This morning we were suppose to have our dorm competition called Rymer Cup. It’s when all the halls in Maclellen dorm pair up with their brother/sister halls for a big field day filled with crazy relay races. As excited as my roommates and I were about going to competition we were all a bit relieved when we woke up to the pitter patter of rain. Most mornings we would have probably complained at the fact we would have yet another day of rain, this morning we invited the rain. You see, we had stayed up way too late talking about life the night before and the thought of pulling ourselves out of bed presented a challenge far bigger then we could tackle on a Saturday morning. We enjoyed a few more minutes of slumber before phones started going off with text messages and people calling telling us to hurry and get ready because the games were on! So we painfully pulled ourselves out of bed and rushed to throw some cloths on and run down to meet everyone. When we got downstairs we were informed that because of lightening the games were in fact canceled. After all that though we couldn’t just go back to bed now, so we decided to go with our brother hall to play out in the rain.

We went out to the intramural field and played freeze tag, capture the flag, and had puddle sliding contests. It was hilarious, it was so hard to play running games because as soon as you would try and stop yourself you would slip and slid all over the grass. After we were drenched, cold, and bruised and battered we decided to go and grab something to eat and something hot to drink. In case I haven’t said it before, I just love our brother hall!

After a fun morning in the rain us girls sat and had girl talk and then curled up to watch an afternoon movie. Boy, I love days like today. I am now sitting at the Starbucks on the mountain. I’m am determined not to let the gloomy rain get to me. This year my theme has been, “Embrace it…embrace life, embrace those crazy red shoes, embrace the rain.” So that is what I’m doing, I’m embracing those raindrops as they drop on my nose and toes.

Tonight I went to a sushi night. I know I know not the traditional thing to do on New Year’s Eve, but it was so good. A friend of mine who goes to a local college new some foreign exchange students from Japan and wanted them to have something fun to do on the holiday so she threw a sushi night. We got all the fixin’s for sushi: rice, crab, shrimp, cucumber, avocado, tuna fish and mayo (recommended by the Japanese group as being really good), and cream cheese (which I had never even heard of putting on your sushi before. I’m glad that Haruka, one of the Japanese girls, was there to help us with the sushi. I think it would have ended up being a mess! But because of Haruka it was a success!!! We ate so much and had so much left over! After our big meal we played lots of games and just sat around and talked. We just laughed at ourselves when it hit eleven and we were all pooped. But I was determined to stay and see the ball drop. We drank tea and hot chocolate and pitied the people from New York we saw on the television outside in the seven degree weather. Finally, after counting down and seeing the ball drop I made some sushi to go and headed home. It was such a sweet night of fellowship with old friends and new friends too! Well Happy New Year’s everyone!

I always look forward to hall events. Last night my hall went Christmas Caroling with Suburbs, another hall in my dorm. We all got bundled up really warm, or as warm as we could get and headed to the Treich’s house. Oh, I don’t think I’ve told you about the Treich’s. They are the sweetest couple who live on the mountain and have adopted our hall. Every month they have us over for dinner, pumpkin carving, or the like. Last night, we were going to go Christmas Caroling and then go there for hot cider and snacks. We went caroling to about twenty houses around the Treich’s neighborhood. I haven’t been caroling in years and I had forgotten how fun it is. There was a group of about thirty of us who went, we charged door to door singing Christmas tunes from our songs sheets lit by our cell phones. We were no concert choir group that’s for sure, although we were asked once or twice if we were. We often messed up the tunes of the songs, and never could agree when the song was over. We sounded a little rough, but every house we went to greeted us with huge smiles. After our toes were almost frozen off we hurried back to the Treich’s to warm ourselves with hot cider and a warm fire all ready made. Mrs. Treich asked us to decorate the tree for them. They had all the the ornaments laid out and lights already on the tree. We all enjoyed getting to decorate a tree, being that many of us were missing getting to do it at our own homes.

I began talking to Mrs. Treich later in the evening and she told me a little of her and Mr. Treich’s story. She told me that they had a daughter who came to Covenant while they were living in California. They prayed for people to come into her life, they knew that being so far away they could not be there for her like they wanted to be. God answered they’re prayers in amazing ways. There were many families on the mountain who invested in their daughter’s life. They offered a place to do laundry, a place to escape to when life was getting crazy, and just a place where she could find family while hers seemed so far away. After their daughter graduated the Treich’s moved to Lookout Mountain in hopes that they could invest in Covenant students, just as families had done for their daughter.

God is so good and works in so many ways. Even through a family inviting you in to decorate their tree. It helps you feel like home when home is just so far away. Well after playing card games, learning to make roses out of napkins, and playing the Knot game (a Chi Alpha tradition) we said goodnight to the Treich’s. I really feel our hall becoming a family. I love when that begins to happen, every year halls look very different. People go, and people come. But some how, we always end up close.

Accountability: The last couple of weeks I have realized how important it is to have people to keep you accountable. It’s important to make them part of every aspect of your life. I so often want to hide areas that I am worried about them meddling with and when doing this I end up shutting them out. What a mistake, God has put these people in my life to be apart of it and when they’re not, I suffer. I begin feeling alone and scared. Lord help me be vulnerable in every area of my life. Help me seek advice from my accountability partners. I just want to encourage you guys that if you don’t have someone who you can walk through life with and share every detail with, someone who will tell you the hard stuff even you don’t want to hear it—find someone. Whether they’re friends, family members, teachers God works through them in your life. Thank you God for people who continually push into my life even when I’m trying to push them out!

Are you good at keeping up with people. Like making sure that friends get a phone call once a week and letters are sent frequently to loved ones. I try so hard to be good at it, but the truth is…I’m not. It is such a struggle for me to keep up with phone calls, letters, meetings with people, etc. I feel I’m constantly playing catch up. After a weekend like I just had I feel even more behind then usual.

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I’m FINISHED! My exams are over and it is such a relief!  I said good-bye to two of my roommates yesterday and I feel like part of my heart went with them. It’s amazing how close we got this year, and it’s hard to imagine that when we come back in the fall we won’t all be rooming together again. My emotions are up and down as we continue to empty our room.  My things are scattered from one end of the room to the other.  I keep procrastinating…not wanting to waste time packing when there is still time I can spend with my friends. My other two roommates leave tomorrow, and then it will be easier to dig in and box up all my belongings.  

So, instead of packing, I have been recuperating from finals and bidding my friends farewell.  As excited as I am to see my family, especially my little nephew who is now over a year old, I am having a hard time imagining being away from everyone at Covenant for 3 months. I was talking to a friend a while back about my fears of leaving for the summer and she said, “Although, it does feel really weird the first time, you get used to it. And when you come back, things just pick up right where they left off.” I needed to hear that.    

Wow, I can’t believe it… I’m a sophomore! Life goes by so fast, doesn’t it? Another page is turned. I feel like I should be a much wiser person now…hmmm….I don’t know about that. But, I do know I’ve changed a lot this year. Will they see the changes as well…I wonder?
 

This weekend was Easter break and I was planning to enjoy a nice relaxing weekend in my room, accompanied by my books, my bed, and a bit of work. However, was I in for a surprise! Thursday afternoon I headed into work to put in a couple of hours before the office closed. It was sad to see my friend’s head home for their breaks, and I knew this meant I would probably have a very lonely birthday which happened to fall on Easter Sunday; I was beginning to feel homesick.

After giving a campus tour, I packed up my bag and headed back to my empty room. When I walked into the lobby I was surprised to see my four roommates. They invited me to go to dinner with them before they headed out. With only 10 minutes before the cafeteria closing, we got some of our guy friends to drive us over. As we hopped into the van I was greeted with several grinning faces.

Heading out of the parking lot, I noticed we turned the opposite direction…we weren’t headed to the dining hall at all. Now I was suspicious that something was up.When I asked what they were doing, my roommates told me they were bringing me camping. “CAMPING!” I yelled. I had wanted to go camping for weeks. I was so excited I was bouncing all over the back seat. We headed off to a camping ground called, Cloudland Canyon, about 30 minutes away from the school. There we met up with another one of my good friends who had been waiting with the equipment.

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Today was Katja’s birthday. She is one of my four roommates. At Covenant you can choose to have one, two, three, or four roommates. You might be thinking, “FIVE GIRLS IN ONE ROOM…that will never work!” Yes, I admit I was taking a risk, however, my four roommates have been one of the biggest blessings in my life this year. I have loved seeing our relationships grow from being complete strangers, to being friends, to now being sisters. We love being around each other and just “doing life” together.

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Today was such a good day! I had coffee with an old friend from high school. We spent the whole time laughing about old stories of us growing up…like staying up all night to make flip flops out of magazines (that quickly were ruined in the rain the next day), or making silly t-shirts to wear together. We competed  in thinking up the most embarrassing stories we could remember of each other. You know, coming to Covenant has definitely changed all my relationships. I have made so many new GREAT friends, but those old ones from high school will always have a special place. They are the ones who helped get me to where I am today. Even though saying goodbye to them was really hard, God always provides those needs for us. He has put in my life new relationships and still gives me moments like today to enjoy those from my past.