A Quiet Get Away

Spring Break is around the corner and all I want is a quiet get away. 
Honestly I think I would be perfectly fine with getting a cabin and disappearing for two days. 
Going somewhere with a beautiful view.
A porch. 
A lake. 
A dock. 
Having 4 or 5 books 
and doing absolutely nothing
Just two days to think by myself. 
To read
To sleep
To relax
To do absolutely nothing
But 
Reflect on the nature around me and the God who created it. 

OH HAAAAY!

Hey Hey Hey!
 By golly it has been the fastest month of my life! I really can't believe that in two days I will have been back in knoxville for 30 days! I seriously felt like I just left my house! Life has been crazy lol!! I never imagined the work load that we were going to have during our two weeks of training for RA. Seriously they had us going from 9am to 10 pm. most days! It was exhausting but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I utterly love being an RA. Seriously I could not have fathomed how much I was going to bond with my staff or how fast we would all become best friends. I love my hall director she is the sweetest, funniest, sassest, bestest boss ever!! I love my apartment although it is no where near being done! So if you ever wanna come visit please do I've got sooo much space it is ridiculous! I love being a sophomore too. It's just that much easier than being a freshman. I know more stuff I'm not freaking out about everything. I'm a lot more outgoing this semester. Last year I kept to myself and really didn't meet a lot of new people. I really want that to change this year and so far it has. I really want to do a lot with this year.
                   Goals for this Year:
1. Meet more people
2. Be more personable
3. Be the best RA
4. Find something to do with kids
5. Maybe do a small theater play.
6. Get all A's.

I was talking to one of my fellow RA's about this program head start that sounds like soo much fun! It is for toddlers to kindergarten and it a school for underprivileged kids. So much so that the teacher even drives the bus to pick them up and take them home. It sounds right up my alley! Now all that I have to do is find someone who would be willing to do it with me because I need transportation! Well I now am going to go walk the halls!
More to come.
Abz

A trantramatic 5 year old

I haven't blogged in forever because i am a stubborn 5 year old. 


I'm a stubborn 5 year old in many ways. but mainly in that I through tamper fits at the thought of growing up. You know like that little girl who just recently got a new baby brother and tries to defy the idea that she can no longer drink out a bottle or steal all of mommy's attention. Thats me. It seriously is a problem and a weird one at that. What kind of person doesn't want to grow up. I've always disliked the idea of growing up. Seriously I planned my life and I had it stopping at 18. My senior year of highschool was everything I was looking forward to. I didn't even put a thought to what would happen after that it was just a black abyss. Well my senior year came and went. Just like that. Everything I'd been planning for rapidly sped past me. I was left having to make decisions on where I would go to college. I had no idea what I wanted. I never wanted to think about what would come next. the fact that I would soon no longer get to use the excuse that I was a teenager and didn't know better. Or that I wasn't going to be able to use my parents as an excuse to cop out of going to things I didn't want to go to. So I ignored the idea of what I wanted after my senior year. I picked a college that wasn't memphis cause I knew I didn't want that. To be honest I wasn't very excited. I loved the summer before freshman year at UT. It was like a heavenly limbo. I got to act like a big kid with a little more freedom yet I was still that little kid who lived at home. Then all the fun stopped and it hit me like a ton of bricks the night before I left for knoxville. I was leaving home. I wasn't going to be a daily part of my families routine. I couldn't come home with my good test grade just to get that approving smile from my mommy. No i was about to drive 6 hours away from the only city I had ever known to go to a school where I only knew a handful of people. I was going to have to suck it up be a big kid and make myself meet people. I bawled that night. While other kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement of leaving home I was clinging to every last moment of staying home. Don't get me wrong I was excited about leaving but I was terrified about the unknown. Was I going to make friends. Was school going to be really hard. Would I make good grades. Would I gain the freshman fifteen. Would I find some place where I fit in. It was a lot to mentally picture and I seemed to see it all the night before I left. I was that little 5 year old girl sitting in her bedroom with her old princess dress on not wanting to take it off for anything or anyone. 


Today I'm still that little five year old girl but a little less dramatic. I love college. I love the idea of growing up. I made friends. I found a place where I fit in. School wasn't hard. I succeeded more than my expectations. It is funny how much a year can change a person. I know I'm still the same girl in many ways but I've started to be more rational about life. Sure from time to time I still freak out about growing up but I've realized that it is an adventure that shouldn't continue with kicking and screaming. I still stubbornly don't like to think about growing up henceforth the lack of blog-age. It's funny how much writing down your thoughts helps you to see the big picture and make sense of the things emotions tend to muddify. (i know lots of unreal words in this post) I find myself not writing when I don't want to think about anything. For example if I have a relationship that needs fixing and it will most likely end up taking a turn that decreases that friendship I stop writing I stop thinking about it and try and go back to being a 5 year old. A five year old who doesn't have to worry about little arguments and just continues to dance in the sun though the storm is about to come. I like being an ostrich who sticks her head in the sand in hopes that everything will just work itself out. Like if i close my eyes everything will go away because I can't see it. Yet, at some point I slowly lift my head out of the sand and notice that everything is still the same just intensified because I let time build up behind it. My daddy taught me to think and for that I am seriously extremely grateful. I really have come to understand just how much he taught me that I really just didn't grasp till now. I feel like because of my parents and the way they raised me I'm at sometimes a lot more mature than many of the people my age. Its like they cursed me with the ability to actually think through things while other freshman just live up being in college. It's a blessing and a curse but mostly just a blessing...I just can't use the excuse but I'm young and in college because my parents taught me better. 


i guess i'm writing this to admit I hate growing up. I don't like making big decisions. I don't like not being a little kid anymore. That at times I wish I could go back and be that little girl who liked to steal all her parents attention. Yet, that as I grow older these things become less scary. That I'm learning and God is showing me that there is soo much more to come. That though one chapter is closed he is opening and working on a new chapter that will be more enthralling than the other. So I'm learning to love growing up. To love change. To love being the big sister who gets to come home and spoil her younger siblings. The big sister who no longer selfishly grabs at mom and dads attention but tries to be a better example. To love the idea of making it on my own.


So fellow bloggers I'm back. I will be more consistent because this year I will not ignore the big decisions. I will not ignore being a grown up. I will take my princess dress off and put it in a box to remember the chapter behind me and look forward to the chapter that is being written.

Freshman year in the bag

So I know I dropped off the side of the world but I am going to try and make my comeback now! So to kick off this big debut why not start off with a countdown/list of things to know for your freshman year of college!

20 things learned from freshman year:
1. No matter how good you think the cafeteria food is now you will hate it by the end of the school year.

2. The cafeteria food will kill you! You think paula dean likes butter you haven't met your college caf yet!

3. That tiny dorm room won't be that small until the last 2 months of school, then it feels like a cardboard box.

4. Freshmen boys are not smart at all. So be friends and thats it!

5. You will fight with your room mate. When that time comes remember to hear their side.

6. Try new things and get involved.

7. Get out from your old highschool crowd and make new friends.

8. Call your Mom, Dad, Sister, and Brother frequently.

9. Guard Your Heart.

10.  Go to the gym and try some of their classes, they are fun!

11. Talk to a random stranger out on the lawn, on the elevator, in class.

12. STUDY!! you don't want to be stuck with a 6 year bill because you wanted to party.

13. Go to class! Teachers see that and it will HELP your grade! office hours will be your best friend!

14. 8 a.m. classes are death. I don't care if you are miss sunshine and get up at the crack of dawn in                 college that changes and 8'oclocks will feel like you are trying to pull yourself out of a swamp.

15. Don't always take your advisors words as the best thing. Know what you want to do and how to get there. Advisors are people too, they will mess up, besides your not their only student. They don't remember every little detail to your ideas for your life.

16. Plan ahead, Dream, and don't let anyone steal your happiness.

17. Everyone has a unique story so be slow to judge, you never know the full store from the first                    impression.

18. Explore your college town! Eat at the one of a kind restaurant, run by the river, visit their zoo.

19. Don't forget who you are and what you stand for.
              There are a lot of voices and people that will pull you in different directions.
                                         Listen to your voice above the rest.

20. Find what you are passionate about and chase it down.

Dominating Like A Champ

i SURVIVED my crazy week!!!

********Insert victory dance******

Last week was ROUGH but I made it through....Did I get a lot of sleep or do as well as I would have liked?..No but I tried my hardest! This week is sooo much light! Just two papers! This week also starts campaign week!! I am sooo nervous to see who is going to win. Campaign starts tomorrow and voting happens next tuesday and wednesday. I also find out about RA on monday or tuesday...So next week will either be a really really good week or could be a really really bad week. I'm hoping for a good week!!
The more I go to biology class the harder it gets to pay attention. NOt good I need to pay attentnion so i can get better grades! I am really really depressed it got SO COLD again!!!! not cool at all...It is seriously freezing cold here! like freezing! brrrrrr I hope wherever you are it is warm! I don't like the cold and I was sooo ready for summer! Ugh knoxville weather.

Spring Breakin

Hello,
Spring break was utterly amazing!!
God is so good and He works in the most mysterious ways!
I went on the cross trip trying to expand my horizons and meet more people. Honestly I went for selfish reasons. I wasn't thinking about the people we were going to minister. Instead I was thinking about ministering to myself. Hoping to get my name out there so that later down the road it my benefit me more. I thought really all I was going to get out of the trip was some new friends, maybe, if I was lucky. I walked away with so much more. I needed this trip more than I realized. It was a beautiful time for me to get away and just bask in God's presence. He used that time to open my eyes and heart to things about myself. To how I was doing with friends in college...and how I was doing with him. I realized how much I missed being in a community like the one we formed on the trip. It was so nice to worship every night and then spend the whole day just serving. The church we stayed at had the prettiest prayer chapel. It was in between two lakes and the building had windows all around it. Inside there was chairs all circled around this huge cross with an alter beneath it. It was breath taking to go up there at sunset and just spend hours praying and just reflecting on His beauty. 


During the day we worked on 8 different houses doing various tasks such as painting, roofing, new screen doors, yard work..etc. It was hard work some days but it was fun! I learned how to do some roofing lol. We also had projects out at the boys and girls club and a homeless shelter and the toy shop!. Then at night we would have dinner at a different church every night and then head back to the church for worship and small group time. I got so close to my small group. It is funny how you can get to know such a small group of people so quickly. I'm glad God placed margaret into my life to place the seed of going on this trip in my brain. It really was what I needed and then some. 


This week is utterly ridiculous!! I gots 2 papers, 3 exams, 1 quiz, 1 project, and 1 lab report! Yet, as I sit back and carefully plan my days out it is getting less stressful and easier to deal with. I'm making my way through this week and this time next week I am going to be happy!! Well thats an update from the life of abby...no pictures because of this silly new facebook picture thing :/

I LOVE MY FAMILY!!

If you haven't caught on by now, I'm sorry, but I AM UTTERLY IN LOVE WITH MY FAMILY!! Seriously I wouldn't trade them for anything. I have the best parents in the whole wide world! It surprises me every day how well they did in raising me. Seriously, mom dad, you guys knew what you were doing lol. Its soo annoying I'm realizing that all those rules I hate..I now love that I learned them. It's funny how you don't realize what those rules are for when you have them but once they are gone you love them! I have the best little sisters any girl could ask for! Seriously they are all so unique and different but we all have the best times together! My brothers aren't to bad either! I love having a big family! I have had so many different experiencing that many other people will never get to experience and all I had to do was be born into it! :D!! I love you family!! 


It has been raining NON stop!! I legit don't have hair I just have a head of frizz...I don't think there is a defined curl on my head right now! It really isn't cool at all! One more day till Spring break!! Where I will hopefully be friendly and making myself meet tons of new people! I hope you are having a great day and If not make it better!!!