Reflection Time

5/21/08

Well, it has been almost a month since school let out. It’s been good being at home. I’ve kept in touch with a couple of friends by text messaging and facebook. I miss my friends though. A text message and a facebook message can only do so much. I miss hanging out with them. I miss being able to walk out of Faulkner Hall laughing my head off walking to the Cafe and seeing other people that I hung out with. I especially miss those that graduated. I didn’t get to see them walk across the stage and give them that final hug goodbye. Sad day! But ‘this is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in: it’ [Psalm 118:24]. That scripture gets me through a lot. God is wonderful. I love that Man for real. The month of May has been trying with missing my friends, job hunting, family problems, and my own problems, but God is good all the time. We all know that*. Everyday is like a new day for me. Yes, I do miss my friends, but I know I’ll see them again soon whether Jesus comes back this summer and takes His bride, or I’ll see them in August when school begins. The rapture scares me, but then it excites me at the same time because I’ll be with the Man who has always wanted me especially when no one else wanted me. That gives me joy! Great joy! The one thing I love about my entire freshman year was the fact that I came to this school with no friends from home and left with a whole bunch of friends. I even made friends from my hometown while I was at school. God opened my heart for people through another friend’s love for people. He made my want to serve people even stronger than before. He broke me down and humbled me so that I could make friends. One of my favorite things that God has done for me was make me smile. My whole high school career with the exception of my senior year (that’s when I became saved), I never smiled. I thank God that I’m smiling because of His grace and not because of material objects. Overall, God is too good, especially to me! My freshman year is over, but it is only the beginning of three great more years at this school, maybe even two if I take summer courses. Next year, there will be different group of people coming, and I’m excited. This year was great, but I know next year will be awesome. I understand that there will be trials and tribulation to come, but I also know that ‘the testing of your faith produces endurance ‘ [James 1:3]. The Word of God saves. It delivers and it keeps me. I pray that it’ll keep you as well. I had a wonderful time blogging. God bless you! Have a wonderful summer!

Seeking Him,
Julisa

*My final advice to the prospective students would be to keep God first. Keep Him first in everything you do. I’ve seen so many people, including myself, grow this year, and that couldn’t have been possible without God. God will give you the strength to go on even when you think can’t. So, keep Him first! God is love! ♥

The End…

So the year is over and summer has begun.. I can’t believe my freshman year is over. This blog is the first reflection I have done about my freshman year since school got out. I have been so busy with everything I don’t know if I really took the time to notice what was going on. I just finished my first year of college. Wow… Even though I can’t say everything I feel about this year in one blog I can say that it was the most amazing year of my life. Everything was new and different. I was living on my own for the first time and learning how to be an adult. Sometimes I succeeded in my new responsibilities, and then there were those times when I failed. But every experience this year taught me something about myself, I learned more about who I was and who God wants me to be. This year I made decisions and choices that will affect me for the rest of my life. I made friends, who by the way are the most amazing people I have ever met, I chose a major, I learned how to live without my parents, and I learned how to handle tough situations with maturity and I learned that nothing is impossible with God. This year was hard, not just academically, but in every way. At the same time, it was this level of difficulty that made the year worthwhile. The year went by so fast. I have always heard not to wish your life away because life goes by fast enough on its own. I found out this year that’s true. Life does slip by while your not even paying attention. Something that I would warn people about before they go to college would be this, don’t lose yourself in it. You can become so caught up in everything that you are doing that you don’t take time to enjoy where you are, and these are supposed to be the greatest years of your life. I believe that. I am so excited to see what the next three years bring.

This summer I will be helping my parents move to Montgomery, Alabama and then I will be spending the rest of the summer in Ireland on a mission trip. I am going from June 18th to July 20th. Four weeks in Northern Ireland! I can’t wait. . It’s about all I think about these days.

Well this is it, for all those who read my blogs this year, Thank-you. I hope you continue to read next year’s freshman blogs, I am sure they will be wonderful.

Good-bye it’s been fun,

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

- Dr. Seuss

Up All Night Final Week at UM

5/6/08

OK. I realize that I have not blogged in two weeks and that is not good. On the other hand, I am out of school and now at home. Home is home. It feels good to be at home. I have not found a job yet, but I am still working on it. This is not my final blog, but I would like to recap what all happened last week though.

My final week:

It was sad, but then one of the best weeks ever. I had so much fun. At the beginning it was not because I was helping at the Up All Night Study Breaks and trying to write a 7-page paper at the same time. I worked on that paper for a long time. I finished it Wednesday afternoon, I think. I was so happy. I wanted to finish it on Tuesday, but time was not on my side. Let me just say that at the Up All Night Study Breaks, now I understand why the ‘Breaks’ is at the end. I do not think you are supposed to study at this event. I mean it is promoted, but not much studying gets done. I think there were more breaks than studying. The food was great. Mr. Cillo and Rusty did a great job every night. They stayed up all night and then went to work in the
morning. I give them so many kudos. The latest I stayed up of the four nights was four o’clock, and that was once. Each night I did something different. The first night, I helped one of my friends study and listened to
music. The second night, I do not really remember. I just know that I wrote four papers within three hours. The third night, I played Mario Kart. That game is so addictive. I love it though; it is one of my favorite games to play. The fourth night, I played ‘Go Fish’ with one of my friends. Some people were playing ‘Spades’, but I was no good at that game and did not want to ruin anyone’s winning streaks, so I did not mess with that. During the day, I struggled to stay awake. Packing is so time consuming*. Unpacking
is worst though. My room is so packed right now it is not even funny. I do not know where to put half the stuff I brought home. I am so glad I put some of my big stuff in storage*because I do not know where it could have gone at my home. Anyway, saying goodbye is horrible. I did not think I would miss my
friends so bad. I did not get to say goodbye to everyone, but those that I did, I am grateful. This is going to be a difficult summer because we do not have the Internet and it is like we are all addicted to facebook. I should create a group called F.A.-Facebook Anonymous: a group for facebook addicts. I will not do that; it was just a joke. j/k Anyway, my last week was stressful, tiring, and sad, but I am glad it is over with. I wish I could go back and do the week over, but it would still end the same way. Summer has just begun and I have three months before school begins. Keep everyone in your prayers especially those on mission trips!

*Advice to Prospective Students: Do not wait until the last day to pack because over the nine months you are here, you have accumulated more than what you have brought the first time around. Also, if you are coming back the next year, it would be wise to invest in a storage unit that you and one or two others can share. You could put your big stuff in it like your refrigerator, microwave, etc.

Finis

It’s been a heck of a year, hasn’t it? I’ve gone from fully home schooled high school graduate to a freshman in the University of Mobile. And it feels great! Although everything wasn’t a walk in the park (believe you me!), it was still a blast. I loved almost all of my classes and my teachers were fantastic. I’ve learned and gained so much knowledge, culture, and expanded on so many of my beliefs, I really can’t thank the school enough for that. I can’t imagine the last year without the UoM, I really can’t. It’s become such a part of my life now that I look forward to going. I’m going to miss the teachers that I don’t get to have again next semester, they were definitely all unique in their own special ways.

As for the blogs, I know I definitely haven’t blogged as much as I should, and I do apologize for that, but it in itself has been fun and a learning experience. I thank the staff for the opportunity and their patience and hard work.

As for Summer break, I’ve been working at Wal-Mart since last December and enjoying it, so I’ll continue to do that and save for the fall. I’m also hoping to finally add two gaming consoles to my collection and pick up an XBox 360 to go with my Nintendo Wii. Oh, if anyone wants to find my online here’s my info:

Wii system code: 4299-7711-2987-6386 (Future)XBox Gamer tag: GameBuddy

Hopefully, I can squeeze in a few family trips to the beach and whatnot, and generally just catch up on some personal projects like my voice acting, animations, and artwork. I hope everybody else has a great break, and hopefully I’ll see you all in the fall!

The Last One

Wow. I cannot believe that I’m done. You all have no idea how fast this year has flown by. I knew last week that I would be moving out of my dorm today, but when I got into the car today (after some intense moving out), it was the weirdest feeling. It has been a great year, and I am so glad that I was blessed to be a part of it.

I came to UM last August with no idea what to expect. I was so nervous that whole first week. I tried so hard to play it cool, but I know that all that the only thing at anyone who saw me was “Yep, he’s a freshmen.” In all honesty, I really did not like it for the first little while. I just knew that I had made the biggest mistake of my life by going off to school. It’s not that I had bad experiences. The thing is that I just didn’t know that to expect here. And what if I didn’t succeed here?

I think that most people go through something similar to that when they first make a big change in their life. And college is quite a change. The great thing is that after a week or so you begin to meet some of the most amazing people that you could possibly know, and you realize that it wasn’t such a mistake after all.

The entire first semester seemed so long. Not that it was a bad thing, it just took it’s time ending. I had so many great experiences last fall, and I would never trade them for anything. The Relient K concert, the beach, Saviour and other school productions like Godspell, late night Wal-Mart and Sonic runs, and plenty of other things like watching “The Princess Bride” three Saturdays in a row (you think I’m kidding).

Then spring semester came. I began my new job as an RA, and then I went to bed that night, and woke up and it was Spring Break. I blinked and it was Spring Formal. By the way, if you come to UM, make sure to go to Spring Formal. If you had bad experiences at Prom, don’t worry, it is a million times better than Prom. I know. Trust me. I got in a car accident on my Prom night. Spring Formal is nothing like Prom. So go. Actually, if I could give you any reason why you should come to UM, it would be because you can go to Spring Formal if you do. So come to UM.

Anyway, the point is that spring semester just flew by. I was so shocked when I realized that what I had been told all my life had finally become true: the older you get, the faster life goes by. When I was in 6^th grade, the gap between Christmas break and summer seemed like forever. School just couldn’t end fast enough! That continued on until I graduated from High School (Go Central!), but when I figured out how fast that this year was going to end, I wished that It would stop trying so hard to get over with and that we all could stay longer.

My freshmen year was great, everyone. I love UM and am so very happy that God has blessed me with my time here. And thank you so much for allowing me to share my experiences with you. I hope that you have been able to get a glimpse of what life at UM is like through my blogs. I am a bit sad that this will be my last one, but hey, don’t worry, I am trying to talk the PR office into publishing our blogs in a book. We could call it “The Year Book” or “Memoirs of Freshmen” or “This Week at UM” or something else. That book probably will not ever be published, but if it does, you can buy it and I can get the royalties for it. I have to fund the education somehow! May God bless you all, and I hope that you have a wonderful day.

Count down to summer

Hello! This is my second to last blog, sad I know. It has been about a month since I wrote last and so much has happened. I was in a play; I had tests, parties, recitals, a dance, and so much more.

As the year winds down, I find that the term “winding down” is farthest from my mind. Between said tests, parties, recitals, dance, etc, I find myself accomplishing little and sleeping less. Why my professors feel the need to push everything to the final couple weeks of school is beyond me. Really they are just doing their jobs. These are the most critical weeks of the semester, particularly with finals looming on the horizon, and menacing Goliaths of papers rapidly approaching. Despite my best efforts to procrastinate, I must eventually face these assignments head on. A few I already have, and so far I am still alive.

The first interesting thing that happened since I last wrote was the spring formal. The dance was so much fun! We were supposed to have the dance on the battle ship but because of wind it was moved indoors. We still got to explore the battle ship, which I will admit was almost better than the dance itself. After the dance we I had my show. It went well. Three shows in one year! It was amazing! Anyway, Then I started preparing for finals week.

Again we have late night study sessions and food in Samford lobby, which was good My first set of finals were my performance finals. I had to choreograph a dance, sing in a recital, and perform a monologue. Then I had to write a six-page paper and some other little papers. I know this sounds bad, but somehow I still managed to have a great week. This week has also been wonderful! I have decided not to let myself get stressed and to just take things as they come.

I am taking a break from cleaning right now to write this blog. I have been getting ready my room ready for packing. I can’t believe it! Two more finals and three more days and my freshman year will be over. I still won’t reflect on it just yet. I have a couple more blogs before then.

Well I should get back to the productive work I was doing

I promise to write again soon

Last Blog :(

As I am sitting here in my dorm room watching my roommate pack, I really am getting sad. My life has changed so much over the past 9 months. First of all, I have gained a whole new family! These people I have been with for 9 months are closer to me than any friend I had in high school. I have laughed with these people, cried with these people, and even fought with these people. They are here when I wake up and when I go to sleep. We have had numerous road trips, a few emergency room visits, and lots of cookouts! Nine months full of memories I will take with me this summer just to hold me through not seeing them for three months! I can honestly say that every person God has put in my path this year has made a huge impact on my life. I know, I know. I sound like I am leaving forever. I can’t imagine what it is going to be like my senior year!

Now, I begin to examine how I have changed. I have to say I have matured immensely. I have gotten a sneak peak of what it is to live in the real world. I mean I do my own laundry, buy my own groceries, and even go to the doctor by myself. College is a great way to prepare you to live on your own. Spiritually, I have grown probably the most. I am not going to lie this has been such a tough year. With health problems to missing home I have only had one constant thing in my life, my relationship with Christ! God has taught me so many things about trusting him and daily trying to live for him. He has opened so many doors for me to serve Him and I really am forever grateful! Being in a Christian environment for the past 9 months has really convicted me and encouraged me. This truly has been a year for the books J

Well this is my last blog…..and I am not real sure how to end it……so, thanks for reading J

John 17:22-23

I have given the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

I’ll be an RA next year!!!

I am SO excited that God opens up doors and graces us to do things with Him!! I am really looking forward to the relationships that will be built next year on my hallway as an RA (Residential Assistant). This will also be my first time living in Ingram! This year I lived in North Hall and I loved it! But, I’m looking forward to having suitmates and a walk-in-closet in Ingram! There will really be a lot to expect and a lot to learn with this opportunity!

The end is near…

Today was my last Fried Chicken Monday in the caf. That’s right, every Monday they have that stuff, and I love it. I also had some mashed potatoes and some ice cream. It was great. I mixed it with Dr. Pepper. I managed to whip the mixture up to where it looked like a Frosty from Wendy’s. It did not taste like a Frosty though. But it was good nonetheless.

I got my research paper back from my English professor today. I was a bit worried about getting it back, but I was pleasantly surprised with a 95! It was great. The weird thing about it was that after leaving class I realized that today was my last day of actual classes before I become a sophomore. All that I lack are finals and I will be done for the summer.

Some of us are possibly planning on making one last beach trip on Thursday, since it is not a very bad day for any of us as far as finals are concerned. It will be nice to get a study break in, so hopefully that will work out.

Anyway, I will be posting another blog shortly, so stay tuned…

God bless.

Last Weekend in Mobile and Finals

The weekends are obviously my favorite! This past weekend I attended covers which was very….entertaining….I’ll just leave it at that. After covers about 30 of us headed to Pickle Fish. Saturday, was the Crawfish boil. However, I did not go. Some of us went over to Emily’s house and swam and cooked out. Then we had a slumber party, only the girls of course. The “men”, they get mad if we call them boys, had “man night.” It was great! Sunday, I woke up with an awful sore throat which was very unfortunate because Worship Choir was singing at North Mobile on Sunday night. I went home and rested and tried to get better. When we got to North Mobile at 4:30 for sound check I realized that a lot of other people were sick too. Once again, half our campus is sick. This seems to cause a problem because as you probably know this week is the week of the wonderful thing called finals. Everyone is really stressed and really ready to be out for summer, myself included! The end is near and we are all just trying to make it through this week!

Psalm 138:2—For you have magnified your Word above all your name