Seasons

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. 
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Not only is the season literally changing, but I am feeling a change in the season of my life. It's not altogether a pleasant feeling at the moment, either. When seasons change, I tend to look eagerly at the next season, but part of me always is a little sad that the one season is over. For example, when summer turns into fall: I get excited when I start to see the leaves change, when college football starts, and when the hot summer air turns slightly cooler. I realize, though, that fall means busyness of school, fewer hours of sunlight, and colder weather on the horizon. There are positives and negatives to every season. And the seasons must change in order to experience those joys. I need to bear with the negatives if I want to revel in the positives.

And so it is with season changes in my life. Right now I'm feeling some of the negatives internally. I don't know exactly why I'm noticing this change right now, when it's been gradually happening for the past 2 years probably...but I do notice it. There's a point in your life when childhood friends lose touch, when high school friends grow apart, and when college friends cease to be a part of your daily life. It's as if two people, friends, who at one point in both of their lives fit together like puzzle pieces, perfectly matched for such a time. Life moves on, though, and people change or move or start other relationships and those puzzle pieces change slightly with time. Before you know it, they just don't fit anymore, or there's no room to stay attached. Each time I realize another person with whom I had one of those friendships has become a mismatched puzzle piece in my life, I get a little sad.

...a friend that I grew up with, the first guy I kissed, my college roommate, my best friends from middle school, my first friend in college, "my sophomore", even some of my Life Group girls from college...all these people were very important pieces of my life at one point, and are now gone/gradually fading...it's time for seasons to change, I suppose. I know there are other people in my life that are more of a fit right now, but part of me will still miss those friendships lost over time and distance.

Highlight of the Day

Today was an interesting day. The teacher that I replaced is back from grad school on break and visiting school for the rest of the week...slightly intimidating for me, especially because I have felt so overwhelmed this week and I am using a lot of her materials from last year! :-) It's okay...she told me I could. ;-)

Why am I overwhelmed you ask? Homecoming. Tomorrow is homecoming at school. I'm a sponsor for our student government/student council, which means it's been my responsibility to make sure that the students are supervised while they decorate the gym. I've also been tutoring 2.5 hours per night Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Anyway, on to the title of this post. I was on facebook, catching up on my recent wall posts and the newsfeed when I get a message through facebook chat. It's from a friend that I take to every once-in-awhile, so I keep chatting. Then another facebook chat window pops up from a friend I haven't talked to in ages. She is going to be in Chicago the same time I am and wants to hang out/catch up. So we plan for sometime on the 23rd. Then a third facebook chat window pops up from another friend I haven't really talked to since June. Turns out he's going to be in Chicago on the 23rd, too. And we're going to try and hang out.

I feel so loved!

Randoms

1. I'm jealous that University of Illinois is playing in the Rose Bowl, and that I have friends in the band that are going. (At the same time, though, they have to march the 5 1/2 mile parade route in wool uniforms in sunny California...not so nice). MSU's going to Orlando, too. Times like this make me wish i was still in the band: 4 day paid trip to Orlando! Yay! Go State, Beat the Eagles (Boston College).

2. I got paid today! (from substituting the last time.)

3. I'm subbing 2 days in a row....Monday and Tuesday, and this time I'm planning for them (mostly) myself. *crosses her fingers* *prays* I'm going to try some more hands-on activities and centers to allow the students to work at their own pace since I'm pretty terrible at pacing and all of the (boring) worksheets that they normally do. They just get frustrated with me and with the work and I end up sending kids out of the room or making them cry...neither is a good thing.

4. Only 8 more days at my current school until I'm finished. I am so ready for my next placement in a deaf education setting!

5. Today was the last day of my MSU classes for this semester! Next semester will be quite different, hopefully in a good way...

6. We're throwing my cousin a surprise birthday party this weekend...busyness.

7. My room is trashed.

8. I miss my friends. I don't really have any here. The people I work with are the people I work with. I see them at work and don't really "hang out" with them. The people in my program are either student teaching in different places than me so I only see them on Fridays, or they are at the same school as me, but live in different cities and have busy lives and don't really hang out either. I don't know anyone from church yet. I don't know anyone in this town. I miss my friends.

9. I'm pretty terrible at keeping in touch through phone calls. I'm working on sending out Christmas cards. Hopefully they will be done by the end of this weekend, too. I think I'm over 1/2way done! :-)

10. I feel as though there were more things that I wanted to write, but I guess I'm already on 10, so it might be a good time to stop.