Saturday, April 28, 2012
Veishea
Last Saturday was Veishea and so I went to Ames to watch the parade and hang out with my family and family friends. I haven't been able to go the past couple of years because of the Relay's Parade, but since I'm not on the committee this year (and the fact that it was cancelled) I was able to go to Veishea. It was a very rainy morning so the parade wasn't the best thing to watch, but it was still nice to chat with Carina and Isaac. After the parade we went and got cherry pies, some fudge, and cheese curds. We also walked around a couple buildings for a bit then headed to the bookstore. I found a lot of nice clothes that I wanted, but my parents didn't really want to buy me them. I'm not sure why? I mean who doesn't need a $35 pair or shorts or $50 sweatshirt, right? Then we headed off to Hickory Park. We had the traditional kids table and adult table. It was somewhat enjoyable as the 2 youngest children spilled so much food all over the place and were rather crazy. Then we parted ways and I got a new camera (mine broke halfway through formal) so now I can start taking pics of events again :)
Friday, April 27, 2012
Streetpainting/Greek Intevarsity
Last Friday was streetpainting at Drake. This was my 3rd year going (I didn't go freshman year). The past 2 years I've mainly helped paint the intervarsity square and haven't done much of walking around or throwing/putting paint on others. This year I decided that I was just going to show up and not necessarily help with any square painting, but instead paint other people. I went with Nikki M and we met Nikki L there. It was nice to just walk around and watch people fight with paint. It was also nice to be able to talk to people and steal paint to put on other people. I only stayed for about an hour because I was meeting people for dinner (I'll write about that later in the post), but it was still a lot of fun. I was surprised by how many people were already covered in paint. I think this is a great tradition at Drake and am glad that I've been a part of it. The street looks awesome and ready for relays!
After I showered and got the majority of the paint off of my body I met some people at Drake Diner to discuss Greek Intervarsity. There were a couple of Greek IV staff from San Diego State (I think that's where there were from anyway) were in Des Moines because they had been at the University of Iowa starting some Greek IV stuff and so Amy thought it would be great to sit down with them. It was Anna, Sarah, Tess, Aaron, Amy, and myself for dinner. It was super interesting to hear about Greek IV chapters across the country and what they were doing. We also just talked about our own experiences with IV and being involved in a Greek organization. I think we're going to start meeting and seeing where God leads us within the Greek community. I'm really excited about this and will probably continue to work with this into next year and just be that creepy alum ;)
After I showered and got the majority of the paint off of my body I met some people at Drake Diner to discuss Greek Intervarsity. There were a couple of Greek IV staff from San Diego State (I think that's where there were from anyway) were in Des Moines because they had been at the University of Iowa starting some Greek IV stuff and so Amy thought it would be great to sit down with them. It was Anna, Sarah, Tess, Aaron, Amy, and myself for dinner. It was super interesting to hear about Greek IV chapters across the country and what they were doing. We also just talked about our own experiences with IV and being involved in a Greek organization. I think we're going to start meeting and seeing where God leads us within the Greek community. I'm really excited about this and will probably continue to work with this into next year and just be that creepy alum ;)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
My Faith Journey
I decided it would be good for me to reflect on where my faith started and where it is now. I think it's great to reflect and see how God has changed you and to remember where you came from. I also realized I've never really posted about what I believe or what my journey has been. My journey continues to be written and I don't have a lot of things figured out and I hope that you can tell that through this and other posts that I've had. So here's my story hopefully it's not too long:
I grew up going to a Lutheran church. I think we went pretty regularly through my childhood, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure. I know for sure that I went to Sunday School each week and WINGS (Worship In God's Service) every Wednesday. There I learned the basics of the Bible stories and also started memorizing Bible verses. I started to understand who God was, but had more of a grasp that he was someone abstract who wrote the Bible. I didn't really understand that He was someone I could have a relationship with. Towards the end of elementary school (4th and 5th grade) I also started attending Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp in the summer. Camp would be somewhere where I always felt close to God and started to be able to understand who He was.
We moved when I was in 6th grade and I thought it was the worst thing to ever happen to me. Now looking back how see how much God was working in my life. We started going to a church that really showed me what it meant to live life as a Christian. To have a relationship with Christ and also to really trust in God. I had the opportunity to be mentored by a lot of wonderful women and also got really close to the girls in my small group. During middle school and high school I also continued to go to Riverside for summer camp and recharges during the school year. I continued to be challenged to live out my faith and found inspiration in the high school and college counselors who were doing that.
In high school I continued to be active in church and went on quite a few mission trips (Minneapolis, Mississippi [twice to help with hurricane relief efforts], and southern Africa). My understanding of God was very structured. I thought being a Christian was mainly about following a list of rules of do and don'ts. As someone who loves rules this is what I wanted. It was much easier to follow these lists and keep God in a box than to actually trust him. Going to Botswana with Global Expeditions also continued this mindset. They are honestly a great organization and I loved my trip with them. Looking back now I see how structured it was and how much I bought into the idea that being a Christian was only about following a structured lifestyle. I think they need to have this type of structure and mindset when leading 60+ high schoolers to Africa. And like I said earlier I craved this God in neat little box mindset that I had.
When I started at Drake I wasn't super involved in anything religious. I didn't have a car so I would go to church when I could find a ride. I wasn't really involved in any student Christian organizations. I would go to Greek Street Fellowship most weeks and I enjoyed this. I liked having a Bible study with others in the Greek would and meeting some of my sisters. Then towards the end of the year I joined Intervarsity with Courtney and Amanda. Intervarsity was exactly what I needed. This organization really challenged me to live out my faith and not to follow a strict set of rules and set myself apart from non-Christians.
I think since then I've been growing in my understanding of who God and Jesus are. I've seen how important it is to live a life like Christ. To meet people where they are and just love them. I've also seen how much love God has for me. I've seen the ways that God answers prayers through tough situations in my life like my dad losing his job, and my mom's health problems. I've seen how we've gotten closer as a family, how we've relied on God more, and how he's continued to provide to us through this all. I've had the opportunity to go to Ethiopia and see my faith in a whole new way. I experienced so much poverty and people living in despair, but also saw so much joy and hope in ways that I've never seen before.
I feel like my faith currently is learning how to live like Jesus. To take the experiences I've had and try and relate them to others. To hopefully be somewhat of a light in my current community, which is my sorority. It hasn't always been easy and I haven't always done a good job, but I hope that God has used me to plant a few seeds in my house that will continue to grow in the years to come. I'm not sure exactly what my next steps will be on this journey of life, but I can't wait to learn to trust God more and more with the next steps. Because who better than God to direct your story?
I grew up going to a Lutheran church. I think we went pretty regularly through my childhood, but to be honest I'm not entirely sure. I know for sure that I went to Sunday School each week and WINGS (Worship In God's Service) every Wednesday. There I learned the basics of the Bible stories and also started memorizing Bible verses. I started to understand who God was, but had more of a grasp that he was someone abstract who wrote the Bible. I didn't really understand that He was someone I could have a relationship with. Towards the end of elementary school (4th and 5th grade) I also started attending Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp in the summer. Camp would be somewhere where I always felt close to God and started to be able to understand who He was.
We moved when I was in 6th grade and I thought it was the worst thing to ever happen to me. Now looking back how see how much God was working in my life. We started going to a church that really showed me what it meant to live life as a Christian. To have a relationship with Christ and also to really trust in God. I had the opportunity to be mentored by a lot of wonderful women and also got really close to the girls in my small group. During middle school and high school I also continued to go to Riverside for summer camp and recharges during the school year. I continued to be challenged to live out my faith and found inspiration in the high school and college counselors who were doing that.
In high school I continued to be active in church and went on quite a few mission trips (Minneapolis, Mississippi [twice to help with hurricane relief efforts], and southern Africa). My understanding of God was very structured. I thought being a Christian was mainly about following a list of rules of do and don'ts. As someone who loves rules this is what I wanted. It was much easier to follow these lists and keep God in a box than to actually trust him. Going to Botswana with Global Expeditions also continued this mindset. They are honestly a great organization and I loved my trip with them. Looking back now I see how structured it was and how much I bought into the idea that being a Christian was only about following a structured lifestyle. I think they need to have this type of structure and mindset when leading 60+ high schoolers to Africa. And like I said earlier I craved this God in neat little box mindset that I had.
When I started at Drake I wasn't super involved in anything religious. I didn't have a car so I would go to church when I could find a ride. I wasn't really involved in any student Christian organizations. I would go to Greek Street Fellowship most weeks and I enjoyed this. I liked having a Bible study with others in the Greek would and meeting some of my sisters. Then towards the end of the year I joined Intervarsity with Courtney and Amanda. Intervarsity was exactly what I needed. This organization really challenged me to live out my faith and not to follow a strict set of rules and set myself apart from non-Christians.
I think since then I've been growing in my understanding of who God and Jesus are. I've seen how important it is to live a life like Christ. To meet people where they are and just love them. I've also seen how much love God has for me. I've seen the ways that God answers prayers through tough situations in my life like my dad losing his job, and my mom's health problems. I've seen how we've gotten closer as a family, how we've relied on God more, and how he's continued to provide to us through this all. I've had the opportunity to go to Ethiopia and see my faith in a whole new way. I experienced so much poverty and people living in despair, but also saw so much joy and hope in ways that I've never seen before.
I feel like my faith currently is learning how to live like Jesus. To take the experiences I've had and try and relate them to others. To hopefully be somewhat of a light in my current community, which is my sorority. It hasn't always been easy and I haven't always done a good job, but I hope that God has used me to plant a few seeds in my house that will continue to grow in the years to come. I'm not sure exactly what my next steps will be on this journey of life, but I can't wait to learn to trust God more and more with the next steps. Because who better than God to direct your story?
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Formal
Last Saturday was my last DG formal. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my sisters. It was great to spend that time together and it still doesn't seem real that in a few short weeks I'll be an alum and the majority of my class will be graduating and moving on to jobs, grad school, etc. I still feel like it was just yesterday that I was going through recruitment, then getting initiated, and eventually moving in the house. It's crazy that I'll only be living in the house for 3 more weeks. DG has meant so much to me, especially these last 2 years, so it will be strange to not be a part of it everyday next year when I'm still on campus. I still know that it will always be apart of my life. Whenever I see an anchor or nautical object I'll be drawn to it, whether it is actually cute or probably the ugliest thing I've ever seen I'll still want it.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Dogtown After Hours
Last Friday night Drake hosted Dogtown After Hours. This is the 4th one that they've had I believe. Last year we had a pie fight and broke a world record. This year the theme was about doing things on your bucket list. I went with Erin, Marc, Nikki, and Jenn. It was a lot of fun. I thought it was one of the better ones, but probably because we watched a mentalist. It was one of the coolest shows that I've ever seen. He did all sorts of mind tricks that I had no clue how he could do. I think it would be awesome if they got both a hypnotist and mentalist and just did a show of that. We also played some games like family feud and watched the end of minute to win it. Erin and I also did round 2 of top buns and I think we almost perfected it! Enjoy the pics from the night :)
Sunday, April 22, 2012
3rd Annual Night Easter Egg Hunt
Over Easter break I hosted the 3rd annual night Easter egg hunt at my house. It was the usual group consisting of: Angela, Jamie, Tara, Deb, Aaron, and myself. We caught up a bit on everyone's lives while eating snacks until everyone got to my house and it started to get dark. Then we each got our sack filled with eggs and hid them around my yard. We drew for a color of eggs then hunted those eggs. I got lucky as I had the eggs that Jamie hid and I had been walking with her as she hid them so I knew where the majority were. It was pretty fun and I think we actually found most of the eggs. When everyone was done we went inside to look to see what candy we got. People also decided to barter and trade candy. Then we played the game of things, which was also quite fun. I really enjoy getting together with my friends from high school and catching up with them. It's great to see what they've been up to and what they're planning on doing. Especially now with quite a few of them graduating. I can't wait to see where life takes everyone and I hope that I will continue to stay in touch with them all because they're all amazing!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
40 Days Without Social Media
I realized that I haven't posted about lent went without social media since I was 2 weeks in, so I thought I would update you all on that. It was quite difficult at first. I was so used to typing in facebook.com everytime that I logged onto the internet. As the weeks went by though it got much easier. It was also much easier than I expected to not go on twitter or pintrest.
I found for the most part that it was easy for me to keep in contact with people and I really wasn't missing too much vital information by not being on facebook. Really everything that I found "important" and thought that I would miss by not being on facebook people told me about. So those "really important" things I didn't miss much of.
Overall, I think it opened my eyes to how much time I spend on these sites and showed me that I can really live without them. I didn't do as great of a job as I wanted to of spending that time with God. I seemed to spend it on other websites either reading news articles or blogs. I do think that I did spend a bit more time on my homework and talking to people in person, which was great.
Now without being on social meeting for those 40+ days I'm finding it easier to only check my facebook a couple times a day. Really nothing super important happens when I haven't checked it in a few hours so that is a great realization. Recently I've also tried to stop reading quite so many blogs. I was finding myself investing time into other peoples lives that I didn't really know so I've tried to mainly read blogs of people that I actually know. That seems to make me a little more present in my relationships, which I think is great!
I found for the most part that it was easy for me to keep in contact with people and I really wasn't missing too much vital information by not being on facebook. Really everything that I found "important" and thought that I would miss by not being on facebook people told me about. So those "really important" things I didn't miss much of.
Overall, I think it opened my eyes to how much time I spend on these sites and showed me that I can really live without them. I didn't do as great of a job as I wanted to of spending that time with God. I seemed to spend it on other websites either reading news articles or blogs. I do think that I did spend a bit more time on my homework and talking to people in person, which was great.
Now without being on social meeting for those 40+ days I'm finding it easier to only check my facebook a couple times a day. Really nothing super important happens when I haven't checked it in a few hours so that is a great realization. Recently I've also tried to stop reading quite so many blogs. I was finding myself investing time into other peoples lives that I didn't really know so I've tried to mainly read blogs of people that I actually know. That seems to make me a little more present in my relationships, which I think is great!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Worship Wednesday "Listen to the Sound"
Sorry I've been MIA lately. I've been crazy busy with tests and quizzes so hopefully this weekend I will have time to update what has been going on in my life lately.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Emily and Courtney Discover the Dinosaurs
I won tickets from a radio station for Discover the Dinosaurs at the fairgrounds. I really enjoy dinosaurs so I thought it would be fun to go. I knew that it was aimed at about 5 year olds, but I talked Courtney into going with me.
It was fun to see all of the dinosaurs and some of them even moved. You could also touch them all and lots of kids were sitting on them. We enjoyed taking our pictures by them. It was a nice, fun, quick little thing for us to see on a Saturday.
It really would have been fun if you were with small children so you could see how they reacted to all of the dinosaurs. It was cute to listen to the few comments that we heard. There was also an interactive area with face painting, coloring, gemstone mining, inflatables, etc. that I'm sure younger kids would have loved.
Also since it was in the Varied Industries Building at the fairgrounds they had the cookie shop open. Courtney had never had them before so we bought a cup and split them. They were delicious as always we just needed a drink to go with it.
Enjoy the pictures of us with the dinosaurs (our land before time friends).
It was fun to see all of the dinosaurs and some of them even moved. You could also touch them all and lots of kids were sitting on them. We enjoyed taking our pictures by them. It was a nice, fun, quick little thing for us to see on a Saturday.
It really would have been fun if you were with small children so you could see how they reacted to all of the dinosaurs. It was cute to listen to the few comments that we heard. There was also an interactive area with face painting, coloring, gemstone mining, inflatables, etc. that I'm sure younger kids would have loved.
Also since it was in the Varied Industries Building at the fairgrounds they had the cookie shop open. Courtney had never had them before so we bought a cup and split them. They were delicious as always we just needed a drink to go with it.
Enjoy the pictures of us with the dinosaurs (our land before time friends).
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Founder's Day
Saturday was the Alpha Lambda chapter of Delta Gamma's Founder's Day. I had a great time seeing some alums that I went to school with and also seeing some other DG alum. It's always so great to see how connected people still are to DG and it just goes to show that the say 'It's not four years, it's for life.' really is.
As my senior year as a DG is ending I'm finding myself so excited to see what I can still do in DG as an alum. I will still be able to have these amazing bonds with my sisters and will have the opportunity to meet so many more DGs that are in Des Moines and are around the country/world.
It was a great last Founder's Day with the awards, senior recognition, and skit. I'm still so glad that 4 years ago I decided to go through recruitment, because it forever changed my college experience and also really my life.
As my senior year as a DG is ending I'm finding myself so excited to see what I can still do in DG as an alum. I will still be able to have these amazing bonds with my sisters and will have the opportunity to meet so many more DGs that are in Des Moines and are around the country/world.
It was a great last Founder's Day with the awards, senior recognition, and skit. I'm still so glad that 4 years ago I decided to go through recruitment, because it forever changed my college experience and also really my life.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Relay for Life
On Friday I participated in my 4th Relay for Life at Drake University. I feel like the event has gotten better each year. It's moved from the Field House to the Knapp Center and had a lot more activities to do and I feel like a lot more people participate.
I was a part of one of the volleyball teams where we won our first game and lost our second. I played with Erin, Nikki, Tom, Marc, and Autumn. Then I played some knock-out, where I lost.
After that we watched the dance team perform and then it was time for the ceremony. This was my first time being their for the ceremony and it was very good. I found it very touching to hear from people who had been affected by cancer.
I also came to realize how lucky I am that I've never had anyone really close to me have cancer. The only people that I know of that have are more distant relatives. I have also had a friend who had a little scare, but luckily it was benign. Otherwise I've been very blessed with healthy family and friends and I hope that it will continue.
I didn't take any pictures of myself at the event (only one of Marc and Erin) so I don't have any pics to post. Sorry.
I was a part of one of the volleyball teams where we won our first game and lost our second. I played with Erin, Nikki, Tom, Marc, and Autumn. Then I played some knock-out, where I lost.
After that we watched the dance team perform and then it was time for the ceremony. This was my first time being their for the ceremony and it was very good. I found it very touching to hear from people who had been affected by cancer.
I also came to realize how lucky I am that I've never had anyone really close to me have cancer. The only people that I know of that have are more distant relatives. I have also had a friend who had a little scare, but luckily it was benign. Otherwise I've been very blessed with healthy family and friends and I hope that it will continue.
I didn't take any pictures of myself at the event (only one of Marc and Erin) so I don't have any pics to post. Sorry.
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