look in your heart and you'll find

Two days ago I received my placement for my Junior Field Experience. I am going to be spending the rest of my Tuesday and Thursday mornings in a second grade classroom at Steele Elementary School in Harrisburg. I am super excited to be able to start my journey in the classroom. I will also be at the school with four other girls from Messiah allowing us to carpool. This morning three of us decided to traveled to the school in order to find it and be comfortable before our trip there on Tuesday. We began our journey to Harrisburg spending an hour trying to dig my car out of the snow. Even though I had dug my car out before, the melting and of the snow caused ice to gather under my tires and prevent it from leaving the spot. Even after the three of us tried for 45 minutes to get it out on our own using, a shovel, an ice scraper, “instant traction”, and our own muscles to push it, it still wouldn’t get itself out the spot. We finally decided to call dispatch. After a few phone calls and a disruption of a meeting, one guy came to our rescue. However after trying once again to shovel out my tires and push the car, he couldn’t get the car out either. He then decided to call in reinforcements which brought two more dispatch vehicles, three more guys, and some insta-melt. With the insta-melt and the muscles, my car came right out of its parking spot and we were finally able to get off…an hour later.

Once we got on the road our travels to the school went very smoothly. We were able to make it there, to starbucks and back without any more hitches. The rest of my day has gone well too. I had a good day at work and finally got my new Jason shirt in the mail! I’m sure the rest of my evening will go swimmingly well too and it all started with one of the craziest scenes ever this morning.

When I wrote my post last week, I had no idea what was yet to come with the sickness going around Messiah. While I have still been extremely fortunate to not get sick, the entire campus had seemed to fallen even further into sickness. My roommate got the flu at the end of last week and was sent home and has still not come back, even though she is feeling better. I went away this weekend as well but to visit family. Walking down my hall to go out to my car, I read everyone’s white boards as I left. All of them had something to do with sickness: “DO NOT ENTER IF YOU ARE SICK!” “I’m sick” “Staying in my room and away from sickness” etc. etc. There is apparently no one who has been able to escape.

Not to exhaust that sickness idea though (which does seem to be getting better now that the weekend is over), I am actually going to be talking about music, specifically Jason’s music. Today is the release date for Jason Mraz’s new CD, A Beautiful Mess – Live from Earth. Because of my slight obsession (I will admit it now), I pre-ordered the CD two months ago which meant that I got the CD last week. It is absolutely AMAZING! Now being to two of his concerts (one being the concert directly before he recorded his concert in Chicago for the CD), it still does not do his concerts justice. There is nothing better than seeing him live. As apposed to many artists today, Jason sounds a great deal better live than on a recording. This CD definitely shows that ability and his pure musical talent, however. His love for the world and the people in it is also clearly displayed from the CD. There is a lot than one can learn from him in order to better thier life and outlook. I have been listening to nothing but the CD for the past week. I have also watched the DVD about 5 times since then. It is just absolutely amazing. You just have to take my word for it and go out and buy it…today!

I’ll leave you with these words from Jason:

Sometimes the sun shines on other people’s houses and not mine,
And the clouds can paint the sky in a way that takes away my summer time,
And somehow the sun shines upon you while i struggle to get by
But there’s a light in everybody so send your ray of sunshine

As I sit here writing this post, I can not sit still and I cannot understand why. Today has been just one of those days where I have gone back and forth from being hyper and energetic to completely drained and then back to completely hyper. Sitting in my Bible class today, I could not sit still and was in the mood of laughing at almost everything (even those things that were not actually funny), which I’m sure was much to the chagrin of those around me. This action is currently continuing as I sit here in the office and I’m sure will continue as I go on to pick up things at the library and go back to my room to work on finishing my massive Children’s Literature paper that is due tomorrow.

Funnily, when I look back to a year ago today, I was in the exact same mood. On October 8th, 2008, I traveled up to Scranton in order to see Jason Mraz, and if any of you know me and my love of Jason you can assume I was pretty excited and needless to say…a little hyper. It is funny that a year later I am in the same exact mood, despite not going to see Jason tonight.
But despite my unexplainable craziness today, I do have things to be excited about…

1. The week is finally coming to an end. As I wrote in one of my past blogs, it has been a very busy past two weeks filled with papers, class presentations, tests, etc. etc. Even though the busyness of life will not end once I hand in my children’s literature paper tomorrow morning, it will be a definite relief to know that the past two weeks are over and all of the work that I had to do is completed.

2. Going along with school work…it is extremely exciting for me to say that I took the dreaded EDUC 301 Phonics test last night and feel pretty confident in how I did. Since I have done a number of my education classes a little out of order, I have always been in a class with junior elementary education majors in the fall and have heard their fears in taking this test, which is a two hour long, 120 question mid-term taken at night filled with a ton of information on phonics generalizations and early reading theories and practices. Knowing that I have never been able to understand phonics led me to have some worries about this test even two years before I would be having to take it myself. However, after all of the preparation that we did in class and then studying on my on for the test, I felt well prepared. So if you are an Education major awaiting this test…do not fear. You will be ready. But it is exciting to finally say, “I have survived the Phonics test!”
3. I am going home tomorrow for IUP homecoming. I have yet to be home since arriving on campus at the end of August and am not planning on going home again until Thanksgiving, so it will be nice to take a break and visit with family and friends. I love IUP homecoming too. Despite some of the cheesy things that we do, it is always fun to go watch the parade and  go to the football game. It is also just an exciting time in Indiana compared to the typical weekend in Indiana. Needless to say, I cannot wait.

So as I go off with the rest of my day…I am excited. There are lots of good things ahead of me and lots of worries behind me. Watch out world! Alyssa and her hyperness is about to leave the office!

Today is the first day of classes at Messiah College and I have successfully made it through two classes including square dance and Bible. It is so hard to believe that summer is already over and that all of campus is back and ready for fall semester. I’ve been here for only two days but it all just seems so normal and as if I have been here forever already. It is great to come back and meet up with friends again, go to chapel as one big community again, and just get reacquainted with the atmosphere of Messiah. So while I dreaded coming back and having to start class and be away from the comforts of home, now that I am here there are no problems. I am glad to be back and get back to my life at Messiah (despite still missing summer).

This summer was absolutely amazing! Looking back at everything that happened this summer I really just want to live it all again (don’t we all wish that at times haha). This summer was largely defined by work and friends. At home I work at a daycare and I absolutely love it! I also spent a lot of time helping out with children’s ministries at my church this summer. I taught the 2 and 3 year old Sunday School class and spent a majority of Sundays helping out with children’s worship during the two services as well. I miss my all of my little kids so much now that I am gone. Being with them is definitely affirming what I am being called to do, work with children. Everyone always says how you should love your job and I truly do. It is funny to me at times, that I am actually working and getting paid for what I am doing since I do love it soooooo much.

Since my friends and I are getting older it is getting harder and harder to get our entire friend group (there are 12 of us) together. There were so many of my friends traveling the world or taking summer classes at their campuses this summer that there were really only a few of us left. Those of us who did stay behind in Indiana had a great time together though. We saw so many movies, had a number of bonfires, went out to eat or get coffee numerous times, and we also went to a Jason Mraz concert (August 11th, Jump the Line passes leading to front center standing spots, the best day ever!) Altogether it was just a great summer! I miss everyone terribly now that summer is over. It was so hard to say bye to everyone especially being the last to leave, but being back at Messiah is always good too.

This has been a very eventful week. Not only has there been the business of classes and the end of the semester occuring, but there were a number of special events which have gone on as well.

Last Saturday was United Voices of Praise’s Concert of Praise. Some of my family as well as my best friend from high school and her friend from school all came for the concert. It was great to visit with them. It was especially nice to go out to eat and then have everyone from home meet everyone from school. Saturday was also such a gorgeous day in general. It became so hot in the church that we decided to just wear our t-shirts for the entirety of the concert instead of robes the first half and t-shirts the second. It was different, but it was definitely nice to not have to die of heat in our robes.

I also went to see Gavin Degraw with three friends this week. The concert was amazing! It is surprising the Gavin Degraw would come to Harrisburg and do a performance at the Whitaker Center, but I am definitely glad that he did. Up until this year I had only ever been to one concert, and in the past seven months I have been to three. It makes me laugh to think that all of the sudden I have taken up concert going basically out of no where. Even though Jason Mraz’s concert was by far my favorite, all three of them have been amazing. The four of us even had fun just hanging out before and after this past concert as well.

Yesterday was one of the busiest days as well as relaxing though in the past week. Yesterday was Service Day at Messiah (the day where there are no classes and all offices are closed in order for students, faculty, and employees to go out and do some sort of service project during the day). I participated in Special Olympics. I did the same thing last year and both years have proven themselves to be amazing experiences. Special Olympics is the biggest service project that Messiah participates in because it is one campus and a number of people are needed either to be a buddy to a participant or to run an event. The past two years, I have worked at the high jump and have moved the bar to up and down as well as reset it after it fell down. Now at first this job might not seem very important or completely as a great act of service and rightly so.  Granted it needs to be done and without it the process would just take even longer than it already does, but there is also so much to it. Just standing there and watching the participants as they jump over the bar is life changing. They are always so incredibly proud of themselves and you can tell how much fun they are having. It is amazing to see how much life and enthusiasm these kids have. Even the littlest thing that you can do in order to help someone and make their day a little brighter, can truly make your life a little brighter as well.

A number of things have gotten me to thinking about how each one of us chooses to live our lives. What do we do and why do we do it? Jason Mraz’s song Live High encourages us to “Live high, live mighty, live righteously takin it easy,” but how do we do that exactly. Growing up in the Christian faith, living this was is clearly defined for us in the Bible. We are called to love our neighbors and lend a helping hand to those who are in need of one. On the other hand, I know a number of people who spend thier lives working towards this goal who arn’t a part of the Christian faith at all. We all have an internal desire to do good. We can all accomplish this is different ways, but the ability and want is present deep inside of all of us.

In my Educational Psychology class this morning we discussed motivation and what perspective the Bible provides us with on the topic. We all must be very careful with our motivations behind living high. In Matthew 6 in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns about our motivations. If we are giving to the poor, praying or fasting in order for others to see that we are doing good, our motivation is in the wrong place. Instead of doing righteous things to be personal honored by men, we should be doing righteous things in order to honor God.

This idea reminds me of an episode of Friends, The One where Pheobe Hates PBS. In this episode Pheobe tries to prove to Joey that it is possible to do a selfless good deed, while Joey believes that there is some selfish motivation or outcome to each good deed that is done. By the end of the episode all of the good deeds Pheobe does prove to have some kind of positive outcome for her as well as those she did the good deed for. When I really think about this, it is inevitable that we are going to have other motivations behind our good deeds. For Christians, it may just be our need/want to do good in the world and follow God’s will and teachings. I see nothing wrong with that being our motivation. Who doesn’t want to do good deeds for others and practice living out Jesus’ teachings? The problem is created in our motivation as discussed in Matthew 6. As long as our motivation involves honoring God over honoring ourselves, we are able to do good while also feeling good, allowing us to “live high, live mighty, live righteously.”

The end of last week and the weekend were absolutely amazing. We had fall break at Messiah Thursday and Friday which was definitely needed. It was by far the best break ever as well.

It all started Wednesday night when Kelly and I headed up to Scranton to see Jason Mraz. As you can probably imagine if you read my last post, I was ecstatic! The concert blew my mind. It was just so good, beyond words. He is an amazing musician and that was definitely displayed at the concert. Even though we were five rows from the back, we even had great seats. I have absolutely no complaints about last Wednesday night. I was so excited throughout the whole thing I just couldn’t stop smiling or shaking.

The next morning I headed off to Penn State to visit Jessica, my best friend from home. This was the first time I had actually been able to visit her at school. It was really nice to see her again, see her in her school environment and meet all of her Penn State friends. (It was especially nice waking up Friday at 12:30 after Penn State had already been up and having classes for hours and I had no classes to worry about.) It was a great chill and catch up time. I really miss my friends from home even though I love my friends at Messiah. There is just something different between your home friends whom you have been friends with for what seems like forever that you don’t get with your new college friends.

After leaving Penn State since Jessica had to go with her choir to Mechanicsburg for the weekend (thank you irony), I went and visited my grandparents Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. As a child I always spent a great deal of time with my grandparents but as I got older the time I have spent with them has definitely dwindled. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with them again.

Its definitely sad that Fall break is over. All of the anticipation leading up to it is now gone and its really quite depressing. After having two days of classes though I’m starting to get back into the swing of things I guess. I just wish it could be last Wednesday and I was on my way to see Jason Mraz all over again.

Right now I am definitely high on life. The past month I have been happier than I have been almost ever. It’s really not like anything monumental or noteworthy has happened. Actually when I give my reasons for being ecstatic about life people usually look at me like I’m crazy, but I can’t help it. I’m simply happy.

I believe the main reason for my current euphoria comes from the fact that about a month ago I bought tickets to a Jason Mraz concert. In five days, my friend Kelly and I will be heading up to Scranton and beginning our fall break with this concert and I can’t wait! Just to let you know I really am not obsessed with Jason Mraz just really really excited. Up until this point I have been to one concert. Sadly enough this was a Backstreet Boys concert, and even though I loved it at the time I think that needs to be fixed. Jason Mraz has been my favorite artist for about four years, and his live performances are insanely better than his actual recording studio CDs (as opposed to the other way around for most singers). So really it does make sense that I should be so excited. Every time I think about how I am going to this concert excitement just takes over. I become so excited and so insanely hyper that most of the time can’t sleep either. Just ask my friends. I’m sure they can all attest to this, and I’m sure they are all ready to kill me since it has been basically a month of this. I just really can’t wait!! Five more days and I will finally be there which I really can’t imagine how I’m going to be when I actually get there. *And to be honest while I write this entry I’m listening to his new cd on my ipod (I’m really not obsessed though, trust me)*

Last night another simple pleasure in life really excited me, restaurant night in Lottie. Now this sounds even worse than the concert but it was amazing. Now for mass produced college food Lottie is pretty good, don’t get me wrong, it just gets old week after week, which is to be expected. About once or twice a semester though Lottie has restaurant night. On this night a restaurant from around Messiah brings in their food for us to have for dinner. Last night we had Panera Bread and desserts from the Pennsylvania bakery. It was so fantasically delicious. *Panera Bread ceaser salad, sandwiches, and soup followed by a roll, cake, and brownies from the bakery = Unbelievable excitement* And once again after eating such a delicious meal and thinking about the fact that Jason Mraz was less than a week away my excitement was endless.

Finally I am so excited to be going home this weekend. I’m from Indiana, Pennsylvania which basically equals IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania), a major party school. This weekend is homecomming which is a huge deal in my town. My church every year holds midnight mission which is where we hand out hot dogs to the “less than sober” kids that are walking downtown and on frat row on Saturday night. Last year was the first year I helped out and I had a blast. I can not wait to do it again tomorrow night. Tomorrow in general is going to be filled will traditional activies of homecomming parade, football game, getting together with my townie friends, and finally midnight mission. Again I can’t wait!!

My life right now is just so high up there I can’t even reach it. I am really enjoying this Euphoria I am experiencing. My life is just amazing and I can’t explain it. I have a smile that cannot be wiped off of my face and I am LOVING IT!!