NEW YEARS!

Apologies for the prolonging of a few entries.
And today is New Years! I can't believe 2012 is over with TONIGHT. Looking back on this whole past year, and thinking where I was a year ago (babysitting), blows me away. It just does.
Life has been crazy and crazy wonderful since I've been home on break, especially staying at the house for a month. I don't really miss it at all, but parts of me does. I think the best part about break is knowing that in less than 2 weeks I get to go back to school; for the school part and for the living somewhere else part.
Speaking of school, the whole semester has flown and I was trying to think of how to sum it up and I can't! One thing I know for a fact though: God has rocked my socks off just about everyday in Mississippi through people, through situations, through the Word, and has given me such a peace about being back that I can't imagine what it would have been like had I tried to go somewhere else. Granted, school this time around was extremely different (in regards to classes AND people), but it was definitely better in all aspects. God also let me see a lot of the work He was doing that I couldn't see last year; He showed me reasons why I went through everything I did, almost every week, and is still showing me stuff! I didn't know so many things could be worked through and worked out so beautifully when they were given up to God!
Want to hear something strange? I'll tell you. I was doing some cleaning and lounging earlier (because what else does one do on Christmas break?) and my dad told me that he had a tub of some of my old stuff that he wanted me to look through before he put it up in the attic, just to see if there was anything I wanted to keep or throw away. So I brushed it off until about an hour ago. It was in my parents room, this huge lime green tub, of stuff I had no idea was. Ha. I opened it and almost started crying. In that stupid looking tub was almost everything I had ever had in my room all throughout high school (books, pictures, cds, cow decorations, jewelry, scarves, things that adorned my dresser and bookshelves, EVERYTHING!). I had put everything into this tub when I was packing up and leaving for school freshman year, August 2010. It was sooo weird to see all of that stuff again, and to think that this stuff was what my whole life was about from 2007-2010. Going through it now, it just seemed like a lot of dumb trinkets and notes and things... I think the weirdest part of the whole thing was the fact that I didn't remember a lot of it. The notes I wrote, the pictures I took, the things I collected.. they felt like some one else's life that seemed extremely familiar. It didn't seem like this was my stuff or my life that I was looking through. I don't think of myself as too different from my high school self, but looking at everything tonight I realize that we are not the same person in the least bit. That girl doesn't really exist anymore. I mean KINDA, but not, ya know? A little sad, but more so pretty cool if you ask me :)
Speaking of high school, the people I'm hanging out with tonight to bring in the New Year are allll of my friends from middle school and high school. So like, seven of us? Haha I'm kind of super stoked to catch up on life and play Just Dance 4 and sing karaoke with the dweebs I grew up with who are now adults living their own lives. LIFE IS SO WEIRD WHEN YOU GROW UP. Okay, enough of that.
On a closing topic: there's mucho more I want to write about; so much I want to type out and think through and be transparent about. But, alas, my ways are not His, and He's telling me, "Not right now." It'll come one day, and I can't wait for that day -to tell all- but that day and that post are not today. Sorry! ;D

finals and juries and coffee, oh my!

Yes, finals and juries and coffee have been my life for the past week. Vom. But I only have tomorrow and then I'm DONE!
Haha and don't even get me started on this semester as a whole: so crazily wonderful. To think about everything God has done and rocked my world with since walking back onto MC's campus on August 21st, well, I could write a book. One thing that's blown me away has been the friendships made and the friendships rekindled. God has gotten my attention and made my mindset very intentional about who to draw close to and who to share life with. And lemme tell ya, some of these people are NOT people I would have picked out for myself, not even to be funny, but the impact they've had and the way God is using them continues to leave me speechless. Errytime.

The 27th Annual Festival of Lights happened a week and half ago and oh my word.. I don't know if I have the proper words to describe this but I'm sure as heck gonna try. First of all, it was the 27th. Favorite number. Second of all, it was surreal knowing that I was back and singing music and belonging in a tradition I never thought I'd be in again! The pieces, the procession, the readings, those stupid candles, trying not to fall, never tearing your gaze away from Dr. Meaders, doing your best to sing all the words to that hymn you never memorized, it was everything! It was overwhelming and at the same time felt completely natural, as if I was made to be a part of it. I got chill bumps every night. Friday night kicked rear though. We were all in our zone, and we locked our harmonies and sang into those notes like we never have before. Whew. Crazy good.

Finals have approached.. and they're the devil. Well, they're not absolutely terrible but they're not just breezy either. My voice jury rocked this semester. Not trying to brag on myself either! Mary Catherine (my accompanist for the semester) tore it up and I picked one of my easy songs and they picked the other easy song I had! And being in that recital where your voice carries just makes you want to sing into it even more! No words forgotten, no breath lost, and no rushing or lagging. Praise, praise Him.

As a closing subject for this post (which I plan on posting more over Christmas break than I did this past month..!), God has done a tremendous amount of work this past year. And it's all coming full circle, in good ways and bad. My life, as I'm living it now, has seen more blessings and overflow than it ever has. I don't know if it's because I feel more tuned into God or the relationship between Him and I has continued to grow and deepen. Everything being "fixed" when I came back didn't exactly happen, and that's okay. Mainly because they were fixed in His way and not the way I wanted them to be fixed, and He's slowly revealing them to me =)

Christmas break will be wonderfulllllllllllllllllllll, I hope! Being home after being gone for three and half months after living at home for a year makes everything weird haha but I'm bringing one of my closest friends, Robby, home with me for the weekend and I plan on visiting a few of my friends over break. Then spring semester starts with observing at schools in Jackson. Ah! Life is moving so fast!