Update on my life

It’s been a hectic but very rewarding couple of weeks since. Let me explain…no, let me sum up. I’ll use headings so that it won’t get as confusing as it usually does.

School (this could take up probably three or four separate headings, but I really will try to be brief.)

The main reason for not updating in a while has been due to an unusually heavy school load. My fast-track (five week session) sociology class was finally completed back on March 26 with a comprehensive final that was headache to prepare myself for. In the end I didn’t actually study for it and that would probably explain why I received a B+ for the final grade rather than an A. To me, really, a B+ is just as good as an A. Maybe even better. Just look at that + next to the letter. You can’t exactly get a A+ for a final grade. So +’s make me feel extra special. Okay. Not really. But I was, and still am, ecstatic to be done with that class so that I can focus on more pressing subjects like theatre.

Theatre is actually one class I don’t and will never have to worry about. I don’t read the text. I don’t study my notes. I write all my papers the night before. I pretty much do everything a student shouldn’t do in a college level class and yet I’ve got an A in there without trying. So maybe the one thing that’s making me do so well is the fact that I come to class every single MWF no matter what. That’s how I pass the tests because I take fantastic notes that are somehow ingrained in my memory and I don’t fall asleep during the lecture. I really don’t see how anyone can fail that class because the professor pretty much asks all the questions directly from the test on review day. It’s kind of a joke, but I’ll take it.

My philosophy class has been the biggest part of the extreme relief I feel now because my group gave our presentation on abortion last Monday and did extremely well. Much better than I could have ever hoped for. My three teammates kept informing me that they were not good at public speaking and that I was probably going to get stuck doing most of it. And…they stuck me with making up the PowerPoint presentation as well. Although in all fairness I did volunteer for that job and did a damn good job too. But I could’ve used some constructive criticism to make it even better. All in all it turned out beautiful though. Plus, our presentation took up almost all of the 55-minute class period and we did manage to get the other students asking questions and even had a mini debate going on for a while. Our video that showed the reality of abortion was noticeably jarring to a lot of the students and I feel like it was exactly what we needed to show at the end of the presentation. It was pretty cool to being that we were presenting both sides of the abortion topic that I got to put in a really strong plug for the anti-abortion side and used a lot of Abort73.com material. Spreading the word. Ending the ignorance.

Economics and psychology (human development) have given me my share of extra work to. In economics we are working on group projects now, particularly the paper, and it is causing me no end of annoying stress. I still haven’t received word from one of our members to inform me if she is still taking the class and therefore on our team and therefore supposed to be contributing to the paper and group structure. I’m very annoyed. Psychology on the other hand is delightfully fun to go to class every day and listed to stories about crazy preschoolers antics. My professor is awesome. And as it turns out she absolutely loved my 4-page research paper comparing “normal” kids and adopted kids development. I wrote all of it the day before it was due and felt utterly convinced that it was my absolute worst paper in the history of my writing career. I was shocked when I saw the A+ 99 (out of 100 thank you very much) on the coversheet of my paper. Blew me away. Looking through her comments she has something underlined and starred on nearly every paragraph. Apparently she thinks I did a ton of research to come up with those conclusions. When in reality I didn’t do any research at all. I was just writing from experience with Gracie being adopted and comparing her to other kids I know. Easy stuff and it paid off. Big time.

Stuff other than school (yep, my life pretty much revolves around school so there probably won’t be even half as much under this heading as the other. Sad isn’t it?)

Operation InAsMuch (OIAM) is just around the corner and I’m so excited that I get to do it again after not participating last time due to unforeseen circumstances (uhm, actually I was backpacking in Big South Fork). For anyone interested, OIAM is a group of churches in the Fountain City area that come together a couple times a year to do clean-up/volunteer projects around Fountain City. We do clean-ups, beautifications, singing, ministering to shut-ins, goodie baskets for firemen, home-repair, kids safety workshops, car-care, free car washes, volunteer with MEDIC, and bake casseroles. There’s a ton more stuff that I can’t remember. It’s a really fun day to be out in force with blue shirts on and demonstrate God’s love to people in simple ways.

Matthew 26:40
…Truly I tell you, in so much as you did it for one of the least of these My brethren, you did it for Me.

Another event that I’m excited about is the Displace Me movement on April 28. Last night I watched for the first time the Invisible Children documentary at my church. Wow. There’s really so much that could be said about that, but at this point that’s all I’ve got. Wowzers. I wish I had watched it last year before the Global Night Commute and then participated in it, but I was sick during that time and couldn’t spend the night outside. This year I’m definitely going to be in Nashville for the Displace Me event. It’s going to be massive. They’ve narrowed it down to fifteen key cities and are spreading the word so that even more than the 80,000 who participated last year will show up for a 24-hour reenactment of what it feels like to be displaced from your home. We will end the war in Uganda. Join the movement. Spread the word. DISPLACE ME