Missing the Girls

I have the greatest best friends ever, and when they’re around we don’t stop having fun! But when they’re gone I miss them a ton. One of them, S, is only gone for the weekend, but the other two, T and L, are gone for the whole semester! L left for France last Sunday, and T left for Morocco today. I’m so excited for them to experience studying abroad, but I’m definitely going to miss them! If you’re interested in reading about their experiences I’ve included links to their blogs on the left.

I spent all of freshman year wishing I had close girl friends like I did in high school and junior high. I wanted to have those friendships where everyone else sees you as almost inseparable. My roommate and my psuedo-roommate were great friends my freshman year, but in a group of 3 there’s always an odd one out, even if it’s not on purpose, and that odd one out was definitely me. I wasn’t too upset about it because I had closer connections to people at home, especially my boyfriend. When sophomore year started I realized that living alone makes the lack of good friends kind of apparent because you get lot less visitors than you would if you still lived with a roommate.

As the year started I was getting comfortable with being alone a lot more often, which was a struggle for me because I need to feel wanted and to have companionship. My renewed faith in God helped me realize that even if I’m alone in my room God’s always there, and he wanted me to learn to be alone with him – no matter how cliche it sounds. Just as soon as I got comfortable where I was I met 3 of the greatest girls ever! S, T, and L all lived in the same building as I did, which meant that they were a year younger than me. At first I was a little wary about getting close to residents because if something went wrong I could lose my job, and I really didn’t want that. I couldn’t avoid getting close to these girls though, we all just got along so well! We had just the right similarities and differences that we didn’t want to kill each other after a while. By the end of the year the four of us were basically inseparable, and we had dubbed ourselves the Awesomeness Problem, which is kind of an inside joke for us.

Those three girls are even better than what I could have hoped for during my freshman year! I was always told that college is when you meet your closest, lifelong friends, and now I finally believe it. I know that I’ll be friends with S, T, and L for the rest of my life, no matter how far away from each other we are!

Now, I know this post was really sappy, but they’re an important part of my life that I wanted to share! On a more silly note, S and I are going to take a blow-up frog around with us this semester and take pictures of him to show to L and T. We’re also going to stick a picture of each of them on Fred, our frog, so L and T can go with us wherever we are! S thought of this idea because her best friend, H, was in Japan all summer and she took a picture of H everywhere with her. I hope L and T enjoy our little plan!

This is Fred! Hopefully you’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the months to come!

Junior Year

I started my junior year of college today and it had a surprisingly different feel than my first day of sophomore year. There’s always been people who wave to me and say hi when I walk around campus, but this year there was a noticeably larger number of them. As I walked from class to class is seemed like I knew everyone I saw, even if I wasn’t super friendly with them. The multitude of familiar faces wasn’t the biggest or most noticeable difference for me either.

The comfort with which I moved around campus surprised me. I wasn’t nervous about starting a new class, meeting new professors, or getting to class on time without getting lost. Even during my sophomore year I was more nervous and concerned than I was today.

Another difference, albeit a silly one, was my attitude towards getting ready in the morning. The night before I had a resident rush into my room asking for help with what to wear the next day. Of course I helped her out, but it made me realize that I could care less about what I was going to wear to my first day of classes.

It’s kind of interesting to me, the way I reacted to the first day of my junior year, and it made me more comfortable and excited for the months to come – not to mention the first day of my senior year!

Do you have any thoughts or stories about your first day of classes? Any comments about the year to come?

Hugo Photo Project

I haven’t been very faithful with this new blogging project of mine, but I blame it on the pressure of packing up, moving everything back to college, and then starting my all day, every day Office of Residence Life training. Since I don’t have much more than a few drafts written, I decided to at least put up some of the pictures from my Hugo photo shoot that I’ve gotten around to editing.

This is a sign in front of Blacksmith’s Lounge (a bar and grill) on your way into Hugo. It’s one of the first things people see when they drive in from the north, and it’s fairly well-known. This is edited, honestly, in Picnik.

This picture focuses on the old Hugo Youth Center right off of Highway 61. I attempted to utilize the tips given to me by my high school photography teacher and include a c-curve. I’m not sure what I used to edit this, but I think it was Picnik… again.

In Hugo there is an old Mexican restaurant which I used as the subject for a number of pictures in this series. I finally got access to a free trial of Lightroom so I used it to edit this one.

There’s nothing remarkably significant about this photo, but these things were resting up against a guns and ammo shop in town and they just caught my eye. I worked in Lightroom to make the changes I wanted.

The lock featured here was hanging on a side door of the Hugo Youth Center, near an old basketball court. I found it amusing that the door to what is supposed to be an escape for young people has a big lock on it. I know there are major enhancements to this photo, which I did in Lightroom, so I’m not sure if it’s over the top or not.

This cactus was originally standing outside the old Mexican restaurant, but time has kind of changed that. I got to use Lightroom to edit this one as well.

Oddly enough this chair was sitting on the porch area of the Youth Center. It had seemed to me like it was timeless, watching over the town. This was one of the first pictures I edited, so I used Picnik for this as well.

The shop pictured through this cinder block used to be called Nadeau’s and it was basically a small-town market that butchered its own meat. This was one of the first photos that I got to edit using Lightroom.

Thanks for taking a look, and I would love to hear some feedback!

Hugo

My little town of Hugo, the start to my summer photo project

Last Days

Last days are so bittersweet. I’ve had a lot of different types of last days in my short life, but they’re almost always bittersweet days. There are the less monumental ones, like the last day at a job that you didn’t really like, or the last day of a season, or a month even. Then there are the last days that we’ll never forget, the ones that stand out in our memories. The important last days are things like; the last day of a grade, or even the last day of high school/college/grad school, the last day of a job you loved, the last day living in a house you spent many years in, or the last day that you’ll ever see someone.

You might wonder why some of these last days could be considered bittersweet, especially the  last day that you’ll ever see someone. If someone close to you is heading home to be with God there actually are reasons that it could be bittersweet. Most of the feelings you might have on that last day are bitter ones about things you wish you could have said, and days that you wish you hadn’t wasted. You can also look back on the time that God gave you with that person and remember all of the good things, all of the sweet memories.

This week is filled with last days for me, and it feels kind of tough. This will be my third year going away to college, and every time I leave it seems to get harder. This trip off to school will definitely be the hardest yet, for a number of reasons. My mom will be traveling in Alaska for the first few weeks that I’ll be in school so I can’t even call her when I get homesick. I’ve also come to appreciate my family in a way that I hadn’t before. I think some of my newly gained maturity, and my renewed faith in God has given me a deeper love for my family.

My summer has been a busy one, filled with two part-time jobs and a part-time internship in the Global Impact department at my church. Tonight was my last night at the bar/restaurant that I’ve worked at for two summers in a row now, and I’ve become really attached to my coworkers and some of the regulars. Being free of a job always feels fantastic, but leaving people that have a special place in my heart, and that treat me well, makes my last day kind of hard, especially this year. My internship has also been a wonderful experience for me, and I’ve come to truly love going to work three days a week to see the people who have fostered my growth and learning, and really encouraged me this summer.

It’s going to be a tough 24 hours, but one that I’m going to enjoy as I look back and marvel at what God has put in front of me these last few months. To be truthful, I’m incredibly grateful for these bittersweet last days that I have because if I can feel bittersweet about something then there must be something positive in it, or something that has affected my life somehow. The last days that I get to experience are ways for me to look in the past and see what God had planned for me during my time that’s coming to a close, and look forward with excitement, reverence, and commitment to whatever God has planned for my future.