Love and Christmastime

 Senior research and physical chemistry now own all of my free time.

Family time is good.

Jeremy is wonderful.

I miss Heather and Katie.

I get really lonely here on campus, so I leave as often as possible.

I’m a dork. But I’m hopeful.

Love and Christmastime will save me from this melancholy.

More later.

My Greatest Strength

“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
I Corinthians 13:13

“Love is the greatest because it glorifies both faith and hope, sanctifies every faculty and Christian grace, is the very moving impulse of the gospel, and is the one quality that is divine. God is love.” (1Jo 4:8)

To be continued…

- The Many Facets of Love
- The Love of Family
- The Love of Friends
- The Love of One Man
- The Love of All Loves

The Signpost Directional

Topics:

- Start Your Engines
- Hurry Up and Wait
- What Now?

The Light Breaks

Topics:

- Semester in the Dark
- Saved and Stronger
- New Friends
- Goodbyes and Hellos
- Adventures in Housing
- Athen’s Finest
- Growing Up

A Summer In The Dark

During the fall of my sophomore year, I declared a chemistry major and began searching for opportunities to quench the insatiable thirst for knowledge that had started the instant I had stepped onto a college campus. I was only taking general chemistry, but I scoured the internet for weeks searching for something I could do with my following summer. I knew I needed a job, but I was hoping that there was some way that I could avoid flipping burgers like the rest of my cohorts. Not that I was too good for it, I just preferred to exhaust my alternatives before it came to that. I came across “research experiences for undergraduates,” or REUs, and randomly selected one to apply to–at the University of Pittsburgh. I had passed the deadline on many of the others, and, though I did not think I had a chance at getting accepted, thought it worth the try.

A few weeks later, a Dr. Joseph Grabowski emailed me regarding my application, offering me 5K to come up to Pittsburgh and do research for the summer. Talk about jaw-dropping. I was a sophomore with only genchem under my belt. I must have had some amazing letters of recommendation to get a chance like this. Scared, but excited, I accepted this generous offer in hopes that I could use this opportunity to improve myself and meet others interested in science. 

To be continued…

Topics to cover:

 - Intro
- New Friends
- Learning The Hard Way
- People Are Not As They Seem
- Some People Are
- In The Dark
- Love and Some Verses
- Squeezing Metaphorical Juice Out of Pittsburgh
- These Things I Have Learned

Baby Steps

“Pretty ain’t worth a damn,” my great grandfather used to say quite often, even after admitting that I was the prettiest baby he’d ever seen. That might tell you a little something about me. Ever since then I have been trying to prove myself to my family and my world.

I was born during a time of change, and, therefore, evolving and transforming has always been a large part of my life from the chemical reactions that I have spent years studying to my constant struggle to be a good person, not just a good Christian. My mother and father were going through some difficult times due to money issues and otherwise, and, soon after I was born, they split up. Mom eventually got her own place on some land adjacent to my maternal grandfather’s farm. I spent the first nine years of my life in a small single-wide trailer in a pasture, though I have many good memories there. My father was still actively involved in my life, and, thankfully, they were always civil to one another in my earshot. They eventually got back together and were remarried when I was twelve.

My parents are amazing people and in more ways than one. They are almost polar opposites in so many ways, but they share the same sources of inspiration, which is why I believe that they came back together after so many years.

To be continued…

Topics:

- My Beginnings
- My Family
- How They Have Made Me Who I Am Today
- Eccentricities and Marvels
- Animal Kingdom
- Dark Days (high school)
- Brighter Ones (college)
- Wings
- New Family

I’m Lousy At Updating

 I’m better…just busy. I have so much going on lately. 

I am excited to be going on Fall Break soon. I need a mental health day, for sure.

Jeremy’s wonderful. 

More later, loves.