thoughts of transitioning

Thainking about changing the name to this here blog.

Really, it's just a place for me to share
random thoughts,
links,
pictures,
things I love,
new discoveries,
challenges,
ideas,
& thoughts about & conversations with God.


The original intent was to share my view from my window (of the world & literally from where I lived at the present time). Over the past four years, I have lived in four very different places (not including my room at the parent's house with the window out to the enclosed patio/storage room- bor-ing).

Year 1: East Hall 3. Loved college. Loved freedom. Loved FPU. Thought I was going to graduate in 3 more years at FPU. Picked up my guitar for reals & dove in to self-teaching myself. Worked in grad/d.c. office. Learned a lot. Worked my butt off (24 hour work weeks? I miss you! Well, just the paycheck, really :) Totally clicked with one roommate - not as much with the other. Ended up not having a shoe-in of a roommate. (home for summer: visited sister at Hume every other week- terrible withdrawals)

Year 2: Stras 2. After not even really knowing my roommate at all (2nd year in a row), it worked out well. Had some strange things in common. Really started to love her. Worked as writing tutor at the CWL (Center for Writing & Learning). Could hear guys singing in the shower in the bathroom caddy-corner to my window. haha-awkward, yet, funny times. Truly started rocking out & pushing myself on guitar. Learned a lot from roommate & sharing a bathroom with 6 people. Realized I knew all along that I wasn't supposed to graduate from FPU. Felt the nudge towards nursing. Working my butt off in science classes that simply were not me. Still interested in nursing but decided to take a break from ridiculously hard (at least for me) pre-req's & went towards psychology. Specifically, child development. Discovered child development major at Fresno State. Discovered amazing classes meant just for me. Rocked my world. World rocked, but saw long road ahead to admission into Fresno State. Meanwhile, joined my first Lifegroup, or Bible study, through my church, the Well. Bloomed and grew. (haha nod to Eidelweiss :) Soaked up fellowship with very similar & very different girls from group. Went home for the summer knowing I wasn't ever returning to FPU as a full-time undergrad student. Sad, yet excited for future. Left without housing option/plan/possible roommate for next year. (See a pattern anyone? Third year in a row without a roommate OR a job lined up.)
Home for summer: crazy busy summer with weekly babysitting, Thursday Girls Bible study, visiting sister at Hume, & summer school at BC- Logic: awesome English: not awesome until I worked on my attitude. Helped older sis to organize, ready, & paper the walls of her 4th grade classroom she taught -until she was pink slipped with 20,000 other teachers in CA)

Year 3: realized I needed 2 more lower division classes to go to State. Crazy planning & many calls to a super helpful advisor at State. Decided to go to City for a semester. (2nd Fresno college). First venture into public school. ever. God worked out an amazing (for awhile) job as a nanny through lifegroup leader. Learned a lot from that. Finally lined up roommate/housing situation: girl from Lifegroup, close to State for.....next semester! Craziness of parking at apt complex during game days. Slowly getting to know other 2 roommates. Mentored, loved on, and got to know amazing module girls from East Hall 2 (Audrey as first time RA- lots of encouragement for her!). Finished 2 classes needed for admission. Along with......surprise! surprise! ASL 1! Loved American Sign Language, encouraged friends to take it, renewed interest in languages (esp. ASL), Aaaannd realized State had Communicative Disorders minor with a focus on Deaf Studies. Thank you God! This is meant for me! Met new people, made friends with tons of people in ASL (most I never thought I ever could be friends with), witnessed to a few, decided to take ASL 2 ASAP! Sad to leave behind easiest semester I would ever have (homework-wise) in college, but excited for big, new, and exciting Fresno State! Christmas in La Verne (cousins, the Grove) & Temple City. Volunteered at old Neighborhood Thrift. loved it. -Should have gone even more with my outrageous amounts of free time.- Found my love for the gym at my apt. twas uh-mazing! Liked working out, making playlists, becoming toned (last time was senior year of highschool when I worked my butt off pushing & hauling carts at Vons), the freedom of having it right there, and liked going late at night. Loved it!!!
Made it to State, loved it, riding my bike to classes, & getting to know people. Somewhat daunting at first, but easy because of amount of major classes I took (tons of same people in each class). Totally and completely wiped out on my bike, in front of my teacher, on a rainy day. Ugh. Sooo embarrassing, and cold, and wet. Ugh. thought chain was broken. Walked bike home. Got hit on. Rejected offer for lunch (um, I'm wet, cold, embarrassed- especially after asking for help from this guy with bike chain & it WASN'T EVEN BROKEN). Went on first real date. Realized quickly how shallow and quick to judge I was. Learned a lot about my expectations from that. Saw a great movie though :) Felt compelled to see Slumdog Millionaire. Ended that horribly. Ended nanny job equally horribly. Both situations partly my fault, partly not. Still working those out with God. Started babysitting a new family. (sometimes got paid bank- always gifts from God right when I was freaking out about money). Definitely learned a lot from & through all 3 roommates.
To sum up: City, nanny, Bex & Kelly's birthday's in Fresno, addicted to cable, same Lifegroup some different girls (great friendships & connections), State, date, learned a ton at school, loved freshmen girls of EAH2. Realized I wanted to move again. I was cool with my roommates, but felt okay to move on. Roommate got married (the one I was relationally closest to) in June! Old friend married in July! weird to be at this marriage & engagement stage of life

Worked at getting a summer job- no-go. Decided to stay for the summer in Fresno & take ASL 2!!! LOVED it! Made more awesome friends there. Super quick class with only 4 weeks in July (forget a lot of it now). 3rd birthday at Hume. Needed to figure out a roommate/housing situation yet again. (3rd year now.)
Disconnected from church. Boring. Not much friend interaction until late July. Visited sis at Hume a few times. Roadtripped to visit Audrey in San Jose. Random group of friends- twas amazingly fun though. Serve Day (in May actually) with Lifegroup friends. Sunburned, sweaty, and dirty- but oh, so fun! Fired up to live with sister in an apt. Tried to get other girls to commit to a lease. Another big no-go. Realized, God wanted just me & the sis together at last. Together forever (nod to Annie- sorry I just watched it). Signed a lease (a family affair. trust me. it was.) Moved during finals week of summer school. Craziness, pure craziness.

Year 4: School started. sadly not going to graduate with my (original) class this year. Roommate found. Lease signed. No job though. Wanted an on-campus job at my 3rd Fresno college. Realized I should be a writing tutor again. Worked on it. Got it. Ten bucks an hour thank you very much. Thanks God! (and thanks for having a federal grant- & not a spot in the federal gov't paying us!) So cool. In my niche again. Also, started practicum working with toddlers. Cutie-pa-tooties I tell you. Gorgeous, cute, delicious, & mischievous little humans in progress. Amazing, hard, & fun classes, learning, friendships solidified, working my butt off again for a class, & totally loving it all! New Lifegroup (old leader had a super cute baby boy Sept. 11th), made even more amazing new friendships, graduation partay for sis, trip to Fresno for fun with sisters, fro-yo first night in Bako with old friend (crazy stir craziness after barely being home for 1 hour -missed my apt, my rules, my late night fun with friends!), reunion of highschool friends at BJ's & then late night games & talking at Sara's house (whew! 2 o'clock!), Christmas in Bako & Temple City. Disneyland trip with sisters. Cleaned room at home like cuh-razy! Trip to visit sis in Fresno. so fun. Blogging a ton. Helped out older sis at long-term sub (for family friend)- loved those kids. So many stories :) Back to Fresno (didn't want to leave cozy & cleaned out room at home), back to school - mixed emotions: happy, excited, hesitant, not looking forward to homework & deadlines -almost done though- only one more semester! (well, after this one). Loving being with sis again. Internship this semester! -Yay & ugh all in the same sentence.- new classes (Deaf Culture! Advanced Ch Dev., Internship, online not needed class?), Tutoring again, Saturday Sports & Neighborhood Thrift again, possibly subbing at practicum toddler site (hopefully, God! Please make it work if you want it to!), possibly new (or old) Lifegroup, possibly WSM- high schoolers! Lots of possibilities :)
Aaaannnd.....the rest is to be continued.....
Basically, because I'm living it!

Needless to say, I have definitely lived in 4 very different places with 4 very different views from the window by my desk in the different locations. But you know what? This last one is the best, because I'm with my sis. AND I'm living it right now :)