Last summer, in efforts to squash my pessimistic nature, I started to make a list of blessings in my life. This list got weird at times, sometimes it breached the line of too sentimental, and at other points it was just really in the moment. However, my favorite part about the list is that every single thing I wrote down was an essential blessing to my year—whether big or small—and they all added together to compose my absolute adoration for Auburn University.
So the end of my freshman year has come to a close, and I’ve decided to share with you some of the blessings that made this year amazing (in chronological order from the list, of course).
Auburn, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
- Auburn and the new experience it will be
- AOII and the people I’ll meet through it
- Classes that interest me/the reward of hard work and learning
- Getting supernatural social ability that is clearly not my own
- Chloe and the sweet friendship we already have and how awesome she is
- Auburn and the victories and challenges it's provided for me
- Starbuck coffee in the student center.. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
- Anna Hawkins and how real she is
- Procrastination and how genuinely it gets my creative juices flowing
- The reality that Auburn is home now and I love that
- The God given strength to overcome struggles and learn through them
- Meeting people who are a light for Christ in ways that they don't even realize
- Ministry opportunities that sneak up on you
- My wonderful, godly Big—Rachel
- Coffee dates with friends
- Good, long drives all around Auburn
- World History cram sessions with Hawkie at Overall Company that pay off
- Kendall because I love her and she is hilarious and the greatest suite mate ever
- Mary because of her sweet demeanor and calm spirit and also the greatest suitemate ever
- Spontaneous drives/trips to McDonald's late at night with the suite mates
- The fact that God answers prayers/being able to ask God to rectify a situation any way necessary and knowing that he will
- The Ukulele Guy because he made me feel like I had a soundtrack to my life
- Walking to class with a hymn stuck in your head ("On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand”)
- Jesus talks/studying the Word with my suitemates
- Learning that I am beautiful and dearly loved even when I don't believe it
- Halloween…need I say more
- Being able to spend eternity with my dearest friends
- Phone calls with my sweet mom who is beautifully different than me and adds unique perspective to my life
- Amazing coffee dates with my big that just highlight the evangelistic successes of God all around us
- Being able to say WAR EAGLE as a true member of the Auburn Family
- Being there when this happened: "Touchdown Auburn, Touchdown Auburn, A miracle in Jordan-Hare, A miracle in Jordan-Hare" *screaming*
- Shenanigans that end up having me sneak into the Iron Bowl—aka the best sporting event of all time (thanks, MC and Chloe, for this one)
- How rivalries are just the best and that one team can't exist without the other
- Having one more 0:01. Iron bowl 2013. I’ve got 99 problems but Bama ain’t 0:01.
- Storming the field with all my friends after the game and screaming at the top of our lungs RAMMER JAMMER YELLOW HAMMER GO TO HELL ALABAMA (there’s a youtube video if you wanna refresh your memory)
- Punt, Bama, Punt proceeding Kick, Bama, Kick and history being tied together
- Rolling what's left of Toomers with style…and it looking like fresh snow
- The fact that God gives us things on the earth to enjoy that are only a GLIMPSE of heaven (can't believe that game was only a glimpse of heaven)
- New friends to spend life's craziest and most exciting moments with
- Watching friends go through tough situations but knowing that God is constantly in control and using that control to protect them
- Because we did a Toomers double take and rolled it twice the night of the SEC Championship (thanks Michigan St.)
- Here’s to our first finals week and my finals playlist and caffeine pills and Kendall coming in with a blanket/turban on her head too often and also when I had to force feed her chocolate milk and candy cause finals got the best of her
- Having a bright horizon in my future…second semester: here I come
- Sitting on Kendall and Mary’s floor watching ice skating and Harry Potter and Xmen
- Bats making me peace out from the hill and move to the village (which was really sad and the longest week of my life but led to cool things)
- Gymnastics meets that end in beach trips cause why not/random trips to the beach in January that ended up being half a mile down the road from your future SB house
- Mary Claire because she’s the weirdest person I know, and that’s why I love her (I’ll shampoo you any day)
- Walmart parking lot chats with MC, Lauren, and Kat
- Walmart in general
- Also CVS
- SB14 because it was random and wonderful and I love everyone I went with to the moon and back
- KH’s pilgrim dress made it’s debut at 64 Cobia Street (NOT 68 Tarpon Street)
- The fact that Island Ink exists
- Because Margaritaville is searching for their lost shaker of salt and probably wondering who Oreo Pants is
- And sometimes friends watch friends through windows
- MC and I’s dissolved marriage bed
- Because AOII is soooo chill
- Pancakes
- Because sometimes in life there are granny panties on your chandelier
- And dance parties go on until 5 AM
- because Brendan is an AOGuy and cleaned our house for us on spring break
- And he’s dating KH who is amazing and brings a smile to my face
- AGK and cookie dough forever
- First Pres and how it taught me this year
- Sunday lunches after church with all of my First Pres girls
- And because AOII hit it out of the park and got second in greek sing (plus Christine was in a panda suit, I mean, c’mon)
- All of my awesome friends (triple threat, the A team, booth friends + kyle, etc.) and how I can’t imagine this year without them
- Natasha, oscar, john gaines, and so many more
- Late night waho with the triple threat, and spending my last night there cause Laur won the formal game/the mug will forever live on
- Movie nights
- The concourse because why not
- Drives down Auburn Lakes and past Farmville in 4-wheel
- Hostage and Kiesel Park
- Getting fancy for formal
- Blasting music, always blasting music
- Village dining and the student center and how they built most of my friendships
- Oh, and the snow days were kinda cool
- But the warm days were better
- The beautiful campus and outside 2 o’clock lunches
- Surviving spring semester 2k14
- Twitter’s comedic relief during the Haley evacuation
- And staying in and watching Father of the Bride with Elizabeth during the first threat
- FRONT ROW FOR AVETTTTTT OHHHH MY WAHHHH/eating Seth’s hair/holding Scott’s hand/Scott and Seth forever
- Last day lunches in our booth
- Cheeburger Cheeburger, Waho, foy, and sitting in toyoda for hours on my last night because it was too hard to leave
- My wonderful roommate, Elizabeth, and the countless nights we stayed up way too late talking about variations of the same thing every time. Oh, how I’m gonna miss that.
- Saying goodbye to Hall M 315/316 and Eagle 336, but knowing that I get to come back next year and move in with three wonderful people on the hall
- RBD, oh RBD
- Laughter, and a lot of it
- Every person that I met this year
- And finally, how thankful I am that in three short months I get to come right back to my favorite place and people on earth.
Obviously, this list is not one of those overarching ones that every person can perfectly relate to, but I hope that it stirs you to think of what would make your list. What’s above is my year, and I couldn’t have been blessed with a better one.
To bring my last blog of freshman year to sublime summation, I want to quote on of my favorite people, Lauren Drawe. On our last night together in Auburn, she said, “I never thought that I would love Auburn this much.” (of course we were driving past Samford…so stereotypical). But honestly, I couldn’t put it better.
Auburn, I’m smitten with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment