You're My Sugar Rush

Everyone’s favorite time of year is over. Yes friends its true- Rush is over. To me, it seems a blur of matching shirts, decorations, songs, skits, dancing, some forgotten tables (seriously how do you loose 13 tables), and one really bad blonde Hannah Montana wig. Although Rush is completely consuming for 2 weeks, it always seems as if I blink and its over. This year we were blessed with an absolutely incredible pledge class but I cannot help but be a little sad. Not because it was not wonderful and fun (and I got to wear aforementioned ridiculous wig) but because this is the very last time I will get to do it. Ok, so I’m sort of excited of no more rush workshops or freaking out about tables not being delivered but I really will miss the experience of it. It seems like not that long ago that I was a new member and some much older senior was talking to me and handing things down to me. Now suddenly, I’m that much older senior- whoa when did that happen? In a way this is so bittersweet- glad that we have a wonderful new group of girls but not quiet ready to leave this all behind. This fall, I could always hold onto the fact that I wasn’t quite on my way out because hey, there was always rush to get through, but now it seems as if everything is all too quickly coming to an end. I feel energized and excited about the new adventures that wait beyond Furman’s fountains and marathon study sessions in Plyler hall- especially after hearing the wonderful Al talk about how incredible law school is. Still, I’m not quite ready to leave these people here who have impacted me in such profound ways. The good news? I still have time to treasure the time I have left here and I sincerely hope to do so- even if it means uncharacteristically putting down the books a few nights. But maybe, just maybe, its time to take off the Hannah Montana wig and be a big kid now. Maybe.

A ring by spring?

The author's friend is asked if she believes there was one true love for every person.

She said essentially, no. She said she and her husband believed they were a cherished prize for each other, and would probably drive any other people mad.

She said she had married a guy, and he was just a guy. He wasn't going to make all her problems go away, because he was just a guy.

And that freed her to really love him as a guy, not as an ultimate problem solver.

And because her husband loved her as just a girl, he was free to really love her too.

Neither needed the other to make everything ok.

They were simply content having company through life's conflicts.

--A Million Miles in A Thousand Years, by Donald Miller

Ok So I stole this from the one and only Allison Renfro but it struck me so much I just had to post it here. As I prepare to embark on my final semester at Furman I am constantly reminded of the adage- "A ring by spring or your money back!"- This happens so frequently at Furman. I am an expert at playing the "Wow I wish I had a boyfriend card" but this quote has reminded me how important it is to wait on the Lord's time. We are not completed by one person but rather we bring out the best in one another- creating something much greater than our individual selves. One person will not solve our problems but will be there with you throughout all of life's ups and downs. This is what I have learned over the past few years at Furman and for once am so excited to be single (shocking I know). I know that I can handle things with the support of my incredible friends that surround me and that one person is not going to swoop in and make everything perfect. This semester I have kept this quote from one of my favorite bands above my bed- "Before you're ready for someone else, you've got to learn to be alright by yourself." I am reminded that you cannot rely on one person but have to find your own inner strength and be ok by yourself but still finding comfort and solace in wonderful friends.
As I contemplate moving to Charleston and am overwhelmed with excitement, I am also overwhelmed with the knowledge that I will go there as someone who has grown so much even within the past year. I cannot wait to meet the person that I should share those problems with but who knows when that will happen. For now I am content to begin my final undergrad semester knowing that I don't see the whole picture and am much to small for that. I must rely on God for his timing (which is so much better than mine) and be sure of myself in Him. I do not need one boy to save me which is something I did not know for a very long time.
On that note I wanted to share how very very excited I am that my best friend Virginia has found the person that brings out the very best in her! I am so incredibly overjoyed for her and J.Mike and cannot help but beam when people ask me if she is engaged or not. I am so excited for the both of them and to share this wonderful time with them!

Hello 2010, lets be friends

New Years has always seemed like a strange holiday to me. I mean the idea of celebrating a new year and bidding goodbye to the old one seems normal enough but I have never understood why everyone thinks that they should get really drunk to do it. I mean if you’re celebrating a new year, don’t you want to remember the first part of it? Apparently some people don’t want to but to be fair I usually don’t either on account of I generally fall asleep right after the ball drops. Which is exactly what I did this past new years. Except that I was in my hometown with my parents and my dog who ironically provided plenty of entertainment. Perhaps it was the sparkling wine, but nothing can be a better new years memory that hearing your mom call your dad a butthead (Ok I said it earlier but he so deserved it) or telling him to stop doing the ice cream and cake dance to and to just drink his dang champagne. This all happened before 7:30. Our entertainment for the evening consisted of a show called My Husband’s Three Wives (creepy), the Disney channel (my choice for its optimism), and some Lifetime movie called Sorority Wars (it got points for being realistic with the foam party but an ice luge- really!?!?). Sorority Wars didn’t last long so our new years consisted mostly of my mom and I reading and my dad, well, he was still being ridiculous with the ice cream and cake dance. The dog (who by conservative estimates is absolutely worshipped) just laid on her third of the couch and watched us all like we were crazy. Our new years was mostly reading, watching ridiculous shows on TV, being half asleep until right before the ball drops, and embracing the ridiculous in all of us. In other words, it was a perfectly wonderful new years. Although the ice luge would have been a nice added touch.

Goodbye Charlie Brown...

I guess the holidays are officially over. Gone are the meticulous decorations my mother puts up, the perfect Christmas tree overloaded with ornaments, the garland I continually knock things off of. Even the faithful nutcrackers have gone. I love the holidays- not just because I like finding people presents and wrapping them or even the decorations. I personally feel the deepest love for the holiday baking season. Ahhh I can practically smell the Christmas tree cookies baking now. I love that the holidays see no reason to restrain your sweet tooth (I sometimes take it upon myself to save on the grocery bill by eating just cereal and sweets). I love when my mom makes dozens of ginger snaps that my brother’s friends fight over or when my dad eats all of the (read: my) puppy chow. But mostly I love the chex mix. For those of you who have never seen me around chex mix, I am positively useless to resist its deliciousness (we have video proof). I used to think that my mom must have done some sort of voodoo on the chex mix bowl we always used to make it come out perfect but apparently its just a lot of Worchestershire sauce (I stand my voodoo theory).

I love the holiday baking season as much as I love the way that the holidays bring out the crazy in all of us. Face it- we all have crazy families its just that some of us are a little more, shall we say, open about our eccentricities. This Christmas all of my family’s craziness was played out against the backdrop of old family movies. According to them not much has changed. Watching these delightfully embarrassing videos I have learned that there are some things that have remained consistent throughout my life. First, I sleep. A lot. I’m not really in my own christening video because I am, well, sleeping- even through the shrieks of my older brother and the commotion that comes with my family. Apparently my talent for sleep through anything, including one of the worst hurricanes in history and various fire alarms, has always been there. Second, I was horribly accident-prone and probably always will be. At my first birthday I almost fall out of chair (this is after I’ve already become close friends with the neurologist at the hospital) and am playing with forks. Yes forks. I couldn’t watch the video out of fear that I would somehow poke Even playing in the leaves I manage to gracefully dive (read slide) into the pile of leaves and sort of can’t get out. Every video we watched have some sort of disaster that seems eminent. When I dancing around being goofy in the videos, all I can think of is: Hello glass window, meet my head. Clearly my affinity for freak accidents is no accident. And finally I figured out what my roommates laugh at when I talk to anyone from my family on the phone: I have a really southern accent. Nothing quite beats hearing my 6-year-old self talk about her “TEE-AR-RAAAAH.” My accent is absolutely ridiculous and can only be described as coming from Hicksville, USA. What’s good is that these videos showed me that, hey, we’ve all got a little crazy in our families so you may as well just embrace it. Even if that means its Christmas day and you all end up dying laughing at how ridiculous/awkward you looked in the 90s or laughing at silly gifts where you receive a twitter shot glass. Ok maybe the shot glass isn’t so normal. Oh well.