Winter in Missoula

So it's winter time already in beautiful Missoula and school is finally starting to wind down.  My social life on the other hand has seemed to double in size!  I've been busy finishing my volunteer hours for several of my classes and my sorority, and i've just been nominated for one of the positions in Kappa Kappa Gamma as the Risk chairman. 
I'm still trying to balance everything I have to do with everything i want to do, which i think will always be a struggle for me, but it's getting easier.  I've even started putting myself on a slight schedule during my free time so i make sure to get homework done and keep up with my responsibilities. 
I'm excited to start fresh in January with a new class schedule and a new work schedule and new room mates.  I'm looking forward to visiting Edmonds this Christmas and then returning home to Missoula in January.  It's funny how much like home the Kappa house and Missoula and the University of Montana are starting to feel. 
Sometimes i do miss how things were before i left for school.  I miss my parents and my brother and my friends and my dog.  I miss my familiar bed and the books i didn't have room to take with me.   I miss my car and having a sense of direction in the town i grew up in. 
But then i remind myself everything that i have here, in Missoula.  I've made wonderful friends and now i have more sisters than i would have ever imagined.  I have a major that i love and an idea for a career path in the future.  I'm surrounded by the prettiest mountains and rivers and countless bears and deer and squirrels. 
With December right around the corner, i'm not sure when i'll update this blog, but i'm hoping i can find some time over winter break to fill everyone in on what else is going on with me.
I love all of you!
<3

Back at home...my Kappa home that is.

     My Texas trip has come and gone, and I've been back at the Kappa house for about five days.  It's strange how much it feels like my home here.  For such a long time nothing felt real to me.  I'd look at the beautiful house i get to live in with a group of the kindest and funniest girls i've ever met and wondered when i was going to wake up from this crazy dream.  But now i finally feel like this is reality...how lucky am I?
     I didn't know what to expect on my trip down to Texas.  I wasn't sure that anyplace on Earth would be able to compare in natural beauty to Seattle or Missoula.  I thought of Texas as being flat and dry and uncomfortably hot all the time.  I knew i'd enjoy seeing all of the horses and cows and chickens, but i never expected to fall in love with San Antonio and Fredericksburg and the Texas hill country in general.
     I loved everything about the Fredericksburg area.  I loved the old Southern feel, the amount of German culture and how almost every building in town had been around for 100+ years.  I can see myself living on a small farm in the foothills of Texas and owning horses and dogs and cats and goats and sheep and chickens.  I really can't wait to go back and spend some more time there.
    Being away from school and my life here in Missoula this past weekend has really helped me get organized and try harder to stay on top of my school work.  I'm struggling to get it in my head that i need to take general education classes before i can take more social work classes, which are the ones i enjoy and do well in.  I absolutely love my social welfare class.  I'm learning all about treatment options for mentally ill patients and those who are addicted to drugs or alcohol.  Everything I'm learning in my social welfare class is just cementing in my head that this is exactly the kind of career field i need to be in.  I'm excited to go to this class and just listen to my classmates and teacher talk about their own experiences in this field.
     Love you all!!

Life at the Kappa house and other adventures.

I've been at college in Missoula at the lovely University of Montana for just over a month.  I've lived in the dorms, met new people, joined a sorority, moved out of the dorms and into my sorority house, gone to a church retreat at Flathead Lake, and kept up with working part time and the classes that i'm taking.  I've had all of 1 hour(not consecutively) to sit down and relax and watch some television.  I've gone to open mic night, movies at the University theater, a great concert at a coffee shop and even went on a quick drive to the small town of Lolo with some sorority sisters.

Let's just say that i've never been so consistently busy in all my life.  And i love it.
I don't have time to sit around and worry about what hasn't happened yet or what might happen.  I have just about enough time to walk to work or my next class or my next social gathering and that's about it.  I feel a little like i was living with blinders on before i was introduced to the complete view of my sight. 
For the time being, i'm working on bonding with all the amazing girls i'm living with and learning to open myself up more and trust other people to be genuine and nice(it turns out most people ARE that way...).  Something about living in such a beautiful place like Missoula makes even my bad days much more bearable.  I've felt some stress and anxiety, but i feel bigger than them.  I feel like everything's going to be OK because i know who i am and i've learned that in order to receive good things from the world, you have to put good things OUT into the world.  I'm being more open and trusting of people, which makes others act kinder and more trusting towards me.  I'm working on studying in a more productive manner, so i'm getting better grades.  I'm learning to open my eyes and say i don't understand instead of closing my eyes and saying i don't believe.
Live well, Love much, Laugh often!

What it's like to be a Griz

I'm writing this blog mainly to keep my family and friends updated on all that is going on in my life at the moment.  After an incredibly long two years of many ups and down, many lonely days stuck at home, and many times when i wished that something would happen just so i could feel like i was living my life, i was finally able to spread my wings, leave the nest and really test my own strength.  

On Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 i left with my parents and a car load of all of my necessary belongings for the wonderfully spectacular and breath taking state of Montana, where i was just days away from staring my new life as a University of Montana Grizzly.  We were on the road by 5am, and had made it to the wonderful city of Missoula, Montana by 2pm.  

I knew Missoula was an incredible place before i moved here, but after living in here for several weeks, i have completely fallen in love.  Missoula is the perfect place for anybody who is looking for that small town feel of community mixed with beautiful mountains surrounding every side and filled with some of the nicest people I've ever met.  I can't imagine a more storybook-like place to live.

I spent my first few days on campus moving into my dorm room in Craig Hall(which just so happens to have the biggest rooms on campus) and waiting for my roommate who was driving from Helena, MT to arrive.

My first week of classes and work at the Cascade Country Store on campus seemed to take an entire month to pass.  I was frantically running around from one activity to another, from youth group to an equestrian team meeting, to lunch dates with friends to study sessions in my dorm.  Since I'd been so used to having free time and doing school work when i felt like it, it was a rough transition during that first week.  

Most people that I've shared this next piece of information with have seemed very surprised, but i hope everyone can keep an open mind :).  I had a conversation with my roommate and several other girls on campus that i had met about the upcoming recruitment week for sororities.  I was very anti-sorority before coming to UM.  I would have laughed at anyone who would have told me i would enjoy living with a bunch of other girls who were all concerned about makeup and clothes and boys.  I probably would have made fun of you behind your back(just kidding!).  

I made a promise to myself though that as long as i was moving some 500 miles away from home, that i would at least try everything that i possibly could.  That's what college is all about, right?  So during my second week of school, i went through Rush week for the 4 sororities on campus.  For anyone what isn't familiar with the process of joining a sorority, it involves 4 days of activities.  The first night is just a large open house of the houses where you get to meet with some of the girls and get a better idea of what life in a sorority is like.  The second night is house tours, where based on your top 3 choices from the previous night, you get to tour up to 3 houses.  The third night is called preference night, where based on your top 1-2 choices and if those houses also chose you, you go to 1-2 houses to get to know the house better and meet more of the active members living in the house.
The fourth and final day of Rush week is called bid day, where after ranking your top choices, the houses all decide who they want in their house and write each girl that they would like to be a member of their sorority a bid that invites them to join their sorority.  The 200 or so girls going through Rush week met in the middle of the football stadium where we all opened our bid cards at the same time and prededed to take pictures and bond with the members of our house.  I had my first experience with a 30+ girl sleep over and had a great time.

By this time in the process, i had fallen in love with UM's Greek Life.  Forget everything that you've heard about or read about when it comes to sororities.  In  Montana, the entire idea of sororities is all about sisterhood and having a family away from home.  These girls become your family and the people who turn to when you've had a bad day.  They're the people that you come home to and complain endlessly about how you hate your science teacher.  They're the girls that you celebrate birthdays and special occasions and accomplishments with.  

Just like Michael Scott from The Office, i too have an unusual obsession with the concept of family, which i believe is the reason i have fallen in love with my new sorority house.  

I am now a new member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house of the University of Montana.  This past Wednesday i moved into this gorgeous house and have enjoyed every second i have spent with my new sisters. :)

I'm loving every second of my new life, but I'm also missing everyone that i left back in Washington.  I'm thankful for Skype and text messaging and instant messaging...without these, i think I'd be a complete wreck demanding that my parents get me on the next flight back home.  It's getting easier everyday to realize that whether it feels real or not, this is my new reality.

I'm not sure what these next few weeks will hold for me now that i'm living off campus in a sorority and several weeks into my classes, but if this next month has been anything like my first month here, anything is possible.

                                           ♥ KKΓ ♥