look in your heart and you’ll find

Fall break is over and now the entire campus is back to work. As I said in my last post I spent my Fall break on a service trip at Youth Development Inc., a youth camp and retreat center, in Headwaters, Virginia. My experiences there were some of the best experiences I had ever had. The trip was absolutely amazing! I went with five other Messiah students on this trip. Before leaving none of us knew each other, but by the end of the trip it was as if we had known each other forever. The group of us also immediately became close to the YDI staff as well.

After leaving Messiah around 12:45 on Thursday, we arrived at YDI around 5:00. The trip there was about 4 hours consisting of I-81 and then winding mountainous back roads until we arrived at Cow Pasture Road and the Headwaters Lodge. That night they allowed time for us to just explore the lodge and relax before being put to work. The group of us then went for a hike and then on a 4-wheel drive excursion to the top of a mountain that overlooked the Alleghenies. The view from the top of the mountain was astounding. It was amazing to look out over the tree covered hills colored with fall and realize how great our God is and how amazing his creation truly is. Then we traveled back down to the lodge for dinner, ping pong, and Apples to Apples.

Friday, we woke up had breakfast a time of devotionals and went to work. Our group was split up with the YDI staff and went outside to either stain two bunk houses or clear brush. I went up with two YDI staff members and three others from our Messiah group to stain the bunk houses. After a few set backs with the stain, we were able to completely stain both houses before lunch. Once lunch was cleaned up and all of the kitchen work was done, we went back outside to finish clearing up the brush. Despite the threat of rain, we were also able to finish with the brush before getting rained on; however, we then decided to go play volleyball in the field where it immediately started raining and then pouring. We were able to get a good game played in the pouring rain.

That night a youth group came for their fall retreat. The rest of the weekend was dedicated to helping with their retreat. We went to devotionals every morning and evening. We played games with them. We served them their meals and helped in the kitchen and dishroom. During the day on Saturday, we also we able to participate in many of the activities with them including a rock wall, the high ropes course and zip line, building a house out of index cards, and a whipped cream drop.

On  Sunday we had to leave and come back to school.  We didn’t leave before going to church with a large group of the YDI staff though. After church, we continued our way through four states back to Messiah. It was so hard to come back. After a weekend of no cell service, laptops, etc. etc., I was really reluctant to come back to the real world. It was surprisingly refreshing to escape the pressures of the world and run into the woods. It was also especially hard to walk away from the five amazing people that I had become so close to. Spending four straight days with them it was hard to realize that I wasn’t likely to see them everyday from now on. I know that we will remain friends and get together every once in a while, but its just not the same as the close knit family we had become over our time at YDI. Now that I am back at Messiah and have a couple of days back over with, I am almost reaquainted to the world I left behind last week. I will never forget my weekend though and will probably always have a small part of me that wants to go back to last weekend and escape back into Virginia and the woods.

In strict contrast to my last post, it is a beautiful fall day at Messiah today. After having a very rainy and cold homecoming weekend, the past few days have been sunny and warm. It is nice to have one last little bit of warmth before the cold of winter (no matter how much I LOVE winter). The whole atmosphere is just sunny and cheerful today, and I’m sure that it has everything to do with the fact that today is the last day of classes before fall break. Once classes are over today students will all be leaving campus to go home or visit friends. After almost two months of classes, everyone is ready for a break including the professors.

This year I have decided to go on a service trip over my break. Tomorrow around noon, I will be leaving campus with five other students and heading down to Headwaters, Virginia to a youth camp. Even though we do not know exactly what we will be doing there, the thought is that we will be helping with a lot of the overall camp maintance and joining campers in activities over their weekend retreat. Last night, our group had a small get together in order to get comfortable with each other before traveling four hours in a van together and then spending four straight days together. Even in the small amount of time that we spent together, it looked like it is a great group and that we are going to have a great trip. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for our trip. I will am sure I will have a lot to blog about it when I get back to Messiah.

I am writing to you from a cold and rainy Messiah. This weekend is homecoming and the weather isn’t looking to get any better. It is really upsetting that such a big weekend at our campus is going to clouded over by gross weather. Homecoming is big at any school any year, but this year is Messiah’s Centennial homecoming making this weekend even bigger. There are so many events planned, it is crazy.With all  of the reunions, dinners, arts performances, athletic events, etc. etc. planned the list is almost never ending and the campus is sure to be buzzing all weekend long.

I am planning on helping out with Lil’ Falcon Zone again tomorrow which is a carnival that the Alumni Association holds for children (especially Alumnus’s kids) that come to visit Messiah for the weekend. I helped out with this event last year too and it was a bunch of fun. It is always fun working with kids and I’m sure a number of the kids at the carnival are visiting Messiah and seeing it as an exciting “vacation” of sorts making it even more exciting for them. Thank goodness that they have moved the event to inside instead of in Starry parking lot because of the weather. Even though I’m sure it would still be fun no matter where it was help, it will definitely be a much more enjoyable experience now that it will be held inside Hitcock away from the rain and cold.

I’m excited to see what all the weekend holds. Being home last weekend for IUP’s homecoming was filled with excitement for the most part, I just hope that Messiah’s is even better (and my now fixed car will not brake down again when I go to bring it back to campus).

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!

It is finally Friday. The complete motivation for getting self out of bed this morning was the thought that, “Tomorrow I can sleep in.” It seems to be as if this week has lasted forever. With the work load of classes picking up and the dreary weather we have had the past couple days, exhaustion has seemed to be the major theme across campus. While talking to people in all of my classes, I continuously received the answer, “Good, but tired,” to my question of “How are you?”

No matter where we are, what we are doing, or how busy we seem to be with work, it becomes extremely important to take the time to relax, even if just for a minute. Take a moment to recollect your thoughts and then start again. It was especially refreshing to be able to have Powerhouse last night and take that time to recollect myself. Whoever first planned Powerhouse to be Thursday had a great idea. At that point in the week everyone is just waiting for Friday to come. During Powerhouse though, I tend to forget what else is going on im my life and could care less what day it is or how much longer until the week is over. This was especially true last night when I focused on having my thoughts rooted entirely in God and not about the world around me. I can contribute this all to my friend, Adam, and his newest blog entry (http://acousticworship.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-is-at-stake.html) that I just happened to read last night before leaving my dorm to go to Powerhouse. Taking his words to heart, I made my whole focus be about creating a solid foundation in my faith before actually stepping into Powerhouse and worshipping. Throughout the hour of worship, I continued focusing solely on God and there was a huge difference in my overall Powerhouse experience last night. So despite the weary/drearyness of campus today, I have been refreshed enough to make it through today…and tomorrow I will be able to sleep in!

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.

Last night was a wonderful night of singing. It all started with karaoke night in Lottie, which is arguably the best night in Lottie. I would say even better than the holiday dinners. What other night can you spend three hours in Lottie? Anyway it was a fun time. No matter whether the acts are good or bad they are typically always entertaining. My friend, Sarah, got up and did her own rendition of Autobiography by Ashlee Simpson, which she got very very into. I would expect nothing less from her which is why I love her. haha. The real surprise of the night though was that I actually got up and sang. Even though I love singing and have been in choirs basically since fifth grade, I hate singing by myself in front of people. I absolutely hate it. Last night however I made the mistake of agreeing to singing with my friend Jezrell on the stipulation that I knew the song since his partner left. On making this deal I thought 1. I wouldn’t be held to my word, 2. I wouldn’t know the song, or 3. we would be gone before he actually got called up. None of those things actually happened however, and I ended up having to sing Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable with him. Even though I hate singing in front of people I’m really glad I ended up doing so and breaking my almost fear last night. After that however the singing didn’t end. We all went straight from Lottie to Powerhouse. Last nights Powerhouse was one of the best Powerhouses this year. I really felt as if I was getting into a complete sense of worship. The last song we sang of the night, Salvation is Here, was really powerful as well. Leaving us all on a spiritual high.

Cause I know my God saved the day,
And I know His word never fails,
And I know my God made a way for me,
Salvation is here

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!!

I’m sorry to announce, but it is Monday. Getting out of bed this morning for an 8 o’clock was extremely difficult. I had a great weekend and I really just didn’t want it to end. It also didn’t help that I really just couldn’t sleep last night at all, for who knows what reason, but it happens.

My weekend all began Friday night with the first United Voices of Praise fellowship of the year. It was great to get together for dinner and Mad Gab. Choir has been my favorite thing about Messiah. Our group is mostly student run and based entirely on worship which is an amazing atmosphere compared to most other choirs I’ve been involved with. These fellowships allow us to get closer as a choir and actually get to know the people we sing with instead of just recognizing the face and nothing else. After that excitement, it was a really chill night watching Friends (by far my favorite tv show and I own the entire series on dvd so I’ll most likely talk about it alot) and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but you can never go wrong with that.

Saturday started with my very first trip to Baker’s Diner, which is apparently a big Messiah tradition I was told I had been missing out on. And to tell you the truth I had been missing out, it was delicious and a good price for a poor college student like we have all become. We had an absolutely adorable waitress and scrumptious french toast which is always a good thing. When we got back to school I took a nap (another college tradition haha) before going to watch the girls volleyball game against Penn State Altoona. That night was another chill one filled with The Pursuit of Happyness, Friends (both tv and personal), and a sheetz run.

Sunday was by far my productive day even beyond getting a fair amount of homework done. After church and the traditional Lottie lunch of Chicken Cordon Bleu,a few of us ran to Wal-mart and Target. During our trip we found Christmas lights, so my roommate Emily and I decided to finally make our dorm room a home after already living at Messiah for three weeks. Once we got back to school, we decided to rearrange our room in a much more homely way and put our lights up. Our rearrangement really worked and I actually love it. With all this excitement we did manage to fit in some homework which unfortunately had to be done but that was done inbetween a dinner at Cracker Barrel and rewarding ourselves with She’s the Man, providing a perfect ending to the weekend.