Fall To-Do

Fall To-Do List:

Live love.

Love others; love Jesus more.

Learn more of what it means to be selfless.

Push limits; step outside my comfort zone and into God’s.

Get a 4.0 GPA for the semester.

Keep on top of schoolwork; study hard.

Save, invest, & spend wisely.

Try out new recipes.

Get a job as a PT Aid.

Read as much as possible outside schoolwork.

Study for the GRE.

Continue PT observation hours (40+).

Pour Jesus out onto my high school friends at Conley.

Work with the sports trainer at Conley once a week.

Start a campaigner group.

Get in the Word everyday.

Pray.

Memorize verses.

Send letters/emails to friends often.

Stay healthy; keep mind refreshed, eat well, workout often.

Get enough rest each night.

Listen to my body.

Train for the Raleigh Oaks ½ Marathon.

Visit Katie at Wingate and Anna in Georgia.

Go to Colorado & ski.

:]

End of Summer

It has been an incredible summer, probably one of my best--Jersey and NYC, visiting Greenville, good times working at Starbucks, SharpTop Cove, beach trips with the family, hanging out with great friends, disc golf, movie nights, ice cream, watermelon, Carowinds…all sorts of wonderful things. I don’t understand why, but my life continues to blossom as the years go by.

The past few weeks have been an insane way to end my summer when all I truly desire is solitude and time for myself, but I’ve been productive and had a blast despite my busy schedule. Last Tuesday I made a quick trip to Greenville with Ashley and saw our new place. One word—awesome. Then last weekend a few of us went camping at Falls Lake. We set up a sweet campsite, swam across the lake, went cliff jumping, skipped rocks, did a little hiking, cooked hot dogs and made s’mores, played hot seat, and spent some quality time together. I always enjoy camping. Great times with some of my favorite people

Today felt wonderful outside, despite the drizzle. It was also the first morning I had to myself with no agenda outside of work, traveling, and PT in a while. I had a lovely breakfast with my best friend, which is one of my favorite things in the world. Then I went for a great run with my dad and had some time to clear my mind. This amazing song came on my iPod, one of my favorites. This song so very clearly states the nature of my heart at the moment, so here I will share, since Shawn MacDonald does a pretty accurate job of explaining the desire thriving in my soul…

Take My Hand
Shawn MacDonald

Take my hand to the promise land
And on You I want to stand
Cause I cannot do it on my own
You're what I need and I need to be
Right by Your side cause I cannot hide
Lord, I know that I need You

Without You I'm so alone
I am weak but You are strong
You pick me up when I'm falling down
And I am crying
Out to You inside of my heart
I need You, Lord, oh so, for the part
I want You to have my life, Jesus
I fall to my knees
And I'm begging You, please, oh, Lord
Won't You change me
Make me new from the inside out
I want to shout out Your name

Amen.

Whew!

What a crazy week! The last weeks of my summer have been and will be filled with work and physical therapy observation. Work is the same old thing, but I'm loving my PT observation. I hate that so many opportunities came up so late in the summer and I'm killing myself to get lots of hours in, but I'm still grateful for them none-the-less. It only proves that this is what I want to spend my life doing, Lord willing. We'll see how it goes. One day at a time.

Although I had some fun last weekend. 7 of us from Raleigh went to visit our good ol' friend, Mike, in Concord for the weekend. We had good times. We ate some delicious enchiladas upon our arrival, went and frolicked around Carowinds for a day, crashed after being super tired, went crazy when Baird and Aaron visited for a few hours, went to a huge church, took a million pictures, hung around the pool, and drove home. Mmm, it was a lovely weekend, indeed.

I also got to hang out with my dear friend Laina this week. We went to Paint Your Own and painted things. I painted something for the room and Laina helped the girls she babysits. It's always wonderful to catch up with her. We go all the way back to 8th grade and still manage to find time to get together every now and then.

Did I mention the fact that I have the greatest friends on the universe? Well, I do.

I cannot believe I only have two weeks before I move back to Greenville! I'm pumped about our new place and my amazing roommates and my 15 or so other friends who are all practically my neighbors! It's going to be a fun year. I hate how I'm cramming everything and everyone in before that time, but I guess that's just how it ended up working. I think that's part of Satan's tactic, keeping us so busy that we loose sight of Christ. He's really good at that, too. How often do we sit down from our crazy lives and just stop and think with no distractions? Not often enough. I'm so busy I haven't made time to sit down in the Word consistently by any means. For instance today, I opened at Starbucks, did 5 hours of PT observation, went to the mall, and basically crashed until I realized wow, it's 10pm...I've been sleeping all afternoon. I'm still so filled from the blessings I saw at camp that my faith is no where near lost, it's just often shoved to the back of my mind. I think I need to work on that.

I'm ready for a fresh start of the semester. Not the school part so much, but at least this is the point where it gets interesting--lots of classes I will enjoy, the fellowship of FCA, ultimate frisbee at the bottom of the hill, mornings of coffee and a bible study with the roomies, getting to hang out with my wonderful Young Life girls and my fabulous fellow leaders, and all sorts of fun weekends and trips. It's gonna be a good one...I can't wait!

:)