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| oh xanga, how you have been such a great place for me to share my joys and sorrows in life. Sadly I am retiring you. Haha but yes I am moving on to Wordpress, a lot of my college friends use it and I feel its a moving period for me, xanga has all my high school memories and whatnot and now I'm a little bit more older and yeah. So thanks xanga and the few readers out there that still read this! If you want to know what else is up go check out my wordpress at
http://slin19.wordpress.com/
so long xanga its been good :)
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| One year ago on May 11th, was my last day of high school. I remember that day vividly, getting out of school, going to the Senior BBQ and cheering with my fellow classmates that we had finally finished that long journey of k-12 schooling and were all on our way to bigger and better things aka COLLEGE. I was recently talking with my good friend and we were discussing how much has happened in one year of our lives. Crazy to think that a lot of my friends are all done with their freshmen year of college and I am quickly approaching mine. So much has happened this year, with me moving to Seattle and meeting a whole bunch of new people and plenty of other changes. I can say for a fact that I am truly happy that I moved here, I could not have asked for anything better. But I still miss St. Louis dearly and it will forever stay true to my heart as my home. But God really had a purpose for me to be here in Seattle and at UW and how blessed I have been since I've been here. There are no regrets for sure, I wouldn't have changed my parents decision to move. God is good and I am so grateful. As I look back on this year and I wonder how good of a year it was, I begin to count the blessings in my life which God has given me, and they are far more than I would have ever expected. This year has stretched my walk with God in more ways than one, and has definitely opened my eyes to a bigger picture, a new meaning of community, and the power of prayer. To think all this has happened in only a year, and I have 3 more left. To think how far and how much I will continue to grow in the next three years, I have no idea. I am eagerly awaiting what God has in store for me in the near future
I can feel summer in my fingers, its right around the corner, summer weather is teasing me and I'm so ready for it. It's def all bittersweet, because come summer, that means comes the end of a wonderful freshmen year and the graduation of some wonderful seniors that have effected my life more than they'll ever know. Only 4 weeks left, ah I can't wait! 4 weeks full of making the most of the time I have with people and just enjoying spring and life. My summer is going to be crazy busy and I can't wait. First summer that I will not be in St. Louis, its weird. I've found myself recently being a tad homesick, missing my friends and just the comfort of good ol Chesterfield. Hopefully I will get a chance to go back soon.
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| So ends the first week of the quarter, meaning 1 down and 9 more to go. Haha I know its way too early to start counting down but I have a lot to look forward to this summer! First week went ok, nothing too special and classes are kinda boring, but hopefully I'll keep up with my work and stuff because I'll definitely be busy with school, IV, work, and intramurals! Break was good, nice and relaxing and definitely a good week to recharge from last quarter and get ready for this one. Things are flowing pretty well in life now I suppose, being involved with intervarsity has really broadened my relationship with God and opened my eyes to so many things. This community that has surrounded me is wonderful and I'm glad God placed each and everyone of these people in my life!
Anyway, so I'm really looking forward to this summer. I applied for this volunteer program in Taiwan this summer to teach English to elementary and middle school kids in more rural areas in Taiwan for 4 weeks. I applied back in January and found out on Monday that I got in! Over 900 people applied for the program and 300 got in, so I was really excited and happy! The first three weeks I will be teaching English to the kids and the last week, since its a volunteer program, the Taiwanese government is sponsoring a tour of Taiwan all for the last week for all the volunteers. It's something I'm definitely looking forward to, and definitely nervous! I'm excited to hopefully improve my chinese, learn a lot, meet some great people, see my family!, and explore Taiwan! I'm so happy for this opportunity and praise God that I got in! Along with this program, IV has a summer urban project missions after school gets out that I will be taking part in and I'm excited for that! Crazy how full my summer has already gotten! I hope you guys can pray for me while I'm in Taiwan and at Summit as well!
Summer Schedule:
June 15th-June 30th: IV Summit
July 3-August 5th: Taiwan
August 5th - August 11th: Head to Hawaii from Taiwan
August 11th: BACK HOME FINALLY
The only downside to this summer is that it looks like I won't have time to make a trip back to St. Louis, because by the time I get back in mid August, most of my friends will probably be leaving for school, sad. But no worries I am always thinking about all you guys back home! and yes St. Louis is still HOME :). Trust me for those here in Washington, they know how much STL pride I show, people in Washington definitely know where the 636 is!
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| *Sigh* It's spring break, and as much excitement as I had in me.. its slowly has gone away due to the revealing of my grades this quarter. I'm trying not to let it get to me, and trying to remind myself that I have plenty of quarters left to redeem myself. But its hard. I start to doubt my capabilities and wondering if I'll EVER be good enough. I'm so disappointed in myself, because I know I can do so much better. Its unhealthy to think that way I know and but its so hard to think positive. I try to think back what I've learned this quarter throughout bible study, large group, and the retreat. God loves me no matter what. No matter the grades I get, the job I have, how I look, or how much money I have. To him those things don't matter. I'd like to think that when bad things happen or I get let down, it should only push me harder for next quarter and the quarters to come. I want to believe that everything happens for a reason and that despite these one set of bad grades this quarter, I can still get into grad school/med school and I can still do better. I'm trying to remind myself its not the end of the world, cause really its not. I just needed to vent and lay it all out there I guess.
a quote a good friend of mine told me,
"Success is never final, and failure is never fatal"
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| certain people make me happy  and they also bring a smile to my face  and bring butterflies to my stomach 
anyway today was amazing.. aside from the fact that I did not get any of the work done that I needed to do until today it was still good. Today the weather was absolutely amazing! the sun was out and it was perfect shorts and sweatshirt weather! I wanted to bad to run around outside and kick a ball or just lay out on the lawn.. but sadly I had to stay in and do hw! :( BUT while I had to wait for my mom to get out of choir practice I was able to take a walk around green lake which was amazing today so nice out to be walking near the water and drinking a yummy smoothie! Today really reminded me of the amazing weather seattle has to offer and what spring and summer will bring!! can't wait! to be in flip flops and all that goodness! hmm but yeah actually finally got some work done today so yeah thats good.. oy this whole not being in school mode is going to kick my butt sooner or later! I better get to working!
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