Searching for "The One"

THE CHECKLIST BOYFRIEND

When I was in middle school, I wrote a checklist of my requirements for my future husband.  Everything I wrote were good things.  I think its important to have some general personality traits in mind for your future spouse.  After all, you don't want to marry just anyone.

BUT...

I began to envision this one man out there specifically set aside by God for me.  I thought there was ONE guy, and I just had to find him in the sea of strangers.  Once I met him, everything would fall into place.

Top 3 Tips for a Great College Experience

I remember how daunting the prospect was to leave high school and start my college career.  I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff called Childhood and asked to jump into the ravine below called Adulthood.  My toes curled on the edge of the rock, touching the open air.  It was scary.

As the co-leader of the college/career group at my church, I was asked to go to a high school senior retreat to share some of my top three tips to the anxious seniors.  These could probably apply to life in general, so I thought I'd share them with you all. 

#1 – Be intentional.

In high school, almost everything is predetermined for you by adults or conveniently and readily available.  Your schedule is set by the school, you see (most if not all of) your friends five days a week, and your parents drive you to church on Fridays and Sundays.

When you’re in college, the proverbial Pandora’s Box is opened and all of the sudden you are in charge of your life.  Especially if you’re a commuter to campus (as I was all 4 years), you have to be really intentional about how you spend your time, who your friends are, and what is important to you.  The decisions you make say a lot about your priorities.  Decide what those are and intentionally make decisions to demonstrate that.

#2 – Remember where you came from. 

Whether you go out of state or live on campus, don’t forget your family and friends back home.  They shaped you and will continue to if you make a place for them in your life.  While you don’t need to come home every weekend or call your mom every night, don’t forget that your support team back home misses you and wants to know how you’re doing.  Make time for them (part of being intentional) and don’t forget how much you’ve learned and gained from your home team.  (PS – this is also Biblical advice!)

#3 – Challenge yourself. 

College and independence give you a lot of new opportunities, both bad and good.  Keep your head on straight and think, but also don’t be afraid to take a step of faith.  Do something that may be different from the norm. 

Join that club, volunteer, sign up for an extracurricular class, get involved, talk to someone new, befriend someone different, go to professor office hours, be Jesus to those around you.  You probably won’t ever again have as much freedom and available opportunity as you do in this season of life.  Going to college is a privilege, not a right, so make sure you take advantage of the gift God has given you. 

Soli Deo Gloria.

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Related Posts:

What Graduation Means 4 Years Later 

Deep Questions, Simple Answers
The Adult Threshold: Age 25
You Know When You're an Adult When
Who I Was In High School
First Day of School   

Hello! I'm back!

Aboard the Disney Dream cruise!

Greetings Internet friends!

It's been over a year since I've posted regularly on my blog, and while I do not intend to keep up with my regular weekly updates, I think its time to revive this thing.

The past six or so months, I've struggled with my writing.  I am a very busy person.  For the most part, I enjoy staying busy, but I've been juggling tasks at my limit for quite some time now.  I'm not sure what items I can drop; they are all very important to me.

So, writing took its place on the back-burner of my schedule.  I'm ashamed to say I haven't really worked on fiction in months either.  People have asked me how my novel is going.  I have to tell them that truthfully its going nowhere fast.  I feel like wincing every time I have to say it.

Maybe its the coming of the New Year, hearing everyone else talk about resolutions (even though I dislike resolutions personally).  Perhaps it is the rising out of the ashes of the holiday season, tired and lethargic.  Or maybe, if I am brave enough to say it, from the dissatisfaction with the present comes a desire for change.

So, I thank you for your patience and understanding.  I'm going to need the encouragement to fight the uphill battle of self improvement.  Thanks for the likes and the comments.  Much appreciated.  I look forward to the future.



Soli Deo Gloria. 



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Why You Haven't Heard from Me Lately

As you can see, I've taken a hiatus from new blog posts recently.  You might be wondering why. 

I'm feeling anxious lately.  I want to write, but every time I sit down and work on the book I've been tackling, I get too jittery and get up.  I can't sit still.  I struggle to motivate myself at work.  I want something new, but I feel like its wiser to stay the course and wait for the emotions to die down.  Still, I'm not ignoring them.  Just keeping my eyes open to see if anything pops up.

Alas...the bills need to be paid and responsibility needs to happen.  That's what keeps me on the ground.

What Graduation Means 4 Years Later

I graduated from the University of California, Irvine (zot zot) in 2010.  Four years later, so much has happened since my graduation, I feel like it was a lifetime ago.  Yet I can still remember it like yesterday.

I remember the anxiety of taking my first steps into the real world of careers and 9-5 work schedules.  I remember debating whether or not I had to go to grad school, whether or not that would affect my future.  I recall considering getting a teaching credential and teaching high school English.

Now, four years later, all my worries seem silly.  I'm married, working, co-own a home.  Things that seemed perpetually "down the road" at the time of graduation.  I notice some of the graduates dwelling in anxiety.  Part of me wants to tell them to not waste their time; the other part of me knows they need to learn a few things of experience like I did.  A few things like:

A Truly Scrumptious Imagination

Raised on the 1990s, I spent hours in front of the television watching Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, the King and I, and also the beloved but slightly less well-known classic, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Thanks to Amazon Prime, I was able to watch it recently for the first time as an adult.  I didn't remember any of the plot, but the songs were as familiar as an old friend.  Somehow, you never seem to forget those tunes from your childhood.  (Sherman Brothers magic.)

The film was released in 1968 and based off of a book by the same author of James Bond.  He wrote it for his son.  The movie's screenplay was co-written by Roald Dahl.

These details stood out to me because, as I watched the movie, I didn't realize that 75% of the movie is spent watching events entirely imagined.

Is it wise to take a break from your novel?

I've decided to take a little hiatus from working on my YA novel, and I'm quite hesitant about doing so.

I'm at that point in my editing where I feel like my novel is horrid and so far from everything I want it to be that its not salvageable.  Of course, no novel is beyond the point of saving.  It just feels that way.  (If you didn't get it, I'm at the "dark night of the soul" part.)

You can probably relate.  You don't connect with your protagonist (or any of your characters, really).  You wonder why you're writing the thing in the first place.  You lack drive to see it through.

The Necessary Evil of Small Talk

Sometimes I dread going to the salon to get my haircut.  You're in there for a good hour and a half, and its understood by all parties involved that you will make the necessary small talk the entire time as to eliminate any awkward silences.

So, I prep myself ahead of time.  I think of things to talk about with the lady who washes my hair.  The weather, my new house, and oh, how is her boyfriend doing?  My hair stylist, luckily, cuts the hair of a dozen people in my family, so family news updates are encouraged.  I can talk about my grandma and my sisters and my mom, and she'll be in the "know" already.

Still, there are times I run out of things to say, and I'll sit there awkwardly as the music is pumping and the scissors snip to the beat.  Then, my stylists will say, "So, how's work?"