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!