I CAN do this!!!!

~Before I start, I just wanted to let you know that I should be tackling some of my tons of homework right now , but I felt it more important to document this! Hope you enjoy!

College so far has been so overwhelming! There have been days that I just want to throw in to towel and give up forever. And I am not exaggerating on this one, there have been days that I have to talk myself out of crying while walking to my next class.

One of these days happens to be last Monday. Mondays are really long for me. I have class from 8 o’clock till 3 o’clock, and one of my classes is my Chem Lab where I stand for three hours doing experiments. Anyway, I had a bad day in my Biology class, mostly because I felt that I didn’t understand what the professor was saying. It’s almost like her brain moves faster than her mouth.  I was really discouraged, but trying to be positive by reciting Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” And I’m sure that I heard a great song on Joy FM during my drive home, I can’t remember at the moment though. I just know I was really down about the class and about college in general and thinking that maybe I had made the wrong choice.

After coming home and working on some homework, and cooking dinner, I decided to push my homework off and go to church for Intercessory Prayer. As we were praying, I don’t remember exactly what was said, but I think it was some thing about our ears being shut to the devil’s lies. That really spoke to my spirit. Suddenly it all made sense. I was letting the devil whisper to me that I wasn’t good enough for this, and that I couldn’t do this, and that I should just give up. Right then and there I decided that enough was enough and that the devil was no longer allowed to tell me these things! I have surrounded myself with Christian music, I started my Bible reading again (I had slacked off during the summer), and I focus on the positive!

I can’t, I’m not good enough, and I should give up are a thing of the past!

With Christ, I CAN, I AM good enough, and I WON’T give up!

Mass of the Holy Spirit???

Thursday was the Mass of the Holy Spirit at SLU. I figured it was a pretty important thing considering that they cancelled all classes for it. I wasn’t going to go until I told Pastor Lindy on Monday night and he encouraged me to go and see what it was all about.

Since I have grown up in an A/G Church my whole life I know a lot about the Holy Spirit. So, when I read that we were having a Mass of the Holy Spirit, I was like, “Okay, Holy Spirit, why not?” Little did I know, Mass of the Holy Spirit is actually a mass. (Note to self when attending events at SLU: anything with the word mass, is probably mass…)

I had never attended a mass before so I was very confused. Once I realized I was in mass, I wanted to leave, but figured it would be rude to get up in the middle and leave. I know I would be offended if someone got up and left from a special service at my church.

Anyway, the Catholics have all of these cues of when they speak and stuff, which kinda freaked me out, not gonna lie. I tried hard to stand and sit when I was supposed to, even though I had no clue when to or why…

And then the priest or maybe it’s the father, got up and blessed some water in a bowl making it holy water. That was weird, but then he walked around the room and sprinkled us with it (which was even weirder) and the people all around me did that weird cross thing across their chest. Me, I was thinking, “Why in the world did you just sprinkle me with water? I know I walked across campus today, but I did have a shower already this morning, and it’s rude not to give me a towel to dry off with…” I wasn’t sure if it was rude wipe the water off my face and arm, so I just let it air dry. It took every thing in me not to wipe it off.

They sang some more songs and said the Lord’s Prayer while holding hands, which I thought was odd, but whatever.

They also read scripture from the bible. I thought they did a good job with that though. They read about the Tower of Babel, Acts 2, and something from Luke. I was impressed with the reading of Acts 2.

And finally we got to communion. Someone announced to the audience that if you weren’t catholic you could still come up for a blessing, just not take the emblems, and you had to cross your arms over your chest like they make you do when going down a waterslide. I decided it wasn’t worth the walk up to receive blessing if I couldn’t take the emblems, so I stayed in my seat. I was very disappointed with communion. First off, they all drink from the same cup, which is disgusting! And Secondly, they don’t read the scripture together and you can’t snap your little Styrofoam wafer thing when it says, “He took the bread and broke it.” They just walk up in a line and eat the bread and drink the wine. I should have told them they were doing it all wrong and showed them how its done7…

Finally, there was another song and maybe a blessing, I can’t remember, I zoned out about halfway through…

Let me just say that I was extremely happy this morning when I got to worship the way I wanted to and take communion without any question. I also was super happy to snap my wafer in half at the allotted time. (I don’t know why that makes me so happy, but it does ;) )

In closing, it will probably be too soon if I ever have to attend another mass, it’s just not my thing, LOL!

1st Week = COMPLETE!

My first week of college has been quite interesting. It has been filled with lots of homework and walking. Here’s a synopsis of what went on:

Monday:

• ·      I realized that 10 minutes between my classes might not be enough, especially once it gets cold and icy…
• ·      I spent about eight hours on campus, seven of which were in classes, and three of which were spent standing because the people at SLU weren’t nice enough to give the Chem Lab rooms stools/chairs. (Personally, I think I am paying enough in tuition to deserve a chair.)
• ·      I decided that I don’t particularly like my Chem Lecture of roughly 300 people.
• ·     After I got home, I cooked dinner, went to church, and then crashed.

Tuesday:

• ·      I got a nice break from my one day of class and worked all day.
• ·      Oh, and my legs hurt from all the walking I did on Monday. (My body was so not ready for that…)

Wednesday:

• ·      I spent four hours in class.
• ·      I walked around the SLU Fair for like 5 minutes, decided there were too many people, and then left.
• ·      I went to the Galleria and chilled for a while (3 hours).
• ·      While at the Galleria I attended a One-to-One session at the Apple Store to try to figure out why my PDF files wouldn’t open. Conclusion: Apparently Adobe hasn’t updated their software for Lion. At least that’s what the guy told me. Oh, and by the way, it now works…
• ·      I went back to campus and got lunch at Chick-fil-a. (This is not your normal Chick-fil-a either, it’s an express, which basically means the food is already prepared and sitting under heat lamps… ewww)
• ·      I attended a Sexual Assault Seminar, which basically told me to expect respect. I already knew that. Thanks for wasting my time that I could have been working…
• ·      Then I headed to church even though I was really tired and had lots of homework. I was not going to let satan keep me from church!

Thursday:

• ·      I attended my two classes for the day. My Bio Lab got out two and a half hours early, so I caught up on some reading.
• ·      I unintentionally attended a Mass… (There will be a blog about that one later…)
• ·      I went to work for two hours
• ·      I came home and made dinner.
• ·      I did my homework and then crashed.

Friday:

• ·      I attended my four hours of class
• ·      I went to work.
• ·      I went home and then left to watch Soul Surfer with some awesome people!
• ·      And now I am writing this blog about to crash.

There are also a few things I learned during my commute:

• ·      If I leave my house at 6:30, I avoid most of the traffic on 170 & 64.
• ·      Other drivers really don’t like it when you drive the speed limit, especially in the left hand lane…
• ·      Even if you drive above the speed limit, people will still pass you.
• ·      Even though the bridge at the Grand Exit is gone, I still check to make sure there are no cars coming. Who knows, there could be a Back to the Future moment or something…

I want to say thank you to all of my Family and Friends who have been praying for me this week, and to Air 1 and Joy FM for keeping me sane during my commute! Muchas Gracias!