Two Posts in a Day - What a Treat!

I'm spending as much time as possible working in the Animal Science Office these last two weeks of the semester to make a little extra cash. What is super sweet about this job is that if they don't have anything for me to do, then I can do whatever, well within reason. Like, I did a lot of my homework last week and studied for my final last night all day yesterday, while getting paid for it! Pretty sweet! Now to justify it a bit, I have to be able at a moment's notice be able to drop whatever I'm doing and help out wherever I can - sort mail, run some paperwork to another building, file some documents, make copies, answer phones, etc. So I have been helpful as well :)

But this afternoon has been rather slow, so y'all get treated with two posts! So I decided to write about something that is near and dear to my heart - Purdue and what it has meant to me. I suppose I'm getting melancholy as I have some close friends graduating in just a few days and I will be starting my last semester in January!

- Awesome spirit/pride! I know people get excited for their schools, but I was at a reception a few weeks ago and a lady sitting at my table told the entire group that she believes Purdue is on a whole new level than her former institution where she worked. All she had to say was "Hook 'em Horns," for us to realize she was talking about Texas University. I can't think of too many more enthusiastic and loyal fans as Texas probably has, but proud that she considers us Boilermakers in a league of our own!

- Friendships! "College is the best time in your life," so they say. I believe this is true. You are a grown-up, but yet still somewhat sheltered from the real world. Seriously - when working a full-time job you aren't going to decide to make a midnight Insomnia Cookies run with your friends because you wouldn't last through your 8 -hour work day! I have made the majority of my best friends here at Purdue.

- Possibilities! Meeting new people, travel opportunities, joining new clubs, professional opportunities, learning experiences inside and out of the classroom!

- Atmosphere! Campus is beautiful! I think the ideal day is a clear, warm, fall day when there is a home football game! The atmosphere is almost electric, yet serene and peaceful, if that makes sense?

- Growth! I have grown so much as a person. I have been through some of the worst times as well, but have been able to rise to the occasion through the help of my friends, whom I consider my Purdue Family. I have grown as a professional individual to go out into the Ag Industry, complete with a new hairdo :). I have grown so much in my faith to the point where I want to learn more and be able to share my passion for Christ and personal development. I have grown in academic learning and knowledge or at least that is what my transcript says.

So thank you all to my Purdue Family! I throughly bleed Black and Gold now! BOILER UP!

In front of the Purdue Memorial Union - rocking out my senior chords :)

Ice is not Nice!

I know the word 'nice' needs the letters 'ice' to spell it, but I do argue that the adjective 'nice' should never be used with the noun 'ice.' Unless you're really hot or dehydrated and you add ice to your beverage to cool it down even more.

But it's December folks, so you can probably see where I'm going with this. December means pretty snow to highlight everything about the Christmas season. I'm not a snow-hater unless it is the dubious type of snow that covers up and hides sneaky, slippery ice patches in parking lots. Particularly ones beside my poor, innocent, sweet Gerdy (my car).

Ok - so I'm being a drama queen and I'll cut to the chase - I fell on the ice. And of course, the way I fell was in a compromising manner for my left knee. While I have a brand new ACL in my left knee, it can still be damaged and there is the possibility that I did something to it. Not completely sure, but usually new swelling and pain isn't a good thing.

So I'm going to 'baby-it' this week until I get home next week and then possibly go and see the doc if it doesn't go away by then. The whole ironic point of this all is that this week's physical therapy sessions were my last ones! So who knows what this all might bring?

So to snow this time, I do indeed say, "Bah-humbug!"

Last Steep Climb

I have seen a few different documentaries/ stories on Mt. Everest and the analogy of the last steep climb before you reach the summit is very appropriate for me right now!

Reason 1: There are two and half weeks until the end of the semester! I am 2 exams, 1 presentation, 1 report, 4 Mortar Board Events, hopefully about 20 hours of work in the Animal Science Office and 3 finals away from the end of the semester! I know that sounds like a lot, but not really!

Reason 2: My therapy hit a new phase today and I was super excited after my glowing reviews from the Doc last Tuesday, then the reality of running for the first time in approximately 7 months hit me when I met Mr. Treadmill again after a long break in our relationship! I went 5 minutes and about died! Then we started some jumping! :) (that is a sarcastic emoticon.) I realized that my leg is still incredibly weak and it was pretty disheartening. 

The one redeeming factor was that my therapist told me to go buy new shoes! That was music to my ears. I typically don't need a reason to go buy new shoes, I'm quite capable. But, to have my therapist validate an actual need for a new pair, versus my usual want for a new pair, totally made my day! So, with mommy and daddy's credit card (this was an "unforeseen medical expense", which is why it wasn't my credit card) I ventured back out into this first snowy day of winter to a local sports store and got a great new pair of running shoes!

So I'm going to try and use the excitement of the oh so-close summit as energy and motivation to the top! As Miley Cyrus would put it, "It's all about the climb! Keep your faith." It ain't about how fast I get there folks, but what I learn along the way :) So wise beyond her years! 

Turkey Day Reflections

So many things to be thankful for indeed!

1- I'm home for the holiday this year!

2- My brother's in-laws (basically Marla) was pouting that I couldn't make it over there this weekend, which means they love me :)

3- Met my new doggie nephew, Buddy. A black golden-doodle! Very Cute!

4- I'm on the verge of full recovery for my knee!

5- I have a wonderful home to come home to, which includes my family, pets and friends!

6 - It's now officially Christmas season :)

7- Although I may not know exactly what my life is going to look like in a year - I have been blessed with many talents and I'm excited to see how God is going to use them!

I miss my adventures. I'm making new ones everyday though in some way or another or at least making new memories. Mom and i have been watching a lot of Hallmark movies and they always make me feel good inside. There was one though that portrayed a big-time lawyer and she got magically put into a different life that had a husband and kids. I could empathize with her in both lives. She had a killer down-town office, then the next moment she was tucking in two adorable children. I hope to not have to choose one life over the other someday, but if I did, I would now find myself choosing the later. But why worry about tomorrow - there's a verse about somewhere in the Bible. So, I'll do my best not to and live in today! And my plans for the rest of the day are to help daddio put lights up, do a little grocery shopping and have dinner with two of my best girlfriends from high school! We are going to cook dinner, watch a movie and because we're old enough and it's yummy - drink some wine! :)

Boiler Up tomorrow! Oaken Bucket Game and my last football game as a college student, and I'm taking my daddy. Couldn't think of a better person to spend it with :)

Winterization 2010

OMG is all I have to say about how I feel right now! Winterization was amazing! We had approximately 481 volunteers between those that went out and volunteered and the crew that supported the madness!

The best part for me was when I got to meet the lady that started the Winterization service project 9 years ago! To see what her idea and passion has turned into was such a rewarding experience. I was in the middle of registering volunteers, so I didn't really get a chance to talk with her, but it was so awesome that she came back and volunteered in this year's Winterization!

So today is your lucky day - this post is actually going to be the usual size of a blog post so I'll just give one last shout-out to everyone at Wesley who rocked it out today and all of our wonderful volunteers!!!!!!

PS - Harry Potter was AWeSomE last night/early this morning!!!!! Got together with some of my girls I don't get to see that often as we screamed, jumped and cried (I didn't, but they did) through the epic experience that this movie was!

Thanksgiving and Service

This Thanksgiving season has offered me a few more unique experiences that I think and feel are going to allow me to appreciate this holiday even more. Through the busy times of college and drama that surrounds every normal human being, I have been offered some opportunities to serve and had some great conversations with a few people that I would consider my mentors.

The season started off with Mortar Board serving a Thanksgiving meal at the YWCA for the local women's shelter. I carved my second turkey in my lifetime, made a lot of stuffing and became the 'finder of all things' in the kitchen. I did not get to interact with the guests there that much, but it was still rewarding to take some time and put towards a great cause.

Then I would count my time towards getting things together for Mortar Board today as 'service.' I love this organization, but the fact that we are insanely busy as an organization on top of all of the students' busy schedules can be a logistical nightmare for me sometimes getting things together as the secretary.

WINTERIZATION is here!!!!! Well, Saturday and we have a RECORD number of volunteers registered. Almost 500!!!!!! This is going to be insane, but awesome-crazy insaneness working with all of these volunteers Saturday morning. These volunteers will help approximately 130 residents within the Lafayette/West Lafayette area who are not able to winterize their own homes. We are about to pull off the most epic Winterization ever and crossing my fingers to avoid any unnecessary jinxing, we are in pretty good shape as far as preparations go for registration, mapping/directions and food!

This coming Monday, I am helping with a leadership seminar with the Tomahawk group on campus. I'm super excited to be helping facilitate this, especially after attending the AFA Conference a few weeks ago. I get to be on the other side of the conversation by driving it and I'm already feeling the giddy excitement/ passion inside of me and I hope the students get a lot out of it!

So overall, I'm super excited to be able to give back in so many different ways this week and I feel it is with a new servant's heart when I volunteer. I had two great, random conversations with a couple of Animal Science professors that I would deem as two of my mentors. Both very strong in their faith and people who I admire. These just seemed to have came at the right time to add to my great week!

Through the busyness of life, it is times like these that rejuvenate my soul and keeps me moving on!!!!!

Feeling a 'Nudge'

This past weekend I went to the AFA Leaders Conference in Kansas City, MO. AFA stands for Agriculture Future of America. It was a great weekend filled with awesome speakers, meeting gifted students from all across the country, discussing issues in the agriculture industry and of course leaving me confused to my calling in life. But hey, many of us are most of the time, at lease I hope I'm not the only one?

The theme this year was "Our Voice, Our Vision," and the goal was to equip us with the tools to tell our story related to Agriculture to combat some of the craziness of other organizations that are against production agriculture due to their perceived "ethical and safety standards." I basically want to ask those opposed to production agriculture if they want to eat in 40 years when there are 9 BILLION people on this planet and we are utilizing less than 70% of the land and resources we have in today's agricultural production? Technology and innovation are key people to feed the world come 2050.

The food producers of the world are consumers as well. Do you think they would really produce something unsafe for their own children to eat? Same goes for the use of antibiotics in the meat industry, I would sure like to eat a healthy animal even if it was treated with antibiotics rather than a diseased one. This stuff has been tested and the science is behind it. I could throw out more facts and figures about the safety of our food system, but I think I've made my point, so I'll get off my soap box and move onto another topic.

What I think I got more out of this year's conference was another nudge towards ministry. Every Christian is called to some sort of ministry to share their stories of faith. But it was two years ago at this conference that I first felt a nudge. There were lots and lots of leadership presentations and I thought about how cool it would be to present a lot of this stuff, only with a "Christian twist." It got my mind percolating at least, but I didn't take much action from there, or did I without really knowing it? That's about when I made the first commitment to Disciple Bible Study when the craziness of my 2009 was over. That's about when I knew I wanted to grow as a person and jump into the craziness of 2009 and have experiences of a lifetime!

I've always liked leadership training and development. The Madison County Youth Leadership Academy was my first real taste of that back in 2005 and now I have a minor in leadership in college. I was sitting in my OLS class today and we talked about the spectrum from behavioral leadership to value-based leadership and I could see myself using this material down the road. Servant leadership was the main topic in lecture and it could not have come at a better time - leading for a moral and ethical purpose above your own purpose. Hmmm..... Christian Leadership?

What really gave me this nudge this year was recognizing the difference in my confidence between two different sessions. The first session was an executive forum where we had the opportunity to talk with executives in the industry about key issues and what can be done about them. This wasn't just a panel up there on stage where only about half the audience is truly engaged - it was six or eight students to one executive at a table and we had three rotations to meet other execs. For the most part I felt I could hold my own against these other crazy-ambitious students, but I couldn't come from a first-hand point of view about many of the issues. I couldn't really speak knowledgeably and therefore confidently about some of the topics and I left that session feeling kind of beat up on the inside. Not a complete failure, but definitely not feeling like a million bucks.

The second session was the fellowship opportunity on Sunday morning. It was not a typical worship service. There were a couple of songs and a few prayers, but it was more of a round table discussion again for about 30 minutes where the facilitator had pulled out some practical examples in the Bible that related to our theme that we have been discussing in an ag-related mindset, only now applying it to our faith. Basically, Christians' "Our Voice, Our Vision." Nobody really took the lead at our table to start developing discussion, so I just jumped in before I think I realized it - and it was AWESOME! We had a great discussion, I was pulling questions out of nowhere that helped drive the conversation with basically complete strangers. Well, I have a pretty good idea where I was pulling them from actually, or who was supplying them rather. There was a student from OSU who was at two of the exec. forum tables I was at and who was also at my table during the fellowship. I was impressed by him during the exec. forum because he was very well spoken and knowledgable about several of the issues. He then paid me a compliment after the fellowship session!

To spare this from getting much longer, as I'm sure I'll write more about this in my quest to hone in on what this nudge means, I'm now going to start researching different programs in Christian Leadership. Drumroll please......... that probably means some sort of seminary for me! Growing up, I always wanted to do what my brother did - pulled my two front teeth out when he lost his, played with Power Rangers instead of Barbies, wanted to drive when he started to drive and definitely wanted a letter jacket when he got his! But I still did my own thing: He was a bookworm - I rode my horses, he played with legos - I had my toy horses. Ok, yes, there is a pattern here, I'm horse-crazy - what's new? So now I suppose I'm still playing copy-cat with the idea about going to seminary someday. Although he did admit on the phone yesterday that we are kind of alike and there is a small piece of similarity between the two of us - which is hilarious actually!

Stay-tuned for where this nudge will lead me next!