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.

I absolutely love snow. I mean I love it. It is one of my favorite things ever! Ask anyone around me and they will tell you how much I absolutely love it. I really believe that if it snowed all year long I would be one happy person. That has made this past week amazing for me.
Over the past week Messiah has gotten somewhere around three feet of snow in total. It is the blizzard of 2010. After getting a great deal of snow last Friday into Saturday, the snow began again Tuesday night and didn’t let up until last night again. This has lead to the past two days becoming Messiah snow days! Since coming to Messiah two and a half years ago, I have experienced only one two hour delay. It was a very pleasant surprise to wake up yesterday to find that classes at been canceled and then learning that they would once again be canceled today. Being snowed into campus these days has allowed me to take advantage of the snow as well as take advantage of the time for relaxation. Even though I haven’t participated in the Messiah tradition of sledding down Cemetery hill this year, I have been able to get out and have my fair share of fun in the snow. Even walking around and seeing the absolute beauty of everything covered in white is amazing. There is nothing in this world that can compare to the overwhelming excitement and joy I get from seeing a fresh layer of white snow on the ground. It is absolutely stunning. Having the snowflakes shimmer in the sun and cover up all of the half dying grass and mud is amazing. I have been so excited to see the world in such beauty these past few days. Even though I know it will eventually melt away, looking out the window and seeing its beauty now is worth it all.

It is now fall and October. In some ways, it is crazy to think that the first month of school is already done. In others, its hard to believe that we still have two months until finals. This month is going to be a busy one. As we fall into the month of changing leaves, pumpkins, Halloween, etc. etc., I see so many things that are coming up on my calendar. Not only do I have a ton of school work to do this month, but there are a ton of events going on as well. Next weekend I am going home for IUP homecoming. The following weekend is Messiah’s homecoming. The week after that brings fall break. We then finally come to Halloween and November. With everything that I have in front of me, I hope the busyness helps the month to go by quickly. Again, a paradox occurs though. While wanting everything to go quickly because of excitement and anticipation, I won’t want individual events to go by quickly. For example, I can’t wait to go home and see everyone again, but when I do I also know that I will not want to come back to Messiah only two days after leaving. I’m sure the same will be true for fall break. Even though I have decided to do a service trip this year instead of going home or visiting friends, I’m sure it will be such a great exerience that I wont want it to end either. Looking outside at the falling leaves, getting to watch football on tv, and hear stories from home about my 12-year-old brother’s successes in his first year of football excites me to no end, but I also just can’t wait to see snow and make it to the end of the month where everything will be crossed off of my calendar.

This morning I woke up and not only was it snowing but the snow was actually sticking!!! I absolutely LOVE snow! It makes me so happy. It could snow in July and I would most likely still be happy. So you can only imagine how happy I was this morning when I woke up to see snow outside my window. Apparently it had snowed Sunday slightly for the first time at Messiah, but I was in Delaware for the weekend and missed it. I also missed the first snow back home. It has snowed pretty consistently this week back home as well, which I have been reminded of numerous times by friends who know how much I love snow and how I didn’t have any at Messiah. Tuesday it snowed for a minute but it stopped as soon as it had started. To say the least, missing all of this snow was very upsetting. Today has made it all better though. I’m sure back home there is more snow than here, but we actually have snow on the ground and the trees (which is even prettier), so I am extremely happy!!