A Final Retreat

It’s April—which is a significant fact because that means May (the month of my college graduation) is next month! The month is very busy even after graduation. The same day I graduate, I’ll be heading to camp with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in New York for a few days of reading the Bible and focusing on God. Then I’ll be home for a day or two before I head off for a Disney World vacation with a group of my senior friends. Again, I’ll come home for about a day or two before heading off for a job at summer camp. Life is certainly going forward at full-speed.

It’s nice, in all this forward motion, to get some time to relax and reflect. On the weekend of March 21^st to the 23^rd, I was able to do just that through Susquehanna’s Christian Fellowship Retreat at Mountain Dale Farm. Every semester, Susquehanna’s Deacon of Spiritual Nurture organizes a retreat for students. I have been attending these retreats since my freshman year and have valued the time to escape campus for a while, bond with other students, and grow spiritually.

This semester, we reflected on what it means to be spiritually awake or spiritually asleep. Being “spiritually asleep” might mean only going through the motions of your faith or generally being apathetic. To me, being awake means being an active participant in one’s relationship with God. I personally felt woken up by the weekend. I had been more engaged in reading my Bible there than I had been for quite some time, which was an awesome feeling.

Though the retreat was great, it was definitely bittersweet. I’ve become attached to the drive there through middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania, to Mountain Dale Farm, to the deer heads mounted on the walls and the mismatched couches in the room place we call “The Room of Death,” to candles in a cross formation in the middle of the floor during worship, to games like Catchphrase, to intimidating geese, to lazily sprawling out on the couches during free time, to talking through life with a prayer partner, and most of all, to the great people that come each semester. The last night of the retreat was one of those times where graduating really hit me. It was the last of something important to my college experience—and I knew a lot more lasts were on their way.

That night, the senior girls all decided to sleep over on the couches in the “Room of Death” instead of going to our cabin. When I was an underclassman and not all the girls could fit in the  cabin, upperclassmen girls often ended up sleeping over in that room. None of us had ever done it, so we took our chance. I don’t think any of us got great sleep, but it was worth it for that memory that felt so college—a bunch of girls sprawled out on couches pushed into a circle, chatting and reminiscing in the dark as we curled up underneath our blankets and sleeping bags.  

My friends and I hope to go back to Mountain Dale one day for a reunion of sorts, but if that never comes to fruition, I had a great final retreat that I’d be happy to call my last Mountain Dale memory.

Experiencing an Activist-in-Residence

For all three years I’ve been here, Susquehanna University’s Center for Diversity and Social Justice has brought an Activist in Residence to campus. The Activist in Residence visits Susquehanna for a period of a few days and gives talks or presentations on issues relating to social justice. In the past, I haven’t taken advantage of these opportunities, but this year I was able to attend two of the Activist in Residence’s events.

The activist was Reverend Irene Monroe, who is a prominent  queer religion columnist and has previously served as pastor. An African-American lesbian theologian, she regularly writes and speaks on the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and religion, particularly the way religion is used in discrimination against LGBTQ people.

I was very excited to hear her speak. I heard about her visit a few weeks beforehand from my friend who is a student deacon. As a religious life leader on campus who has recently also become a member of Susquehanna’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Irene Monroe’s first presentation, “The Role of Religion in Discrimination,” was really right up my alley.

While the students attending ate the free lunch the school provided, Reverend Monroe engaged us on issues of the Bible and how it’s been interpreted in regards to LGBTQ issues. She pointed out that the dominant religious thinking is that the Bible clearly condemns same-sex relationships and that even people who have never picked up a Bible in their lives proclaim that confidently. Instead of accepting this at face value, she encouraged us to give the Bible a closer look.

She talked a lot about how we interpret the Bible. Much of the time people feel like they’re not allowed to look at these texts with a critical eye—they become untouchable—but Monroe brought up a different way of approaching texts: a hermeneutic of suspicion. This approach requires an examining of questions like:  What interpretation do I want as a reader? Who is normalizing a certain reading of this text? Who is in power? What is the intent behind putting forward a certain interpretation?  There were various examples that Monroe used. In popular discourse, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is associated with homosexuality, though the text is more about violence and inhospitality than sex. The real victims in that text, Monroe pointed out, are women, since Lot offers his daughters to the violent gang rather than the angels. Something else she discussed briefly was translation. The word “homosexuality” wasn’t in the lexicon until 1895, and because sexual orientation wasn’t understood in the same way in Biblical culture, there’s reason to look critically anytime the word “homosexual” appears up in a Biblical translation.  She encouraged students, no matter their faith, to explore these “texts of terror” and said that not knowing what these stories really say is a way of participating in your own oppression.

It was really great to hear from Monroe about these issues, particularly of Biblical interpretation, which I’ve been contemplating and discussing with friends recently. After the lunch, two friends and I were able to talk to her briefly about the talk, which I really enjoyed. It made me look forward to attending another event even more.

Yesterday, I attended her talk “Justice Begins in the Bedroom.” Reverend Monroe talked about how she knows many people who are able to speak eloquently about social justice issues, though it doesn’t translate into their personal lives or sex lives. The focus was mainly on sexual violence and the culture that supports it. I had heard statistics before, but it’s still distressing to hear that about 1 in 4 college women are victims of rape. Typically, women aren’t encouraged to speak up about sexual violence. Instead, they may be blamed by some for the violence inflicted on them because they were drinking, wearing a certain outfit, etc. Many people will actually look to protect, or side with, the perpetrators of sexual violence. She brought up how this often happens on college campuses, where faculty and administration might side with, or be lenient towards, a star athlete or a male student from an esteemed family.  CNN coverage of the sentencing in a Steubenville, Ohio rape case emphasized the emotional duress of the teenage rapists and talked about how they’d now be labeled sex offenders for the rest of their lives; that incident powerfully attests to the concept of “rape culture.”

Reverend Monroe also brought up that a lot of times women don’t even know how to process a violation of their bodies. She shared the story of a young woman who was gang-raped by guys she had been friends with in college. She didn’t label it with the word “rape” or think about herself as gang-raped until she received more education from a woman’s center. She suggested that women are not told what is considered a violation of our bodies. The message women aren’t getting, according to Monroe, is that you have a right to possess your own body.

Like she did in her other talk I attended, Reverend Monroe heavily engaged her audience. During both events, she encouraged students to think about ways to change that culture, particularly on our own campuses.  It is, after all, our college. We pay to go here, and it is up to us to help shape it. I definitely hope that I don’t let these talks slip easily from my mind and that I become more involved in activism on campus.

Spring Training

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to go off-campus for a conference through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. This conference was called Spring Training. It was focused on Christian leadership and held at Lehigh University, which is in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and is around two hours away. 

We left Susquehanna a little after noon on Saturday morning in two cars. They were packed with sleeping bags, pillows and backpacks since we were staying overnight with students at Lehigh. I was excited about this prospect. My freshman and sophomore years, the InterVarsity Spring conferences were held at Susquehanna and Bucknell respectively. That first year I hosted a Penn State student in my room, and the next year Bucknell was close enough that we could just leave at night and come back in the morning. I was looking forward to being the person who was hosted for the first time—though I wasn’t looking forward to a night sleeping on the floor.

When the car of Susquehanna girls I was in drove onto the Lehigh campus, I think all of us were enamored with how gorgeous the campus was. It had lots of trees, a high vantage point to look down at the city below, and plenty of buildings that could inspire Hogwarts comparisons. Besides being pretty, the most noticeable thing about the campus was how hilly it was. It inspired some gratitude for the relative flatness of Susquehanna’s campus, even as we were fawning over some of Lehigh’s buildings.

At the top level of the parking garage, some Lehigh students met us and lead us to the university center, where the conference was held. There were students from many different colleges there, including Lehigh, Susquehanna, Bucknell and Bloomsburg. The conference started with all of us gathered together for worship and a talk from one of InterVarsity’s staff leaders. We then split into “tracks”—or smaller groups—to study Scripture. That day we looked at the passage in the gospel of John where Jesus washes the disciples’ feet.

One of the best things about a conference like this is getting to hear from and hang out with people from other colleges. Dinner that night was really nice because we were able to join some Bucknell students and one Lehigh student. Normally at these types of conferences, I feel like I stick pretty closely to my fellow Susquehannans, but this conference really made me want to get to know students from other schools (a difficult task for a short, weekend conference, though). At the end of the school year, I’m planning on attending Chapter Camp through InterVarsity, which is a week-long camp at Lake Champion in New York. I am hoping to make more of an effort when I’m there this year to connect with students from other colleges.

After dinner, we continued with Scripture study until around 9 p.m. Then we found our hosts. My friend Annie and I were both staying with the same girl, Diana. She was a senior and an RA in a freshman dorm. She was very welcoming and enthusiastic about having us stay with her. We were especially lucky because Diana had a futon for us to sleep on rather than the floor!

We didn’t head straight to bed, however. Lehigh has a hang-out place on campus called the Hawk’s Nest where many people attending the conference went after dropping their things off in their hosts' rooms. I got to play air hockey, which I love, and watch some musical performances. I also participated disastrously in a game of pool. Later in the night, I got to hang out with more people from other schools when a group played a game called Mafia.

The next morning, we returned to studying the Bible, but this time it was a passage from the epistle Philippians. Looking at both of the texts, we were able to reflect on what leadership means and looks like in a Christian context. It was interesting to compare that to the qualities we associated with leadership on our campuses. It was also interesting to hear about the different campus cultures and how they varied in what makes a leader and what gives you status. The day ended with large group worship, praying for seniors, and praying in partners before we all headed back to our separate schools.

The weekend certainly felt like it ended too soon. The week that has followed has been a bit frazzled since I’ve returned, but thankfully, tomorrow is Spring Break! I am excited to head home and relax for a while before diving into the second half of the semester.  

Drawing to a Close

The year really is drawing to a close. I'm excited for summer, but I have to admit, I'm not all too thrilled about this school year ending. Being halfway through my college experience is frankly terrifying. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to study abroad for a semester, but I'm also a little saddened about missing a semester with my friends here at SU (especially sad when I think about the juniors I know who I'll only get to see for one more semester). And this year it will be weirder to see people graduate than freshman year since I've actually had time to get to know some of them!

In spite of all that, some good things do come at the end of the semester.

This week I get to share some of my Scholars' House project at the large group meeting of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. My project, which was originally to complete a draft of a Christian YA novel, changed over the course of the year, as my creative focus, for some inexplicable reason, could not stay on novels and drifted towards poetry. I am now focusing on compiling a collection of writing that has to do with faith, which will include what I have of the novel and various poems.

I already shared some of the novel at the Undergraduate Literature and Creative Writing Conference. I'll be sharing poetry at the large group meeting this week. I'm especially excited that I'll be able to share this very personal writing on faith in the context of a discussion about faith--a very different context from that of the lit conference. The poetry is a large segment, but not the whole of my talk for Thursday. I will be sharing my writing in a talk about doubt, faith, honest expressions of both, and God's approach to human doubt in Scriptures. I'm very passionate about my subject matter and very pumped for this chance to present it!

This past weekend also provided plenty of fun though mostly of the busy variety. Last year I participated in an event called Lutheran Youth Day. I was able to do this again this year. Lutheran Youth Day brings middle and high school students from around the area to the Susquehanna campus for a day of worship and large group sessions and small group sessions looking at the Bible. I was a small group leader which meant I, with some other SU students, got to lead discussion and activities with these students. I had a small group of high schoolers--sophomores through seniors, I believe--who all seemed very mature, and we had some great and deep discussion! During Lutheran Youth Day, I also performed in an original skit with the organization Acts 29 about the batteries that fuel us in our everyday lives. Acts 29 is a ministry group that uses theater, puppets, etc. I've only very recently gotten involved with this group and was excited that my first performance with them went well. That Saturday I also got to play some frisbee in the rain and dance at a fake prom at TRAX!

I am hoping these last weekends will be filled with fun as well, though maybe, ideally, of the less busy variety. 

Alpha Phi Omega Updates

I don’t think I’ve updated this blog recently on my activity with my service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, so I figured I’d bring you up-to-date.

This is the first semester I’ve taken a Little. A Little is someone who is pledging the fraternity that you help through the pledging process. It’s definitely exciting since last semester I was a tiny bit envious of all the other people who had Littles. So far there hasn’t been that much to do as a Big, except decorating a binder filled with all the information she needs for pledging and making her flashcards with the pictures and names of all the other pledges. Bigs and Littles have to meet once a week, and our meeting spot is in Mellon Lounge, a part of Degenstein Campus Center.  Last week we both got Java City, which is a plate to get coffee on campus. Due to me being a bit strange and not liking coffee, I ended up getting apple juice. 

I’ve also become our chapter’s Alumni Secretary. I am working with another member on Alumni Relations to keep alumni informed about what’s going on in our chapter. Hopefully, we’ll also be able to relay information about alumni successes to current members. Maybe we will even have some of them come in to speak!  This was an appointed rather than elected position, and it’s kind of a nice way to get my feet wet, in terms of leadership. I don’t usually classify myself as much of a leader and tend to do things solo, so I think this will be a good experience for me.

The next big service project I’m signed up for with Alpha Phi Omega is the Relay for Life. Last year, I did it with some girls from my freshman residence hall. It’s definitely exhausting, since it goes from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., but it should be worthwhile to do it again! I’m hoping that APO will be able to raise a lot of money. I think we are going to have at least 3 APO teams. Of course, I also hope Susquehanna, as a whole, is able to raise a ton.  Other big projects coming up include 30 Hour Famine and Lutheran Youth Day, both of which I did last year. 30 Hour Famine raises awareness of hunger around the world, as well as money, and Lutheran Youth Day brings a lot of students from Lutheran youth groups to campus for worship and sessions. Both of those were very fulfilling projects next year, and I look forward to doing them again.

Fall Conference!

Friday afternoon, I headed out to InterVarsity Fall Conference. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is not merely an organization on this campus but is represented on campuses across the country. Fall Conferences provide a chance for students from different campuses to get together. At our conference, 10 colleges were represented, with decent numbers of students from schools like Albright, Alvernia, Bloomsburg, Bucknell, and Lehigh. The conference, which took place in the Poconos, provided plenty of free time for hanging out with friends as well as speakers, worship, and quiet time.

While I love the Susquehanna campus, I really do love these times when I can break from my usual routine and escape off-campus. It's a great opportunity to be away from stressors at school. In fact, I brought no homework at all with me on this trip, since I knew I wouldn't get to it. Of course, reality comes crashing back in very quickly--like finding out you've overslept Monday morning, for instance.

I wish it could've gone on longer, but I hope that it has ramifications on my semester as it continues. One thing I hope to do, particularly, is to deepen my friendships and fellowship with people from IV.

I am so grateful that I began attending this group first semester. It's been so formative to my college life and has given me so many memorable experiences that I would not have had otherwise. I advise all college students to join an organization they're passionate about as early as they can! I'm excited for the rest of the time I'll be having with IV throughout the year and through my next years here at SU, and though I may not get to go on Fall Conference next year, due to study abroad, I definitely want to go my senior year!

Fall Break and the Mini-Week

Number 3--my Venetian mask!

It's been a short but active week since I've returned from Fall Break!

Fall Break itself wasn't particularly interesting (it was also way too short), so I thought a fun way to share about it would be looking at a list of all the things I brought back from home after Fall Break that I hadn't had at school before.

1     A bag of clothing
2.   Bags of stuffed animals
3.   A Venetian mask
4.   My Halloween costume
5.   Rainboots
6.   Umbrella
7.   A fan
8.   Cookies

The clothing and stuffed animals are for Alpha Phi Omega, my service fraternity. APO is running a clothing drive as its major project, so I brought some of my clothes to donate. I am asking my parents to bring any clothes they have lying around when they come up for Family Weekend. APO has also made me aware of a stuffed animal drive. I’m pretty okay with parting with all of these stuffed animals—as long as I have my Pillow Pet that I got at APO initiation last year, a hippo I named Hagrid. The stuffed turtle, though, is probably the coolest of the stuffed animals I’m donating. The Venetian mask is also for Alpha Phi Omega. APO has a formal once a year. This year’s formal is masquerade themed. Many people are making masks, but I thought I’d take advantage of the one I had in my room! It’s a souvenier my brother bought me when he went on a trip to Europe in college.

I also brought my Halloween costume—or the key piece of it, which I bought at Salvation Army for 3 dollars over break. My Halloween costume is obscure, and nobody may get it, but I’m still very excited about it. I am being Lindsay Weir from the cult classic television show Freaks and Geeks. This costume basically consists of jeans and a green, oversized Army jacket.

Earlier in the year, I threw out my rainboots because they had a hole in them. This was a decision I came to regret since, for a while there, it was nonstop rain. It was such a relief to get rainboots over break! My former umbrella also had some difficulties—though I haven’t yet thrown it out. A new one is very helpful, though I’ve already used it and struggled with closing it before I go into buildings.

A small fan is one of the best things I’ve brought back from break! My room can get pretty hot. It’s super nice to feel that air.

There is no real reason for cookies, except that they’re Golden Oreos and they’re yummy.

All in all, I was pretty prepared for the short, but active week that was ahead of me! Yesterday was probably the most hectic, as I scrambled to complete a short story for Intermediate Fiction. It was due around midnight, but everyone else with the same due date had sent their stories in prior to mine—which came in around 9:45.

Nevertheless, I headed over to the Christian group I’m involved in, InterVarsity, even though it was only for the final 15 minutes. After InterVarsity was formally finished, a group of us stayed after to make a scarecrow for an event happening at SU called Scarecrows for a Cause.  Scarecrows for a Cause is a competition among different organizations. Each organization submits a decorated scarecrow, and members of the campus community will “vote” for different scarecrows by donating money. The scarecrow that accrues the most money will earn its groups’ charity of choice all of the money made through Scarecrows for a Cause. I didn’t go back until my room late last night, but it was worth it because it was a lot of fun—especially after all that story stress!

Religious Life Council's Fall Retreat

On Friday, I left for this year's Religious Life Council Christian Fellowship Retreat. This was my third RLC  retreat so far, and I hope to go to one each semester, besides my semester abroad. Our group, I think around 25 of us, gathered at the chapel with blankets, pillows, and bags. After approximately 45 minutes in a school bus, we reached Mountain Dale Farms. It's a great location, though it was too rainy for us to enjoy nature as much as most of us would've liked. Last year, all of the girls stayed in one cabin, but because so many people went this year, a group of us girls slept in a different cabin. This cabin had a really cool loft, where many of the girls slept, but I stuck to one of the bunk beds on the ground. Unfortunately, I've had a cold, and I didn't want it spread by sleeping in such close quarters!

In fact, I got so sick that I practically lost my voice over the weekend. This was a major pain but I didn't let it ruin my retreat experience.

Friday night was mostly spent hanging out and playing games in "The Room of Death," the meeting area with comfy couches and chairs and many mounted animal heads. As groups, we played the knot game, which is when people stand in a circle and grab hands so everyone is tangled; then, the group has to work to free itself from the knot. My group was very unsuccessful--we didn't unknot ourselves once! I also played a game of Pictionary Down the Lane that night, which is pictionary mixed with the game Telephone. To begin, someone writes a sentence. The person that gets the sentence has to do a drawing of it. The next person then, without looking at the previous sentence, has to compose a sentence about the drawing. Everything gets wonderfully convuluted! On Saturday, I also had plenty of time to sit and talk with people, as well as play card games and 20 questions.

Of course, the retreat also had a spiritual focus. Susquehanna's Deacon of Spiritual Nurture, a senior religion major, led our group in sessions about heaven and the concept of heaven on earth. These sessions incorporated Bible study and discussion. For some, we listened to and reflected on songs about heaven. During one session, all of us got a chance to bust out our artistic skills and draw our childhood picture of heaven--it was very hard for me to decide on God's clothing and hairstyle! Saturday night, our structured activities ended with worship and prayer. I was a bit sad that, because of my cold, I couldn't sing along to the worship songs. My favorite part of worship was seeing the skits our different groups made about the Scripture readings. My group updated a parable about a servant inviting guests to his master's great feast to a butler inviting guests to his master's luau! The skits, in all, were very creative.

It was very nice to step away from campus and my routines; I wish I could've been gone longer! Luckily, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Fall Conference is coming up this month as well, giving me plenty of chances to get away.

Flood Clean-Up

There has been some horrible rain in Selinsgrove since I’ve returned to campus—and some terrible flooding.  The Isle of Que, an area of Selinsgrove that is right by the river, was one of many affected areas in Pennsylvania. Some students live there in off-campus housing and had to evacuate along with the Isle’s other residents. This weekend the Isle of Que became open again to its residents, and clean-up began.

Susquehanna students have definitely been involved in helping out with the flooding. The Center for Civic Engagement banded volunteers together. I heard a lot from Alpha Phi Omega about ways to help with the flooding, and I know a lot of my APO brothers were involved in clean-up and deputy duty down at the Isle.

I ended up going down on Sunday with the Selinsgrove Church of Nazarene. Every other Sunday, they have a worship service for young adults, but we used some of that time to help clean up and dispose of debris for a few families.

College is supposed to be a time for new experiences, and this certainly provided new experiences, like slogging through the mud to grab trash or planks of wood or feeling mud splatter into my hair as I helped heave something into a dumpster. I’ve found out something interesting about myself through all these new experiences at college: I’m not too afraid of getting dirty. I always think I’ll be more nervous, but as with my pledge class’s service project at the Campus Gardens, I found that I didn’t really mind—though I really did enjoy taking a shower afterward.

I knew there had been flooding, but it had been much worse than I had anticipated. It made my own problems seem tiny in comparison and my life seem very fortunate. 

The Comfort Zone

During my first week back, I discovered that starting freshman year and starting sophomore year are two very different beasts.

One of the main differences is workload. During the beginning of my first semester last year, I remember not having that much work to do; intentional or not, it felt as if I was being eased into the academic experience of college. This gave me a lot of free time in the evenings to spend with friends.  So far I’ve managed to spend a lot of time with my friends, but to do so, at least on week nights, I’m usually putting off homework.

It’s also quite different to come in already involved. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship was a constant of my freshman year. Our first large-group meeting was on Thursday. Last year, I probably had some trepidation as I attended the first meeting of the year—being somewhat socially awkward and nervous about finding my place in that group of people, or more likely, just surviving the night.  As a sophomore I returned to something familiar and was able to catch up with friends.

My attitude in general is very different this year. As a freshman, things are completely new. The start of the year is very much about making friends and meeting new people. In a way, everything is in flux—to be determined. As a sophomore I may have power to change my course, but I also have established friendships. Making new friends is still a goal, but it’s certainly not as desperate of one as it was last year. Therefore, things don’t seem as high stakes, and I’m free from those freshman year jitters.

Another difference: one of my friends has a car this year, and we can finally go off-campus without limiting ourselves to the free shuttle schedule. We’ve already made a few trips. Last Sunday we went to Target, Saturday we went to the mall, and this Sunday we headed to Wal-Mart and Weis.  The chance to get off-campus is always helpful. Last year, campus could feel a bit suffocating after long stretches without leaving. However, chances to get off campus also equal chances to lighten the wallet.

All in all, there’s been some more work and some big changes, but I also have a nice comfort zone. “Comfort zone” usually has a negative connotation. Throughout the year I’ll definitely need to go beyond this zone, breaking its boundaries, but I also think a comfort zone can be a nice haven and a good starting point.

Evaluating My Goals

For what may be my last post of the year, I wanted to take a look at some of the goals I set for myself this semester. After all the last day of a college class usually includes an evaluation of the course and the professor. This will just be a self-evaluation.

Here are those original goals.

1. Keep up with my New Year's resolution.
2.  Write more often, and not just for my Intro to Nonfiction class
3.  Read more often, and again, not just for class.

4.  Enlarge my social circle at Susquehanna.  Meet new people!  Make new friendships!
5.  Get involved in new activities, like Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity, or a reading board for a literary magazine.
6.  Procrastinate less.
7.  Study more.
8.  Cut down on my addition--fries!  

It’s kind of frightening to see how poorly I’ve executed these.   My New Year’s resolution was to follow a read-the-Bible in the year plan, but then I got behind and behind and more behind and now I’m super behind, so I’m deeming that a failure. I will try to catch up this summer. I’ve written in little spurts things unrelated to class, but not anything substantial.  I haven’t devoted enough time to reading for pleasure as I should have.  In fact, I’ve devoted, basically, no time. 

The social goal is one where I’ve made a bit more progress.  I’m not exactly overwhelmed with new friends, but I think I know more people now and know some people from first semester a bit better than I had.  I’m happy to say that number five has been completely achieved. I pledged Alpha Phi Omega—much of that experience came up in previous entries—and was on a reading board for RiverCraft.

My level of procrastination is probably quite similar to first semester, and I may actually have studied less.  Fries—well, I certainly don’t think I’ve increased my fry intake. Then again, I can barely think of that as a possibility!

Perhaps the top goal for next year should be to achieve more of my goals!

Yesterday vs. Today vs. Tomorrow

Yesterday was a day of group presentations.I presented in Applied Biblical Ethics and Sociology, on female genital cutting and underage drinking respectively. It was very stressful leading up to Tuesday, but it’s a relief to have both group projects out of the way. The rest of the work left for this year is all individual. Of course, there’s still stress involved with that (Yes, I’m talking about you, nonfiction portfolio) but none of the chaos of trying to coordinate with others. Anyway, I thought the presentations went fairly well. Both involved PowerPoint and incorporated class involvement and video clips.

The work didn’t stop once my classes were done yesterday. I still had to finish my 8 page essay for Romantic Novels. Fortunately, I was able to finish it much sooner than I finished my first paper. It’s due today at 4 p.m., and I get out of class at 2:50 p.m. I will probably look it over at least one more time and do some minor edits before sending it in.

Yesterday was also a big day for a lot of my friends—the doubles housing lottery! This is students’ last chance to choose housing. I was fortunate enough to already know where I’m living next year. Having that knowledge certainly was a huge weight off my shoulders, so I hope everybody else is relieved now that everything is settled.

Today, in comparison, is decidedly less stressful. Romantic Novels is cancelled so my academic day ends sooner. I only have one class tomorrow and barely any homework. Even our chapter meeting for Alpha Phi Omega and the weekly Hippo Family dinner is cancelled! Hopefully my InterVarsity Life Group isn’t cancelled as well because I haven’t had as many chances to go this past semester and my schedule is completely free tonight.

Because of this freeness, I should probably spend some time getting ahead on my portfolio or ethnography for Sociology but it will probably just mean a lot of relaxing, watching TV and talking too much and spending lots of time on the internet. My roommate and I have definitely been indulging in more television this semester. A recent guilty pleasure was the Prince William and Kate Middleton Lifetime movie, complete with atrocious British accents.

Though today is great, especially compared to yesterday, I’m eagerly anticipating tomorrow because tomorrow means going home!

Almost at Easter Break

Friday I had a workshop for my literary journalism piece in Intro to Creative Nonfiction, which was about me going to a dog expo where they had Dog Olympic Games and pet contests. I wasn’t feeling too great about the piece, but the workshop went a lot better than I thought; in the grand scheme of things, this piece might be the one that needs the least amount of revision, in comparison to my personal essay and memoir. Like Intro to Fiction, Intro to Creative Nonfiction ends with the turning in of a final portfolio. Whenever I try to think of all the assignments left before the year's end, I keep forgetting about it. Hopefully this doesn't continue. 

Relay Team in our super cool tent

Also on Friday, a group of friends from my floor in Hass headed off to Relay for Life, an event that lasted from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next morning; it raises money for cancer research. It was held in the Field House part of the fitness center. They had activities and tables selling things to raise more money. The most touching aspect was the Luminara Lap, during which the lights went off and attendees lit bags around the track in remembrance of those who fought against cancer.  It was impacting to see just how many people have lost love ones due to cancer, and I felt very blessed and privileged that I have not yet undergone such a loss. I did a lot of walking. Seriously, that was probably more exercise than I’ve done all year. By the end of the night (or morning, I suppose), my feet were in terrible pain, and of course I was exhausted. I climbed into my bed and woke up around 2 p.m. that day. Basically, it threw off my sleeping schedule for the entire weekend. (Can I still blame it for my late start this morning?)

The rain and wind were very intense Saturday. My friend Lindsey and I ventured outside, in hopes of making it to Deg for dinner, but made it about five steps before retreating back indoors. We ended up ordering Domino’s. Sunday was a day for getting work done. I also went to the Bible Study at Dr. Martin and Dr. Bohmbach’s house, which was awesome as usual. Also exciting was my roommate coming back, who'd been home sick for a few days.

This weekend I was slightly stressed out because I have a lot of work coming up in these few days before Easter Break. I have two group presentations tomorrow, one for Applied Biblical Ethics on Female Genital Mutilation and one in Sociology on Underage Drinking, and an 8 page paper on the influence of narrative technique in Daisy Miller and The French Lieutenant’s Woman for Romantic Novels. I really am looking forward to break, though it would be smart for me to spend it working on other upcoming assignments. I have two final exams, a final portfolio, and two more papers due before the end of the year. Another source of stress is finding a job for the summer!  I've felt so busy and haven't set aside enough time to apply to jobs.  I really need to get on it this week, especially over break.

If only break could actually mean a break!

Officially A Brother!

I’ve finally been initiated into Alpha Phi Omega, which is, if you haven’t been keeping up, a national, coed service fraternity.  Our initiation was late Wednesday night, and it marked me, officially, as a “brother.” 

Me and some other newly initiated brothers

One of the most exciting things was being able to exchange gifts with my Big Sarah afterwards.  I got my Big a shirt with APO letters on it—I actually made those letters and liked them, surprisingly enough, considering my usual crafty failure—and a paddle with my name and hers, APO, my pledge class, etc.  I also got her a little stuffed hippo because we’re members of the Hippo Family (APO has many animal-themed families, including penguins, frogs, lions, etc.) and wrote her a poem.  She gave me my first set of letters which I was so pumped to wear yesterday.  She also got me a really awesome Hippo Pillow Pet which I named Hagrid.  I used it as a pillow last night.  So soft and comfortable!  Her paddle for me is very cute, and I’m still trying to decide where it should stay in my room.

Of course, things aren’t the most important part of being initiated.  I’m very excited to be fully part of a group that is filled with such cool, admirable people and that does so many great things on campus and in the community.  I hope a lot of friendships stem and flourish from APO, as well as characteristics in myself, like leadership and positivity and service.

Speaking of organizations that mean a lot to me, last night, Thursday, I went to the second to last InterVarsity large group meeting of the year, which is pretty sad. It’s been such a blessing and such a big, shaping influence on my freshman year.  I think I even attended the first IV meeting of the  year, so it’s been a pretty significant constant.  I will miss this fellowship so much over the summer!  It’ll be so strange to come back next year, with the seniors gone and a group of unfamiliar freshmen.  No longer being the youngest just seems freaky. I'm sure, though, that IV has a great year in store next year.  

I Get Down

“I get down.
He lifts me up.
I get down.
He lifts me up.
I get down.
He lifts me up.
I get down."

I sang these words loudly and enthusiastically from the auditorium aisle, dancing without reservation.  All the small group leaders had rushed out of their seats to pump up the kids at Lutheran Youth Day during this high-energy worship song.

Though some got up as early as 4 in the morning so they could start assembling a balloon arch at 5 (which looked fabulous!), and almost all of us got up a little bit earlier than on a usual Saturday, we all seemed able to retain our excitement throughout the day.  This was vital, since the kids at Lutheran Youth Day, who ranged from 6^th to 12^th grade, were sometimes shy and quiet and needed a bit of coaxing.   

During the first morning session, the small group leaders got to make a dramatic entrance that I think really set the tone.   When the kids cheered, we rushed out from the back of Stretansky Concert Hall and from the stage.  Then we threw candy into the audience. The kids got a ton of candy.  We did this again when starting another large group session.  I only hope I didn’t hit too many people in the head!

When we weren’t in great large group sessions, led by either musician Rachel Kurtz or a praise band of SU students, we were in small groups.  I was co-leading a group of sophomores, juniors, and seniors (some of whom were probably as old as me).   Our sessions included some icebreaker games, looking at Bible passages and discussing them, and viewing and discussing this great video about the woman at the well.  They were a bit reluctant to talk at times, but I hope they all got something out of our sessions. Personally, I had a blast and fully intend on participating next year.

Later I went to Air Band, where fraternities and sororities dance to a mix of songs. It was really fun, and I cheered my loudest for all the Alpha Phi Omega girls who were performing (they did great, of course). I was in a section with a bunch of people from APO, and we were all wearing white T-shirts with gold, spray painted Greek letters. I really felt like part of the organization. I’m so excited that Wednesday I will finally be initiated! Anyway, Air Band was really entertaining. The frats, especially, had very funny performances.  There were Justin Bieber impersonations. And spears. All sorts of craziness.  It felt so college.

And that blasting music really made me want to get down, in another sense of those words.

Tales of Tomorrow (and a bit of today...)

Again, another busy weekend is in the works.  Tomorrow is Lutheran Youth Day, a day in which middle and high school students come to Susquehanna's campus to worship, study the Bible, and this year, hear a concert from musician Rachel Kurtz.  I've volunteered to be a small group leader for that day.  SU students comprise the majority of the small group leaders (though I think some alumni are coming to help), and the event itself is organized by SU's Deacon of Service, who's a senior here.  I am really pumped for this experience, even if it means waking up early on a Saturday, because it'll be so new to me.  The last time I led a Bible study on a semi-regular basis was middle school!  And I've never really been in this position of guiding a group of people who are younger than I am.  While this adds to the excitement, it's also a relief that this new experience is not something I'm doing alone; each person has a co-leader working with them.

Also on Saturday is Air Band, which is one of the culminating events of Greek Week, during which the Greek organizations compete against each other.  In Air Band, each fraternity or sorority has members perform to a song.  This involves lip-syncing, dancing, costumes, and sets.  As a pledge (and a soon-to-be brother!), I'll be there to support Alpha Phi Omega.  Watching Greek Week thus far has been a somewhat strange experience.  It is very intense and competitive.  I will admit to not understanding Greek Week as clearly as I should--like, um, what does the winner get again?--but I do understand that I am very excited to be a part of Alpha Phi Omega.  It will be great if, during this week, at least a few more people gained respect for or even knowledge of this awesome service fraternity.

I've been focused so much on weekends on this blog--that's where the excitement's at!--but as for today, I'm very excited to only have one class at 3 p.m.  My Intro to Nonfiction course isn't meeting today because the professor is having conferences with students about their literary journalism pieces.  Speaking of which, I've already had my conference and blech, I have so much to rewrite!  Later on I have a meeting about my group project for Applied Biblical Ethics, which will end in a 25-30 minute presentation on an ethical dilemma.  Our ethical dilemma regards female circumcision and how we as Americans, as Christians, etc., should involve ourselves (or not involve ourselves) in changing or ending this practice.  Usually I'm hesitant about group projects, but my group is really great, and I think our presentation has the potential to be really informative.     

Yet Another Eventful Weekend

This weekend has, again, been action-packed, so to speak. Friday I went right from class to a service project with my Alpha Phi Omega pledge class. We hosted a prom at Graysonview, a nearby senior assisted living community. A group of us had to go a bit late since we didn’t get out of class yet. I didn’t get to help that much with dinner, but I did get to make a fool of myself dancing. Some of the residents who weren’t dancing said they just enjoyed watching, so I hope my poor moves entertained them.

Saturday my pledge class had our second group service project at the Campus Gardens, located at Susquehanna University’s Center for Environmental and Educational Research. The group of us met at the back of Degenstein, the student center, and walked to the gardens together. We spent about four hours de-weeding the garden beds so things can later be planted there. I focused on pulling out grass. It’s quite tricky to get grass out, including the root, so it was quite a triumph every time I succeeded. I was actually pretty into the gardening and would totally consider going back to volunteer when it’s a bit warmer.

Later that day my friends and I met up with Madison, the prospective student my roommate and I hosted overnight in the beginning of the year. She’s attending next year and was on campus for Accepted Students Day. We, then, headed over to the dance showcase, which featured dances by the SU Dance Corps and by different dance classes. One of my friends from my dorm, Hass, was in it, and it was great to get be there and see her perform. It was a very good show and made me wish I knew how to dance.

Sunday Weber Chapel hosted a Taizé service. Taizé is a style of worship involving meditative singing and centering prayer. There are many short, simple songs that are repeated, and there are many times of silence within the service. This type of service is based off the Taizé community in France, where thousands, mostly young people, make pilgrimages. During communion, we went up to kneelers, which is not normal procedure. There were also candles on the altar that could be lit as a prayer, an act of commitment, in remembrance, etc. I absolutely loved this service. It was very refreshing and unique. I would love to visit the original Taizé community one day—maybe when I’m studying abroad!

Immediately after chapel, I met with my parents and my brother for lunch. They came to visit for my induction to Alpha Lambda Delta, the freshman honor society. We had brunch at the cafeteria, and then we went to the ceremony. Afterwards my family and I went shopping, then had dinner at Red Robin. When I got back to campus, I headed to a biweekly bible study with two of the religion professors, then crashed in my room for the night with TLC and The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles, a book for my Romantic Novels course.

Next weekend will also be busy because my entire Saturday is going to be taken up by volunteering at Lutheran Youth Day. I think the weekend after that is the Relay for Life. Hopefully I will able to find some time this week and the next for some ample relaxing!

Time Management

One of the trickiest aspects of being a college student is time management. It’s certainly something I deal with and it appears to be a struggle, to some degree, for almost all of my friends. College just feels busier than high school. Sure, during high school I got up by 6:45 a.m. (EEK!) and was stuck within school walls from 7-something in the morning to 2:45 p.m., no escape, no gap between classes except for that 4 minute walk through the halls, but after that I went home. Even if I had something after school, like musical rehearsal, I’d usually be home by 5:30.  My days start later here—thankfully—but end later as well. Mondays and Wednesdays, for instance, I’m busy from 9 to 4:05, with only a break from 1:00 to 1:45 for lunch.

There’s so much more to do after your school day is over as well. There are social distractions, for instance. Why read The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles for your Romantic Novels class, for instance, when you could be playing MASH with some of your friends? Yes, that may have happened just yesterday—though I did get my reading done, I promise!  There are a lot of very active extracurricular groups that can keep your schedule full as well. Tonight for instance, I hope to be able to go to an InterVarsity Life Group, which is a Bible Study at 7:30 (I've been skipping lately because I haven't been able to manage the time well enough to go), followed directly by pledge class and a chapter meeting for Alpha Phi Omega. There’s also that pesky issue of fitting some homework into that lineup.

Though I’m far from a time management expert, I think prioritizing is definitely helpful when it comes to time management. My strategy usually ends up being getting done what absolutely has to get done. A strategy to get ahead on my work over the weekends, however, might be a bit more practical, though it would seem awfully painful as I stowed myself away on a Saturday afternoon.

Typically, however, getting schoolwork done isn’t the issue for me. Pesky things like laundry are what fall to the wayside. I’ve been saying I need to do laundry since last week, and yet the clothing is piling up in my closet.  I really need to buckle down and get some done tonight. My pledge class’s group service project on Friday is an intergenerational prom at the Graysonview Assisted Living Community, and I have induction to the freshman academic honor society Alpha Lambda Delta on Sunday.  Both require nice clothes which, as of now, are wrinkled at the bottom of my hamper. 

I think tonight I may just skip dinner with my pals to get that laundry done and start doing research for my group project in Applied Biblical Ethics.  Then, before Life Group, I'll grab some Benny's dinner to go.  This actually sounds like a really good idea.  Maybe I should start planning things more often! 

30 Hour Famine

Some drinks I brought for work

30 Hour Famine is an annual fundraising effort for Christian relief organization WorldVision. By abstaining from food for 30 hours, participants raise awareness and experience hunger themselves. Right now, I'm currently in the middle of this famine--with less than 9 hours to go! A lot of people I know at SU have participated in this famine before or in similar fasts, either on campus or with youth groups at home, but I've never really done anything like this before, especially not on this scale. I remember doing a fast once during confirmation classes when I was in 7th or 7th grade, but it was very short comparably.

The famine started at noon yesterday. After my class, which ended at 11:35 a.m, I got in a quick meal--a chicken ceasar salad--before the famine started. Then I headed over to the chapel where we had a commissioning service. We all lit candles. As one of the deacons read out startling hunger statistics (like that a child dies of hunger every 10 seconds), we blew out our candles one-by-one to represent the lives being taken by hunger. Then, as a Bible passage was read, we re-lit our candles to represent the spreading of hope. There are also other events throughout the famine. During dinnertime yesterday, Alpha Phi Omega hosted a game night for fasters to distract us from the meal we were missing.

During the famine, I can drink juice and water. I've been drinking plenty of both. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not feeling hungry, and I'm sure to feel hungrier by the end of the famine. I've heard from experienced fasters that lunchtime today and the last few hours will be the worst.

For me, trying to go to sleep last night was a really moving experience. As a middle class American, I've always had enough food to eat, and I've never truly gone to bed hungry. I struggled to fall and stay asleep last night as my stomach rumbled for food. This is not a fun experience, not even for one night, but there are people for whom going to bed hungry is a daily experience. It's their normal. Moments like that make me realize just how rich and fortunate I am as well as how much I need to be contributing to fighting world hunger.

This is another great example of college introducing me to do new things. I never thought I'd voluntarily take on a 30 hour famine, that's for sure!

Professor Accessibility...It's True!

Something cool about Susquehanna University is the accessibility of professors.  This is something I heard a lot about as a prospective student and perhaps something I have taken for granted thus far (especially when, at some schools, most of your interaction is with TAs!), but it really hit me yesterday. 

For the first time, I attended a Bible study hosted by two of Susquehanna’s religion professors, one of whom teaches my Applied Biblical Ethics class.  This Bible study happens every other Sunday and is currently exploring questions about God and human suffering.

A few friends and I met up with fellow students behind the Degenstein Campus Center, where we divvied ourselves into two cars.  We then drove over to the house of these professors which is located pretty close to campus.  The group, which I sensed was larger than their usual crowd, sat in their living room to discuss some of the book of Job.  There were also cookies and juice, a pet cat, and an enthusiastic dog they were pet-sitting. 

I really enjoyed the Bible study—even if my introverted self barely talked—and am definitely planning on attending again.  It was one of those instances when I thought to myself that what they say about Susquehanna, those things you suspect might be just to sell you on the school, are really true.    

Even the president himself seems more accessible than presidents normally are considered to be, whether that’s in reading ‘Twas a Night Before Christmas to a group of students in pajamas before Winter Break or whether that’s in shaking his hand during a chapel service earlier that Sunday.