A few months ago, I received a random e-mail (which I normally just skip over), but, for some reason, decided to read. It was a letter nominating me to apply for a certain scholarship called the McWherter Scholar Program. It looked like a neat opportunity, so I applied, interviewed with a Tennessee State Representative, and received an e-mail a couple weeks later informing me that I was chosen as a 2011-2012 McWherter Scholar! Little did I know that this scholarship opportunity would open a plethora of doors in my life.

Senator Roy Herron is the official director of the scholarship program for this term, and it was been an absolute pleasure working with him! We have meetings every months, usually in Dresden, TN, where Mr. Roy lives. We normally eat Bar-B-Q and talk about school, our most embarrassing moments, and what we want to do with our lives. We had an official retreat last weekend, and had a BLAST. Thirteen other scholars and I stayed in a condo on the Kentucky Lake with Mr. Roy Herron. We went skeet shooting on Saturday, watched football, ordered pizza, played games, and laughed A WHOLE BUNCH.

This scholarship has allowed me to meet and become great friends with students from other schools in West Tennessee, along with one other student from FHU that I didn’t know previous to the scholarship. To say this scholarship has blessed my life would be a great understatement.

All of this to say that we should take advantage of doors that God chooses to open for us. Do the work! Walk through the door with faith, and be prepared for God to do something great in your life!

Usually about sophomore or junior year, students take the class "Marriage and the Family." I'm currently in the course, and am learning so much! Here is an excerpt from my first few weeks of class. We talked about the four pillars of a relationship.

Caution: My notes are VERY sporadic.

FOUR pillars of a relationship:

LOVE. Love is not a feeling or emotion…it’s an action. John Lee came up with SIX different types: 1. Romantic (Eros) “erotic” Loved that is based on physical appearance 2. Game playing: about FUN and “love them and leave them.” Casual! Once the conquest is made, you’re ready to move on to the next! 3. Possessive Love: Jealousy. A rollercoaster type of love. Full of emotional highs and emotional lows. Very controlling type of love 4. Companionate: starts off as friendship and moves into affection. Slow-growing. See each other as best friends. May not even be romantic at first, but produces long-term relationships. Focuses a lot on compassion and care. 5. Altruistic (Agape): where you sacrifice for the other person. You put them before yourself. Extremely patient and a decision! 6. Pragmatic: love that is based upon similarities. In a relationship because they share some of the same interests and values. “A business relationship.” Very little focus on emotions. *Brings the most marital satisfaction: Romantic and Altruistic. When you combine the two, you find that they want to GIVE so much to the other person but also CRAVE to want to be with the person. When KIDS come into the picture, their relationship changes. When this happens, there is a type of love that works best: Companionate.

TRUST. Willingness, always about choice. Allowing yourself to become dependent on another person for some kind of result or outcome. It’s completely voluntary! Where does this choice come into play? We come to a crossroads and decide if this is a person we can become vulnerable to…and trust them. Every person you trust has the potential to hurt you. When you get hurt, you make the decision to not trust this person anymore. **Trust always comes down to a CHOICE.

RESPECT. The MOST neglected part of relationships. By definition: Looking at another person as a person of worth and value, no matter what they’ve done. It’s sad when we say, “They have to earn my respect.” People mess up all the time. However, it STILL means that they’re people of worth and value…treat them that way! --Admire, Appreciate, Accept, Affirm (with actions and words! Build them up…we want them to grow and to be part of a growing relationship!)

UNDERSTANDING. Last pillar to develop because it takes the most time to achieve! This means that you enter into the life of the other person and try and see everything from their perspective. In order for this to work, we must open ourselves to the other person: all the junk, all the craziness, all the broken pieces of who we are…so we can be understood more and more.

It’s about that time.
Time for a new semester and a new academic school year to begin! I’m in the second semester of my junior year now. Classes are getting harder, and I’m getting a little bit more stressed out. I can’t do as much club activities and social events because of all the school work I have to do. (21 hours of class a week is a bit time-consuming!) However, I’m okay with that because I am coming even closer to my dream! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is big, bright, and beautiful.

I heard this quote the other day and it really stuck with me.

“Never let your memories be greater than your dreams."

Never be afraid to dream big dreams. Don’t let routine, doubts, or other’s expectations for you rule your life. You are entitled to a big and bright future. Whether you WANT that or not…is totally up to you. Dreams will give you new memories to cherish. So, don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone to try something new. Challenge yourself. See what you’re capable of! I think you’d be surprised. :) God gave you talents. Explore them! Use them. Use them for you, but also use them for HIM. I’ve made a habit or writing down my goals and dreams. Seeing them written visually gives me purpose, motivation, and something to work for.

Okay, now that I’m off my soap box, all of that to say this: I’m excited about the future and my dreams. BUT I’m even more excited about the NOW, because the NOW is preparing me and guiding me towards the future. The NOW is all I have, and I choose to seize the day and make it great.

One of the many things I love about Freed-Hardeman University are the AMAZING concerts that the University Program Council (UPC) put together.

I love love love music. Last week, Paper Route came to perform, and it was a great night! This band was so artistic and cool. Check out some of their music!

http://www.paperrouteonline.com/absence/

I had an interview in Nashville Sunday afternoon, and, as soon as it was over, I was speeding to get home. I checked the forecast, and Henderson, Tennessee, was in for a snow storm! I got home safely, but woke up Monday morning to find 6-7 inches of perfectly white snow covering the ground.

My brother is one of those guys who has always been good with 4-wheeled vehicles and coming up with cool contraptions. He poked two holes in our hard-core plastic trashcan lid and tied a rope from the lid to the back of our Rhino (kind of like a Gator).

My whole family bundled up and went outside. Needless to say, we spend the whole morning/early afternoon outside playing in the snow! This snow day has probably been my favorite that I can remember. Here are a few pictures from our fun snow day!













don't make fun of my hat.

My uncle owns a home improvement business and got a job of tiling several bedrooms down in Orange Beach, Alabama for the week of January 2nd. My aunt told me about this trip and that they were going for a whole week….and I kind of invited myself :)

I’ve never been to the beach in wintertime, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. Turns out, the beach has a total different feel in the winter than it does in the summer. In the summer, you can hardly find a place to sit or lay out on the shore. In the winter, however, you can go out to the beach around noon and be the only soul on the beach…which is very relaxing and peaceful. One of our friends, Shawna, ended up coming with us and every morning, Donna (my aunt), Shawna, and I would go out to the beach and do a Bible study together. Every night, we would play card games with the men, which was one of my favorite parts of the day. It truly was a wonderful week! Only a few more weeks before school starts back!

Yesterday, a friend and I drove to Memphis University to hear the founder of TOMS, Blake Mycoskie, speak. In case you don’t know what TOMS are, here is a quick overview from the Toms.com website.

“In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers.”

Blake talked about how he got the idea for this foundation, the ups and downs of starting this business. One thing that he said really stuck out to me. He said,” No matter what you decide to do in your life, as long as you have the heart of giving, you will succeed in whatever you choose to do.” I think that statement is so true. Giving is one of the basic principle that Jesus taught most. Give your talents. Give joy. Give forgiveness. Give your time. Give peace. Give your blessings. Give your love. Give your wealth. GIVE YOUR LIFE. And give the gift of life to others.

We all need to be a little more giving.

Lately, I’ve been stressed.
Most of this is due to school.
And feeling like I have to do everything.

I desperately need a break.

Some of my friends and I planned an all-girls roadtrip this weekend. We drove to see Wicked in Memphis on Friday night, and then got up on Saturday morning and drove to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama vs. Ole Miss game. This was my FIRST broadway AND college football game to ever see (in person), so this was definitely a weekend of firsts! Wicked gave me chills, and the Alabama game gave me even more chills!! We stayed at the game and got to see some of the players walk out and actually met a couple! (We got a picture with Courtney Upshaw.) Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep this weekend, but it was still so worth it. A weekend spent with my best friends and away from all schoolwork was definitely needed. Here are some pictures of our epic weekend!

Last weekend, we had our Xi Chi Delta girl’s retreat at a beautiful log cabin in Boonville, Mississippi. Our theme was “loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength”, and we were blessed to have over seventy girls come out for the weekend! We had several devos, lots of hang out time, and many great meals. The best part of the weekend, though, was what happened Saturday night. One of our sweet sisters decided to put on Christ in baptism. We all loaded up in our cars, drove to the church building, and had a beautiful night together full of tears, hugs, encouraging words, and freedom from our sin.

Having the ability to make choices for ourselves is a beautiful gift from God.
Having the choice to CHANGE is a gift.

Since I’ve been here at Freed Hardeman University, I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned how to love and how to be a true friend. I’ve learned how to pray and how to ask others for encouragement. I’ve learned how to make my faith MY OWN. I’ve learned how to ask questions and how to search for answers. I’ve learned how to close my ears to Satan’s lies and how to protect my mind and heart from the world. I’m not giving Freed Hardeman all the credit for my change, but I DO know that I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for this school and the people it has brought to my life.

Thank you for this gift.

One of my favorite things about being here at Freed is that I’m surrounded by so many people from different places, who have different stories, and different lives. I’ve loved being able to go home with some of my new friends and experience their homes and families. We’ve only been in school for two and a half weeks, and we already have a three-day weekend.

Yes, you guessed it.

ROADTRIP!

One of my roommates, Jennifer Savage, lives in Texas, and we decided to take a road trip to her home for the weekend. We left Friday before chapel (shame), and nine hours later, we were walking up the front porch steps to her cute little two story white house.

We went shopping on Saturday (Texas Goodwills are pretty sweet), ate authentic Texan food, went to a legitimate rodeo, had a bonfire, rode horses (that didn’t want to cooperate),and had a photoshoot! Needless to say, it was a very fun weekend, and very much needed! Here are a couple pictures from our adventure.