My "Thankful List"

This year I am thankful for:

~My family (with a shout out to my mama, my papa, Evangeline, Ray Ray, and Jackie)

~My puppies Hamish and Havie

~My bestie, Nicki

~My amazing school, Westmont

~My friends from school (both high school--yes, Aubree, this means you--and college)

~My RD, Shannon Balram

~My RA, Rhianna

~All my amazing classes (well, almost all my classes--my CS/Philosophy and my Bio classes are NOT fun)

~My fantastic professors

~Musicals

~My MacBook (love, love, love, love)

~My iPhone

~My house

~Mariners Church

~Literature (Jane Austen, Francine Rivers, William Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters)

~Riding horses

~Playing polo

And so many more. I'll update (edit) this post throughout today and tomorrow. :)

Mother Knows Best

Since I started school this year I have learned many, MANY things. A good deal of those learned things are things my mother attempted to teach me. Here is a list of what my mother tried to teach me only to have me have to relearn it.

~bedtime. Ugh. I used to read late into the night. She would always come in, take my book, and shut of the light. I'd wake up somewhat grouchy, but would be fine in an hour. Now I can read until 3:00 in the morning and have nobody to come in and force me to go to bed. I, now, am a living, breathing zombie who takes naps at every opportunity.

~study habits. This one is embarrassing. My mama would have me study each class for about an hour after I got all my homework done and I got pretty darn good grades. Now, as soon as I get my homework done, it's nap time. Immediately. And my grades aren't a a fan of this new schedule.

~laundry. Oops. Yep, this one too. It really shouldn't be so hard to pause my studies, walk down the hall, down the stairs, and into the laundry room with a basket of laundry, detergent, and my laundry card, but trust me--it IS.

~eating. Old schedule--cereal, eggs, granola bar, or toast for breakfast; sandwich for lunch; and something like a chicken breast, broccoli, garlic bread, and caesar salad for dinner. New schedule--no breakfast; sandwich for lunch; and whatever unhealthy food the DC has out tonight or an overdressed salad for dinner.

~spending. Actually, spending is not the problem. Earning is. I earn about one-third weekly of what I used to.

In the words of a brilliant song in a fantastic Disney movie "Mother knows best. Listen to your mother."

Snape. Snape. Severus Snape.

I love Snape. The end.

Must I explain why? I think not. If you've read Harry Potter, you'll understand.

For all you fellow Snape-lovers, I was introduced to a video done solely by individual drawings. Unfortunately, the artist disabled embedding, so you will just have to follow the link here to see it. It's pretty darn fabulous.

Everything Skit

My friend Kellie showed me this amazing video. Definitely worth six-ish minutes of your time.

So fantastic! God is good!

Novels vs. Plays

I adore my literature class.

So much.

There is nothing about this class that isn't to love--writing papers, reading fantastic literature, discussing new vocabulary, and memorizing poetry.

I have noticed, however, that I do not like reading plays. I would far rather read a novel than a play. I mean, really, wouldn't you rather read something like this (from Sense and Sensibility chapter 4):

"But have you not received my notes?" cried Marianne in the wildest anxiety. "Here is some mistake I am sure--some dreadful mistake. What can be the meaning of it? Tell me Willoughby; for heaven's sake tell me, what is the matter?"

He made no reply; his complexion changed and all his embarrassment returned; but as f, on catching the eye of the young lady with whom he had been previously talking, he felt the necessity of insistent exertion, he had recovered himself again, and after saying "Yes, I had the pleasure of receiving the information of your arrival in town, which you were so good as to send to me," turned hastily away with a slight bow and joined his friend.

Or would you rather read the same text like this:

Marianne: "But have you not received my notes? Here is some mistake I am sure-- some dreadful mistake. What can be the meaning of it? Tell me, Willoughby, for heaven's sake tell me, what is the matter?"

Willoughby: "Yes, I had the pleasure of receiving the information of your arrival in town, which you were so good as to send to me."

EXIT WILLOUGHBY

I definitely would rather read the first one. Don't get me wrong, I love plays, but just not reading them.

(Also, please take note of the brilliance of Jane Austen in this passage.)

Order!! Order in the Court!

I want to work in Africa after all my years of schooling are over.

My dad, ever concerned about my financial state, suggested I go through med school or law school and work as a missionary that way. It'll earn me some money (for me, my kids, and my potential orphanage) and it'll still be doing what I love.

I said that there is NO WAY I could EVER be a doctor of any kind (other than perhaps a professor), but that I would look into law school.

I did as I said and have been doing some research. What's an LSAT? What kind of law would I need to study? How many years until I graduate from law school? And perhaps most importantly, how much would x amount of years at a law school cost?

As I have been looking into this, the more I like it....the more I love it, actually.

This seems right for me.

A graduate school fair came to Westmont today. I got to listen to tons of school's little spiels (yep, even Biola's! HA!! As if! It'd be like me getting my bachelor's at USC and then going to get some sort of graduate's at UCLA. No way.). I talked to about a half a dozen law schools including Liberty, USC, Southwestern, UCI, and Chapman.

However, the one school that stuck out to me was one called Trinity Law. I went up to talk to this guy and he told me, among other things, that Westmont grads get an automatic 50% scholarship, along with any other scholarships we may ascertain, simply by graduating from a Christian school. He said that they are trying to get future lawyers to be able to get on with what God has for their life and not have to spend forever trying to pay back their schooling.

Doesn't that sound just perfect for me?

Instead of having to work at a killer firm after law school just to repay Westmont and my law school, I can just work to repay Westmont and focus most of my time on my job out in Africa.

Pretty sure this is my future school.

And I'm pretty stoked about it too.

And so is my dad.

How to be A Christian Hipster

My Papa sent me this video the other day. So funny. And so very true. Basically every leader at my church has something like this going on.

Enjoy!!