Empty shelf, full heart...

Something that I never want to see again... an empty bookshelf. As you can tell, I am all moved out from school and back home in South Carolina. I finished taking my finals on Wednesday and bid farewell to the good ol' ACC campus on Thursday.

Since then I have been staying busy getting ready for my near departure to Kenya. Preparations have included getting my final immunizations as well as completing paperwork. In a way I still feel like I am in school... everyday there is some form of "work" to do for my internship. More importantly, ALL of my financial support has been provided for. Last week God showed up in many miraculous ways. One sponsor provided me with $1,642. Another gave me $600. And a complete stranger wrote me a check for $634. Throughout preparing for my summer away, I am constantly being surprised by the different emotions I am experiencing. Perhaps my most overwhelming emotion is one of gratitude. I feel like I have been encompassed by a wave of supporters on every side. Whether it is through anonymous giving or fellow students buying muffins, I have such gratitude that I am not alone in my adventure.

Last week one of my fellow students said, "We leave our families to go live with strangers at college. At the end of the year we leave our families to go back home." That statement could not be more true. I left my ACC family on Thursday; now I just need to spend time with my own before I hope the great pond in fifteen days. Yes... life is good without textbooks.

About over...

In high school, my dad told me once: "College was the four easiest years of my life..." My mom got upset when he said this. She was afraid I would get to college and fail out because I thought it would be easy. I am coming to the end of my third year in college and my first year at ACC. I would not say these past three years have been the easiest years of my life.

Honestly, I am not really sure how I ended up in Atlanta. It was the combination of wanting to move south, not being able to graduate from my previous college, and a mess of other things. I am really amazed God brought me here to ACC though.

We (I) tend to think of college as one phase of life. It is four years, plus maybe some graduate studies, but that is the totality of the college phase. What I am realizing is the college phase is not just a block of 4-8 years. There are phases within the phases. At the end of this week as I depart for the summer, I will have completed a phase within my college phase. Moving on from this phase (year) is more difficult than I ever realized coming from a community college. Friends are graduating. People are moving out. Fellow students are transferring.

Last night the whole campus was invited to a midnight breakfast hosted in the cafeteria. It is the schools gift for the stomachs of those staying up all night to study for finals. I had a lot of fun seeing the majority of students show up (in pajamas and sombreros) for a Cinco De Mayo themed meal (ironic that we are celebrating a day of independence on the day we are slaves to finals...) . We had salsa eggs, breakfast burritos, and some churros. It was the last big hooray on campus before people start packing up for home. It is a little bit sad.

However, next semester is a new start at ACC. There will be new faces, perhaps yours, and new things to accomplish. I look forward to that. But in conclusion to this crazy, wild, fun year living in Atlanta, I will not say it has been easy.

It has been the best.

As for me, I will be off to Kenya in a few weeks. Perhaps you will hear from me before then...