Wow. My first week of college classes ends tomorrow. Can you believe it? I can't. This week has been filled with reading, note-taking, and lots of stress and tiredness. But it's also been filled with moving in and meeting new people and creating awesome memories.
There's a lot to say, so bear with me... Here we go! (Also, stay tuned because I've got some great news to share towards the end of this blog post!)
Let's start with the fact that Seattle Pacific University's campus is absolutely
stunning. How lucky am I to call this place
home? Some days I just walk past all these buildings and think about how blessed I am to experience this opportunity.
Someone told me this week that about 1% of people in the world go to college.
One percent. There are 62,000,000 girls in this world who can't even go to school. There are moments where it's been hard and all, but then I remember that I am a lucky person. I can't forget that. It keeps me humble and focused.
I moved in last Wednesday which was September 23rd. My mom, sister, and best friend, Diefa, came with me to help get everything into my dorm room. It was so cool having these 3 magnificent ladies that I love so much be with me on such a special day.
There are 5 halls on campus; I live in one called Ashton. 6 stories. Boys and girls. I'm on 2 East. It's known as the "social" hall and it's definitely not a quiet place to be but I really love it so far. The people in Ashton are kind and friendly. I'm glad to be living with them.
Each floor has a theme! Ours is Tangled- the Disney movie about Rapunzel! When I first walked onto the hall, I was thrilled because I love the movie and the decorations in the hall are unreal. Our RA, Kaila, is fantastic and she did such a lovely job making 2 East feel like Disney.
Here's my dorm room- the before/after picture! I'm on the left side (and you can tell because Baymax in on my bed). My roommate's name is Haley and she rocks. She's hilarious, easy to talk to, and independent. Of course, moving in with a stranger is intimidating, but she's so easy to live with that there's simply nothing to be nervous about.
One of the best things about Ashton Hall? The view! I mean, seriously, look at this. I walk out onto the balcony and see Seattle! (I mean, I live in Seattle, but you know, I get to see more of the city from here.) I walk to class in the morning and look at my surroundings and smile- which is rad. The only downfall with having such a great view is that it comes at a price. We get this phenomenal vantage point because we're on the top of a hill. A very large hill, to be more specific. It's pretty rough walking up it, and to be honest, it's not super fun to walk down either- but when you consider the fact that Ashton is amazing, it all seems worth it.
My first day spent on campus was Thursday, the day after I moved in. There were tons of things to do for orientation! One of the things we got to do was attend a soccer game! We had a "march to the match" where we walked together to the soccer field. It was a bit of a trek, up and down hills, but it wasn't so bad because we were all just talking and getting excited! It was my first ever soccer game and I had so much fun. With 15 minutes left in the game, the buses arrived and so I hopped on one to head back to SPU. The score was 0-0 when I left and I don't know what the final ended up being, but it doesn't even matter. I enjoyed myself so that's all that counts.
Fun Fact: I found out that SPU's men's soccer team is #3 in the nation and we have never been scored on. Pretty rad, huh?
Anyway, the reason the buses arrived early is because there was a
dance! We went to the gym and listened to music and drank rootbeer floats (that had Coke instead of rootbeer) and we just danced and had a good time. I felt so free. I felt like I belonged. I took a video when we were all jumping around to Walk The Moon's "Shut Up and Dance" because I want to look back and
remember the joy I felt that night.
Monday, September 28th, was my first day of classes! I have 3 classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Psychology is 8-9:20; my University Seminar- The Dynamics of Vocation: Discovering and Responding to Calling is 9:30-10:50; and Intro to Interpersonal Communications is 3-4:20.
My Psych class has about 200 people in it. The prof is super cool.
My USEM class is small- about 20-30 people in it, and the cool thing is that each orientation group was just your USEM class so I'd already met these people the previous week! There are a couple things I like about my prof in that class.
- He prays before doing anything. I love that.
- When he takes attendance, he asks a question that we respond to after acknowledging that we're there. The first day he asked if we preferred crunchy or creamy peanut butter and the second day he asked if we preferred cats or dogs. It was funny seeing how intense people got about the peanut butter question- super heated and super defensive. I was like "uh, I've never even tried crunchy, but if that's you're thing, that's cool."
- We have 5-Minute Stories! We all signed up yesterday for them, so, starting Friday, each day, one student will tell a 5 minute story before moving on to other things in the class. The story can be funny, serious, sad... Whatever you want! I'm pretty excited about that since I adore public speaking, but I don't really know what I want to talk about. That's alright, though. I've got a week or two before my presentation.
My Communications class is also one with about 30 people. The prof reminds me of someone back home that I love very much, so that's pretty comforting. Tomorrow, we're gonna be put into groups which we will eventually present in. I'm excited! Oh- and something really cool that this prof does is she has "prayer cards." They are these cards that you put your name on and what you need prayers for. After you fill it out, you hand it back to her and she prays for you! I love that! I think I want to do that- create prayer cards for the outside of my room's door. Then people can fill them out and I can pray for them. That'd be awesome.
Here's my first-day-of-school outfit!
If I'm gonna be honest and tell you all the great things about my school, I can't forget to mention the food. SPU has won awards for our cafeteria and, after being here for a few days, it's very obvious why that's so. The food is incredible and the choices are endless! If you're someone in high school that's planning on attending college- that's something I'd definitely recommend you look into when deciding on where you're going. I know it seems silly, but if you're going to be eating there 3 times a day for a few years, you want to make sure it's good.
I found a bunch of motivational quotes and put them on my whiteboard which I placed on my desk, where I do a lot of my coursework. This is something that I'd advise to anyone who studies! It's nice to look up and be reassured that what I'm doing is important.
So all that bring us to today! I don't know what I want to major in. I've thought about everything from Journalism to Computer Science. One of the things I've considered doing is teaching in special education.
Today was SPU's job fair. This morning didn't go super well. I messed up on something that, you know, I wasn't planning to mess up on. I was exhausted, downing a Starbucks on the way back from Mukilteo to wake up. I got to school, got ready, and went to the job fair.
There were so many incredible employers there. I still can't believe it. I mean, seriously. Wow. It was wonderful! Anyway, the second table I walked up to was for people working with those who have disabilities. After talking to the man at the table, he seemed pretty happy with me, saying he was planning on "stealing me" as long as we could find hours that worked with my schedule. I went through the rest of the job fair and gave resumes to lots of places that worked with kids, but I don't know. My heart was just really set on that second table. In fact, after I finished talking to the man, I called my mom right away and was like "this is what I want to do."
I ate and then went back to my dorm. After about ten minutes, the man from the second table texted me, asking me to come back, so, of course, I did. He ended up showing me that he'd already written my name down (in pen, he pointed out) on his schedule for different times that I could work. He said "I just wanted to make sure I grabbed you before anyone else could." I can't even tell you how good that made me feel. I mean, wow. He then handed me a piece of paper which said training is Saturday from 10am-3pm. He said I could do 2 different things for this job on campus that just so happen to occur on the 2 days I don't have classes (AAAAHHH!!!) so I don't even have to go anywhere! I'm in. I have a job. My first real job. I'm so happy I could cry. Actually, I almost have a couple of times.
Here's my job fair outfit, which, considering that I got ready in 20 minutes, didn't turn out too bad.
So that was my special announcement! I also just wanted to reinforce that this morning was a mess. Things didn't turn out how I wanted them to, but you know what? I got a job. There were lots of nice jobs at the fair that highly recommended that I have something that I messed up on this morning. But this job? It didn't. God works in mysterious ways.
I often say that "everything happens for a reason." We talked about this statement in my USEM yesterday. It doesn't mean that God has these bad things planned out; it just means that there are bad things that will happen and God will make good things come of them. This was one of those times.
Please know that, whatever you're going through, good will come out of it.
If you've known me for awhile, or kept up with me on this blog/social media, then you clearly know I've struggled with depression and all that. And look at me now! I'm in college! I have a job! I feel lucky and blessed and happy.
I'm going to leave you with a quote from the whiteboard I showed earlier:
"Tough times don't last;
tough people do."
-Jordan xx
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