Reunion

This weekend I felt old.  I got together with the girls who lived on my freshman hall, well at least those who are still at Concordia.  We looked back to that crazy time in our lives when we were all making adjustments and adapting to the college lifestyle.  We had some crazy things happen like a toilet exploding, causing a flood, a girl on our hall (who is no longer here) had several seizures, someone superglued a pop can to their hand (purposefully we think), ovens exploding, dressing up like homeless people, and the list can go on and on.  We even made a few phone calls to girls who have left, but with whom we still keep in contact.  

It is crazy to see how much we have changed, and grown apart with some and closer with others. 

One of the girls surprised us by bringing the golden toilet that we had used to raise funds for "Katrina Relief"... which made quite the impression on campus, let me tell you!  

Looking back isn't a bad thing, it can often be fun, just as our little reunion was.  It did however, make me realize how much time has gone by and how quickly.  I am not saying I would like to stay here, I know it is time for me to leave, to move on.  At the same time, a part of me wants to stay where it is safe, where I know people and I am familiar with how things work.  In just a matter of months I will leave this sanctuary and enter a new type of living, which makes a part of me want to run.

RW

Echoing

To 328:
One of the joys of teaching is feeling awe towards a group of people with whom you share learning space. I know, I feel, I understand how you've all done something "hard" with your essays this second time around. As I read through most of them yesterday, I found myself nodding and underlining and getting lost in good reading ways. I echo what some other of your colleagues have said -- that we've learned as we've shared in ways we didn't know we could.

The big sister in me wants to hug you and say thank you and tell you how proud I am for going "there," wherever there has been for you. It takes much risk and much vulnerability to try something new or to revisit something old. With this second round of essays, you've created a community of writers with every word, with every tear, with every powerful moment on that page. You remind me of the importance of risk, of the fear that blank page holds over us and the sigh it releases when filled. I thank you for the reminder. I thank you for the awe. It carries me today.

~LZH

Hard Stuff

I was in awe of the essays that I read this weekend. I think they have been so honest and true that the author's "truth" has been uncovered. Touching on these hard topics so eloquently has allowed me to see things in a new way. Not in a judgemental way, but in an honest with myself way. I want to tell the writers who wrote for the large workshops this week, great job! I am so inspired by your strength and courage. I laughed and cried with your stories!

Hannah

Meditation on Heaven

So this post is what I wanted to write last week, but didn't, in part because we had to write the alphabet post, and in part because I didn't know if I could write it at that time. But strangely, this writing thing isn't so bad, I'm actually (shockingly) beginning to really appreciate the art for myself. But don't take that too far... I still have a hardcore scientific writing style that can never be altered, even after several English Composition classes.

I went home last weekend, like every weekend, to do my laundry. But this time, it was different. The early morning and midday phone calls alerted us to the fact that my grandma had been in the hospital since Tuesday, and the afternoon phone call informed us that she passed away. It wasn't quite the way I had expected to spend my weekend, but it happened anyway. It was so strange, sitting in church last weekend, and the pastor prayed for us, the family in mourning. I realized, oh, yeah, that's our family. Weird, that's not supposed to be us.

I don't want to drag out any sympathy from you. I am still a little sad, but, as in the deaths I have previously experienced, I never dwell on them. I can't, because I know they are in heaven with the Savior. In fact, that makes me a little bit envious, because they get to be in heaven, sin-free and with God, while I have to continue on this earth.

There's a lot of stuff I'd still like to do with my life. I have the next four years to get my veterinary medicine doctorate, I'd like to get married and have kids, I'd love to travel, I'd love to go overseas on mission trips. But strangely, if I learned tomorrow that I had cancer, I think I could give all these up for the trip home to heaven. I get really excited when I think about going to vet school next fall, but the thought of heaven makes me even more joyful. Sometimes I just can't wait to get there. But apparently God still needs me on this earth, so I'll do whatever His will is in the meantime. It makes me think of that verse Paul wrote to the Philippians (1:21): "To live is Christ, to die is gain." I guess I'll just see what God's plan for me is as He unravels the future in front of me.

My grandma had an amazingly strong faith, one of the things that I really remember best about her, and often I wish I could have the same. Her confirmation verse was 1 Timothy 6:12: "Fight the good fight for the faith. Keep holding on to eternal life, to which you were called and about which you gave a good testimony in front of many witnesses." She really did that on earth, and she was faithful to Christ, and now lives in eternity, like Christ promises in Revelation 2:10: "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." I guess that's what we all have to do until we reach our time to go to heaven. Life is not easy, but Christ has equipped us to fight sin, death, and the devil. And He plans to reward our faithfulness with the gift of eternity.

I thought about this today when I was in church, as we sang one of my favorite hymns. It made me think about death, about life, about how this world is challenging but there is no comparison to the future life. It covers everything that I believe, and nothing can have power over the triumph of Christ brought to us through baptism and faith. I'll leave you with the lyrics.

God's own child, I gladly say it: I am baptized into Christ!
He, because I could not pay it, Gave my full redemption price.
Do I need earth's treasure many?
I have one worth more than any
That brought me salvation free Lasting to eternity!

Sin, disturb my soul no longer: I am baptized into Christ!
I have comfort even stronger: Jesus' cleansing sacrifice.
Should a guilty conscience seize me
Since my Baptism did release me
In a dear forgiving flood, Sprinkling me with Jesus' blood?

Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized into Christ!
Drop your ugly accusation, I am not so soon enticed.
Now that to the font I've traveled,
All your might has come unraveled,
And, against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me!

Death, you cannot end my gladness: I am baptized into Christ!
When I die, I leave all sadness To inherit paradise!
Though I lie in dust and ashes
Faith's assurance brightly flashes:
Baptism has the strength divine To make life immortal mine.

There is nothing worth comparing To this lifelong comfort sure!
Open-eyed my grave is staring: Even there I'll sleep secure.
Though my flesh awaits its raising,
Still my soul continues praising:
I am baptized into Christ; I'm a child of paradise!
(LSB 594)

~Jessica

In Mourning

I am currently in mourning. I went through my Facebook profile and deleted all the funny things off of it because I realized I have to be a grownup now. I am writing a story for the Sower about Facebook and how it can really impact your job search because employers occasionally search a job applicant’s web page and make judgments. Now, it is sad… I know some things look bad and I understand that part of growing up is being professional, etc. But my profile is just so boring now! It’s sad.

Mostly I will miss the quotes from my friends on my quotes page. I know some of them were mildly inappropriate, but I really liked them a lot. They made me happy because they were so funny. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to get judged because I thought something my friends said was funny, but still. So, in memorandum, here are a few quotes from my Facebook quotes page I will miss:

“I forgot how UGLY you were!!!” ---A common quote that Alicia says to me when I wear my glasses… don’t worry I started this.

“Don’t sweat the small stuff, everything is small stuff!... Unless you knock up a girl. Then you are out of luck.” ---Carson’s advice to me.

“OMG whose toothbrush is this!?!?!” ---Elaine, my roommate, while brushing her teeth…

“If we go to that Creek restaurant, I am wearing my corn shirt!!!” –my dad, very excitedly, while on vacation

“This is what 20 years of wearing glasses did to me… I think I’m invincible!” –Alicia, a new contact wearer, after poking herself in the eye.

There are so many more!!! And I can’t remember them…. Already!... luckily, I saved them in my room. ☺

you're the inspiration

Lately I have been thinking about where we get our inspiration. Sometimes it seems as if it comes to me all at once, a torrent ideas and emotions filling me until I must write or drown. At other times, it seems as though I have to crawl for every inch of ground I get in my essay. Each word is a battle struggling against a foe who is just a little bit stronger and a little bit quicker, yet somehow you manage to overpower the foe for just long enough to get the next word. Then: back to the same struggle.

I am not naive enough to think that all of us go through the exact same process when writing, but I am curious as to how we get the ideas we do. Do our experiences somehow push us toward certain writing, or do we put labels on our experiences?

Some would probably say it is a cop out but, I don't know that I have an answer for my dilemma, because sometimes it seems as though it is one way and sometimes the other. So Eng 328ers I am wondering where you fall on this certain issue. Perhaps as a group we can come to some sort of understanding. Perhaps we can encircle truth and gaze briefly upon its light.

Dustin

Phony Lightning

Okay, this is going to make me sound a little weird and crazy, but whatever. I live in Jonathan dorm and many times when I walk out the side door of the building (facing the west) I see a flash of light in the sky to the west. I don't know what it is, but it intrigues me.

The first few months of school I thought it was a flash of lightning. I always got really excited. A few times I even stood there for a minute or so...waiting to see more lightning. None came. I have always loved storms so after seeing this flash I would get excited in anticipation of the storm. However, I was always disappointed when no storm came rolling in.

At some point I came to realize that it was not lighting, but rather some type of reflection from the lights inside the dorm, bouncing off the glass of the door when I opened it, into the sky. I don't know how it works and I've tried to recreate this phenomenon, but it seems like it can be repeated in a short amount of time. For example, sometimes after this flash of light appears I go back inside and let the door shut. I then go back outside trying to recreate the flash, but it never works.

I'm only writing this because I saw the flash again last night. Every time it happens I get excited for a brief second, but then realize that it is not lightning, but rather some unexplainable phenomenon. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what it may be? Has anyone else seen it? Am I just crazy?

Carson