Saying Goodbye to the "Summer of 48 Hours"

I'm sitting here waiting for my last blood samples to be taken at the endocrinologist's office and taking this time to reflect on my summer. I'm blogging from my phone so I don't think this post will look too pretty, but what can you do?

I'm so so so so so beyond thankful for such an awesome summer. And by awesome, I'm referring to all the things God's revealed to me. It's been a rough summer but I know everything has had a purpose in God's plan for me.

Not only did I get to see such amazing sights this summer, everything from the beaches and people in Barbados, the beautiful mountains God perfected at Lake Junaluska, the smiles on youth's faces as they worship, and the ocean at Jekyll Island. I've seen so much and I'm so grateful. I also got to experience some not-so-pleasant things like sun poisoning in Barbados, spraining my ankle at the lake, missing out on ADPi's Leadership Seminar, multiple health problems, and a very rushed summer.

I'm saying goodbye to the Summer of 48 Hours and it earned its named easily! Let's see, I was home a couple days between school and Barbados, then home 48 hours with a trip to Augusta and then I left for Lake Junaluska. My first week at the lake went by fast and Nana got put on hospice so I sped home. I was home...you guessed it, right at 48 hours! I got back to the lake and stayed until the middle of July! I got to come home for 2 short days while being stuck at home since I couldn't drive! I got to finish off my summer at the lake on the mountaintop and came home just to unpack and repack for the beach with my family. We got home Thursday and this is the longest I've been home since May! It's been filled with doctor visits and gearing up for my senior year!! Yikessss, it's here. I'm officially a senior!!!

How has my rushed summer turned into my last year of college so soon!? It's been fun to look back at the place I've been each year going to school...

Freshman Year: TERRIFIED!! I was terrified for many reasons. I was that 1/5000000 people who didn't want to go to college. Yup, I wanted to avoid the whole thing! My BFFL Katherine and I even used to make up plans to just stay home and skip over the college years! We knew it would never work but I was still hoping for my lucky lottery ticket to save me from the college years (not that my mom ever agreed to that). I wasn't scared of the work load or not being able to make friends. I was scared of change and change is exactly what I got! I had to make all new friends seeing as I didn't know anyone and I had only made two friends, Sarah and Callie, before heading to the Presby! I didn't have everything I was so used to having in high school including my family, boyfriend, best friends, church, and the comfort of my life in Irmo. Time to start all over...talk about scary! But the good news is on the first day of classes I had a sense of peace come over me to remind me I was in the exact place God wanted me! I had no idea I could be where I'm at now.

Sophomore Year: EXCITED!! I was definitely excited to head back to school. I had established friends (BEST friends), my place in ADPi, and I had 2 new jobs waiting on me! I had no idea how the year would change so much. Looking back and remembering how much change there was between freshman and sophomore year is crazy! Even though my freshmen from last year aren't my residents anymore, I still think of them as my babies haha. And even though my job is technically over with them, I know God placed them in my life and vice versa for many reasons! They continue to teach me and I hope I can continue to teach them. Coming back to school as a sophomore is TOTALLY different from freshman year! It's a good different but can be scary too! Let's be honest, what part of college isn't a little scary? I would say ALL of them!

Junior Year: OVERJOYED! I think that's a real word...if not, I just made it up because that's exactly how I felt going into my junior year. I had the absolute best summer of my life and couldn't have imagined a better start to the year. I was sooooo excited to be in Belk with my freshies! Freshmen are so much fun, sometimes too much haha! They're so impressionable and I knew God was preparing me for my role in Belk. My junior year was indeed the best year of college yet but it was also the hardest. My classes, health, jobs, and other commitments made it a difficult year but all the hard work paid off for sure.

And now we're to senior year. How am I feeling? Excited. Old. Confused. Invigorated. Anxious. Nervous. Happy. Sad. And probably any other emotion possible!! I can't wait to see what this year holds for me. I want this to be the favorite year by far! I'm sure it will be! All my besties are in the same dorm for the first time EVER!! God taught me a lot this summer I can't wait to use in my daily life. I'm hoping to glorify Him in my actions this year! And just think of where I could be this time next year...who even knows?!

Thanks for reading!!!! :)

Update on My Health!!!

Sorry I've gotten so bad at blogging this summer, its been the craziest summer!  I had another mountaintop summer at Lake Junaluska and while I was super sad to leave, I was also very excited to spend some time at home!  

I saw the orthopedist again for my ankle 2 weeks ago.  I was hoping he'd let me leave the boot and downgrade to a brace.  Unfortunately, my ankle wasn't doing well enough for the downgrade.  He told me my ankle was still too swollen for him to know if it was anything more serious than the sprain and torn ligaments.  He's thinking due to how its healed so far, I probably have a high ankle sprain for sure which can take 3-6 months to heal all the way...yikes!  I would like to say my ankle is all better but it still hurts a lot.  I'm kind of worried when I get back to school that walking so much is going to set me back.  Prayers for continued healing, por favor!!

On to my thyroid...or not.  I went to the endocrinologist this morning.  She's from Iran and kind of hilarious.  

She doesn't have the best English so when she walked in she said,
"Hey Miss Rachel...I can't pronounce your last name."
I said, "Fogle! And its okay because I can't pronounce yours either!"  

We agreed she can just call me Rachel and she's just Dr. K.  Well Dr. K couldn't understand why I was there since my tests came back normal so I explained to her everything leading up to today and good thing she's the doctor because the wheels in her brain were just turning thinking of what it could be.  Dr. K doesn't think my thyroid is the problem right now.  There's no denying all the symptoms I'm having and yes, they go along with thyroid stuff but they also could be pointing to other health conditions.  Dr. K's number one idea is that I'm insulin resistant.  She kept warning me not to freak out because some people confuse this as "You have Diabetes!" but she said that wasn't what she was trying to say.  Pretty much from what I understood, there's too much sugar in my body and my body doesn't really know what to do with it.  Her other ideas were polycystic ovarian syndrome or something could be going on with my pituitary gland.  All of these control hormones which is where the problem is at for sure.  

So the next step is to get a bunch of tests done...11 to be exact.  She told me I could come in whenever I want, they'll take 3-4 hours to complete, and I just have to fast before showing up.  Most of them are just blood tests but one of the insulin tests takes 3 hours itself.  I'll be at the office first thing Monday morning to get these tests out of the way before moving back to PC Monday afternoon.  What a day that'll be!  She said she'll have the results in about a week's time, possibly even by the end of next week and depending on the results, she'll go ahead and write me a prescription.  The good thing is she's having tests done on my metabolism, pituitary gland, thyroid, and lots of other things.  She hasn't ruled out the thyroid stuff and she'll continue to watch it.  Dr. K did tell us something new we weren't told before.  She said not to be alarmed by the right side of my thyroid being larger than the left because anything we have two of, one is always a little bigger.  Also there were some nodules on my thyroid.  My aunt and great aunt both have/had nodules on their thyroids so this is genetic.  Also, she realizes I have a goiter and isn't denying that.  The goiter is the swelling of my thyroid (the puffiness around my neck which is obvious).  I will go back for a check up at the end of October (the same week as Recruitment, of course) and she will do another ultrasound of my thyroid at the beginning of November to check the nodules, see if there are any more or if there's any new concerns with my thyroid.  

Needless to say, I didn't have the doctor's visit I was expecting but Dr. K sounds very hopeful that she's narrowed down what's going on.  I just pray that all the tests will show her exactly why my body is doing the crazy things it is.  I pray for answers and the right treatment.  She told me some hopeful stories of girls she's seen just like me and they come back in for their check up much happier and feeling 100% better!  I forgot to tell the saddest part of this whole insulin resistance thing.  I have to cut back major on sugar...which if you know me you know I love sugar in all forms (this could be where my problem comes from haha!)  This is going to be very very difficult!  But Anna, one of my roommates this year, has already promised to stick by my side and help me out with this. It will make things interesting to say the least.  Dr. K also said I could go see the nutritionist in their practice to help me put a new diet together!  Whoo hoo!!!  All hopeful news right now.

Keep me in your prayers as Monday approaches....and as I try to get sugar and sweets out of my diet.  All prayers are appreciated!  Thank you and I love you all :)

Oh heyyyyyyyyyyyyy God!

Helloooooooooooo everyone!  

(at least I like to think there's an everyone to say hello to...maybe its just one person haha!)

I'm sitting at registration for Surge 5!  How in the world is it already session 5?!!?  This summer is flying by.  This is our 5th session back to back and to say we're exhausted in definitely an understatement.  Also, I decided I wanted to wear myself out a little bit more by spraining my ankle last Thursday.  Well, what had happened was...we were about to go out to lunch so I went to get my car.  Of course I had parked down at the bottom of the hill (because we had to) and I was going to bring my car up to drive other people to lunch!  Well this hill I had to walk down is not my favorite.  I've fallen down many many times and this trip was just like the others.  I was walking with JB and he fell and stood up and I said, "Man, I hate when I fall down this hill!"  What do you know but as I was finishing my sentence, my right ankle turned underneath me and popped SOOOOO loudly and I went rolling down the hill.  This is definitely the worst pain I've ever felt.  However, I was really calm...kind of like the same feeling I got when I got in my car accident.  Honestly, the thought that went through my head was..."oh yay, just one more thing!"  All I could do was scream, no tears!  Crazyyyyy because I love crying but I just couldn't cry at the  moment which is a blessing in disguise.  

Literally the day before, I finally got things worked out from my car accident.  We are settling and things will be good again!  Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!  But hey, let's add another thing to my plate.  All I can think of is James 1:2-4:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

In my Christian Education class last year, I had to do a mini-lesson on this verse.  All I remember was talking about Ashley who worked with me last summer and she would always say, "Consider it pure joy!  Consider it pure joy!  Consider it pure joy!"...even when you definitely don't want to be considering any of this joy!  I don't see the joy in this injury.  Honestly, I'm tired and exhausted and hurting and just feeling like a failure.  I have to depend on others for almost everything and I'm really really bad at that.  I want to be able to do things on my own but I just can't.  I held in my emotions for Session 3 but by the time Session 4 came around, I was so tired of hurting that my sassy side came out.  I guess everyone saw the other side of me?!  I try to be super positive and happy and stress free in the summer so this is dampering what I'm going for.  I'm trying to be as nice as I can but its getting really hard.  To just be in pain ALLLLLLLL the time, it sucks....really bad!  Then when I'm tired from the day, I have to go back to the house I live in and since it was built in the 1920's it doesn't have an elevator!  And then I'm climb up to the 3rd floor where I live.  Its a struggle!

Sorry for the complaints but I'm in desperate need of some encouragement right now!  We still have 4 weeks here (with two little breaks) and I've got to get feeling better soon or I don't even want to see how sassy I might be at the end of the summer!  Also, I'm a little bummed out because I hurt my right ankle of course and can't drive.  I'm supposed to be going to ADPi's Leadership Seminar for all the Presidents today.  There's no way I'd be able to drive 3 hours home then another 3 hours to Atlanta.  I think my ankle would just fall off.  But I know God is using this in His plan.  For some reason I'm supposed to be here for this session and not in Atlanta even though I'm going to be missing out on serious ADPi time!  We have a break next Monday-Wednesday and I would really like to go home but it will all depend on my dang ankle!  I might be chilling at the lake for a couple of extra days but hopefully I'll get to see my fam!!!!!!!!!!!  (wink wink family)  Keep me in your prayers because I'm going to see the orthopedist tomorrow!!!! Praise the Lord because the doctors at the Urgent Care suck as well.  Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you're having a wonderful summer! :)

God is too good to me!

Whoa! I don't even know what to say.  God has seriously been blowing my mind.  

Yesterday was the beginning of the second session of Surge already!  This is CRAZYYYYYY!!!! These sessions fly by so fast :(((  First session was a little rough.  And by a little rough I mean, I just wanted high schoolers sooooooo badly!  I had middle schoolers in my living group (small group) and I just struggle with middle schoolers.  I just don't really have the patience and when I do have the patience its usually because they don't talk.  I know some middle schoolers can be awesome but I still just struggle with them.  I was so sad that everyone else was having an awesome time with their groups and I got the middle schoolers who wouldn't talk!  I know God has a purpose for everything so I knew there had to me a hidden meaning in there.  

Well, last night was the first time with my living group from session 2!  I got high schoolers this week so I was pretty darn excited!  Also Jordan and Tyler from the band were in my group.  So pretty much, my living group is awesome.  At the end, I asked everyone what they're hoping to get out of this week and what they think God's going to teach them.  DANG!!!!  I could just feel the Holy Spirit in that room and I know God is doing awesome work this week!  I left them with a challenge that we'll talk about every day this week.  I'm going to ask them where they saw God today.  I can't even wait to her their responses!!!!! I closed us out in prayer and I just started crying.  It was so great!!!! Y'all know I love to cry, not in a weird way!  Well I was just crying and so happy and so excited to see the awesome things God will be revealing this week.  

The youth are out on missions right now and I'm supposed to be working.  I'm finding it veryyyyyyy hard to concentrate because I'm so tired.  I know its my own fault but still I'm so tired!!! In the past two nights, I've gotten 7 hours of sleep total!  WHOOPS!  Saturday after worship, we went to Cookout with the band and got back at 2 and then for some crazy reason, I'd volunteered to make the week's slideshow.  So I stayed up until 4 making the slideshow.  It was awful...absolutely awful but it was done and that's all that mattered.  So last night I was like, "Yeah! I'm going to go to bed early and catch up on sleep!!!!" and guess what I did?  I stayed up until 2:45!!!! Jamie, Clay, Jordan, and I had a little adventure of a night.  We went to Walmart where Jamie bought a scooter.  She's literally a 7-year-old boy!  (love you grandbaby) We got cookie dough so we could make some cookies.  Then we went to Wells Fargo and McDonalds!  Finally we went back to Colonial where the boys finished some laundry and I made cookies, its what I do best!  Then we just waited and waited for the clothes to be done.  Needless to say, I need some sleep.  Fingers crossed that I get a nap today or this girl might not make it through worship tonight.

I am absolutely loving life and loving the lake!  I can't wait to see where this summer leads me.  God is doing great things!!! 

Happy June!

HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! Here I am writing from the crooked chair in the office at Shackford (the building we have our sessions in for the summer) working at Lake Junaluska (take 2)! I can't believe I've already been here 2 and a half weeks and the youth show up tomorrow.  I'm beyond excited.  God is really teaching me a lot already.  Last summer I prayed for a long time for God to open my heart before realizing God had been working in me the whole time.  So this year I knew I had to show up to the lake with an open heart ready for God to get some work done (not that He doesn't work on me at home or anything).  I just believe God brings me to the lake to take the rest of my hectic world away from me so I can get back to where I want to be.  I hope that makes sense, it makes sense it my head at least!  

Anyways, its been a whirlwind of a 2 and a half weeks at the lake.  I was here for a week before my mom called me and updated me on Nana's health.  The hospice nurse told us to get the whole family to here ASAP.  So I drove home in tears just praying she'd be alive still when I got home--she was and we visited throughout the weekend.  We thought it might be Nana's time to meet Jesus but nope!  I'm seriously convinced she's just trying to set the record for Most Times Surviving Hospice.  This was #3!  Go Nana!

Before heading home, we got our individual assignments and I'm leading the missions team in coordinating mission sites throughout the summer.  This is such an exciting position.  While I've been on plenty of mission trips and I love doing mission work, this position is very unique to anything I've done before.  I'm using my phone skills I've acquired in Admissions (thanks Parker!) and trying to work with as many places that need volunteers this summer as possible.  I know God is going to do great things and I've got a pretty great team I'm working with.  

Last weekend was a highlight I must say.  Saturday night, Miranda and I started watched wedding videos while making what seems like 5.6729 billion bracelets for a response we're doing.  So I found some new videos I really enjoyed, maybe you will too.  Also, I've shown many new people just how exciting and precious wedding videos are.  Of course I love love and I love weddings but what I really love most about these videos is I get to see people happy and in love!!!!!  Since my blog only likes YouTube videos, I can only attach a link but I promise you they're worth watching!!!!

http://vimeo.com/27437953

http://vimeo.com/27602415

http://vimeo.com/30823548

http://vimeo.com/29729997

And this one is definitely a top contender as far as wedding videos go....

http://vimeo.com/32350669

That's all for now! I can't wait to update you with all the fun stuff God's opening my eyes to.  Loves ya!!!

a whirlwind of a month...

First off, I'm very sorry I haven't blogged in soooooo long.  So much has happened in this past month!  I'm going to try to cover everything as fast as possible haha!

1. Thyroid Update:

I got some new news during Exam Week, about an hour before I went to take my first exam (of course).  Well there's good news and bad news!  The good news is there were not hot spots or cold spots found on my Nuclear Thyroid Scan.  Praise the Lord!!!! There's no growth, but the scan still showed that my thyroid is indeed enlarged and more so on the right side than the left side still.  The bad news is that my doctors literally have NO idea what's wrong with me!  They are just stumped as to why all my tests show up pretty much normal with no explanation as to my large thyroid, so I've been referred to the endocrinologist and can't get an appointment until the first week of August.  I ask that you could pray just for peace in this time because I've got all summer to just wait...which means all summer to just think about my thyroid.  I know God is using this experience to help me in some way I just have no idea what that way is yet.  

2.  I'm a SENIOR!!!!

I have finished my junior year and on to the next one!  I cannot believe I'm about to be a senior.  Wait, what?!  I feel like I was just graduating from high school and choosing where to spend my 4 years in college.  Little did I know I would end up at Presbyterian College loving everything about it.  Good news: I made the Dean's List both semesters this year!!!!!!  Not to toot my own horn but I'm pretty proud of myself.  This year was by far my hardest and I stuck it out and did the best I've ever done in my 3 years.  I'm going for that 4.0 next year...it'll happen!  

3. Crazy couple of days...

Between exam week and graduation, life was purely crazy!  I had one week at home so I headed home with a packed car on Saturday, May 5 and stayed awake long enough to get some dinner and crashed while watching Sweet Home Alabama.  My week at home was spent taking care of my mommy dearest after her surgery (only 6 more weeks to go until she's 100%)!!  I took a trip up to PC on Wednesday night to get another load from my ginormous room.  Good thing my dad was there to help me out because I just have a lot of crap.  I spent Thursday unpacking and packing for Barbados and the plan was to head back to school Friday night and clean and pack before Graduation on Saturday.  However, to do that I would have to be fully packed for Barbados.  Friday was crazier than it was supposed to be!  All I wanted to do was take Aunt Laura to lunch and have an afternoon to pack before heading back to school for the night.  I had no idea I'd fall into a credit card scam.  Okay, I totally admit that this scam was my fault but keep in mind the craziness of my week!  So this scam started out totally normal, this little old lady (who I was picturing as being precious) called me and asked if I had time for a survey.  I said yes because...well I never really say no to surveys even though I should.  She said she was calling because I had entered some sweepstakes and I enter sweepstakes all the time so I didn't think much of it.  She said she was with Discover which  made sense because I recently got a new Discover credit card.  We did a little survey and she told me she wanted to give me 4 magazine subscriptions just for doing the survey (WINNING!!!).  Then she said it would just cost $5 for shipping...still winning.  Then she threw it that it would be $5/week for 60 months...whoa baby, NOT WINNING ANYMORE!  But by this point she was talking so fast I didn't even know what was going on and she forwarded me to her supervisor and asked that I put in a good word for her, so I did, I mean she was sweet.  Her boss talked even faster and my brain was just spinning.  (Why I didn't hang up, I have noooooooo idea!)  He asked which card I wanted to put the payment on so I said my Discover (the one I just got, the one I thought they were calling from).  He said they couldn't process Discover or American Express right now...again why didn't I hang up?!  So he said I could pay with a VISA or MasterCard.  So I said VISA!  He asked for the number and I gave it to him.  As soon as I heard him running it (it sounded like the old dial up) I freaked out.  I hung up and called my mom apologizing because I knew you're never supposed to give out your credit card number, especially to a company who supposedly has your info already.  I called my bank and cancelled my card and they told me I'd have to come downtown to get a new card and I HAD to have a new card since I was leaving the country 3 days later.  I had lunch with Laura and she helped me take my mind off of things and then it was back to the stressful life.  

Isn't she just the cutest?!  I love her soooooo much.

I rushed all over Columbia like a mad woman.  I got me a new debit card and explained everything to the people at the bank.  They didn't think I was stupid so I started to feel a little better about the whole thing.  Needless to say I didn't make it to PC on Friday night.  I spent the whole night packing and unpacking and stressing.  I woke up super early Saturday morning to get back to PC, pack before graduation, go to graduation, then grab lunch and pack some more before having to work senior check-out.  Gotta love those CA duties when I'm on a time schedule to leave the country!  But everything turned out perfectly!  I had to run back to my room to return some dishes to someone and ended up having extra time to really empty my room out all the way.  It was super depressing and I've never felt so sad to leave a room before.  I don't think I've ever grown to love a room so much...ever.  A lot happened in that room!  It was helpful to have Lucia and Sean (my favorite couple ever) with me as I was leaving my room.  

Look how empty :(

I finished up check out at 5, checked out of my own room and left Clinton by 5:30.  I got home around 6:30, ate dinner with my family and my dad and I were on the road to Charlotte.  Don't you know, we got 10 minutes away from home and I realized I'd left a load of clothes in the dryer!!!! AHHHHH! and my dad wasn't too happy about it...but he loves me so we turned around.  My mom made sure I counted to 10 before heading back out the door to try it again.  Needless to say we had a late start.  We got to Charlotte and I took a 3 hour nap before waking up to get ready to head to Barbados.  I had to be at the airport at 3:30 a.m. so my dad insisted that we leave the hotel (5 miles from the airport) by 2:45 a.m.  Gotta love my dad for making sure I didn't miss my flight!

4. Barbados:

I embarked on my 10 day journey to Barbados on May 23 super duper early in the morning. Both of our planes on the way to Barbados had awful turbulence.  I lost my stomach a couple of times :(  I swear I thought we were going to just fall out of the sky.  Barbados was beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I just love always getting to look out a see the ocean, which is one of the reasons why I love cruises so much so getting to be on land and see the ocean all the time was great!  And it wasn't just like being at the beach because these waters were clear and beautiful!!!  We did so much in our 10 days there its crazy to think it was only 10 days!  We literally drove around the island 3 times.  We got to see how the Bajans live and it was just sooo much fun! Here are some pictures from my trip!

first family picture of many

one of the precious babies we met :)

in Welchman Hall Gulley with Callers

my first experience with sun poisoning after Jammin' all day on the catamaran

in Bridgetown for the day...the day my sun poisoning got the best of me

made a pit stop at the University of the West Indies-Cave Hill book store and they had just the book for me :)

<><><><><><><>

diamond family

roomies :)

5. Craziness before the lake:

To think its been a crazy month, its even crazier to think about my last 48 hours at home for a while!  I was hoping my cousin Courtney to have her baby girl in one of those 48 hours so I would be able to see the baby before August.  Technically Courtney isn't my family, but my mom is best friends with her mom and she has always been like a big sister to me so getting to see baby Gracen was a big deal to me.  God helped me out and Courtney got induced for Thursday the 24th!  (the day I got home from Barbados)  We didn't visit the hospital Thursday because we thought it would be too much of an adventure to get me, my sister, and my mom in her wheelchair to the hospital.  So Thursday I did lots and lots of laundry, unpacked, and repacked!  (Story of my life this summer!)  Friday, we met Gracen.  She is absolutely beautiful and I'm sooooo excited Courtney is finally a mommy!!!!  I just can't get enough of Gracen and I can't wait to see her grow up!!!!!

After leaving the hospital, I went to lunch with Sarah and my mom and then got to see Jimmy for a little and finally give him his shirt from Crush Party...ohh only 2 months late.  After that, I packed some more at home and headed to Augusta to see Anna.  I finally got to see my bestie Anna who has been abroad for 4 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Talk about a great reunion!!!! We hugged for a good while which is saying a lot about me since I'm not one for long hugs.  It was so funny because she kept poking me in disbelief that I was actually there in front of her instead of behind a computer screen.  Awww I just missed Anna soooooo much!!! Its so good to know we're at least in the same country again.  We didn't waste any time and headed straight to the mall...what do we do best other than shop?!  So we went shopping a lot...maybe too much and then went to Takosushi, our favorite place!  We went back to Anna's house and stayed up talking until 2!  It wast just like old times and we're getting super excited for next year to finally be living together again.  We slept for a couple hours and woke up for breakfast at Chick-Fil-A!  I drove home for a cookout and more packing...surprise, surprise!  After the cookout, John came to my house and we were ready to hit the road for the lake!

6. Lake Junaluska: Take 2!

John and I had a road trip up to the mountains and finally arrived Saturday night!  I have been so ready to be here for the past year and can't believe summer is finally here and I'm finally back at this place I call home.  I can't even wait to see how God uses me this summer.  Last summer I focused a lot on trying to open my heart to God and waiting for Him to start working in me while this summer I believe I came with an open heart and  I know every day God will be teaching me and showing me new things!  I already love my new staff and can't wait to see how crazy we'll get together!  Keep checking my blog for updates throughout the summer and keep me in your prayers.  I'm hoping for big things and plenty of slaps in the face from the Big Man Upstairs! :)

Procrastination at its finest...

As if you couldn't tell by now how good I am at procrastinating, I'm pretty darn good at it.  I think I've always always always procrastinated.  I remember even in 4th grade procrastinating on a book report.  Even then my mom would say, "Rachel, don't procrastinate or it'll follow you your whole life!"  I think it must be in my blood because I've never stopped.  Of course procrastination now is much worse than those 4th grade days seeing as I have much more work to do now.  I decided what better way to put off my work that to blog about how I'm putting off my work?  Haha, it works for me!  We are on day 2 of exams here at the Presby and I still haven't had an exam yet.  I have one tomorrow and one on Friday.  I figure since I have to stay until Saturday anyways for CA duties, it doesn't really matter when my exams are.  I think I'm still in denial that its even exam week.  This year has seriously flown by sooooooooooooo fast!  I don't know where the time has gone.  I've been getting so sad that its the end of another year.  Like the next time I come to PC, I'll be a senior!  What the what?!  This isn't happening.  Even though I'm sad my time at PC is going by fast, I think I'm more sad that my year with the freshmen is over.  

See its a funny story...my freshman year I wanted to live in Belk, the all freshman girls dorm, but I got put on Clinton 4th.  It was just 20 of us all sharing the same bathroom and boys had lived there the year before so it wasn't the best of living conditions.  I couldn't have asked for a better hall my freshman year.  Aside from the fact that our RA ran away first semester, we had a pretty ballin' hall!  Some of us were even joking during the housing lottery that maybe we should move back up there for senior year!  So freshman year turned out great even though I wasn't in Belk.  

Sophomore year, I was applying to be an RA and I wanted to be with the freshies.  I asked for Belk but I got my 3rd choice, Laurens (an upperclassman very small dorm).  Most people don't even know Laurens exists.  It only houses 24 girls.  My roomie and I were 2 of the 5 sophomores in the whole building.  Everyone else was older than me. :(  I did end up getting RA of the Year, but I just wanted to be with freshmen since the upperclassmen didn't want to listen to someone younger than them.  Also, it was really hard to develop community in Laurens because we were just about the randomest group of girls you could have put together.  

So for my junior year, I wanted to live in Grotnes, where all my friends wanted to live.  I was being selfish but I just wanted to get to be with all the other girls my age unlike my first two years at PC.  What placement did I get? BELK!  Of course.  Third time's a charm, right?!  Haha, wrong!!! I was beyond mad that I didn't get Grotnes and that I was going to be in the freshman dorm.  But within an hour or so I realized that God wouldn't have placed me there if I wasn't supposed to be in Belk.  So don't you know I'm that junior that's living in Belk for the first time with all these freshmen I've come to love so much!  It was ironic that the day I got my placement was also the day I headed up to Lake Junaluska last February for my interview weekend.  Carolyn, Director of Ministries with Young People, aka my boss lady, asked me about the RA position and I explained to her my frustration and she reminded me that that must be where God wanted me for this school year.  

Carolyn has also been reminding me lately that God won't give you more than you can handle, and He won't leave you alone to handle it.  While I always try to remind myself that God won't give me more than I can handle, I'd never reminded myself that He's not going to leave me hanging either.  Of course I knew this, but I needed the reminder! :)

I knew all summer that God was preparing me to be in Belk.  I was leading small groups all summer and felt like God was preparing me to start a Belk Bible Study, so I did.  I started praying for my residents back in February before most of them probably even knew they'd be coming to PC, much less where they'd be living, or who their CA would be.  I prayed all summer for these girls and got super super super excited to be in Belk.  Most people don't realize this isn't what I wanted but I couldn't say thank you enough to the big man upstairs for putting me in this position!  I'm definitely not saying its been easy because its been hard, very very hard.  I've dealt with serious issues like sexual violence, the loss of a parent, the loss of a friend, girls questioning their sexuality, remembering loved ones who have already passed away, and girls questioning their faith to name a few of the subjects I've covered this year.  I've also had lots of haters, surprise surprise!  Most mornings I wake up to some type of profanity drawing or cussing on my dry erase board on my door.  I've had to be the bad guy more than I've wanted.  But I've built a lot of great relationships with my residents.  Such good relationships that my couch quickly became the "Couch of Tears" as I call it. Girls would just come in, even if I didn't know them well, and just burst in tears.  While I cry a lot, I've never really had to deal with so many other people's tears, especially girls I didn't know very well.  My couch was home to many tears, many more movie nights, and many of nights where I fell asleep and didn't quite make it to my bed.  The Couch of Tears left two weeks ago and it was soooooo sad.  I realize I shouldn't be that sad about a couch leaving but it really added character to my room from 1975 with bright orange carpet and all.  Over the past two weeks, girls have walked in and just stopped in their tracks because they're so used to seeing my couch sitting there.  I seriously wanted to cry putting my couch into storage.  I feel like this year my girls have become my little babies.  I feel like a mom and all my kids have finished their first year of college.  I've gotten to see them mature and learn all the tough lessons you don't want to see anyone have to learn.  I've seen heartache, happy times, and some really sad times.  All in all I've grown with them throughout the year and I got to use my past experiences to try to help them.  I am so thankful for my year in Belk.  I've learned so much about myself and about others.  Its been the hardest year of college but my favorite by far.  Thanks to all my freshies for an awesome year! I'm going to miss them so much!

On another note, keep my mom in your prayers.  She had surgery this morning for her Achilles tendinitis and a bone spur.  She's got a 10 week recovery starting with 3 weeks of not being able to put any pressure on her foot.  If you know my mom, you know she's never one to just sit!  She's always going going going and sitting and taking 10 weeks off from work and life will be hard.  Pray for a speedy recovery and that the surgery works just the way its supposed to and in 10 weeks she'll be pain free forever!!!!  Also if you've been praying for me, thank you thank you thank you!  I'm still waiting on results but I'll keep you updated with my blog.  

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll leave you with a new favorite song of mine...