I love incoming freshmen...

This comes as no surprise to those of you who really know me. But I love freshmen. I love everything about the freshman experience. And I love to be the one to try to explain the awesomeness of this place and calm all of the fears that every freshman has. I love being the one with the answers and sharing them with those who are so desperate to know everything. That's why I've devoted two summers (and a couple years actually) of my life to freshman orientation, week of welcome, etc.

Last night I got to relive a bit of my orientation leader experience yet again. A girl who went to high school with Lindsey spent the night with us last night. Her name is Emily, and she'll be a freshman in the fall. I look at her and instantly remember how I felt three years ago, just before high school graduation. She seemed excited, but I know that half of that is because you know you're supposed to seem excited. The number one thing she's worried about is her roommate. I think of what a fiasco all of that was summer before my freshman year, but how amazing my roommate situation ended up being. Lindsey and I relayed a few horror stories and how to get out of a roommate you don't like, but mostly I got to tell her my story, of randomly rooming with a girl from CTOPS. I'm now going to be in her wedding next summer, along with a girl from our suite freshman year that we still live with. And the thing about it is that our story is not really uncommon.

I love the look of relief that washes over someone's face when you just talk to them about how great it's really going to be. Emily has no idea what is in store for her for the next four years. Change is incredibly hard, but as I've gotten older (haha now the mature age of 20), I've realized how necessary it is and how amazing it can be. I think of myself three years ago, and pretty much laugh at her. At what I believed, at my fears, and at my own plan for college. God has taken me an incredible distance from where I thought I wanted to be. And he has certainly blessed me in that. I've seen that a little more this weekend, spending two great nights with two incredibly different groups of people. Both have taught me so much... the group that I thought I would be comfortable with a few years ago, and the group that I may not have ever known if it weren't for the crazy path God decided to take me on. I'm glad I never really fought it. Because he knows a heck of a lot more than I do about what's best for me.

Hopefully knowing that will make it easier not to fight it in the future. We have one mere week left of class, and then college as I know it will definitely change. Yes, I will be a senior (craziness... pure craziness), but mostly, some of my closest friends will be miles and miles away. I can't wait to have a real reunion with those people, after they've been gone for a while, and see what God has done in their lives. But for right now, I'm just not sure I'm ready for them to be gone from my every day life.

I adore outgoing seniors...