Stay Beautiful

Today was the official first day really - well sorta of "Camp Erskine" as I am informed that this is the true politically correct name for Freshman orientation here at Erskine College. For the first full day of class type settings, especially with seminar I was quite impressed. So far so good, is how I keep informing everyone at home, as far as how I am adjusting and everything. It's hard though - not too easy to leave home and being on my own. Don't get me wrong, I am loving the sense of freedom but it is so nerve wracking (sp?) as well. The worst part in all honesty today was when I went to purchase my text books. Lucky me - I tend to get physically sick and buying text books did just that to me today. I dropped a ridiculous amount on my books and I have been sick to my stomach since about 1:15pm today. I was hoping to find them at home before arriving but I had no such like really finding them any cheaper than what I could get here used.

Besides the depressing act of buying books I feel like I am adjusting well. The hardest thing is having Christopher being away. I miss him so much, it was bad enough being left at home while he's on his deployment, but it sucks even more being away from home where I don't have the support system like I do at home. I am hoping he'll call .. of course for some reason I can make out going calls from my cell phone in the dorm room, but for some reason the phone won't actually ring for incoming calls - I just end up with voice mail notices. He's so good to me it's crazy. January will be an amazing month for me when he gets to come home. I just pray he will be safe and come home to me. I'm sure more will be here about him almost every day - especially those days that are SSSOOOO much harder than others - it's not fun. Oh well.

So back to my daily schedule:

Seminar class today went especially well I felt for the first "meeting" we had. I'm suppose to respond to our discussions today and actually they were pretty decent; I enjoyed hearing the different views and opinions everyone had on the story or the meanings we tried to break down and really dig at what the author was attempting to reach us with. Probably one of the most interesting angles I enjoyed was when Dr. Kuykendall asked us why we felt the title of the book was called Peace like a River. My initial comment was, "well how many rivers do we know that are actually peaceful?" I guess my take on that was the title -to me- seemed to be very metaphorical. Actually almost like an oxymoron in my book. I feel like saying "Peace like a River" is like saying dry water; it just isn't really attainable. River's although to the human eye can look at peace, I can't say that personally I know of a river where if you were to get into it is calm or "at peace." That is the way our lives are though as well. No one has, is, or is going to go through life without encountering some sort of trial and hardship. I have had way too many in my life to be that naive about it all too. The whole entity of the title could be a topic of discussion itself. There was talk about the songs referring to "peace like a river" as well as other's proposed idea's of how the title re-iterates the daily life we live as Christians. Another aspect of the discussion that really seemed to catch and hold my attention was when we discussed Swede and especially her extremely poetic writings. The interpretation I enjoy to thrive on regarding Swede was the timing in which she wrote, and added to the story long poem she creates throughout the reading. Being a very psychologically incline person I love how to the reader, looking closely, every time Swede writes she is indirectly using her time to release the emotions she is feeling and her writings serve as a coping mechanism to deal with everything that happens to her throughout the novel. Overall for a first time discussion and meeting as a class for this seminar I really did find it entertaining to the extent that created more appreciation for what we will be doing over this first semester as a small group.