Interterm is over. The spring semester has officially begun. And so begins a new chapter of my life. Well, more like a section within a chapter. Nonetheless, things have ended and others have begun.
I survived my C.S. Lewis interterm class and I loved it. Each day was full of great discussion over interesting topics. I loved reading Lewis' works. I now have a greater understanding of him now that he's not just the guy who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, I knew of some of his other books but I have never actually read them. I always wanted to but I didn't. Now that I'm older and slightly more mature, I feel like I can now.
I also appreciate that we didn't read the entirety of some of his books. A lot of them need time to be read and thought about, especially Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. I plan to read these books in their entirety bite by bite to give me time to chew on them.
A couple of my best friends took the class with me, one of whom this class was her last her at Sterling College. She graduated a semester early. Some of my other friends did this too but a lot of them didn't take an interterm class. They just wanted to be done after the fall semester. So, they're all done with all their credits but they'll come back in the spring to walk with the rest of the seniors.
It's kinda became an unofficial tradition that I would help her move out and see her off but her family helped her move out this time. So, I got to see them again, which was really cool. We got to catch up a little bit before we said our goodbyes. It's gonna be different with her gone. She's one of the people at Sterling who made a big, personal impact on me.
One thing I have to remember is that it wasn't "Goodbye." It was "See you later." Big difference.
One thing that I am currently learning is that some of the best memories are made without prior planning. After one of our last C.S. Lewis class sessions, one of my other best friends asked me if I wanted to go to Hutch. I had homework and laundry to do, both of which is because I didn't get up early enough to do them before class. But that's beside the point. The point is I knew that they could wait. The invitation couldn't. Don't worry. I still had some clean clothes to wear. I was just a little hung up on the fact that I had no prior warning of this adventure. I like to think about things before I do them. However, life doesn't always give you ample reaction time.
So, we walked out of class and straight into his car. We didn't even drop our stuff off at our rooms. We just went and had a blast.
We went to Taco Bell. It was glorious. First time all year. (I have no shame in that dad joke.)
But yeah. We had a great time. We goofed around at Wal-Mart, ate Taco Bell, and goofed around at a movie rental store. We also had some great time talking and pretending to sing in the car on the way back in the dark. Totally better than laundry and homework any day of the week.
That ended my interterm. My spring semester started off fairly well. I've only attended two classes but the rest of them shouldn't be that bad. I am taking almost every class that my advising professor is teaching. He's teaching three classes and two labs and the only thing I'm missing is the second lab. And all three classes are on the same days, totalling our class time together to almost 5 hours together on Mondays and 3 1/2 on Wednesdays. Can I get an oof?
It shouldn't be that bad though. I just pray that he can put up with me that much.
I'm getting better at this whole communication thing, which is good. I mean, it is my major.
In all seriousness, I think it is actually getting better. I have learned that it is better to talk with people about things sooner rather than later, but I am having to exercise it more than I thought. With some people, a conversation may be awkward but the rest of my interactions with that person would be more awkward had I not said anything at all. And they would only grow to be even more awkward as time went on. With other people, if I didn't bring up a small issue, it could have grown into something so big that neither of us wanted to ever talk about it.
I am reminded of Matthew 18:15. "'If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.'" The passage goes on to talk about how one should handle the situation should the initial discussion do no good. However, the first step needs to be taken and you may come to find that a lot of these talks can be solved one-on-one. Either way, whatever's up comes down as resolved one way or another.
I have been hanging out with my friends more and it's been great. I'm still getting used to having friends and the ones who I've been investing my time with don't know how much I appreciate it. Whether we're doing something as simple as having lunch together or as random as rearranging one's dorm room 'til 4:30 in the morning, I cherish every minute of it. Every minute with me is another minute they could have been spending with someone else doing something else. The fact that they want to do things with me is still blowing my mind. So, to those of you reading this, you know who you are but you don't know how much I appreciate you. The words "Thank you" just can't do it justice.
An interesting thing that people seem to be noticing more and more about me is when I tuck my shirt it. It's like they are surprised that I am able to do this. I usually tuck a t-shirt in for church on the inside and wear an unbuttoned button-up shirt on the outside. At Dillons, I am required to tuck my shirt it. Granted, I'm not at Dillons all that often, but I still do it. All in all, thanks for the compliment.
Don't know why that was important enough to write about, but oh well.
I have begun to experiment with coffee again. This time, I ordered a black coffee and filled it to the brim with almond milk. If I didn't like the taste, I would simply drink a little bit more and fill it to the brim again with more milk. I found that I didn't start liking the drink until there was way more milk than coffee. I need to conduct my experiment further, but, so far, my preferred almond milk to coffee ratio is 2:1.
Ooh. I had Taco Bell again. 😋
I have noticed that there are two people that I know that I have never seen eat. I don't know why I noticed something like this, or rather the lack of something like this, but I have. I know, it's weird. One of them has severe allergies, so it kinda makes sense. I mean, I've talked to her about food and seen her buy food, but never actually seen her eat it. The other person I usually see in a food-related situation. He's either around food or taking some from one place to another. I have seen him take a cupcake and take the wrapping paper off of it but not actually eat the actual cupcake! It's so strange! It should be a life goal of mine to see everyone I know eat something.
Welcome to my brain. Creativity may still be dead but the quirkiness hasn't checked out yet. I've tried to resurrect my creativity and received minimal success, only reflexes. Something happens but it starts and then it's gone again. It never finishes what it started, not even enough to tell me where it was wanting to go. I've had a few of these moments. We'll see where we go from here.