look in your heart and you'll find

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

Messiah has come fallen into society’s latest trend…sickness. While this is probably one of the worst trends to follow, I feel as if it was inevitable. With all of the different flus and colds going around campus, everyone seems to be down with something or just getting over something. I find it surprising actually that this seems to be the first year that Messiah has really caught on to this trend. With just over 2,800 students on campus living together in a tight community, it would make sense that sickness would go around quickly and frequently. Looking back to exactly a year ago, I was actually too sick to get out of bed. At the same time though, the entire campus didn’t seem to be joining me in my sickness like people experiencing sickness this year seem to be.

In both my major and in gospel choir, people seem to be jumping on the band wagon left and right. With our first service for UVP on Sunday morning, a number of people were unable to show up because of being ill. A number of people in choir have gotten sick since then. Rehearsal on Monday seemed especially empty. The education major is definitely feeling the strain of sickness as well. With the workload of the semester really starting to pick up I can’t even imagine all of the work that is piling up behind them, which always seems to be the worst part about being sick: once you get over the actual sickness you feel worse coming back because of everything you have to do to catch up.

I am especially greatful for my ability to get out of bed and go to classes this year though. While I too have gotten sick, I luckily have just gotten a running nose and slight sore throat which is already gone. I pray that I continue to stay healthy and those around me do the same or get healthy!

So this week was the beginning of the actual spring semester. While most semesters the first week is relatively low stress and very easy this semester seems different already. Not that I am already feeling in over my head or completely stressed about what lies in front of me the next 12 weeks but it just feels as if I have already been in this semester for a few weeks. For me this semester is full of gen eds and prescriptive classes for education which are not specifically education classes. This means I have a majority of classes which I’m not exactly interested in. Even though I am taking child development and geography which I find somewhat interesting it does still not seem like enough to propel me through the semester. So I guess I truly am feeling stressed about what lies in front of me these next 12 weeks. Even if not for the actual work load, the amount of time that I must put into classes without a great deal of excitement or interest in my work.

This week has also been tough since my entire friend group has been sick. I have been blessed so far as to not get their sickness *knock on wood* but it has definitely been draining just seeing them all so miserable. My roommate, Danielle, has been dying for days and it just seems to keep getting worse. Jocelyn’s birthday was Wednesday and that was the day that she was the most sick. Sarah is over her sickness now but the weekend/ the beginning of the week she felt awful. I hate being sick so it was good that I grew up with a pretty strong immune system. This was especially helpful since I grew up in a family where you had to be actually dying in order to miss school and when you did miss school you had to be bed ridden. I still hate being sick or even seeing people sick. The atmosphere the past few days has just been absolutely depressing.

Not to completely complain and fall into the completely depressing this past weekend was amazing and the one coming up should hopefully be too. Last weekend was j-term break so we all went up to New York to visit Sarah and Danielle’s families and spend a day in the city. It was a great time and a nice break from actual school work. Even though this was the beginning of everyone’s sickness we were able to hang out and have a great relaxing time. This weekend should be just as exciting as well since we are planning on a few visitors as well as going to see my best friend from High school, Jessica, perform in Harrisburg with her choir, PSU Essense of Joy.

I spent the past two days stuck in bed. I usually am never sick especially not so sick that I can’t even attempt to go about my day to day activities. I always grew up being taught that you had to be dying to miss anything, so I never did. Because of that the past few days have been tough. Not that I was dying by any means though. Being sick the past two days has not been fun but today has felt worse. The first day back from being sick always seems awful. Not only do you feel incredibly behind on everything, but you are still not feeling up to par. After not being able to get out of bed Tuesday or Wednesday morning (despite trying numerous times both days), actually getting up this morning was a nice refreshing feeling. I had definitely made progress. However, that progress led me to a mid-term. To be honest I was anything but prepared for it, so I’m sure I completely bombed it. Eating is still extremely difficult as well. Despite the fact that I’m starving, just the thought of any actual food outside of saltines and toast makes me nauseous. Even though I am definitely glad to be up and moving again, part of me wishes I was still stuck in my bed.