Well, I’ve decided to start blogging to both process/journal my college experience as well as provide some entertainment, encouragement, and JOY to anyone who ventures to read this. No promises on how good of a “blogger” I’m going to be, but I guess there is only one way to find out…
Ohhhhh C-A-T-S CATS CATS CATS! It’s official- I am a UK Wildcat. These past few days have been full of emotions, new experiences, laughter, opportunities to meet new people, and a time to transition into “adulthood”…or at least move one step closer. I have been so overwhelmed with the love, support, and encouragement the incredible people in my life have blessed me with. I have certainly felt the prayers and have been so comforted and humbled in knowing that I have such a beautiful and amazing support system back home. I miss everyone back home terribly but LOVE the fact that we have so many forms of communication to keep in touch as well as the opportunity to be more intentional in our friendships.
It’s been amazing to see how much the Lord has been working in my heart and calling me to surrender myself completely to HIM and simply TRUST that He is in control. Trust. According to Merriam Dictionary, trust is defined as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or trust of someone or something.” This four-letter word is mentioned in the Bible approximately 147 times. 147 times! Proverbs 3:5 has brought me so much comfort these past few days and has also convicted me to give it all to the One who deserves it all. “TRUST in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” How comforting is that? If we put our TRUST, our desires, our fears, our dreams, our hope in the Lord, HE will take care of the rest and lead us where we can best serve and glorify Him. What an honor it is to have the opportunity to serve our Father. As I begin this new chapter in life, I am SO excited to see where the Lord takes me and am praying that He would stretch me and would bless me with me opportunities to love on His people, witness, and grow in my faith.
There is never a dull moment in the life of Emilee Hancock. While these past few days have been overwhelming and emotional…I have laughed a lot and praise God that He has blessed me with those moments. SO, in an effort to bring some JOY into your life, I’ll share a few of the funny moments we have experienced thus far:
Pre-College-
Doors are hard...
Freshman Orientation at UK was two days of pure stress and information overload. I felt like I walked around with a big FRESHMAN banner across my forehead. Seeing as I have ZERO sense of direction, I got turned around multiple times and aimlessly wandered around campus praying that somehow I would wind up where I was told to go. After finally finding my way to White Hall, I walked through the long corridor searching for my mom amidst the chaos of freshman, parents, and UK students. Unfortunately, she was no where to be found so I decided to venture back outside. As I approached the doors of White Hall I was perplexed as a huge pole stood just outside the door. I thought to myself (as I awkwardly stood in front of the door), "Why in the world would they put a pole right in front of the door?" After standing for a good five minutes I considered my options-
1. Turn around and exit the way I came in.
2. Open the door only wide enough to slide past without hitting the pole.
3. Wait for someone else and see what they did.
Finally I worked up the courage to push the door open just enough to slide through...turns out the pole moves when you open the door BECAUSE IT WAS THE HANDLE! I walked away completely mortified and laughed out loud at myself as I walked away. After laughing, I became quite discouraged as I thought, "If I can't even figure out how to open doors, how in the world am I going to be successful in college? I quickly began to pray that opening doors would be the hardest part of college.
SO, just when I thought the embarrassment of "the door incident" was behind me, a kid walked up to me as I was eating my pancake (at midnight at CSF) asking if I was the girl who had struggled to open the door at freshman orientation. Turns out he had a front row seat to the whole ordeal and got quite a kick out of it. I'm not sure if I'll ever live this down...
#FreshmanSwag
Pre-College-
Doors are hard...
Freshman Orientation at UK was two days of pure stress and information overload. I felt like I walked around with a big FRESHMAN banner across my forehead. Seeing as I have ZERO sense of direction, I got turned around multiple times and aimlessly wandered around campus praying that somehow I would wind up where I was told to go. After finally finding my way to White Hall, I walked through the long corridor searching for my mom amidst the chaos of freshman, parents, and UK students. Unfortunately, she was no where to be found so I decided to venture back outside. As I approached the doors of White Hall I was perplexed as a huge pole stood just outside the door. I thought to myself (as I awkwardly stood in front of the door), "Why in the world would they put a pole right in front of the door?" After standing for a good five minutes I considered my options-
1. Turn around and exit the way I came in.
2. Open the door only wide enough to slide past without hitting the pole.
3. Wait for someone else and see what they did.
Finally I worked up the courage to push the door open just enough to slide through...turns out the pole moves when you open the door BECAUSE IT WAS THE HANDLE! I walked away completely mortified and laughed out loud at myself as I walked away. After laughing, I became quite discouraged as I thought, "If I can't even figure out how to open doors, how in the world am I going to be successful in college? I quickly began to pray that opening doors would be the hardest part of college.
SO, just when I thought the embarrassment of "the door incident" was behind me, a kid walked up to me as I was eating my pancake (at midnight at CSF) asking if I was the girl who had struggled to open the door at freshman orientation. Turns out he had a front row seat to the whole ordeal and got quite a kick out of it. I'm not sure if I'll ever live this down...
#FreshmanSwag
Day 1-
Showers and Fire Alarms…
Two words: Community Bathrooms. While our dorm is very nice and clean, community bathrooms are a whole new adventure in and of themselves. After a FULL day of K-Week activities, crazy emotions, and an overload of information, my sweet roommate and I decided to take our first college showers. WELL…after realizing that I was fully dressed with no where to put my dry clothes, ice cold water pounding on my back, and a wad of wet hair at my feet, I realized I was in for a treat. Let’s just say…we’re not in Kansas anymore. Lydia and I left the bathroom slightly scarred and laughing at how completely traumatic our first shower experience had been and tried to convince each other that we would eventually figure out a routine and everything would be okay.
After rummaging around our new “home” trying to get ready for bed, we finally fell into our new beds completely mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted around 3:30 AM. Two short hours later, a high pitch screeching alarm and man’s voice saying, “ATTENTION, ATTENTION an EMERGENCY has been detected. Please evacuate Donovan Hall.” awakened us with a start. We grabbed our shoes and followed our fellow zombie-like peers down the hallway- glasses, retainers, frizzy hair and all. Seeing as neither Lydia nor I are “morning people” we sat mute and thoroughly upset that we were sitting on the cold and hard concrete outside in our pajamas instead of sleeping peacefully in our comfy beds. After a half hour of this nonsense, we sleepily herded back upstairs and fell back asleep.
First day as a college freshman-complete!
Day 2-
The Sky is Falling…
Our new humble abode is decked out with precious pictures, signs, mirrors, and curtains. The only downfall to these decorations is that they are held with fishing line, Velcro, and plastic hooks. Turns out they aren’t the most reliable resources. Sunday morning I woke with curtains covering my bed, a wooden picture and mirrors on the floor as well as a wet bed. To answer your question- I am a freshman in college and have mastered the skill of using a toilet. The pipes above my bed had apparently dripped throughout the night resulting in an awkwardly wet blanket when I woke up. Being the inventive college students that we are, before going to bed that night Lydia and I did the most logical thing and wrapped paper towels around the culprit and called it a night.
Thankfully, nothing else decided to fall during the night and the paper towels soaked up the leaking pipe. Guess it’s time to call the maintenance man…
Day 4-
Dancing. Shopping. Saving.
It's amazing how much fun you can have when you are surrounded with sweet friends and don't have a care in the world. We went to "Meijer Mania" where we got tons of free samples and some good deals on food...that we did not need to buy. We were highly tempted as we passed the "Pet Section" of Meijer to adopt a fish and went so far as to name it Donny...short for Donovan. Unfortunately being the college students that we are, we decided that we didn't want to be "teenager mothers" to sweet Donny because it would cost too much. A DJ kept the place hoppin' and provided some quality entertainment and music for us to dance to as we shopped down the aisles. How I wish we could watch the security videos from tonight...I'm certain they were epic as everyone was in such a joyful and goofy mood. After our shopping extravaganza, we entertained ourselves by communicating using "sign language" as we waited for the bus. Our language was FAR from accurate, but quite entertaining and hilarious. Too bad our laughter gave away our very believable "deafness."
Meijer Mania- 11:00 PM...Best Grocery Shopping Experience Ever
First Grocery Experience As Roomies
More laughter with sweet friends...blessed.
The past few days have been packed FULL of fun activities- from eating pancakes at noon and midnight at CSF, to learning official UK cheers, to figuring out the art of using a community bathroom and much more- we have maximized our time here and look forward to seeing what other adventures God will bless us with.
Here are a couple of pictures of our latest adventures:
Here are a couple of pictures of our latest adventures:
Our Precious Dorm Room
My Sweet Big Sis!
Raiders to Wildcats
I will never look at a door the same again...
ReplyDeleteYour spirit is bright, Emilee - you bring joy to all who come near you.
Great job on the "blog kickoff!"