Missin' You

Today was one of those days that I realized how much I missed my Crossroads team.

I guess it started yesterday.  In a matter of 24 hours, I received a letter from one, had lunch with a second, skyped a third, had a text conversation with a fourth, and facebook-messaged a fifth.

I miss seeing Stephanie's beautiful acts of service.
Kirstin's joy and laughter.
The way Grace made us all smile.
Mario's deep insights.
John's quiet leadership.
Josh's strong example.
Peter's philosophical musings.
(*)

Yes, I can honestly say that I think of these people (and all the others who walked with us) like family.  I learned so much from each and every one of them.  I learned faith, respect, and genuine love.  I learned how to set boundaries, how to respect others' boundaries, and how to open up my preconceived notions of "the perfect boundary".  They helped me change some of my views, while other views were made stronger. (**) I learned how to share a space the size of a postage stamp with 12 people at the same time.  This group helped me through some extremely difficult moments, and they were all there rejoicing with me at other times.  They let me into their lives, and I have gladly let them into mine as well.

Not all groups of people would gel as well as we did.  Not all past Crossroads teams had the amazing experience that we did.  I'm guessing that if many other groups were faced with our "hell week", they might have packed up and gone home right then.  But because we supported each other, suffered with each other, and lifted each other up in prayer, we made it through that week, and we all grew and became stronger because of it.

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You guys have become my second family.  I thank God every day that He brought you into my life.  I'm sorry that I don't get to talk to some of you as often as I'd like, but that doesn't mean that I've forgotten about you.  This summer was by far the best summer I've ever had, and I hope many more Northern Crossroads teams after us have the wonderful times and crazy adventures that we did.

I love you, Grace, Kirstin, Stephanie, Amanda, Claire, John, Peter, Zechariah, Father Dave, Mario, Josh, Dan, and Alex.  Thank you all for being... you.
xoxo,


*and yes, even though they weren't with us the entire time, I miss Zechariah, Amanda, Daniel, Alexander, Father Dave, and Claire as well... I didn't forget you!!
**I first wrote "solidified", but that gave me an awkward feeling.... WHY JOSH WHY?!?

buzz buzz

Today was utter insanity.  It was the ordination and installation of Bishop Montforten, Steubenville's new bishop.  As a liturgy committee member, I was working it, so after Mass, I ran to get changed for the Mass, then I spent a couple hours setting up, and then I got to greet priests, bishops, and cardinals for 2 hours.  (There were 110 priests, 32 bishops, 2 cardinals, and 8-ish deacons here today!).  And then a 3 hour Mass, take-down and carry-back to the chapel, dinner as committee, and a little homework.  I've been on my feet all day and my brain all swimm-y. (Yes, that's a word.  At least, now it is.)

So pardon the fact that this post is anti-climactic.
love you all, and keep in touch while I'm here on the hill!
xoxo,

like birds upon the dawn arising

This last week has been a week of beauty.

Beauty comes from liturgy committee; those people who I am able to serve with, who all have our Lord as the center of their lives and love helping others worship Him in the Mass.

Beauty is seen in reading blogs.  Blogs that emanate God's love and joy.

Beauty is a multitude of conversations with friends: Robyn, who I've known since Kindergarten; Stasia, an amazing friend here at school; Evie, my ever-insightful roommate; Patrick, who I hadn't gotten to really have a discussion with in a long time; Josh, who's got amazing views of so many things; Mario, who is just fun to talk to and makes me smile.

Beauty is found in the women at Lord's Day, singing praise and worship and sharing their joys of the week with each other.

There is even beauty in swing dancing for 2 hours straight 'till you're sweating, and sloshing through rain that's so heavy that your umbrella does absolutely no good.

These are the weeks that I just have to laugh and think, God is just so present in our lives!

God is there in so many seemingly everyday activities- long late-night walks, dinners in the caf, classes, and homework readings.

I have been struck at the number of relevant articles and such that I've been seeing lately.  Relevant to my life, that is.  Things that I've been struggling with or questioning, I've just run across these things to read and have said "Ok, God, I get it.  I need to work on this.  Thanks."  And then I'll read it and 6 hours later (no, more like 2) he'll throw something else in front of me that I need to hear/read.  People say that God never interacts with us?  I challenge that.  I challenge it from the depths of my soul.

Go now.  Live out the beauty that's surrounding you.  Be aware of God's presence in the minute, seemingly insignificant moments of your life.  And share your joy with others.  For it is through others that we can truly know God's love.

xoxo,

and at last, we come to it

My friends, I'm starting my sophomore year tomorrow. Like, officially.  I mean, I've been here "as a sophomore" since last Sunday, but I legit start tomorrow.  Ok, by now it's today.  You can ignore that fact.  I haven't been to bed yet, so it's tomorrow.

Tonight, I went to the Ministry Fair here on campus.  But this time, I didn't go as a participant.  I went as a member of the Liturgy Committee (LC), and laughed with my fellow committee-members, and I handed out applications for people to be Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, and told them about the training meeting.

I have to run the training meeting.
That means I have responsibilities.

Yeah, yeah, any college student has responsibilities.  But when you're in charge of making sure the EMHCs know what they're doing and are comfortable serving as ministers at Mass?  It's ever-so-slightly (read:extremely) terrifying.

I have an official-looking committee shirt, and an official-looking sweatshirt, and an official-looking binder, and an official-looking name tag.
Oh.  You're claiming I'm official?  If you say so....

So tomorrow I will skip off to my first class as a sophomore (Enviro Sci.  Uhm.) and then have a gigantic meeting with my co-lead of the EMHCs and decipher the handwriting of 70+ students who signed up to be trained next week.  And we WILL be leaders here on campus.  We will train those people and we will train them well!

People have asked for pictures, so I shall give you pictures.  Even if it's just a couple this time. ;) The theme of the day is "Churches".

 (no special effects were used on any of these!)
And if you have a moment (or if you don't, if you could make a moment), say a quick prayer for my brother-in-law who had back surgery today!
xoxo,

It was not today.

Today was just one of those days.

It started fine.  I got up on time, got ready for class, packed my bag, and left for the caf.  And then things just started to go wrong.

Today would be the day they decide to pack up the hot breakfast food early.  5 minutes too early.  Meaning that I had to just have cereal for breakfast.  I went for the granola that I knew had protein in it, but it was stuck in the cereal dispenser, so I had to settle for rice crispies.  Fine, but not very substantial.

Poetry was .... poetry.  That's the only way to describe it.  While leaving class I dug in my bag to find my wallet/cell phone case, turned on my phone, and happened to notice that my key wasn't on my keychain.  I remembered then that I had taken it off the keychain that morning when I went to brush my teeth.  No big deal, I thought, Evelyn (my roommate) would be out of class in 2 hours, and then I could use her key to get into the room.  In the meantime, I would read the next chapter of Poetry to get ahead, go to mass, and meet her after lunch.  Wonderful.  Things were looking up.

Fast-forward 2 hours- I read poetry and attended mass, headed to the caf to eat Evelyn for lunch.  I called her on the way to let her know where I was.  She didn't answer her phone, but usually it's on vibrate, so I left a message.  20 minutes later, I still hadn't seen her.  30 minutes.  40 minutes.  A friend comes by and tells me Ev misplaced her phone.  Aha.  No wonder.  She'll be in the caf in a little while and we can go back to the room to look for the phone.

We finish lunch.  Still no Ev.  We leave the caf.  She's sitting outside on a bench.

Turns out she left her key in the room.  With her ID.  So she not only couldn't come into the caf, but also couldn't go back to the room.  And she was waiting for me, so she could use my key.


Perfect.  Just perfect.

So we head back to the dorm, get in using our friend's key, and head up to our floor to find an RA.  And things just went downhill from there.

The office was closed.  One RA was sleeping.  Another RA was at lunch.  We had seen another leaving the building as we walked in.  2 others weren't in their rooms.  Finally, we decided to interrupt one who was studying.  She was very willing to open the door for us (thankfully!).

The rest of the afternoon was fairly normal.  Until I headed to French class.  As I walked away from the dorm, I realized I had forgotten my Foundations of Catholicism notebook.  Which meant that in the half-hour between French and Foundations, I had to walk to get dinner, buy dinner, eat dinner, walk to my dorm, get the notebook, and walk back to class.  I spent the "down moments" of French class strategizing how to best go about doing this.

French.  Run and buy dinner.  I was trotting up the (cement) stairs near the student center and completely fell flat on my face, whilst holding a cup of iced tea.  Thankfully, there was a lid, but in the process of saving the tea I killed my leg.  I made it into the dorm, ran up 4 flights of stairs, quickly consumed a grilled chicken wrap, threw my notebook in my bag, ran down 4 flights of stairs, got outside and saw that it was pouring, ran back up 4 flights of stairs to get an umbrella, back down those same 4 flights of stairs, and back across campus.  Whewph.  Talk about exercise!

I think that's where the excitement for the day ends.  At least, I hope so.  Because it's 10:35.  Not that the time really has anything to do with it.  Oh well.

Well, this is exciting, but it's happening tomorrow:  my brother's coming!!  Yippee!!  He has offered to take me sneaker shopping..... little does he know what he's getting himself into.  hehe  (Don't worry, I'll go quick like a bunny.)

I'm off to do homework- I don't want to have to do any tomorrow night!

xoxo,