Finished... Mostly!

So I'm now almost finished with my first semester. I had my don rags today and have a math test Wednesday and then I'm headed home! Believe me, I am very excited to be going home. (Side note: don rags are what we call the Torrey final. It spans all 8 units of my honors classes. It's a thirty minute oral exam where my mentor can quiz me on any of the texts that I've read... it's scary because we have no idea what he's going to ask, making the studying a huge task.)

Anyway, I feel like over the past four months, I've grown in many different ways and really been stretched. Here's my list of a few things that I've learned through this past semester.

1) I am a Virginian. Only through four months away have I learned that my heart belongs in the grand Old Dominion - I'm one of very few kids who boast proudly about their state.

2) It's worth a longer walk down the hall to get a better quality shower... it'll make you feel more clean!

3) Be flexible. Sometimes something more exciting and rewarding than homework comes along, and it should be pursued... studying can often wait.

4) Be organized! Know what you have to do and when you must do it. Beware! This may lead to friends becoming rather dependent on you for information.

5) Reading is hard work. Especially if the goal is to truly understand and engage the ideas within the text.

6) No matter what the culture is, the epic poem will always have relevance. It provides a way of thinking about culture from its beginning. We should perhaps more often employ the method of telling stories within other stories to help us to understand where we come from better.

7) Anticipation is half the fun - I've had a lot of different things to anticipate through the semester - my first trips to In-N-Out and Disneyland, my first thanksgiving away from home, my return home, and the arrival of many other significant dates. Yet, as fun as each of these things was, joy is to be found simply in anticipation.

8) Joy is necessary for survival. I don't know if I would have made it through the semester were it not for the crazy amount of joy that I feel in being content where God has placed me. I also am so grateful for a close-knit group of friends who bring me joy and share in my joy. Yet, it's been important to not find joy in my location or others, but to find it in Christ alone. When I rely on something other than the Rock for my joy, then I end up feeling disappointed. When I take joy from Christ, though, everything I do flows from that.

9) Each day should be cherished. It seems that I've been learning this for the past five years. I honestly don't think I'll ever fully understand how to properly do this, but I'm trying. I'm learning to take joy in every moment - fully seized. I'm learning to love early morning chapels, late night study sessions, heart-breaking pictures of fall, immature inside jokes, and mid-afternoon naps. Each of these moments can be fully seized - it's all a matter of how you choose to live. When I seek out the King, then each moment is for Him. And life becomes a lovely compilation of beautiful moments.

10) Contentedness is a gift. I have been (for the most part) completely content over the past few months. Although I am more than a little excited to be back in Blacksburg where my heart belongs, I have definitely enjoyed and loved this time. I have no doubts that God has many more excellent things planned for the remainder of my time. Because His will is indeed good, pleasing, and perfect. With this recognition, what other cares should I have?

All that said, I feel like this has been quite the productive, growing, stretching, and exhausting semester. I'm so thankful for a break coming up. It'll be a little bittersweet leaving Biola for six weeks. At this point, though, I'm pretty sure it'll be mostly "sweet." Blacksburg, here I come!