I know we're already a week into October, but September was such a great month I wanted to take a beat and reflect. :)
HIGHLIGHTS:
- I started my full-time job. So far? It is really, really great. And I'm extremely thankful I can say that with complete honesty. The culture is fun and the people on my team are bright, and I come home at night still with energy and enthusiasm to return the next day. It's hard being the "new girl," and to be totally honest, this new role is completely different from my past experiences so I am coming in with zero expertise; which isn't fun to not know how to do your job, but if there was a place to walk in new, this is the place to do it. (I'll update more about this later.)
- I'm checking out churches. E and I committed to church hopping until end of November, and it's been one verrry interesting process. Again, I've never looked for a church before, let alone been a visitor at a church before, so this is all foreign territory to me. Five weeks in and eight churches visited, and it has been one heck of a roller coaster. There's been phases of discouragement, doubts if we'll ever find a good church, homesickness for our old home church, etc. But also phases of hope, unique opportunity to worship alongside brothers/sisters we'd probably never witness otherwise, seeing a wide spectrum of church communities, and then once in awhile entering a church where you know God's blessing is present. Interestingly, MN has a TON of churches! Many, many mega-churches... I don't know if this is unique to MN or more on my radar just cause I'm looking, but there are so many mega-churches. I've been in more mega-churches this month than I have in my entire late! I definitely notice my guard go up with mega-churches and I need to be more discerning with that, but it has been cool to worship in super nice facilities/praise teams/etc. Anyway, as of late, there's a few I really enjoy so far and I'm eager to join a small group and be in a community again. :)
- I'm enjoying fall. All those fall things girls love. Apple orchards. Pumpkin spice latte. Flavored candles. Scarves and sweaters. You name it! I am totally embracing this season with open arms.
- I'm making new friends. While trying to refrain from sounding like a third-grader who made friends at lunch by trading their apples for chips or on the school playground, but hey, when you move to a new city you gotta make new friends and put yourself out there. You know me, I'm all about the story-sharing, memory-making and right adjacent to the spitting in your hand and making a secret handshake kinda thing, so I like making new friends. There's a bunch of 20-something transplants, so I'm definitely not alone in this process. What's great about being in a new city and making new friends is that you do activities that you probably never would have done before. Ex: my girlfriends and I call a great night one spent on the couch, and we visit the same spots for dinner. However lately, I've tried boat riding, kayaking, hiking, and apple picking. :) Just to name a few... I guess you can call me your adventure queen. (Clearly I didn't get funnier moving to a new state.)
YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
venturing from starbucks
celebrating our three year
lakeside
apartment tour
And take out all my life lately posts here!
Hello! That's my excited face. And I'm EXCITED to share on this blog my goals for the upcoming month, September. :) This week has been an awkward one because we're in the middle of transition— from summer to fall, from a lazy bum to a (kind of) diligent student, and from being blog-less to blog-filled(?). You get the point.
Starting this Monday, I will be a junior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign majoring in Advertising, with a minor in Communication. That's a mouthful. That's what she said. I joke.
But this year is exciting for several reasons:
- My roommate is one of my best friends.
- The two of us are sharing a room meant for three people. Hellllo, extra closet space!
- The class load for this semester is solely concentrated on media/communication classes, meaning I'll be studying the stuff that (I think) makes me passionate.
- The following semester, my roommate and I will be in... wait for it... BELGIUM! Aw, yeah. (Side note: I JUST watched, "Taken," this past week, and every time I think of the words, "studying abroad," my anxiety level starts rising and I may or may not want to crawl back into my mother's wombs where it's safe and prostitution is far at bay. Ignorance really may be bliss. Welp, good thing I'm serving on the Executive Board for the organization that faces the reality of prostitution/sex trafficking.)
- And yup. This will be my first year on the exec board for the organization, International Justice Missions (IJM). The org. is all about raising awareness and money for the social injustice currently happening in the world, helping victims of the social injustice, and doing work through prayer, because even an issue like this is the in the Lord's hands. My official title is called: Fundraising Director; I'm basically in charge of bringing in all the cash money for the campus organization and coming up with all the clever ways to do so.
- Lastly, not to sound like a total nerd, but this is one of my favorite times of the year. Notebooks are fresh, pens are fully inked, the planner is just waiting to be filled with appointments and meetings, and ambition is at its peak.
I'm determined. And my determination usually materializes itself in a form of goals.
Fun fact: I'm a goal setter and a strong believer in "to-do" lists. I think time is meant to be spent with productivity, and personally, I NEED a vision of some kind of finish line; whether it be getting an A on an exam or checking off the box on the "to-do" list. (Come on, I know you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. It's awesome and liberating.)
But rather than making a year-based resolution that I'll probably never even get close to finishing, I'm making goals based on the month. That way, the goals are more appropriate for the time, it's easier to envision, and much easier to accomplish.
So, without further ado, the goals for September 2012 are as follows:
- Read a book. (Or two.)
- Save up to purchase the Adobe Suite.
- Blog at least 4x a week for all four weeks.
- Study during the day; do not pull a single all-nighter.
- Find a Zumba workout video. And then do it.
- Keep the closet organized.
- Do not skip a single class.
- Make it to office offer for each professor.
- Go to morning prayer.
- (under construction)
And there you have it.
You may or may have not noticed that the "goals" are vague and definitely not measurable. There are no numbers or dates or anything. And that's the point. Goals aren't meant to be daunting shadows hanging over your heads forcing you into waves of guilt and hiding; they're meant to guide, inspire, to keep you on track. At least that's what I'm telling myself. So yes, my goals are vague, but one thing that is NOT on my list is perfection, and THAT'S intentional. I'm not aiming for perfection, but progression. So, so what if I only make it to MP once or read only half a book? I will rejoice because it's all about the progression.
What are your September goals?
