look in your heart and you'll find

It’s getting closer…2 more days

aw1321 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:58:25 +0000

This week is that last week before spring break. I am super excited for spring break this year not only because I will be able to get a break from classes and hopefully have time to relax at home, but also because United Voices of Praise will be traveling to Canada. We will be leaving Thursday afternoon and missing classes on Friday in order to go into a Christian school in Niagara. I can not wait to leave. It is sure to be an amazing time. Last year our group traveled to Ohio and had a blast. Through the three days we spent together on the bus and singing with each other, we were able to become so much closer as a group. After tour it was amazing to see all of the positive changes to the choir. This year we will be gone from Thursday to Monday and in a foreign country, so I can’t even imagine how much better it is going to be from last year. After all of the planning that I have put into the trip, I am slightly worried about how it will inevitably turn out in the end, but I believe that it will be wonderful and that great things are going to happen to us and through us! In the next entry I write I am sure that I will have great things to say, and I will be thrilled to write about what has happened. I have to get through the rest of this week though with a few projects and tests still to come though before I can officially head out. It is sure to be an amazing time though and I can not wait to see all that is going to come my way.

That’s all ok…

aw1321 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:07:18 +0000

Things have been picking up now that we are getting to the half way point in the semester. Like I said at the end of last week, the amount of things going on in my life has been stressful. I feel as if I have so much reading, work, and studying to do, but at the same time I am unable to do a great deal of it yet. For the past week, I feel as if my brain has been thinking and working non-stop. Saturday early afternoon I hit a breaking point worrying about all of the work I had to do before Monday and then hearing about the Earthquake in Chile. A week ago two of my really good friends from Messiah left to do a semester abroad in Chile. Without knowing where the earthquake had occured my brain instantly thought of the worst and I freaked out. Having just spoken to the one the night before (only one hour before the earthquake hit), I couldn’t imagine that being me last interaction with them. With that said it was definitely not my last interaction with them and they are fine, but all my worrying about my own stresses escalated my worries about them. I finally was able to sign on to facebook and see that they were safe and even though I was shaken up I was able to move on to my project and later my loads of other work.

As this week has progressed, the stress has stayed, but so far no more breakdowns, and I hope there will be no more to come. Despite the busyness of this junior year, taking it one day at a time needs to become my way to deal with what is thrown my way. While this weekend is going to be yet another weekend of non-stop thinking, I know I don’t have to worry. I’ll get through it just like I did last weekend. While a breakdown might come every once in awhile and the worries of life might become too great, there really is no need to worry. You will make it through from day to day. If everything on your list doesn’t get done or if you don’t succeed in every task, that’s ok. None of us are able to be 100% perfect 100% of the time, and that’s all ok.

Little Smiles Can Bring Bigger Ones :)

aw1321 — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:11:16 +0000

This week was my first week in my Junior Field Experience placement, and I am loving it! It has definitely been a new experience being in a second grade urban classroom, but I am soaking up and enjoying every minute of it. Tuesday was my first day and while taking in all the new faces, sights, and sounds was overwhelming, it was nice to finally be back in school and be able to work with students again. Even though a lot of first days are typically spent observing, I was able to get in the classroom, have interactions with the students, and help them, even in the smallest ways. Despite my mixed reactions leaving that day, I was still extremely excited to have the school, students, and supervising teacher that I do.

Being there this Tuesday and than going back today was even more exciting. The class was really excited to see me back and all gave me the biggest smiles when they saw me walk down to the cafeteria with thier teacher. Throughout the day I was given numerous opportunities to work with the students and get to know a little more about them. Even though I havn’t started any “planned teaching” or lessons, I feel as though I really am becoming part of the classroom and beginning to get experience through even the small things I am doing with the students.

The past few days I have been stressed with the amount of work I have to do and the amount of time I have to do it in, but going to school today made it all a little better. The students didn’t care if I had homework to do, they were just excited to have me there. Being able to give them that and spent that time with them was very refreshing. Even though being with students all day can be draining, there are still times when their smiling faces can take away any frustration and make the world seem a little brighter.

Call dispatch!

aw1321 — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:43:52 +0000

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.

Messiah Snow Days

aw1321 — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:33:17 +0000

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’s all new again…

aw1321 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:11:47 +0000

I feel as if the past week has actually spanned over a number of weeks instead of just one. Last Thursday at this time I was home in Indiana with my friend Jocelyn showing her around my little Western Pennsylvanian town. Over her trip home with me for j-term break, we visited a number of my friends from home, toured Indiana, traveled to Pittsburgh in the freezing cold, and celebrated my Mom’s birthday. It was so nice to be able to show Jocelyn a little bit of my life at home and have a break from Messiah before starting up classes on Monday.

This week has presented itself with a number of new challenges/experiences. Monday was our first day of classes. Being a junior Education major this semester’s classes was completly blocked out for me with education classes and involves me going into the classroom two mornings a week. After not having any classes since the middle of December, it was really difficult getting out of bed on Monday and starting to get back into the swing of things. Now that a couple days have gone by it seems to be getting better, but thinking about actually having class still seems like slightly a foreign concept to me. While being at school without classes was such a nice experience, the experience of getting back to school and actually having classes is a little rough. I feel as though this will be an enjoyable semester though. While it may present itself with some new and exciting challenges, I am ready for them. I am ready to make the most of my time here at Messiah and get ready to be thrown into a classroom. Bring on Spring Semester!

Phantastic Philly

aw1321 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:18:54 +0000

As predicted last friday…this past weekend was full of excitement. Our trip to Philly was filled with siteseeing and great times with friends. Once arriving at the Philly campus Friday night we got settled in and visited with Amber for a bit before leaving the room and exploring the campus. We got the tour of Messiah College Philly and then walked around Temple for a little bit too. Arriving back at Amber’s room we did a little bit more catching up before getting some sleep before our big day of siteseeing on Saturday.

We woke up Saturday ready for our day of touring the city. After grabbing a quick breakfast at the “caf”, we started our journey on the subway heading towards Independence hall. There we went to Fox 29 where Amber interns, Benjamin Franklin’s house, a few shops, the liberty bell, and Independence hall. We then set off to Naked Chocolate. This chocolate shop was amazing. After walking a number of blocks we finally found it and enjoyed the most delicious and thick hot chocolate I have ever seen or eaten in my life…DELICIOUS!! It was absolutely amazing! We also finished this little spurt of eating by having lunch at the IHOP across the street where we had a ton of fun and a great waiter who helped us find our way since our personal Philly resident was clueless to where we were. At the point we made our way to City Hall and Love park where we were able to take tons and tons of pictures. We then made our way to the Art Museum in order to run up the steps before getting back on the subway and heading back to the Philly campus. We then enjoyed an evening of movies, more food, pool, and more exciting exploration of the Messiah campus.

Sunday, we got up for church and then heading straight for the subway to find some authentic Philly Cheesesteak. After a bit of confusion on where exactly we needed to go we ended up finding the corner where both Pat’s and Geno’s stand. We ended up going to Geno’s (don’t yell at me I’m from near Pittsburgh and don’t know which one is better…except Primanti Bros.) and it was absolutely delicious! After finishing another delicious meal we headed back to the subway and found our way to Philly campus one last time before heading off down the Turnpike and back to Grantham after a quick stop at the King of Prussia mall. Our trip to Philly was a great time. It was nice to get to visit Amber and experience a little bit of the city life she and all of the Philly students get to experience everyday.

Monotonous–>Excitement!

aw1321 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:19:28 +0000

This week has been pretty uneventful. While I have definitely been enjoying my time during J-term, my days of lounging and doing only little work have become monotonous and I am suprisingly ready to have some actual school work to do. Ever since finishing up my scholarship essays and trying but failing miserably at learning Germany, I have done little more than read and catch up with tv shows and some random spurts of working out and playing guitar. While I am in no way complaining about my weeks of freedom and relaxation, I think I’m going to be ready for classes in February. Hopefully I can just keep that enthusiasm up when February comes and I have work that needs to be done.
Despite my monotonous weekdays, I am super excited for this weekend. Three of us our taking a road trip to visit our friend who has been studying at the Philly campus this year. It will definitely be a fun time for all of us I’m sure. It will be nice to take a road trip together and get to visit Amber again. The weather isn’t supposed to be bad either, so hopefully that holds up and we can have a couple of great days in the city. Maybe on Monday I’ll have great tales about my adventures over the weekend to post. We will just have to wait and see what the weekend has in store.

J-term? What?

aw1321 — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:03:24 +0000

Today is Thursday. Despite that today feels like Friday and yesterday felt like Thursday, Today is Thursday. J-term is an interesting time at Messiah. It is always one of my favorite times though. This week is the longest week of J-term. The only five day week there is. We come back to Messiah on a Tuesday and have a three day week of classes. The next week (this week) is a five day week. The week after that is only four days long because of Martin Luther King Day on Monday. The last week ends with finals on Wednesday making it a three day week.

When I tell my friends back home about J-term, they are typically quite confused. “You only have one class?” (Yes) “You go to class for three hours?” (Yes) “What does J-term mean?” (January Term) etc. etc. I hear it every year even after I have explained it to them the year before. Despite the confusions that others may have, I actually love J-term. It has helped that in my three years here at Messiah my J-terms have been very easy. Freshman year I took problem solving with computers, which I would recommend that anyone needing to take that class take it during J-term. Last year I took creative expressions, which was one of my favorite classes so far at Messiah. This year I don’t have a class and have been filling my time with working out, office work, reading, scholarship essays and simply hanging out with friends. This has been yet another great J-term for me. I can’t wait for the rest of j-term to play out.

Starting off again

aw1321 — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:57:48 +0000

I arrived on campus yesterday afternoon around 4:30 after being away for almost three weeks. While break went by super fast, I found myself surprised that I felt as if it was time to come back. Being at Messiah I have gotten used to being the first one to go back to school after Christmas and the last one to get back before. While all of my friends are still at home enjoying the Indiana snow, I am at Messiah, where snow is almost non existent. I absolutely love snow so having the snow stop falling during my travels across the state yesterday was upsetting. At home it had been snowing non-stop for three days and there were very few breaks in the snow the entire time I was home, allowing for a gorgeous white Christmas and some good times sledding.

Students are all back at Messiah going through their first day of J-term classes today. I, however, am not taking a class, but am spending my time at work and hopefully writing scholarship essays and working on being productive without any real deadlines and pressures upon me. I am hoping that this month becomes one that is extremely relaxing but allows me to be super productive at the same time. Even though I am jealous of my friends back home who still have a week or two to go until they have to be back at school and working, I am good with being at Messiah and working towards accomplishing some goals to start this new year of 2010. In three weeks, it will be break again and I will back back home and I can’t wait to see everyone in Indiana again, but until then I will be at Messiah enjoying my time.