The Week.

Wow, this week has been… I n s a n e .

I’ve been through an earthquake, a car breaking down/towing,  my first week of college, and Hurricane Irene.. not to mention everything that comes with those things! Needless to say, I feel a little shell shocked.

The earthquake was crazy. It was like standing on jello… it was a wake up call for being very grateful that things weren’t worse. My car breaking down was very sad. It was on the way to a dance, of course, with a friend. We were jammin’  to music, but whenever I turned on my blinker the stereo would turn off. Slowly it just turned off completely… and we were finally left stranded by a WalMart. A super nice cop helped us out, and a super nice tow guy. I’m so grateful we weren’t stranded! So we chilled at WalMart all dolled up on a Friday night. It was great…

My first week of college has been … hm, tough! Haha. It’s definitely popping the Utah shell. People are really nice and friendly. But I think everyone’s in the same boat, where their kind of trying to put on a show and make a good impression and everything. Which is totally understandable. But not fun when people act kinda fake :P I think the only real conversation I have had so far kind of went like this:

Whitney is sitting on a bench, eating her salad (free) for dinner. Suddenly, a young man with wiry curly red hair shoves himself into the seat next to her, almost knocking into her. He crouches over and begins eating his waffle with gusto. Whitney sits there a little awkwardly. Although he sat next to her, he doesn’t acknowledge her existence. So, she decides to say hello – take a little bit of the awkwardness away.

“Hi! What’s your name?” she says, enthusiastically but sincerely.

“I don’t know” he responds.

“Um… okay. Well my names Whitney. It’s nice to meet you.” She responds, and turns back to her salad.

“You don’t have to be so social you know. Even though everyone says make new friends and try to get to know everyone, you don’t have to. I bet you won’t even remember anybody’s name at the end of today” he says quite passionately, cutting his waffle into pieces.

“I wasn’t saying hi because everyone tells me to.. I was saying hi because you came and sat by me. I was just trying to be nice” she says, smiling a bit and a little shocked at this interesting young man.

“I didn’t come here to sit by you. I came here to sit because there aren’t any other seats in this place” he says.

“I didn’t mean to sit by me. I mean you happened to sit next to me, so I decided to say hi, to be a nice person.” She responds quite firmly, and resumes eating.

This seems to intrigue the kid. “Your majoring in biology, huh?” he asks.

“Nope.”  She says. “Guess again.”

“Computer Science?”

“Nope.”

“Linguistics?”

“Nuh uh.”

“English?”

“No sir.”

“Then what are you majoring in?!” he asks, quite exasperated at guessing.

“I’m majoring in art, and then getting a minor in business.”

“Oooh” he says. “It all clicked. Your personality, your view of life, your major – it all makes sense now.”

“Really?” she says. Inside she’s thinking, okay man, you know absolutely nothing about me. Instead of being rude, she simply asks “Why’s that?”

He proceeds to tell her that people who are artistic tend to be very nice to people, and that he’s found people who try to be nice to everyone are simply extremely naïve.

“There’s something usually wrong with their head” he says, wheeling his fingers around his ears in the universal ‘coocoo’ sign. “No offense. That’s just what I’ve found.”

She is very intrigued by what he says, and wonders why he thinks she is nice to everyone just because she is artistic.

“You know,” she responds, “I’m sure I would try to be kind to people, even if my major was business or biology or linguistics.”

He looks at her, his expression mixed with awe, astonishment, and a bit of newfound friendship.

“Who are you again?” he asks.

“Whitney Morris. You?” she replies.

“My names Freddie.” With that, he picks up his  now empty, sticky plate, and leaves Whitney sitting alone at the café table, without even a goodbye behind him.

Is that not the oddest conversation you’ve ever heard? I think my life could be a fascinating novel.

Other then that, school has been good. I’m being a bit dramatic with fellow freshmen at UMW. Their really nice. It’s definitely tough though, when in the new student orientation the school pushes students to endorse things that are against the standards I live by. It can be hard to have the Spirit. I am SO grateful I can go to church, and have my family, pray, and read my scriptures.. I would be so lost without them! I’m also super grateful for my friends in the branch, who are an awesome support (: I read 2 Timothy 3, and it really helped me out.. living a  Christlike life, there will always be persecution,  and it will never be easy. But it will be worth it. I know that.

Anyways, I’m excited for classes to start (:

The hurricane hit, and it was actually really cool. The storm was beautiful. I’m so grateful it didn’t do any damage to our house. Our basement flooded, and we spent ALL DAY bailing buckets of water out, and quite a few trees are down in our yard, but other then that there was no damage. The power is out, still, and their guessing it will be out for about a week. It's been fun having oil lamps and candles at night, playing the piano or reading scrips or writing in my journal to the flickering candlelight (:

So I’m sitting at UMW in the library typing right now. Taking cold water showers from gallons in food storage isn’t the comfortable life! But I’m so grateful it wasn’t worse! I guess I can check off earthquake and hurricane off my unintentional bucket list this week (: I’m so grateful for the gospel, and for my family. I’m excited for my future. There are beautiful things coming ahead (: I love life! It’s not easy, but it is wonderful!

the end for now!