letters.

yesterday was the last day of school. i have zero complaints about that. yesterday was also the last day i had 28 precious girls living on my unit. they left, one by one. we've been together for 8 months, and it's hard for me to even picture in my head what is was like when each one moved in. but at the same time, i feel like they just moved in yesterday. 

at our first unit meeting, i asked them to each write a letter to themselves. i collected each letter and then gave them back to them when they checked out of their rooms yesterday. this was something that i had done my freshman year, so i wanted to pass it along to them. i never actually got my letter back (no i'm not bitter at all!) but i knew there would be something special for them about looking back on their first day of freshman year. 

i wanted to read them each so badly, but i resisted the temptation. when i was getting ready to give them back, i had to open them to find out who's letter was whose, so i did end up seeing a few words. most along the lines of, "you did it!" "be yourself!" "good job, you made it!" i was so overwhelming proud of each one of them. each one had her own battle to fight this semester, each one had struggles and successes, but each one made it through to the end. 

i started tearing up a little bit when i was checking some girls out of their room yesterday. it's such a strange feeling to watch over 26 freshman and then to let them go after 8 months. i will miss them. i think the tears were also a little bit from being reminded of this time my freshman year. i cried a lot of tears those last few days as i watched my best friend graduate, knowing she wouldn't be here the next year. and i was nervous about going to alaska for the summer, not really knowing what to expect. but, just like my sweet girls, i made it.

i always felt like i got the best group of girls. all of them were so sweet and adorable and precious. they bonded so quickly, something i'm thankful for. we, of course, had our issues, but i couldn't have asked for a better group of girls. 

i'll be packing up my room in a few days and closing the book on this year. i'm apparently going to be a senior next year. but first, i cannot wait to be in my house making smoothies all day long. oh summer, 4 months of you does sound good.

ko.

the end has come.

PTL.

i'm sitting in my second to last class for the semester. paying absolutely no attention because what we are talking about today won't be on the final. i hope. 

this is the most attractive photo i've ever taken. featuring mine and trisha's "we love the library faces."

i dislike school. it is the most non-enjoyable thing in the world to me so the minute i can be done paying attention, you can bet your bottom dollar that i am.

i have a growing list of things to blog about, but this week slipped through my fingers like sand. finals never worry me. they're are usually pretty easy. but the week before finals

b l o w s. 

i don't understand why every professor insists on having a giant project due on the last day of class. areyouevenkiddingme. i finished a 7 page paper yesterday. and a 13 page paper 15 minutes before it was due today. it was about the book of Jonah. i never want to hear about Jonah again. jonah, we are never ever ever getting back together. 

got a visit from these babes in the library last night. love these girls. especially paige. and emily. and really the rest of them but only paige and emily have blogs.

it is weird to be sitting in class on the last day feeling like your first day was yesterday. when i get a syllabus, after i find the section on how many times i'm allowed to skip class, i look at all the big projects and feel like they are so far away. but somehow they always come around. hate that. 

each balloon represents a final. when you finish the final you pop a balloon. i like to call it finals pop.

only a few things are standing in between me and christmas break:

1. psalms final
2. read and title all 150 psalms - oh, you mean i should have been working on this throughout the semester? whoops.
3. inductive bible study final
4. evangelism and global outreach final
5. local church education final
6. minority group relations final

then i'm done. for 3.5 weeks. PTL.

ko.

i take myself on dates.

i have what some would call a stressful job. stressful in the sense that i have three meetings a week. and i'm supposed to be building relationships with 30 girls. and i live at work. and i have friendships to maintain outside of the hall. and i'm taking 17 credit hours. and i'm involved in two ministries. and. and. and. i'm not complaining. there are good parts, too. i'm just saying it can be stressful sometimes. 

so i take myself on dates. sometimes its just going to walmart or hobby lobby by myself and getting the things i need as slowly. as. possible. other times it involves a 30 minute drive to kokomo to really indulge myself. kokomo holds all the things close to my heart: panera, chipotle, starbucks, and target. and they are basically in the same parking lot. ptl.

this is for my sanity really. being on campus all the time can be sort of exhausting. so the solution really is to just leave. i'm on a date with myself right now actually. first chipotle and now starbucks.

usually i get comfortable in my date place of choice. this often includes taking my shoes off and putting my feet up. i had sandals on (i know, i know. judge me.) so i'm not stinking up the place with smelly feet. i did forget to put deodorant on though, so there is a chance my armpits are stinking it up.  

i throughly enjoy going out to eat by myself now. i remember once freshman year when i wanted chipotle, a thirty minute drive away, and was scared to eat in public by myself. so i got it to go and ate it while i drove home. (sorry mom.) now i treasure eating out alone. and i have an iphone, so i can refresh instagram 49573279523 times to keep myself looking busy and cool.

i occasionally do homework on my dates, but mostly i waste several hours curtesy of free wifi.

if you have any solo date ideas for me, feel free to pass them on. 

holla.

ko.

blogger's block.

despite how out of my mind busy i have been the last few weeks, i don't really know what to blog about lately. school is good. i'm taking some hard classes and some really boring classes. 

RAing is stressfully busy. but good. i adore my residents. i hate calling them residents. i prefer to call them girls. because they are, you know, girls.

my unit is in a flag football league. we are having lots of fun and lots of losses. thats okay though. i never go into it expecting to win. just to have fun.

i am flying to california bright and early tomorrow for my cousin's wedding. i'm so excited. especially for in-n-out burger. just being honest. 

my best friend is coming to visit me in one week. i can think of zero words that express how excited i am. 

and now: a photo to illustrate how bored i get in class.

keep it classy 'murica.

ko.

3 days left.

reslife week has come and gone. it was out of control. so stinking busy.

my unit competed in lodgeball on wednesday and thursday. lodgeball is just like dodgeball, but the lodges sponsor it, so we call it lodgeball. clever, i know. 

our lodgeball team the first night.

we won our first game, got a by in our second game, and went down with a fight in our third game. i was surprised by how many girls wanted to play. and it was actually my first lodgeball experience since i didn't play freshman or sophomore year. i technically didn't play this year either. i hate dodgeball. i always get hit in the face.

team for the second night.

friday was the magical event known as taste of marion. it was unfortunately not as magical this year. there is a ton of free stuff and raffles. sometimes i feel rude just taking the free things and not staying to listen to the free things hander out person, but oh well. 

solid team pic from after our loss.

friday was also the all campus prayer walk. it was thunderstorming super bad that night so it got cut short. sad. but it was fun to watch the lightning.

our zebra boat.

my girls wanted to make a zebra boat. so we did.

we lost terribly. the boat tipped at the very beginning of the race and bethany ended up dragging it through the pond. funny

we were also going to participate in the pudding tug of war, but it was taking forever and we had a dance to practice. so we forfeited..

we got 2nd place in the shatford memorial gong show that evening. it was fun and nerve wracking. so very nerve wracking. you can see the video of that if you are friends with me on facebook. 

summit week started yesterday. my favorite week of the whole year. 

now it's dinner time. peace and love.

ko.

beautiful things.

holla. 

the freshman have all moved in. my head is spinning with all the things that need to be done in these next couple days. names to learn, pictures to hang, books to order, classes to find, classes to drop and add. so much to do. but it is good. my girls are good. they are precious and funny. 

i finally finished decorating my unit. so much work and time. i went to the library 3 times because i measured the hall wrong 3 times. so annoying. so worth it though. my theme is the song beautiful things by gungor. you can listen to the song here.

here are some pictures of the unit for my mommy and sandy. 

my sad, empty bulletin board.

my calendar. i stole this idea from another ra. 

i made my flowers out of white paper sacks and then spray painted them. at midnight. outside. so fun.

the lyrics go all the way down the wall. so does the grass. 

not really sure what i'm going to put here yet.

this section reminds me of dr. suess.

get it? You make beautiful things out of us. us being the people in the unit whose photos will go on the clothespins.

shout out to my former llama life for our laundry tags.

 happy almost labor day!

ko.

my first taste of reslife.

holy. cow.

i have been at school for a week and a half, and i feel like i have been here for months. school hasn't actually started yet. it doesn't start until september 3rd, but i have been in RA training everyday, so i am just as busy. training includes lots of feeling like you aren't actually learning anything. i mean, i did learn a few things like the student conduct process and the importance of knowing available resources on campus so we can refer our residents to them. but being the student handbook reader that i am, i already knew a lot of it. 

two of the days we had something called behind closed doors. all of the returning staff members say that it is the most important and useful part of training. i would say they were correct. basically the whole idea is that you go around with your staff and take turns pretending to be the RA. you are read a super vague prompt before you walk in and you have to handle the situation by yourself. the actors are returning staff members who actually know what they are doing. no. thats not intimidating at all.

they take everything to the extreme on purpose and it can be pretty awkward, chaotic, and emotional. some of them are minor things like confiscating candles, having them turn off R rated movies, or addressing decorating violations. and some of them are crazy like roommates screaming and throwing things at each other (good job paige and emily. you were so convincing.), people who are super depressed, and obnoxiously clingy residents. all things that could come up in my unit this year. yikes.

besides all of that exciting stuff, i had to call every single one of my residents. i have 30. 26 of them are freshman. that is a lot. i also have to do room inventories for all of the rooms on my unit, and decorate my entire hallway. it is a crazy amount of stuff to do. decorations were actually due on friday, but i changed my idea so many times that it still isn't done. almost my whole staff helped me out last night and we hot glued like crazy and danced to obnoxious songs. it was wonderful. 

i have a few girls who get here on wednesday and then the majority of them arrive on friday. it is going to be chaotic. i am a bit nervous. 

and now some photos.

first staff photo of the year.

cousin paige. so happy we are both on staffs.

finally reunited with the loves of my life.

i missed him.

hours and hours of flower making for my hall.

staff day away.

ivanhoes. please excuse my weird face. it's hard to take a 10 person selfie. 

peace and love yo.

ko.

happy awkward reslife day.

to be honest, today is one of my least favorite days of the school year. it is the day everyone who applied for a Resident Assistant or Community Coordinator job gets a letter in their mailbox telling them if they got hired or not. and it is awkward. the whole day is spent walking on egg shells because you want to know if your friends got hired, but it can also be awkward to ask in case they didn't get the position/hall they wanted, or if they didn't get hired at all.

last year i applied for RA and was given the alternate position, which is a fancy way of saying, "you don't have a job unless someone quits or gets fired." obviously, i was not happy at the time, so my great friend, paige, took me to mcdonald's for some shamrock shake therapy. paige did get offered a position and was excited, but she was really great about being sensitive to me. (ice cream helped.) looking back, i am 100% okay that i didn't get a position last year....

which only makes the fact that i did get one this year that much sweeter! i am so excited! i will be the RA in Reed hall on 2 west, which is the dorm that i wanted. i currently babysit for my new resident director (RD), shawna, and i already love her (and her kids), so that will be fantastic. and i know 3 of the other girls who got hired in reed, and they are great as well. i applied for both the CC position and the RA position, and honestly, i was hoping for the CC position. but, i am still really excited (and super nervous) about being an RA. it will be fantastic. the best part is that i will have freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors living in my hall, which is something i missed this year. it will be great. paige and i continued our shamrock shake tradition, but it was all celebratory this year since paige was offered her job again. it is fun to get off campus every now and then, and i love paige. so, it was just good.  

before all that happens i have to finish this year. which means i need to study for a test now. my prof already sung us a song about being crucified because his tests are so hard. yay. not. 

xoxo. (this is cheesy, but valentines day was two days ago, so i'm allowed to.)

ko.