Alas

So...this was not the time to start back up. ::sigh::

Fare thee well internet (and IM, too) for another few months. Hello, Shakespeare and Artes and History of England class and piano.

Also -- if I start introspecting and philosophizing, laugh at me, and tell me to go cook something or go dancing or tutor a kid. Throwing me in a convenient snowbank tends to work as well.

See y'all at the other side.

Reintroductory Post, Part 2

Yay for bullet-point overviews.

Last semester:

• I started getting a handle on this whole "English major" business. Mostly through total immersion (three classes at once!). Huzzah for "close readings," low(er) grades, and DOOM.
  
  
• There's many, many incarnations of the Christian life. And many takes on what "in the world, not of it" looks like. I figured out where I fall, and what camp I want to live in. "Let every man be firmly convinced in his own mind" -- I'm glad I finally am.
  
  
• Rootedness.
  
  
• Old friends. New friends. A very dear friend.
  
  
• Trusting God about the present and the future. One of those easy things to know theoretically, and hard to know practically.
  
  
• Why do you say, O Jacob,
  and speak, O Israel,
  "My way is hidden from Yahweh,
  and my right is disregarded by my God"?
  Have you not known? Have you not heard?
  Yahweh is the everlasting God,
  the Creator of the ends of the earth.
  He does not faint or grow weary;
  his understanding is unsearchable.
  He gives power to the faint,
  and to him who has no might he increases strength.
  
  
• Figured out which church I'm attending up here, and why.
  
  
• Figured out (erm...as much as one can) the proper relationship of reason, experience, and revelation.
  
  
• I figured out what I want to do after I graduate. Or at least narrowed it down.

Christmas break:
I got a job working the cash register at Chic-Fil-A. The employees there are great people (though sometimes a bit crazy :)), and I had a blast. If you ever go there, get the chicken breakfast biscuit and a cookies and cream milkshake.

I also took a lot of long walks around the Air Force Base (some of them in possibly off-limits places). I saw a way of Christian living work and validate itself. I learned to understand and appreciate my church back home. And I got some cool presents.

This semester so far:

• "Virtue is in action." (Cicero)
  
  
• Wise men are slow to speak. They don't get angry easily. And I think they walk slowly, too, and take notes slowly. ("They know how to think about time," as Michelle says). All of these, I need a lot of work on.

Reintroductory Post, Part 1

So...yeah. It's been a while.

I took a good semester off. And a Christmas break. 'Twas a most beneficial and necessary thing.

I'm sure I had some good thoughts about something during that time. It's all pretty much a blur, though, and I wish I'd kept a better record of it than scattered longhand scribblings.

I'll let my sister Emily help summarize the situation:

Emily: "So...Ree! What have YOU been doing at college (besides exams and stuff)??"
Me: "Mmm...growing up, mostly."
Emily: "That sounds rough."
Me: "Yeah -- it kinda is."
Emily: "Well -- just think. In February you'll be 21, and able to DRINK! And that will be the biggest step of all."
Me: "I love you, Em."

So -- hey y'all (again), and hopefully I'll occasionally have something somewhere worth saying here. ;)