Let me put this into context for you. When I transfered to Western in January of 2010, I was horribly homesick (almost to the point that I could not talk to my parents on the phone for the first month because all I wanted to do was cry). It did get a little better for the remainder of that school year, but I still went home a lot on the weekends (I only live 2.5 hours away from school, so this wasn't tooo bad). Anyway, fast forward to Fall quarter of this year and I still went home too much. I wasn't as homesick and was starting to make new friends, but I still didn't feel entirely comfortable at school. In January, at the start of Winter Quarter, I made a deal with myself: I would limit my weekends home to four (4). I managed to do this (it usually coincided with a long weekend/holiday/family thing/etc) but I still met my goal. For Spring quarter, I did the same and managed to surprise myself when I only actually went home 3 weekends (again, holidays/long weekend).
My point is that once I hated school (or rather, I hated the time not spent in the classroom) and now, I don't want to leave...sort of. The reason for this? I have finally found a place where I belong. As corny as this sounds, its true. I don't make friends easily and I have finally found a group of people with whom I share common interests and feel as though I truly belong.
This group of wonderful people is all centered around the Newman Catholic Campus Ministries. This is where I have become more involved in my church, get to do lots of fun activities AND get to hang out with some super cool people! Sounds like a triple win to me :-)
So, as I look back on the last quarter, I realize how much I have come to think of WWU as a home-away-from home. Don't get me wrong, I will never completely think of Bham as home, but I have a sort of friendly relationship with the city, the school and the people here.
Part of this realization has come in the last two weeks where I have spent sooo much fun time with Newman people. Everything from a luau, Phu, impromptu bicycle/skate board/roller blade/scooter adventure, a BBQ at the park, last Mass of the year, a Taco Truck for Hungry Hippos (fellowship and dinner after mass), Viking Commons Takeover, lunch at a Chinese Buffet, two basketball games...and my personal favorite: an end of the year tradition that involved jumping off a boardwalk into the SUPER cold Bellingham Bay.
As I look back over the past year, I feel that I have taken quite a few leaps--both literally and figuratively. I was living on campus even though most of my friends were not. This put me with a random roommate assignment--which turned out to be so awesome that we are living together next year--and I had to find new friends to get me though the year. I applied to--and was rejected from--Woodring (the school of education). In the end, I truly feel as though my leaps were successful...including the more literal leap I took this past Tuesday.
My lovely roommate, Jessica and I at a Valentine's day dance this past winter.
Friends at the Luau!
As I mentioned earlier, there is a fairly new End-of-the-Year tradition that involves jumping into the bay. I knew about this event last week, which meant that I had a week so mentally prepare and talk myself out of/into taking that particular leap. By Monday night, I had convinced myself that I was going to do it. Then I woke up on Tuesday to gray, beating rain and my first thought was "No way am I jumping into the bay in this weather!" God must have heard my thoughts because it was dry and sort of sunny by 3pm that afternoon.
By the time we got to Boulevard Park that night, I was still planning to jump. My friend, April had been adamant for the previous days about NOT jumping and then decided an hour before that she was going to do it. So you can picture this, in order to jump, you must first climb over the ledge and carefully situate yourself so that you are perched on the end of the boardwalk. Then...you jump.
"Easier said, that done," was first first thought as I watched the first few people take the plunge. Then I decided that the longer I watched the more I would freak myself out, so I just needed to take that leap.
Sooo...guess what? I did it!! And I have pictures to prove it. When I first mentioned it to my mom days before, she did not believe that I was considering it, let along planning to do it. I freaked out a little bit on those few seconds when you are plunged into the water and must swim up to the top. But once I could breathe and swim to the dock, I was okay and a little shocked over what I had just done.
In the end, I decided that for as scary and daunting it was, it was so much fun and SO worth it. See the pictures below...
Me mid-jump. I did it! Totally suprised myself :-)
That pretty much sums of my last, amazing week of college for the 2011-12 school year. Now I am a Senior and no where close to graduation :-) I feel as though I took a lot of leaps this year, but I KNOW that they were all worthwhile and definitely made a difference in my life. Now, I can only enjoy the summer and look forward to wonderful new adventures in the fall.
I know that this post isn't profound or informative in the least. I am sorry for that, but I felt that my wonderful school year should be documented somewhere. And I wanted to show the literal leap I did, because leaps like that are usually uncharacteristic for me.
I think that the moral of my story should be that taking leaps once in a while--be they figuratively or literally--are important and can be good for our well-being.
I leave you with a quote that applies to me in some ways:
"The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of the Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life."
~Robert MacIver
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