Giant Update

Let me begin with saying I have much to say—some good and some not so good. Haha!!

First of all, it is with a crazy amount of happiness, anticipation, excitement, and joy that I tell you that I have been accepted to London Mayterm!! For those of you who don’t know, Mayterm is a program Westmont has during May (hence the name) in which you can do a month of school and take up to nine units. It’s seriously the smartest thing ever. London Mayterm is just that, but it’s in LONDON (shocker, right?)!!!

I’m super stoked about this. Going to London means several things for me. One, it would enable me to graduate a semester early—BAM. Two, it’s for theatre majors and English majors specifically. Basically, we’ll be seeing like 25 plays and writing about them. For school. Yeah.  It’s awesome. Three, it’s in freaking LONDON. Nothing could be more wonderful for me. Theatre productions every day for a month in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Perhaps the only way to make it more brilliant is to travel about via horseback, other than that, it’s basically a dream come true for me. Jealous? You know you are.

Secondly, I will not be going back to Westmont for the spring semester. This is crushing for me. I already missed a semester and instead had to attend a very sub-par junior college. I have been counting down the weeks until the spring semester at Westmont starts since August. I was more than excited and eager to go back.

Not being at Westmont is so hard. I don’t even know why it’s this hard for me. Perhaps Westmont is a sanctuary for me? Perhaps it’s because there are so many wonderful people that I love live or work there? I don’t know.

Not being at Westmont this semester has shown me just how wonderful it really is. The professors genuinely care about their students. Just this week, I randomly popped my head into a professor’s office (it was Dr. Steve Julio, if you must know) and literally sat and talked with him about really nothing for an hour. I miss walking into my professors' offices for help on a paper or whatever and sitting and talking about anything but the paper (or whatever) before any one remembers what I was actually there for.

Westmont also has a great community. I love it so much. The vibe on campus is just relaxed and peaceful—even during midterm season. Also, I almost never hear swear words or vulgar talk.

I miss going to chapel three times a week. I loved sitting in chapel and listening to an amazing speaker (or not so amazing sometimes—out comes spider solitaire on the iPhone…not that I did that or anything…) and being led in worship by a fabulous worship leader who’s passionate about Jesus.

That leads me to discussing my amazing job(s) I had! Chapel set-up and tear-down are seriously the best jobs on campus. Even though set up means I have to get up at like 6:00 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as soon as I got down there, I enjoyed myself. The people I worked with are all super sweet and nice and my boss, Brad, is quite a guy. I also miss working for the sports teams! I loved broadcasting all the sports and knowing all the ins-and-outs about all the sports teams (especially basketball!!).

I hate hearing people complain about Westmont. I hate it. I would do almost anything to go back there. They don’t understand what they have. Westmont is a gem of a school. Amazing place. It is so incredibly hard and painful to me that I can’t be there for this season. I mean I'm up there like three/four/five times a week, but still. It's not even close to the same.

However, my next semester isn’t going to be so bad. I don’t like going to class at SBCC, so I’m going to take online classes. I want to go to London Mayterm, but junior colleges get out at the end of May (right in the middle of Mayterm—no good), so I’m doing the eight week online class program with Saddleback junior college (it’s pretty sweet—15 units in only eight weeks). After school gets out for me in mid-March, I’ll work full time to help pay for London Mayterm and going back to Westmont for the fall.

I don’t know what God is doing. Frankly, it sucks. I hate it. But something good must be coming out of this. Something.  Perhaps my working full time for like 6ish weeks is actually gunna let me go on London Mayterm and without those weeks, I wouldn’t be able to go. Maybe. But also maybe not. Maybe there something bigger in store.