HWJLIU

So AJ and I had what was actually a really interesting conversation today about "Living It Up."

Now, AJ and I are probably two of the most sheltered people in all of the city of St. John's. But I challenge you to find anyone on the Avalon who, through it all, leads a happier life than me. I think your work's cut out for you.

Case in point?

The park, beached whale, shovelling, candles, Our Wendy's, bendy ears, and carrying my friends around on my back.

Living it up to the fullest.

And AJ's new motto, which I've adopted for myselffffff:

How would Jesus Live It Up?

I Remember When I Lost My Mind

Everyone jump for joy because you don't have my chemistry prof.

Sooooooo that's one table down, two more to go for the 2% assignment. And then graph it all.

Thanks, buddy, thanks a lot.

You Were Always on My Mind

(sometimes I wish I could just be normal?)

May you have the faith to believe that, right now, you are exactly where you are meant to be.

This wish came in a forward this week, and I can't even begin to convey how much it means to me.

It's so easy for us to get caught up in the uncertainties of our lives right now. We face it every day. So much seems too slow, too fast, just wrong.

If I take nothing else from a year of uncertainty, I've learned one of the biggest lessons of my entire life. I can assure you that nothing feels better than finally embracing the fact that everything going on in my life right now, whether I understand it or not, is for the better.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you;
not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14: 27

Make Much of You

These superstudying days kill me. I am exhaustedddd. But in a little more than 14 hours, my first-year midterms will be over forever. :D

I'm pleased in how well I'm holding up stress-wise. I most definitely work best under pressure. And I've been listening to this song a lot over the past few days, and it's somehow been putting everything in perspective for me:

How could I stand here and watch the sun rise

follow the mountains; they touch the skies

and ponder the vastness and the depths of the sea

and think, for a moment, the point of it all was to make much of me?

How could I lean here and think of the cross

the thorns and the will and the nails and the spear, the infinite cost

to purchase my pardon and bear all my shame

and think I have anything worth boasting in, except for Your name?

Our Mouth was Filled with Laughter

I read this thing last night:

When our world begins to get too serious, we need momentary interruptions of just plain fun. A suprising day off, a long walk in the woods, a movie, an enjoyable evening relaxing with a friend over a bowl of popcorn, a game of racquetball or golf - these diversions can make all the difference in our ability to cope with life's crushing demands. We need to give ourselves permission to enjoy various moments in life even though all of life is not in perfect order.

MARJ

Robyn and I began the house-hunting today. What does everyone think of this one? It's just down the street from where we are now, and it's insanely cheap. I can only conclude that there must be something devistatingly wrong on the inside.

Life is crazy these days. Outside the normal test/lab/assignment overload, all this stuff is happening so fast. We're changing houses. Changing rooommates. People are going to Iqaluit and Quebec and going home and coming here. I feel so not grounded and it's unnerving.

Anyway, random weekend again. I still can't decide what to do about tomorrow. I want to go to saseff. But, besides the fact that noone I know is going, I have so much studying to do.

P.S. Meagan for secretary?

Never Failed Me Yet

I cannot remember a trial or pain

He did not recycle to bring me gain.

I cannot remember a single regret

in serving God only and trusting His hand.

All I have need of His hand will provide;

He's always been faithful to me.

For She's a Jolly-Good Feller

HAPPY AMANDA'S BIRTHDAY!

God Only Knows What I'd Be Without You

It seems that in all my elation about finally making friends in St. John's, I'm neglecting to show my appreciation for the super amazing friends I already have.



To my Giggle Girl
My shorter self
My little kumquat(?)
My BFFAFAF
and the first person I run to tell when I have successfully made someone here fall in love with me:

I love you forever.

Love Can Change Everything

So it's Kiwanis Music Festival time in SinJawn's and tonight in concert band I sat between two first placers in their respective concert groups. I felt so small in the shadow of their self-induced glowage.

It's so funny to think where we'd all be this time last year. Don't get me wrong; Music Festival had it's fun times and was usually quite rewarding. But it was all-consuming. We started with our pieces in the summer, sent in our applications in the fall, practiced all winter, spent an entire week and a half out of school in March, grumbled about who should have won or who made a bad call all spring, and the vicious cycle started all over again. It was who we were.

How crazy were we, though? We fought so hard for that .5 of a mark to beat David Hutchings and cried the times when we didn't get it. Crazy. Who really cares? What music school in the entire world is going to care if we won our solo or our concert group, or even the Rosebowl in Corner Brook, NL? Crazy.



That's one thing that I do find has changed a lot in university: my perspectives. I kind of feel like I'm slowly realizing the insignificance of some of these things in life. I'm making friends with people in my classes whom I know I would never have spoken to in high school. And I got called a nutcase yesterday, and it's still making my life. It was followed by the words, "But we still love you, though," but, because of my new perspectives, I knew that anyway.

:D

You Never Need to Doubt It

I feel like the frigging luckiest girl in the world tonight. The narrator in a book I once read (I'm thinking it was a Mitch Albom one) said that he believes our lives to be based around a concrete supply of happiness, and great peaks in joy are somehow accompanied by great troughs of sorrow. If he's right, I don't think I'm allowed to be this happy all at once.

I suddenly feel like my friends at saseff have exploded overnight. I realized I was not-awkwardly talking to more than two people, something I kind of concluded I was incapable of doing. Blows my mind.

And I was going to finish by saying that this is the first time in a long time that things have felt right here. But that's not true. Things have been very, very different this semester, and I've always been one to cling to things I can prove I love. But not all of this change has been bad.

Team Gushue, growing, fo eva.