July 10 & 11, 2006

These two days have been grouped together for a reason.

The reason being that the two have to kind of be a package deal, because of the nature of the two days.

You see, I spent the last two days at orientation of my new college, getting used to the atmosphere of what Columbia is like, 20 minutes from home.

After I arrived at the college at 8:30am on Monday morning (after getting to sleep at around 3am earlier that morning) I hurried to meet a friend from campus and attend what would surely be an exciting morning.

I spent the next three or so hours sitting in an auditorium listening to policy and rules. Good stuff to know, but hard to listen to at 9am.

We broke into orientation groups following this, at which point we had IDs made and got to know our group, in which I found out I was the oldest person in the group, including the group leader. College always HAS been interesting for me.

The afternoon wasn't much different, aside from the change of scenery where we heard more policy.

Somewhere along the way though, I started to realize something. I really love this new college. The atmosphere, the encouragement, and even initiative of instructors and teachers to pray (in the classroom too!!) and to know God is something I've never seen in a school, so I am very thrilled to have this opportunity.

After a night of sleep following a hardcore hour-long soccer match (with sadly, no headbutts to the chest), I rushed to breakfast and ate in five minutes flat after my alarm didn't go off like it was supposed to. After breakfast we had a nice personality test given by the school to determine what we would need from the school in terms of counseling, money, etc.

After a few more hours of orientation, I had to make a bittersweet farewell session with my new, quickly-made friends, at least for the month.

After all that, I realized my body was going into overload from a rough night of sleep, soreness from soccer, and my sinuses acting up. I came home and slept like a baby for two and a half hours before work, without even bothering to take my luggage out of my car.

God showed me how amazing a community of His people can be when we are free to openly worship and be in His presense all the time. I can't wait to be a part of it, and to be trained to be a true disciple of God, and to have the wisdom and knowledge He can impart to me through this school.

These two days have to be seen as a package deal, if only to see how much God can do in 48 hours in one place.