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| I'm not used to putting talks or bl[a]gging or just quality time with people on hold for more than a day. And now that it's finally less than 24 hours away before the end of my crazy loaded week, it's harder than ever to resist. What a new discipline. =/ | | |
| WORD CHALLENGE:
1) don't complain or grumble.
2) don't boast about anything at all.
3) don't gossip or repeat bad information about anyone else.
4) do not run somebody down even a little bit.
5) do not defend or excuse yourself.
6) affirm other people.
(goodbye absolutes? :P)
just listened to ben stuart's podcast from two weeks ago. even though the point of his message for sure wasn't to "watch our tongues" but rather to watch our hearts - "for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks" (luke 6:45) - i thought this would be a fun challenge for the week. and yes, i'll try to stay focused on the heart of it and not the actual challenge, so that maybe, just maybe, it will be possible haha. :P | | |
| College life has been quite an experience so far. I actually plan to get back to studying soon, so I'm not going to expand on it too much. I've really love it here a lot, though, and I'm so glad that God stopped me in my tracks when I was just rolling along my course on my own convinced that I'd go to UT with all the people I grew up with throughout my high school years. Everything that I've done here, the people I've met and talked to, the moments I've had on my own to just pray and reflect - all of it just seems to keep pointing back to God's graciousness, and I can't cease to be amazed by the wondrous ways in which he works and loves on us.
We watched The Incredibles tonight with AAIV. Throughout the movie, it kept running through my mind that I need to study still and that I shouldn't be watching, but it was just too entertaining to leave. After the movie, we had a discussion that I didn't know we were going to have, which was generally about how different characters and aspects of the movie can relate to us as believers, among other various topics. So I'm glad I went and didn't leave to do homework. :P We went to Bernie's for a little while afterwards, and Daniel and I had a pretty long talk just about different things from apologetics to family to memory verses to random other stuff, and it was really encouraging to reflect on all the ways God's glory has shone through in light of all that happened yesterday. He's revealed himself to me in the way he worked through the tough times I had with my family to draw us closer together and to bring me closer to him; he's revealed himself to me when he allowed me to experience first-hand him opening up someone's eyes to him and accepting him into his life; he's revealed himself to me by forgiving me for all the wretched things I've done and bringing me back to him once again. And for all these things I don't deserve, I can only stand in awe of our Awesome God who reigns over all the earth and everything in it.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
~ James 1:2-4
Anyway, it's getting late and I need to hit the books, so I'll write more when I can.
I'm praying hard for you both, as is my family and a good number of other people in College Station. There are a lot of people who love and are concerned about you two, so just hang in there and stay strong.
I'm trading my sorrow
I'm trading my shame
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord
I'm trading my sickness
I'm trading my pain
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord
And we say yes Lord, yes Lord, yes yes Lord
Yes Lord, yes Lord, yes yes Lord
Yes Lord, yes Lord, yes yes Lord, Amen
I'm pressed but not crushed persecuted not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I'm blessed beyond the curse for his promise will endure
And his joy's gonna be my strength
Though the sorrow may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
~ 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 | | |
| me: herro
george: hais
me: when do you has class?
george: um
wait
me: .____.
george: o___o
thanks for reminding me
i had class
me: LOL.
This past week has been insaneee. After all the driving and moving around, it still hasn't settled on me that I've finally gotten to CS for good.
Sunday, I left church and came home to finish packing some random last minute stuff. My family took FOREVER to leave the house, and we ended up going out to eat with Mark at Macaroni Grill around 2 or 3pm. We set off after that and got to Round Rock at around 7:30 and had dinner with my sister for her birthday.
My daddy sent me to Austin the next morning, where I met up with a bunch of people for lunch at Chipotle and just to hang out throughout the day. It was really cool seeing everyone there after all the awkward goodbyes (or lack thereof) the weekend before. :P We bombarded Steph's room and I introduced some Plano/Arlington people to each other, because they were both talking the previous night about how they hadn't broken out of their hometown groups yet. xP Afterwards, we all went to play Assassins and a failed game of Mafia after a brief detour for snow cones hahah. We went to Timmy/Marvin's room to chill for a while afterwards and a bunch of people left to go kayaking, so Cathy, Wendy, and just meandered over to JCL and then to Cathy's room, which is insanely pink. Fangy totally decked out her whole side with Hello Kitty bedding, calendars, closet curtains, mirror stickers (which were really cute :D), soap dispensers, cups, mats... actually I'm not sure about the mat, but it was pretty intense. xD
When Timmy got back and Cathy had to leave for her wing meeting, Timmy, Wendy, and I met up with Elf to play.. a game. xP
Timmy/Wendy/me: omg my hand feels tinyyy... we need more than 3 decks!
Elf: NO! I'm used to having only than 26 cards in my hand!! (bahaha)
After that, I joined them to go to AACM for the prayer meeting. Silly friends had to keep pointing out to every new person I met that I go to another school when I was CLEARLY at UT Austin when they asked me where I go! :P
When AACM was over, we went to the piano room in Jester and met non-Asian people playing Asian songs really well! :O hahaha. It was unsettling for us all. After Elfrey played some song, one of the guys was like, "Were you here last year?"
Elf: No, I'm a freshman.
Matt (?): Oh, because there was an Asian guy here last year playing that exact same song. He looked kind of like you. *turns to Young* He looked kind of like you too.
XD Further demonstrating how all Asians look the same. My roommate too when she saw me was like "Yeah.. I didn't know if I'd be able to tell who you were; every time I saw an Asian girl, I thought it might be you, but then I didn't want to embarrass myself." Hahah.
At night we went to chill in Timmy's room for a while before everyone headed to bed. My parents picked me up the next morning and we headed over to College Station to finally move all my stuff in. Victor, Esther, and her friend helped me get everything up to my lovely fourth floor room, and after seeing Jester, this room was HUGE. I was/am quite satisfied with it. :D
We kidnapped Esther and brought her back to Plano where we went pretty much straight to the Hillsong concert. I met up with Zi-on and some other people from Grace at the beginning of it. The concert was AMAZING. :D Maybe it's their accents when they speak, but they sound just like they do on their recordings. It was pretty awesome worshipping with thousands of other people at my very first real concert. We got pretty close to the front so we had a good view of the band the whole time. I don't remember any of the guys names but one of them gave a short message in the middle of it, which was very brief but powerful from the story of Bartimaeus. And hearing Brooke Fraser sing Hosanna so close up was seriously amazing. Ahh I'm still really hyped up from it even though it was two days ago.
Esther slept over that night after we talked to my mom for a while about random stuff. I was going to try to meet up with people in Plano, but it was latee and I was sleepy. =.= The next morning when we got up, I took Esther to Corner Bakery and Fat Straws before we set off for College Station once again. We had a good four-hour-long talk the whole ride there about our lives back home and our summers and everything; it was nice. :D On the way, we stopped by Buc-ee's for a pit stop and to get random candy. When I got back on the road I got somewhat lost and confused because I got back on the highway when I was actually supposed to exit and switch highways right at the intersection Buc-ee's was at hahah. We ended up stopping at a car dealership as I was trying to figure out the GPS, and the salesman came out and helped us find our way. It was quite embarrassing... xD
When we got back, I got my stuff to my room and my car parked in the garage, and Esther and I joined Ryan, Diana, and a few other people to go to some Asian grocery story and then to Target. We ate at Cane's before coming back to see Diana's room, which looks sooo cool. She has a pentagon-shaped room and she decorated it reallyyy nicely with different rugs on the ground, pretty white curtains for each of her four windows, and other stuff that looked really cool. She, Ryan, and Zach came to my room afterwards to help me unpack, which I'm actually still in the process of doing. I finally met Robyn, my roommate, and after everyone else left, Robyn and I went room touring down our hall to meet people and for ideas on how to set up our room/position our furniture. :D When we got back, we pitifully slowly nudged our heavy furniture around until we got it to a set-up that we like; it's much more homey now. :]
This morning, I woke up around 6 to fix my schedule, which I still need to double check with an advisor. It took me a while, but I was happy to find some honors classes to take with profs who have good ratings. :D Ever since, I've started on this post hahah.
Photo above taken August 22, 2009. x]
Reasons why A&M is awesome (I'm not dissing UT btw!):
-My room is almost twice as big as most of UT's dorms and nearly half the price.
-We get free laundry and maid service in our rooms.
-We're allowed to legally bring and use rice cookers.
-I get two pretty sizable closets to myself.
-Private bathroom!
-With scholarship, the final cost for room&board + tuition + food + parking for this semester = $126 from an original $7,000 something.
-It was awesome seeing everyone at UT (like I literally couldn't walk for 10 minutes without seeing someone I knew from somewhere), but there are so many people there that I don't think I'd be able to handle it, with the school load and breaking out of the Plano bubble and everything. Because it's going to be a totally different environment, I'm actually really happy with my decision and I'm excited to be at A&M. It's time to get serious. :] | | |
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It's been a pretty crazy summer. As you can see from my calendar, there's only about two completely empty days, apart from my relatively eventless work days. (The past Thursday and Saturday don't count, because I took the photo before I filled them in =P) Throughout everything that's happened, I'm pretty happy with how it's gone. Each time I thought I reached the peak of the break, something else happened. It's been a period of restoration and healing, of ammends and reconciliation, of experience and growth. And now that I've finally left Plano - where pretty much my entire life has taken place up to this point - there's that bittersweet feeling of excitement and fright that overcomes me each time I'm about to take that step into the newest chapter of my life. I've been intending to write a xanga post after each major event that happened this summer - graduation, getting a job, orientation, DCCYC, Felix's return, Vancouver, Impact, leaving Plano - but that never happened. And I would now, but I'm still experiencing the laziness that's been keeping me from reflecting on my experiences every other time this summer. Each time something big ended, something else seems to have started the moment after. The first paragraph is actually about 3 weeks old, and I had to keep updating the "now that I've finally left Plano..." phrase from "now that I'm leaving in 3 weeks..." to "now that I'm leaving in 10 days..." etc. ^ ^;; I'm not sure if I'll ever get to expanding here about all that I've been through and all that I've learned these past three months. I actually picked up the habit of journaling pretty regularly again, so it's sort of replaced xanga as my rant page. =P Half of the things on my calendar were filled in after they happened, so the photos above portray my eventful summer pretty well anyway. Hm I tend to blab on and on when I don't have something planned in my mind to say; whoever was at church on Friday can testify haha. So I'm just going to end by saying: Thank you to everyone who's been a part of my life these past 10 years in Plano. It's been a joy growing up with you guys, and whether our friendship has already faded or is still going, I'm grateful to have had the chance to meet each one of you. I look forward to seeing where we all end up after all the times we've dreamed or joked together about this moment when we're all finally taking off. Love you guys. =) | | |
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