Remember Summer Vacations?

I haven't gone on a summer vaction in about five years. I am really looking forward to spending this year's summer vacation with my husband. This will be our first summer vacation together and it couldn't have come at a better time for me! The last two years I have been really stressed out about my job situation and trying to finish my degree. But, things could be worse and I am very thankful that my husband and I saved enough to go on vaction this summer.

We are going to Chicago to visit my sister. We are going to go to a Cubs game as well which should be a lot of fun! Chicago is a great city to visit with a lot of sites to see. I have visited my sister several times, so I have already seen a lot of the sites but my husband has not. Navy Pier is my favorite place to go because you can look back at the "sky line" of downtown Chicago. It is really awesome at night! I am very thankful that we are going on vacation soon! These are the moments in life that are worth living for!

Rekindling Old Friendships

This week I was contacted by two of my old college friends from my early twenties. One of them I haven’t seen in four years and the other I haven’t seen in about a year. As I have grown older I realize more and more how important real friendships are. Although sometimes I think the hardest part about being a woman is having women friends. Many of my women friends have let me down in one way or another but I now realize that sometimes friends just don’t know what to say or do in certain situations.

The friend that I haven’t seen in four years was my best friend my junior year of college and we had a lot of fun together. But shortly after our junior year we took a turn in two different directions. She got engaged to be married and I was no where near ready to get married because I was experiencing a lot of emotional problems. Because she was about to get married she was not able to understand the problems I was dealing with and eventually she and I slowly grew apart. Since then, I have overcome my emotional problems, and now enjoy my life with my new husband.

My husband and I are supposed to have dinner with my two old friends and their husbands in July and I am really looking forward to seeing them again. I really hope that we can become friends again and accept each other for who we have become. I would really like to rekindle our friendship. I think our friendship is even more special now because we share many of the same memories and experiences from our early twenties.

When do you know it's time to quit your job?

I decided this week that I need to start looking for a different part time job. After three years of working at the same job, I'm starting to realize things just aren't going to change. Even though it pays pretty well for a college student just trying to help pay the bills, there's got to be a better job out there for me.

You see, I work for a law firm where the work enviornment is very stressful. My job description list has grown longer and longer since I started. To sum it up, I do the amount of work that 3 full time people could do, only working part time. I'm tired and worn out. There are obviously more reasons than this but this is the biggest reason. I now realize I need a less stressful job while I'm going to school full time. I just hope that my next job will be more enjoyable and less stressful. I feel like doing something totally different like working at the OKC zoo...

What are some decent paying jobs for college students?

Favorite Traveling Memories

My favorite traveling experience was back in June, 2001 before the earth shattering tragedy on September 11, when the college ministry of the church I was attending, organized a mission trip to Warsaw, Poland. After raising enough money from donations, I was blessed with this wonderful opportunity to teach English through the Bible at an established church in downtown Warsaw.

Our flight from New York landed in Amsterdam, Holland. We took about a six hour bus tour around Amsterdam before flying on to Warsaw, Poland. We also visited the Ann Frank museum which is connected to the actual building that the Franks hid in during WWII. We got to see on display, her original, hand written diary and walked through the secret book case door and up the stairs to the room where the Franks hid.

Once we arrived in Warsaw, about 12 other college students and I, taught English using the bible and became very good friends with our students. Looking back on it I feel that I learned more about my own faith and biblical understanding. I somehow interpreted the bible differently while teaching it to strangers in a foreign country. I realized for the first time, in my 21 years of life, the truth and importance of demonstrating the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, with fellow believers, which is part of a verse in Ephesians. This experience changed my life and challenged me to be less condemning of others who may have a different understanding and perception of the bible.

One weekend we traveled to the Auschwitz Museum in Polland and toured the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Birkenow concentration camp. It was still hard to comprehend how people could become so corrupted by evil, even though I saw the evidence of the hollocaust with my own eyes.

The last few days were left for us to use our Euro-rail passes. Three other girls and I traveled by train to Munich, Germany, and took a tour of the Nueshwinestein Castle. We then traveled by overnight train to Italy and took a bus tour of Rome and walked around Venice and Florence. Venice was the most magical, intoxicating place I have ever visited. The last day we spent in Switzerland and ate real Swiss chocolate from an authentic, small, chocolate factory.

I feel extremely blessed that I was allowed this wonderful traveling experience. It was a once in a life time opportunity but the memories will remain engraved in my mind and heart forever.