Where has freshmen year gone? I am seriously trying to wrap
my mind around the fact that my freshmen year is almost over and I am not being
very successful. There have been so many moments these last few days that I
have stopped and thought, “There is no way! I just got here.” To my surprise
however, I have been here for nine months and have grown in ways I didn’t know
were possible. As I sit here typing this, surrounded by friends, I am
absolutely overwhelmed by how far I have come and how faithful the Lord has
been this year.
YOLO List…
Several weeks ago, as Lydia and I reflected on how quickly
the end of the year was approaching, we came up with a YOLO List to ensure that we enjoyed our last few weeks of freshmen year as
much as possible. Our list included:
-Dinner with some sweet friends: ✔
The last few weeks of school were
packed full of breakfast, lunch, and dinner dates with precious friends. I sure
am going to miss my Lexington family!
-Take a random driving adventure through Lexington: ✔
Lydia and I went driving one day
and after choosing one main road, we chose which way to turn as we had to. We had
such a blast driving through the boonies of Lexington and wound up driving
through a winery and visiting Midway. Listening to music, driving aimlessly,
talking to my sweet roomie, and enjoying God’s gorgeous creation…yup, it was a
great day!
-Bake in the Don: ✔
For Jeremy’s surprise birthday
party, Lydia and I baked fo dayz and got a little carried away with our break-and-bake baking extravaganza.
-Sleep on the Balcony: ✔
Oh yes, this little city girl spent
the (whole) night outside on the balcony. On our second to last night in the
dorm, we decided that it was as good a night as ever to camp out on the
balcony. We hauled out our mattress pads, blankets, and pillows and made our
little beds. Once outside, I began to wonder what in the world I was doing. The
questions that went through my head were: 1. What happens when the sun rises
and Emilee isn’t ready to rise? 2. What happens when the excessive ambulance
sirens blare in the middle of the night? 3. I wonder if I’ll wake up dewey? 4.
There could very possibly be bugs crawling all around me. 5. I have to prove to
Lydia that I can sleep outside for a full night (haha). Good news, I made it
through the night and slept surprisingly well. Another YOLO List mission
complete- Boom!
-Dance Parties ✔
Well, as with the rest of the year
Lydia and I made it a point to have dance (our favorite was interpretive
dancing) sessions. These sessions served as roomie bonding time and perfect
study breaks. Yup, we’re cool.
-Yell the C-A-T-S cheer from the balcony as a tour group
passed by: ✔
-Yeah, we got some awesome and confused looks. We are
anticipating a call from the welcoming committee any day now.
-Attend a baseball game: ✔
This was a super fun night! It was awesome to enjoy a summer
night with friends. Good times, good times.
-Take random adventures: ✔
These last few weeks have been the
most spontaneous and fun weeks I’ve ever had…so many late night, random
adventures. And it’s been amazing!
-Roll down the Bowl outside of Willy T ✔
Yeah, probably not the wisest
decision I’ve ever made. I have scratches and a nice purple bruise on my cheek to prove this YOLO List completion.
Lessons Learned…
-Naps are God’s gift to college students
-The power of prayer is amazing (I already knew this, but it
has been affirmed many times this year)
-Receiving letters in the mail has the ability to totally
make a day
-Making friends is hard but totally worth it
-Having nightly sleepovers with one of your best friends is
amazing
-Having an opportunity to worship and serve nearly every day
of the week is so fulfilling and amazing
-Sleep is totally overrated…at night
-8AM classes are painful to wake up for
-Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter are much more appealing as
soon as you start doing homework
-Deep conversations with your roomie at the wee hours of the
night are the best conversations there are
-The library is for socializing purposes only
-Laughing solves everything in the moment
-Dorm internet has a sense of humor and loves playing pranks
on you when you need it most
-iCal has been my best friend this year
-Spontaneous and random late night adventures are super fun-
YOLO
-The human brain only has the ability to retain so much
information before you start saying and doing ridiculous things, which you cannot be held responsible for
-Always have a spare toothbrush (incase you drop yours on the yucky community bathroom floor)
-Don’t be above wearing things twice…or more
-Worship music in other languages (Hillsong in Spanish) is
the perfect solution to not being tempted to sing along when you want to listen
to music while studying
-Interpretive dancing=roommate bonding time (and
entertainment for all)
-Balancing on bedposts at all hours of the night is highly
entertaining
-Don’t use real silverware or dishes for that matter,
plastic is the way to go
-Dressed up in college is jeans and a "nice" shirt
-Yoga pants and a t-shirt are completely appropriate in almost all circumstances
-Forgetting your towel in your room and remembering after your shower is highly unfortunate
-Lip synching is hilarious and serves a double purpose of
roomie bonding time
-Parking anywhere on campus is a nightmare
-Showers are often a battlefield of hairballs…shower shoes
are 100% necessary
-Macaroni and Cheese is a balanced meal…grain and dairy!
-Creativity and being innovative are necessary and
encouraged in the dorm room
-Watching people freak out during finals week is both sad
and extremely entertaining
-Having a church home away from home is a ridiculous
blessing
-People are amazing
-Flowers around campus are beautiful and highly distracting
-Wearing pajama pants to class is not only completely hilarious, it is quite comfortable...yup, I was that girl during finals week.
All kidding aside, I really am overwhelmed at how much I
have grown this year and how incredibly faithful and gracious the Lord has been
this year. So many times, Lydia and I have looked at each other and have said,
“Gosh, it’s so awesome to have friends!” or “Can you believe how far we have
come?” The Lord has put such incredibly special people in my life that have
brought me such joy, have taught me so much about life, about God, and about
myself, and have just made this year so memorable and amazing. I cannot imagine
going through this year without my Lexington family and am so humbled that the
Lord so beautifully orchestrated our paths to cross. As I sit here thinking
back to the first few days of school, I am shaking my head at how much I
have grown and how faithful the Lord has been. I remember crying myself to
sleep nearly every night for the first several weeks, feeling so alone while being surrounded by thousands
of people, so overwhelmed, and so homesick. Now I’m crying because I’m
leaving the place that has been home to me for 9+ months, the place where I’m
constantly surrounded by friends, where I get to serve and love on people, and
where I am constantly being fed and encouraged in my faith. This has been one of
the most challenging and best years of my life and I am so excited to see what
the Lord has in store for this SOPHOMORE Wildcat!
Sweet Lydia…
Goodness, I cannot imagine going through this year without
my sweet roomie, Lydia. Our room was always filled with so much love, laughter,
great conversations, encouragement, and a little schoolwork mixed in every now
and then too. When I think back to how we became roommates I just giggle thinking
of how present the Lord was in aligning our paths and hearts. I wish words
could describe how thankful I am for Lydia. Some of my favorite memories from
freshmen year have been in our dorm room and some of the most meaningful
conversations I’ve had have been with sweet Lydia. She is such a beautiful woman of
God who has such a sweet and gentle spirit and she lives such a purposeful
life. She has taught me so much about myself, about life, and about the Lord.
Yeah, I love her so much. I can’t wait for many more memories to come!
Last Freshmen Year Class
Look How Far We've Come! First Day and Last Day in the Dorm
Final Days Fo Dayz...
These last few days have been SO much fun! School work has been secondary to my social life (sorry Mom and Dad) and I have so enjoyed getting to enjoy the beautiful summer nights with sweet friends going on random adventures, stooping, laughing, talking, and just enjoying these sweet last few days. We also got to have a banquet for our sweet Woodhill families and absolutely loved getting to love on our sweet friends and share dinner with them, laugh, talk, play frisbee, and enjoy our time together. Life is so good. God is so good. I am so thankful.
We Love Our Sweet Girls
The Lord Works In Amazing Ways…
On our very last day of class, Lydia and I decided that we
would use our “swipes on swipes on swipes” and “Flex fo dayz” to buy groceries
for our Woodhill families. We went to the closest store and the shelves were
completely bare. SO, that was a fail. We decided to get my car and drive to the
next closest store and when we got there, there were no parking spots. Double
fail. At this point, we were both super frustrated as we had 100 other things
we needed to do before we could leave for the summer, but decided to try the
last store and if we had problems, we would just forget about it. We drove up
and found a parking spot right away, good start. We proceeded to go in and
started raiding the shelves. After making quite a scene by piling literally
everything we could get our hands on, the woman working behind the counter came
over to ask what we were doing. This is the conversation that followed:
Tomika: “My word, y’all getting all your groceries before you go
home?
Emilee: “No, actually we serve at a place called Woodhill
and are getting some groceries for some of our sweet families since some of them don't have any food.”
Tomika: “Did you say Woodhill?
Emilee: “Yeah, it’s a neighborhood about 10 minutes away where we just go and love
on some awesome people.”
Tomika: “I live there.”
Emilee: “Do you really? Yeah, we just heard about some
families who don’t have any food so we just thought we’d buy some for them with our Flex Dollars.”
Tomika: “Yeah, I’m one of those people. I have a daughter
who’s 7 months pregnant and I don’t have the money to buy us food.”
Emilee: “Well goodness, you pick out anything you want and
we’ll buy it for you. Seriously, anything!”
So, after convincing her that we were serious, she started
shopping and telling us about herself. When we were checking out, a boy behind
me was waiting to buy some beef jerky so I had him go ahead of me since we
would take a lot longer. When he checked out, he had over $200 left on his Flex
Account. He kind of shrugged and told us it was too late since he was headed
out of town right after he finished checking out. We explained to him what we
were doing and told him we could use his money for our families if he was
willing to let us use his money. He graciously agreed and we started shopping
again. By the time we were finished we had spent over $500 on groceries and
toiletries and a backpack full for Tomika. When we had finished checking out, I
asked Tomika if there was anything we could pray for her about, not sure if she
would want us to pray then or just keep her in our prayers. She reached her
hands out (instant tears) and we were able to pray with her. After we finished
praying, she came over and gave Lydia and I a hug and we said goodbye. We
walked away so humbled that the Lord had allowed us the opportunity to meet
Tomika and couldn’t wipe the smiles off of our faces as we thought about how
evident the Lord had been in paving our way to Tomika. It was the perfect way
to end our freshmen year, that’s for sure!
Well, this year has been amazing and I cannot wait for many more friendships and memories to come! One incredible year down, three to go.
