My Junior Year in Review

It’s hard to believe that yet another school year has come and gone. It is also difficult to believe that my days here at UNI are numbered. (Not that I’m planning on staying here any longer then it takes to graduate.) Soon enough I’ll be out in the real world teaching some children, that I’m sure will become very special to me, science of some kind.

This year was much the same as any other year, I took classes – granted this year they seemed harder then I ever remember having had in the past – but talking about classes is boring! (Except physics – but that’s all complaining.) I hung out with my amazing friends, and my group of friends grew to include both new people and people I’ve know since freshman year.

The Earth Science people (“the Gang” as I believe Scott first called us) changed themost dramatically. What was once just a few grew to be a real group. We had a lot of fun together, hanging out at either Nyla’s or at Scott’s watching movies, making dioramas, and just being college kids. Celebrating birthdays together, like our little Manda’s 19^th. We also added Emily and Nicole, the Trilobite and the Raptor (see the video). They added a different dynamic to every thing and it was awesome! It’s been amazing to have this group of friends, while we are so very different (and often get on each other’s nerves,) they have helped me to be more open minded and have helped me to try and look at things from other people’s points of view

Laura and everyone else at the LSC took a new roll as I went to Guatemala with a bunch of them. It’s still a very soft spot in my heart for the people and places I visited while I was down there. However, there’s and even bigger soft spot for those I traveled with. Many of them I trust with not only my physical life, but my emotional and spiritual life as well.

Events that shaped the year, lets see. First there was my 21^st birthday. I am now fully legal to do just about anything, well anything that’s legal that is. I did have a party, it was fun, I had the people that I cared about most there (minus my family).

The next big event was the Aebleskiver dinner. This has become annual tradition for Nyla and me. This was our biggest one yet. My kitchen was full of our friends.

Then there was Guatemala. Probably the biggest trip of my life, as well as one of the most life changing. I had heard that doing mission work is like the flu (or something), once you experience it you can’t get it out of your system. I think that I’ve caught that bug, and have started thinking about what I’m really going to do when I get out of here. I don’t know how much I would love to go back and work at Safe Passage, or something similar. A chance to help people, a chance to give more of my self to those who haven’t been blessed with the earthly things that I have. But the biggest lesson that I learned from the whole experience is that you don’t have to go to Guatemala to do mission work, it is right there in front of you, you just have to know how to look for it.

And that is my year end review. Shalom and God Bless!


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