While I'm experiencing the euphoria that can only be caused by the realization that I'll never have to go to class again, I'm also aware of the beautiful experience that going to college up here in the great white north has been.
So this is the beginning of the end of my college career, which is great and exciting and encouraging. But it's also the end of the beginning of the rest of my life -- this is the kickoff, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
Today, I am happier, healthier, wiser and more fulfilled than I've ever been.
Yuck! First of all, I find that phrase absolutely cloying. Social butterfly? No, thank you! Okay, it's not that bad, but there are better ways to state it, I think.
My thoughts today are on being an extrovert. I've mentioned it in passing before, but I'm an ENFJ. That's the classification from the Meyers-Briggs (Jung) personality test, which you should definitely take! Essentially, like any personality "test", you answer a series of questions, and it tells you what you are like, what tendencies you have.
Since women have a million quizzes thrown at them from the pages of every issue Seventeen and Glamour from the time they are 13, I've taken quite a few. However, the Meyers-Briggs is different, and in my experience, terrifyingly accurate. (In a good way...)
One of the ways it helps to define whether you are an extrovert or an introvert is by asking a question about how you relax: At the end of a long day, would you rather stay at home and unwind alone and quiet, or would you rather go out with friends and celebrate a day over?
I already knew I was an extrovert, just because I like to be around people, but this break, I realized the extent to which I'm an extrovert. Have a bunch of people over for a party? Lets invite 20 more people. Going out for a casual lunch with a couple friends? I'd like to invite six more people. When I am home alone (which happens more often during breaks, since my parents work) for more than a day or so at a time with nothing to do, I start to get crazy. CABIN FEVER!
I need to be around people to feel energized and renewed and happy. I proved it this break, and luckily, lots of my friends are extroverts, so I don't have to pester my poor roommate too much. She's an introvert. But we love each other anyway.
Have you taken the Meyers-Briggs? What are you? Has it helped you to understand yourself or others better?
Hello friends! Merry Christmas! Did you enjoy your Christmas? I hope so.
Mine was lovely -- my brother and sister-in-law are in town, my granddad and his wife drove over to our place Christmas morning, and I got to ride a horse on Christmas Eve! It was a treat.
I know I'm technically a couple days late with the Christmas wishes, but I didn't think anyone would mind a little break between finals week and blogging about Christmas, right? Plus, I was busy as a bee sewing and crocheting Christmas presents. My mother had my nose to the grindstone. (Love her though!)
As great and fun as my Christmas was, it's not 24/7 peaches and cream and puppy dogs, if you know what I mean. I think everyone experiences this. When you get a lot of people with pasts (relatives) and put them in a pretty small place (your house) and then make them all stay in that place and interact (Christmas Eve, Christmas, parties -- you name it), eventually, even the sweetest group is gonna have some scuffles.
In light of that, I hope that you can find the patience and peace that you need in loving and understanding your family members. I only have one brother, and though sometimes I'd like to wring his (not so scrawny anymore) little neck, I love him and my sister-in-law to pieces. They really are some of the most important people in my life.
So here's to finishing out this fantastic season with both your brain and your families intact and thriving. Cheers!
One of the reasons that I started blogging originally was to have a creative outlet. Or maybe that's not quite accurate. More clearly, I needed somewhere to pour out my heart -- to process the things swirling around inside my head that maybe I didn't want an immediate response to, like I would get from confiding in a friend.
That's still true. I still need it. But in some ways, I've forgotten that, how therapeutic it is to just write my heart. So here I am. To write, and explain, and understand and breathe.
I hope I'll be more consistent -- it's so easy these days for things to just get away from you, you know? I can check my email, facebook and twitter all from my phone, not to mention texting, and phone calls and browsing the internet. I'm so connected, but it is far, far too easy for things -- for people -- to slip through the cracks.
I've let that happen lately. Sometimes it's been favors or jobs that other's have asked me to do. Sometimes it's been appointments, or assignments, or just my own intention to do something with or for someone. And as much as it hurts me to realize that I've essentially forgotten someone, I can't imagine how rude it must seem to them. Like I don't care, or they don't matter -- when really, that's not true at all.
So I'm working on that. I'm trying to be more focused, organized and on track with the people I really care about. And the people I don't. Forgive me?
I've been thinking about language, lately. (English major, shocker!) One of the things that people really enjoy doing is correcting your use of language. When they ask how you're doing and you reply with "I'm doing good," they correct you with "Don't you mean you're 'doing well'?" A little grammar, that they feel like they are helping you with, right? (Just let me speak!) Or maybe you yell "I HATE STUPID DRIVERS!" while you are caught in traffic, and they ask "Do you really hate those people? Are you sure you aren't just frustrated with the situation?" (These people may also deserve an eye roll. Don't judge my driving habits!) They are questioning your sincerity, which may or may not be a valid question.
That's kind of the idea I've been stuck on recently. I say I love a lot of things. I'm talking a huge range, from "I love mint chocolate chip ice cream" to "I love your laugh." And I was thinking to myself, I need to be more aware of how I'm using that word, love. I can't just love everything, all the time! That's ridiculous. But is it? Is it inaccurate for me to say that I love it when a friend uses my full name when they talk to me? Is it wrong to say I love the way the sun beams into my window right before it sets?
I don't think so. When I say I love something, I really, actually do. And a lot of times, when I tell someone I love something they do, or a conversation we're having, or a situation we're in, or something that is part of their personality, as cheesy at it might sound, I actually mean that I love them. I'm not talking romantically here, though. Love like the way you love your best friend, or your parents or siblings (when they aren't driving you crazy). Just truly, sincerely thinking that someone you know is a really awesome person who you want to be around as much as you can.
It seems to me that people are afraid of that in our generation. We don't want to say that we love anyone. Why? Are we afraid of rejection? That they might think we're weird, or awkward? I'm over that, people. I love my friends. They are weird, and nerdy, and hilarious, and honest, and caring, and crazy, and all around, the most phenomenal people I've ever known.
In service as with many facets of life (Christ-focused and otherwise), there are a million role models to choose from. People you know, people in your family, celebrities?
I used to generally pin the label of 'Role Model' on older people -- women in my church who through years of practice exemplify the characteristics and attitudes that I want, people who have spent their lives traveling the world, people who are exemplary at what they do -- usually, they just had to be older, experienced and wiser people than me.
However (and please, excuse my slow uptake if you already knew this), age has nothing to do with being a role model.
Especially in this past semester, I have been around so many people who I have come to respect, admire and appreciate deeply. And you know what? Not one of them is over 30. I still do count many older people at my church and elsewhere as role models, but I've come to realize that that role model is more than a badge for doing well in your life by the time you are 50. The people that I want to emulate now encompass many of my friends: Elise: who serves constantly, with a schedule I know would knock me off my feet, Adriane: who doesn't gossip and doesn't even scold me when she catches me doing it, Amy: who is so motivated and resourceful but crazy and silly and fun... and really, that's just all I have off the top of my head. I'm friends with people who are wholeheartedly following God, and on top of the encouragement that is to do the same and love and serve the people in my life, mostly, it makes me proud to be friends with them.
Do you have non-traditional role models in your life? Share!
How is life treating you lately? If you are a college student, I think I probably have a good idea of what you are thinking right now: "PLEASE, SEMESTER, PLEASE JUST END!"
But really, tell me! What's new with you, friends?
Some beeeeautiful dinnerware that I ogled shamelessly in Anthropologie. Like many of my budget-wary friends, I only own that initial mug from their store. It's so cute! Great for tea.
I went to a natural museum over Spring Break (I know that was a long time ago, but it was gorgeous!). On our way back home, the boyfriend and I stopped on the side of the road and almost got run over to snap some photos of my favorite flower. Goooorgeous.
Since I had just been at home for Spring Break, I decided not to venture homewards for Easter. But my most wonderful parents decided that they would come visit! They haven't been up to campus this year, so they came up, and on the last day they were here, we did a hike into a volcanic crater! Pretty impressive!
So, tell me. How are you doing? Swimming in final papers and studying for exams? Praying? (That's become my method of pre-study cramming. I do pray for other reasons too though!) Fill me in on your lives!
