Back to School

Well I have officially started my 2nd (and final year...at least for this degree) of grad school. I really do not know how to feel about that! Last year went so fast and I can only imagine how fast these next 8 months are going to fly by!

This quarter (the next 8 weeks of my life) I am taking two classes...Legal and Ethical Issues in Student Affairs and Counseling: The Helper Relationship. Going into these classes I wasn't exactly sure what to expect...but after attending classes this week...well I love both of them! For my law and ethics class I am actually getting (an optional assignment) to go to Vermont for a conference (with a little pre-trip to New York City!!!...the plane tickets were actually cheaper to go from here to NY to Vermont and home than it was to go from here to Vermont and back...so I am just being frugal...well sort of!). The counseling class is amazing! I get to learn how to better listen and work with students...it doesn't get any better than that.

My internship has been a little hectic. I am trying to figure out foundational elements for the Global Relief program (like mission statements, goals, brochures, the vision for this year and the future...which we all know is like pulling teeth for me!), wrapping up the loose ends from last year's Bangladesh Relief Effort, putting together a new weekly program (not a tough one but it is launching next week and well I haven't printed the posters yet...oooppps!), assisting with the planning of a relief team to go to New Orleans over Thanksgiving (which is only what 10 weeks away...yeah no worries!), sitting on a committee for Global Vision Week (a campus wide theme week that has about 31 events in 5 days), meeting with my student worker for an hour a week, meeting with my supervisor for an hour a week, and trying to pull together all the details so we can launch our new Global Relief: Global Water Concerns campaign for the entire school year...yeah the first two weeks have been a little hectic! Was that a run-on sentence??? Despite the slight feeling of being overwhelmed (which I know I am feeling because I lay awake at night remembering emails I should have sent and coming up with amazing ideas for our fundraising campaign that I tend not to remember by the morning) I am really enjoying my second year in the Office of World Missions.

Which sort of leads into the reason that I am so nervous about this year "flying by." Because after May 9th 2009...I am headed out for who knows what! I am so open to what God may have in store...but I don't even know where to start looking! A big part of me is excited about the possiblity of moving to Thailand and doing some sort of missions and/or humanitarian work there but the other big part of me is dying to work with students or with a non-profit here in the states or at a Christian university working in a missions office or the list goes on forever!! I found something I love...but there are so many options! My "plan" is to not plan for what is next. Instead I have just been praying that God would put the pieces together so that I have a more focused direction once the decisions have to be made.

Life at the apartment is great! We are almost done decorating...I have a difficult time hanging pictures on the wall straight and our table is still not completed put together...but we definitely have made it home. (I will post pictures once we are finished). I am loving our apartment and our location...super close to some amazing running trails and at the base of the mountains...seriously it's beautiful!! My roommates are great! Heather and Meghan and I have classes together and are home together quite a bit...we all get along great and we have a good bond due to the fact that we all have the same load of homework on our plate every week. My third roommate Megan (same name different spelling) just moved to California from New York and is just starting the same master's program as the three of us. We don't see her as often because we have class on opposite nights.

Other than that life consists of grocery shopping, jogging, and sleeping (when I get the chance)...its great! (But it is only the first week of school!!)