It has been brought to my attention

several times in the last few days that it has been nearly a year since I have updated this blog, and for those few and far between viewers, I have concealed the falling action of a rather mundane but nonetheless progressive story of my life. Since my last post, I have completed two semesters strongly at UA with a summer sabbatical working at a Christian kids camp in Bellingham, WA, in between. I guess "sabbatical" is a bit of a misnomer considering the fact that I was incredibly sleep-deprived, never showered, and was constantly on the go working with children first grade through twelfth grade (not all at the same time; each week I was working with a different age group). However, I can honestly say it was the best three months of my life. I made some of the closest friends I have ever had and could ever ask for, friendships that will last for a lifetime, no doubt. I had the unique opportunity of getting to hang out and play with kids, while at the same time being able to mentor them and show them Jesus' love. I have collected quite the array of hilarious anecdotes from working at camp, a few of which will have you laughing so hard you are crying. If you are interested in listening to some of my stories, just ask (I highly recommend the nudist fifth grader story or the hummingbird story). It was through working at Lutherwood that God really made it clear to me that I am supposed to be working with children and youth for a living and that He has designed me to help them grow in their faith and grow as human beings as well. Do not consider me vainglorious for boasting of these astute qualities for I can guarantee you it is not of my own doing; all the praise goes to God. I am just thankful He is allowing me to assist Him in being a shepherd to His flock, something He continued to remind me of every day while at Lutherwood, not only through the interactions I had with the kids but through my camp name as well. As counselors, you go through a small identity crisis at the beginning of staff training where you no longer use your birth-given name but it is instead replaced with a puerile name that will be used for the rest of the summer. It soon becomes the campers' unofficial game to try and guess your real name. I can honestly say that no camper ever guessed my real name and I remained imperishably Lamb Chop all summer long and will remain as such forever in the eyes of the other counselors. As ridiculous as said camp name is for me, it was God's reminder to me of my duties as a shepherd to his flock, and I most certainly owned and grew to enjoy being called Lamb Chop (or Chops, Choppy, Choppy Chop, Da Chopsta, etc.), a name I will continue to use when I return to Lutherwood this summer. Or that is the plan, at least. But until then, I have to finish this current semester...

Speaking of which, said semester is proposing itself to be far more difficult that I had previously gathered it to be. I started out taking three literature classes and two Deaf Studies classes, but due to a series of stressful and dramatic events, my class schedule has transformed into one Deaf Studies class and four English classes. Kill me now. When describing my course schedule to Manatee, another counselor from Lutherwood (as you can plainly tell by the inordinate nickname) and a fellow English major, he was completely shocked that I was taking so many literature courses at one time. I didn't realize the serious consequences of taking four English classes simultaneously until it was too late to drop any of them. My homework consists of mostly reading and analyzing novels and other literature but at an extremely rapid rate. I average reading around four to five books a week, something presenting itself to be rather difficult for someone like me who has not been fond of reading in the first place. I am reading my books every chance I get: in between classes, during classes, while eating lunch, at work, at parties my roommate invites me to, etc. This excessive reading is portraying me as an avid bookworm and introvert, but really, it's simply so I can trudge through my courses without failing miserably. I am praying that I find some way to survive and excel at these classes without getting too burnt out; additional prayers from you would be greatly appreciated.

I mentioned earlier about my roommate...Since my last post, I have roughly gone through three roommates. The first one who I was living with during my last post ended up transferring to NAU for the 2009 fall semester, leaving me with a random roommate, a freshman pre-med major. We had absolutely nothing in common other than we lived two miles away from each other back home, and we barely spoke to one another, never exceeding one two to three minute small talk conversation per week, complete with a couple angry exchanges about temperature control and sleep schedules. Needless to say, we didn't exactly get along. I had become very good friends with a girl who lived down the hall and I spent a lot of my time escaping my roommate in her room. Since we spent so much time together, we decided it would be best for the both of us if we moved in together. After much drama and cattiness, Jenny moved into my room and my roommate moved into her room with Jenny's old roommate. As of now, Jenny and I are very happy in our vintage-themed mess of a room and she has become to be one of my best friends. It is pretty evident to everyone that I am much happier this semester since my living situation has been remedied. However, it is also evident that I am a bit grouchier due to my intense workload, but there's not much I can do about that but traipse through all of my homework, something I should probably be doing right now...blarg...

Thank you all for reading my picayune troubles posted on my blog. I hope you all are doing well and I am hoping to update my blog more often. It has become my 2010 resolution to be better at keeping in contact with people who are important to me (that's you!). Help me out by emailing me/calling me/bugging me to update my blog. I hope to talk to all of you individually soon. Love and God Bless