad. I leave for Mizzou in three days, which seems absolutely unreal. There is so much to be excited about in this new chapter of my life, but there are also a lot of memories from my previous chapters that I am really going to miss. It has been a great summer filled with important old friendships and even new ones as well. I am really going to miss my good friends from home. On an off chance that any of them are reading this (new or old friends), I want to thank them for always being there. I could take each and every friend I have ever had and say something that they have taught me, and I can't thank them enough for that.

My schedule has been extremely busy lately, which explains why it took me this long to get around to my second blog entry. Since I last wrote, I spent a weekend in Iowa with family and had an amazing time. I haven't really had the opportunity to get close to that side of the family before, so it was a really great chance to spend time with them and get to know them better. Also, my Grandpa Ron, who I am extremely close to, has been in the hospital for a week and a half now. While my parents and I were in Iowa, he had a heart attack and since then has had double bypass surgery. His recovery is going to be rough, but he's a trooper. It's events like that which really put things into perspective for me. It has made me really appreciate my family and him especially, because things would not be near the same without him in my life. I think that happening has also made me even more sad to leave home. I love my family. I could say something similar to them as I did to my friends. Between my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, I have been shown so much love and support. Without them it would be impossible to do what I am doing now.

I am going to get back to packing now, but I just wanted to post a short, little entry since it's already been so long since the last one! The next time I post I will probably be in Columbia! I promise it should not be this depressing. I guess my mood right now could be described as a mix between happy, sad, nostalgic, thankful, and anxious, which kind of explains the mood of the post. Love you all! :)

Here's something fun. I wanted to show off my purple wheels!

(Ignore my "I haven't done anything with myself today" look, lol)