Sizzle and Pop Semester

“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.” - Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines 

 

[A few of my favorite things from this semester...]

1. Dates with this dear friend, Jen, to fancy desert places and to the movies just because we can.  Jen is one of the wisest and most sincere people that I know. I feel truly blessed to have her in my life and I cannot wait to see where the Lord moves her next year. I am really really really hoping that it's to the West Coast.

2. I live in a house known as the McMANSION. These girls are my absolute best friends here in Chapel Hill and they know me so very well. We have fun together and we dress up like nerds for dance parties and we just live our lives everyday in the Lord's freedom. They are the most wonderful friends and housemates.

3. I got to spend this Thanksgiving at my family's lake house with my family and it was extremely relaxing and peaceful. My brother, Cole, came home from his freshman year at college at Salisbury University in Maryland so I got to see him for the first time since mid-August.

4. So sometimes we sneak on the football fields for photo shoots and take ridiculous pictures, making ridiculous faces, in ridiculous poses. But these girls are the absolute best and I LOVE Carolina football.

5. When holiday season rolls around in Chapel Hill there is always an excuse to get dressed up in some costume and to celebrate. For Thanksgiving this year, the girls of Blue Kenan decided to have a Pilgrims and Indian feast. It was mighty delicious and it was full of some of the most fun people.

6. Getting dressed up, spending the evening with the best Young Life team around, and watching one of your old teammates walk down the aisle to marry her best friend? Yes, I would call that one of my favorite things.

7. These friends are known as the kitch snitches and they make me smile each and everyday.

8. Some nights it only makes sense to drop everything you are supposed to be doing and to go play in the rain and to jump in the most epic of puddles and to have attempt to float down McCauley St.

9. It was such a blessing to have nearly all of the McMansion parents to our house for a tailgate before the Parent's Weekend football game. It was so fun hosting them and having them all meet.

10. These ladies are some of the juniors at East Chapel Hill High and they inspire me each and everyday and I cannot imagine my life without them. I love them each so dearly and feel blessed to be their Young Life leader.

11. Fall is most definitely one of my favorite seasons and the pumpkin patch makes me feel like a kid again.

12. In my adventures to Colorado over Fall Break I got to see this guy at Crooked Creek. He has become one my best friends after interning together the past two summers and it was such a blessing to be able to see him while we were out there.

13. The vastness of the Lord's creation was impeccable while we went 4-wheeling in a valley in Colorado. It was a beautiful and adventurous trip and I was constantly being swept away by the Lord's greatness.

14. These two girls, the most bestest friends in the world, planned the best surprise that I have ever received. Amanda, my bestie from Indiana, flew in to surprise me for a weekend and Syd helped it all go down. I have never felt more loved by my friends than I did that weekend.

15. It feels like a perfect night for breakfast at midnight, to fall in love with strangers. We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time. It's miserable and magical, oh yeah. Tonight's the night we forget about the deadlines, it's time. Thank you, Taylor Swift, for midnight Waffle House inspiration and thank you, Jesus, for best friends.

16. I have spent countless hours with these dear friends and teammates meeting, praying, and living life together. They have seen me at my worst and at my best and they are the best people to have by my side as we lay down our lives and attempt to love high schoolers like Christ has loved us.

What have been some of your favorite parts of the semester? Where have you seen and experienced Jesus? What are your hopes and goals for next semester?