I have been insanely busy the past few days with finals and all free time was reserved for sleeping so blogging hasn't been high on my list of priorities, but here is my sad attempt to make up for lost time.
December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)
Alright, now if you know me you know that nothing brings a smile to my face quite like dancing, and its an added bonus if I can make people laugh while i'm dancing. With this knowledge in mind i bring you my party of the year. One of the first weekend of October i went on a fall retreat with CRU(the ministry i'm involved with on campus) and on the last night we had a big barn dance in the open pavilion. Now this being our first time at CRU fall retreat katherine anne and i didn't quite know what to expect so we dressed according to our first instinct(exactly how FSM's barn bash had trained us), so while all the other girls are curling their hair, putting on dresses, and retouching their makeup katherine anne and i are slidding into our overalls and flannels(the same overalls that i've had since a mission trip in the 9th grade...5 years.). Needless to say we looked absolutely ridiculous and out of place. We spent the first 20 minutes moping and looking like lonely, homely wall flowers, then the partner dancing ceased and we decided to suck it up and take advantage of the opportunity to have fun. For the next 3 hours katherine anne and i danced like maniacs, tearing up the dance floors and acquiring many confused stares and joyful laughs along the way. Once again if you know i am not scared or intimidated by many people and am definitely not worried about having a few people stare as i proceed to have fun...and in this case i had the most fun EVER. Definitely the best dance party of 2010, and there were many more before and after that, but trust me, this one went above and beyond.
Now for reverb #2!
December 10 – Wisdom Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?
Goodness this is a tough one, well lets start by saying that at 19 i'm not always the wisest human being, but i'm also not an idiot, the biggest thing that comes to mind though is derived from the biggest event in my life over the past year, this would be my decision to transfer colleges. I started my freshman year of college at John Brown University, in Siloam. It was the school that i had been dreaming about attending since i was 9, it was where i had wanted to be for years and years, it was a legacy(my older sister went there) and finally i was my turn. My contentment in the school flip-flopped over the next 7 months, i could never figure out if i loved it or hated it, i was unhappy with the education program and didn't know if i could handle 3 more years. I was disappointed with the spiritual atmosphere and didn't feel like i was being challenged in my faith, and the three times that i did feel challenged it only pushed me closer to deciding to transfer. Every message that touched my heart just made me want to spread the gospel and love the lost, not sit in my JBU bubble and be complacent. Then came the final straw, basically i interviewed for and got an R.A. position in my dear, sweet dorm, only to find out that the compensation didn't cover nearly as much of room and board as we had hoped, plus John Brown's tuition was steadily rising. This brought me to a difficult decision, is this school worth the money that i'm paying for it? In twenty years, when i'm still paying off loans, will i be able to honestly say that it was worth it? or will i be disabling myself to do the Lord's work by tying all this debt around my ankles. After much prayer, many conversations, and about a billion tears i decided that i just couldn't do it, i couldn't put my parents into more debt, i couldn't put myself into more debt, and i especially couldn't do that to my future family. So, in the end i transfered to the university of arkansas and i absolutely love it. it was so clearly God's plan to give me what i thought i wanted(JBU) and then show me that what was really right for me was the last place i wanted to go(UofA). It was the wisest decision because it stemmed from trusting God, trusting that maybe i could start over, that maybe somewhere unexpected was the perfectly right place to be. It is such a blessing, for so many reasons that I won't go into, but God is faithful, my ministry is so much more fruitful now that I am in fayetteville closer to the things closest to my heart. It is so good. God is so good.
-aBBie.
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