My List

I feel like the end of the year is a good time to make lists. It’s a time to look back on the year and evaluate: what happened? How have I grown and changed? What were my favorite and least favorite things? I’m the kind of person that needs to take a step back from a situation before I can see it clearly, so I love thinking back on the year and trying to find some major themes or ways I have personally grown.

In that spirit, here is a list (in no particular order and following no particular theme) of some of my favorite things from this past semester.

-This year I've really been able to develop some deeper friendships. It helps that I'm starting to focus more on studying specific things, so I see a lot of the same people in my classes and stuff that goes on in the departments. Since I live so far from home, it means a lot to me to have close friends at school.

-I officially declared a computer science major! I've known for quite a while that I wanted to study computer science, but this semester I made it official. I had to fill out a form with all of the classes I am going to take during my four years to fulfill all of the major requirements, and then ask a professor in the department to be my advisor and approve the form. It feels so great to look at my name in the directory and see "Computer Science" instead of "Undeclared"!

-I'm really bad at asking for help, and can be very stubborn about trying to figure things out on my own. In general, I really don't like approaching professors for help. This semester, between missing a few days of class, planning classes to take, study abroad, and declaring a major, I was kind of forced to talk to my professors more than usual. And, it was really helpful! I want to improve on this, Wellesley has amazing professors.

-For the last few weeks of the semester, my life was almost completely consumed by the final project for my computer science class. My partner and I spent SO many hours programming and testing our game. There were definitely frustrating days; one time our program stopped working, and we searched for about an hour to finally discover that we forgot a single character, which was causing the malfunction. Overall, though, it was one of the most enjoyable things I have done in a long time. I love being hands on and making things that actually work and do something. It really confirmed for me the fact that I want to study computer science.

-I co-led a first year small group this semester as part of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. I've been part of Intervarsity since last year, and I love the community I have found there. Leading the group was a challenge, because I've never done anything like it before, but I learned so much and I formed a lot of really great relationships.

-My parent's house in Minneapolis is undergoing some major renovations. (As I write this I can hear noise downstairs from the construction.) In some ways its frustrating, because right now I don't have a bedroom or really any space to call my own (I'm sleeping on an air mattress on the living room floor). At the same time, this project has been in the making literally since we moved into this house about 17 years ago, so it's thrilling to finally see it being done! Next comes painting the walls, and I'm really excited to help with that.

Coming Soon...

Midnight breakfast and primal scream - I guess finals week does start tomorrow, huh? (By the way, moonlight breakfast = one of my new favorite finals traditions.)

Anyway. I promised myself that this week I was going to write a blog post! And I started, more than once, but couldn't come up with the right thing to say. With finals and projects and packing and flying home this week, I don't know when I will have the opportunity to write next. I just wanted to acknowledge that I realize how long it has been, and that I will have a real post soon!

One small thought. This morning in church, the pastor talked about joy. According to Merriam Webster, joy is "the emotion evoked by ... the prospect of possessing what one desires." This time of year can be crazy. For students its finals, for others it might be family issues, money issues, just plain the busy nature of the Christmas season - feeling like you need to get everything done in time, and done perfectly. Joy can feel far away in all of that. But too often we mistake joy for happiness - it's okay not to feel happy all the time. Joy is acknowledging that we might not have what we desire right now, but we will someday. We can hold onto that hope and feel joy in the present, despite our current circumstances, because we know that at some time in the future our circumstances will be what we desire.

Personally, I cannot wait until finals are over and I am back home again, with my friends and family! And I can have joy in that, despite what the last couple days of the semester might bring.

The Things I've Seen

As I mentioned in my last blog post, these past few weeks have been full of lots of travelling and adventures. So, this time I just want to share some more pictures.

This was at the start of my trip to New York. It's not a spectacular picture, but I love trains. They always make me feel like an adventure!

Big buildings and things we saw.

This is a random apartment building we passed. I liked the name of it :) (Also, photo credit to Abby)

 The American Museum of Natural History. It's a cool place.

And now, on to North Carolina. Here are some of the banners that were lined up along the fence, welcoming home the Marines.

I got this bracelet before my brother went to boot camp, and I wore it basically his entire deployment.

One night, in an attempt to find the beach on Camp Lejeune, my mom and I got woefully lost. We did lots of driving around that day. One of the most amusing things about driving on a Marine base is all of the tank crossing signs everywhere. At first we kind of wondered why they were necessary. I mean, wouldn't you see a tank sitting by the side of the road? But at around dusk we actually did pass by a group of tanks by the side of the road... They're harder to see than you might imagine.

Finally, by some miracle, we found the beach. This is my mom being happy that we found the beach.

Very soon after we got there the sun began to set. The sky was SO PRETTY!

My attempt to be artistic: taking a picture of the reflection of the sunset in the window of a little blue shack near the beach.

One day we decided to drive down to Wilmington NC, about an hour away from Jacksonville. We toured the USS North Carolina, a retired WWII battleship. It was fascinating, although slightly claustrophobic below deck.

This is my family walking along a river (that I don't know the name of...) in Wilmington.

And now, back to campus. This is the awesome view from our bell tower.

This is inside the bell tower. We have a Halloween event every year and decorate, although the tower certainly doesn't need much help to be creepy...

And finally, this is where I was sitting earlier today writing this blog post. Ah, Harvard Square. A great place to people watch, and a great place to go and attempt to do homework, and then spend an hour writing a blog post instead...

The Life of a Traveller

These past few days have been very eventful! During a period of 10 days, I will have spent exactly 3 nights in my own room. Last weekend, over fall break, I stayed with a friend in New York. She was the year below me in high school, and she's currently taking a gap year to participate in a program called City Year (she works in a middle school in the Bronx). I had never been to New York city before, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see her and also see the city at the same time. We had a ton of fun! I saw Central Park, Times Square, the Museum of Natural History, Union Square, and went out for some amazing cheesecake (among other things). We figure out how to roast acorn squash and experimented with recipes, and we reminisced about Minneapolis (where we are both from) and our high school.

When you live far away from home, there's something so refreshing about seeing an old friend. Most of the people I see on a daily basis I've known for less than a year, so there just isn't the same level of shared experiences and memories. So, it was fun to talk and catch up! Sometimes I also have trouble accepting other people's hospitality and putting myself at their mercy in a place I am unfamiliar with, so before the trip I was slightly nervous. But, I am SO glad I went. And I hope to get better at doing that.

After break I went back to school and had a total of a day and a half of classes before leaving again, this time for North Carolina. Because my brother was coming back from Afghanistan! For the last few days I have been staying on a Marine base near Jacksonville, NC, where my brother is stationed.

His unit came in on Friday afternoon. It was one of the most exciting and emotionally charged things I have ever been a part of. Emotional in a good way. I couldn't help but watch the reunions that were happening all around me, some of them involving babies so young that it was obviously a dad meeting their child for the first time. It was such a cool thing to be a part of. And, of course, it was amazing to see my brother again. He weighed a few pounds less, with skin a few shades darker and hair a few shades lighter. But, still the same brother.

My mom and brother

Random strangers. But, this little girl was so
adorable! She couldn't have been more than
a couple months old. She wouldn't stop
crying, but her dad wouldn't let go of her.

It's been really nice to spend time with my family. Right now we're watching Sunday afternoon football and waiting for pizza to be delivered to our hotel room. Nothing overly exciting, but very relaxing and familiar. It's the type of thing you take completely for granted, until you haven't experienced it for several months.

In a couple days I'll go back to school, and more than likely be behind in all of my classes because of missing 3 days of school. But, it's been worth it. It's easy to forget that there are, in fact, some things in life more important than class. And family definitely falls into that category.

It's the Little Things

This has been quite the week. I know I keep saying this but this week is the busiest I've had in a long time. For some reason my homework and other obligations this week kept piling on top of each other, to the detriment of my sleep and mental well-being.

However, looking back on this week what strikes my first is the multitude of small things that quietly brightened my days and chased away my stress for a while. A few of them follow:

I have a really great math professor. He's a really nice, friendly guy, and he occasionally stops mid-lecture to tell us funny stories about his family. On the first day of class he asked us for our birthdays, and informed us that he would bring in treats. Well, on Wednesday morning he brought in chocolate chip cookies and cake that his wife had baked for the class. It was so sweet of him! And now I get to look forward to occasional dessert in linear algebra class this semester, which is a big plus.

Wednesday afternoon was our campus org fair (where all of the student groups on campus come and students can see what they might be interested in being involved in). Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, which I'm part of, had a table, and students who stopped by filled out a contact card. On Wednesday night we followed up with the students by knocking on their room doors and bringing them goodie bags. I was both physically and mentally exhausted (this took place from 8-11:30pm) but we had so many awesome experiences. Many of the people were incredibly grateful and touched that we would take the time to seek them out and meet them face to face. We also had a plethora of interesting (and awkward) circumstances, like the time we knocked on a door and a girl's roommate told us she went down the hall to get Cheerio's, so as we were walking down the hallway we randomly accosted the girl eating Cheerio's and she had no idea who we were (but luckily it was the right person!) We just saw so much kindness and graciousness, from the random roommates who had to listen to our spiel to the people we unintentionally creepily ambushed in the hallway outside their door.

On Thursday morning in Latin class we had our first quiz of the semester (which was one of the reasons I was up late on Wednesday night). In the middle of Thursday afternoon, I received an email from my professor letting me know that I did really well on the quiz and just to say well done. I've never had a professor take the time to do something like that before, and it really made my day.

On Friday afternoon (today) the weather was beautiful, so I decided to go on a short walk into town, mostly to stock up on snacks in order to more effectively hide in my room (I was about ready to be done with the week!) On the way I encountered a path I'd never taken before, but it was going in the general direction I was headed so I went for it. On the way movement caught my eye in the underbrush a few yards away from the path, and I looked up to see a doe and her fawn standing there. I stood for at least 3-4 minutes watching them. They weren't the least bit scared, and eventually slowly meandered out of my sight. They were beautiful and magnificent and I felt privileged to have been able to watch them for those few short minutes.

And one final thing happened to me today. Last year I had two wonderful roommates, Katie and Jacqueline, but this year I'm living somewhere else. This afternoon I got a text from Jacqueline asking if I was in my room, and when I said no several minutes later I received a cryptic response that there was a surprise waiting for me. Well, when I got back to my room I found my bed nicely made and candy sitting on my pillow. It was something so small, but made me feel so loved. Amidst the craziness of this week my room has slightly descended into chaos, so it was a wonderful surprise to come back to. (Jacqueline, if you're reading this, thank you!)

Anyway. This week has been a strange amalgamation of really good and really bad. I'm choosing to remember the good. It's the little things that can brighten a person's day profoundly, and I'm grateful for all of the little things I encountered this week.

Another new semester!

Wow, sorry I've been a little MIA lately. When I was home over winter break I didn't write much because I was doing so little and didn't have anything to write about, but much of this summer I wasn't writing because I had too much to do!

I don't even know where to begin...

My last few weeks at home were wonderful, but crazy. My last week at home, among other things, I had three doctors appointments, went to the movies and walked around the mall with friends and family twice, had a sleepover with two of my best friends Ashley and Kelly (actually one of the highlights of my entire summer!), spend a day at the Minnesota state fair, hung out with my friend Alyssa (who I never get to see because she is in the Air Force stationed in South Dakota and I go to school near Boston), got together with my family to celebrate all of our birthdays, and packed every single thing I own into boxes or suitcases. (I didn't get much sleep that week.)

And now I am finally back at Wellesley. My first couple days here were actually pretty difficult, trying to figure things out and adjust to being back while trying to get all of my stuff from storage to my new room, unpack, and buy the things I wasn't able to bring with me (like shampoo). After that things quickly got better, though, as I had a couple days before classes started to relax and start seeing my friends again. I love my new room, and I think I've finally just about finished decorating it to my satisfaction.

This semester promises to be a good (and busy!) one. My classes are Linear Algebra, Computer Science (data structures), Art (2-dimensional design), and Latin 101. I think I will enjoy all of them, and art has already pushed me out of my comfort zone! I think mathematically too often, so it'll be good for me. But I really don't know what to expect, I've never taken a studio art class before!

I'm also planning on continuing to be part of the Guild of Carillonneurs, and I'm stepping up my involvement in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, I'll be co-leading the first-year small group this year. Super excited! I'll probably dabble in some other groups as well, there are so many cool things happening on this campus!

Anyway, it's probably about time to sign off and accomplish something on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. Hopefully I'll have some more thoughts and updates soon.

My Week in North Carolina

So, tomorrow we head back home to Minneapolis. It's been such an amazing week! I really can't remember the last time I laughed this much during a single week. We've had so much fun, even doing completely normal things like shopping.

We played cards. Lots and lots of cards! Skipbo, hand and foot, set, dutch blitz, apples to apples, and five crowns.

We had a BLAST swimming at the beach. The water was warm and the waves were huge, it was a good day.

We attempted to go kayaking, but there were thunderstorm conditions out at sea so the Marina on base (Camp Lejeune, where my brother is stationed when he's not on deployment) wouldn't let us take out any of their boats. But we took the opportunity to take pictures anyway.

We went to the aquarium and saw lots of animals, my favorites being the river otters. Adorable!

We went mini-golfing at this place overlooking the water, it was really great. Unfortunately it started raining, but not until the 16th hole so we were still able to finish.

We had fun with their dog, Juliet. She's such a sweetheart! (and she doesn't normally wear plaid shorts, this was a special occasion ;) )

I guess it'll be nice to be home, but I'm not necessarily looking forward to work and real life again... I won't miss the heat and humidity here in North Carolina! But I will miss the people, and the ocean, and the puppy, and the laughter. I would do this trip again in a heartbeat.