You make me new, You are making me new

Photo credit courtesy of this link.

Last night I did a (potentially dumb) thing -- I prayed that God would challenge me. 

It seems a little daring in retrospect. It's sort of liking praying for patience -- why would anyone do that?! It just seems crazy. But my pastor once told me that when you ask God to take you on adventure, He always will. And I want that vibrant, shiny quality that Jesus always brings to my life. This semester I feel as if I have been living without it, surviving on mere substitutes. So today I'm praying that the Lord would renew me, would give me that love for people and push me out of my comfort zone of solitude.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 

~ 2nd Corinthians 3:17

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

~ 2nd Corinthians 5:17

I wish blog posts came with fragrances. This one would be the refreshing smell of a forest full of pines.

What about you? What does your week look like? What is on your mind?

+ My current Life After Finals Week goals include writing more letters, filling this lonely little bloggeth with some savory posts, running in the woods, working on a couple of art projects, buying pretty garments at thrift stores, and figuring out what the heck I'm going to get my dad for Christmas.

build a rocket ship & fly it far away

I'm starting to realize something about myself that I somehow always knew: 

I only need a handful of people in my life to be happy.

Yes, I must have always known this. But I'm seeing this truth in action as of late. While of course the craziness of finals week can make even the most social of souls reclusive and erratic, it's somehow shown me just how small a fraction of people I truly reach out to and allow to get close to me. Which sometimes can be a little lonely.

I don't say this as a negative thing, just as an observation. Does anyone else share my mindset? Maybe it's just the stress of a busy semester falling off of me, but right now I feel like I could just run away from my hometown and start a new adventure in a woodsy town I've never seen, where every face is fresh.

Is that calloused? Is that awful? Or is that the nature of being 22?
Your thoughts appreciated! ♥

Forgive me, my thoughts are coming out like scrambled eggs because I'M FINALLY FREE OF FINALS!

+ A big, BIG thank you to all of you who commented and shared your sweet thoughts on my last post. Reading every word from you guys made me smile during a crazy week! But praise the Lord, finals are over! School is done! The chaos is complete! And my mom and I got to see the Hunger Games today and it was #sogood.

"my love for you has always had a sad face"

Somehow, impossibly, tomorrow marks my last day of classes for the fall semester. 

I have two exams due Monday, and then it's complete.

Quite soon I shall be halfway through my junior year of college, just like that!

I am one of those souls that gets deeply nostalgic at the close of another semester.
I've been this way ever since elementary school. The end of another school year always means a miniature ending of an era, a moment in time closed off to me for good. Even though this semester has had its difficulties and irritations, I'm sad to see it go. I even thought to myself this week that I should love to stay in college forever.

To properly mourn this week, I hope to hit up a record store or grab a coffee or some other treat.
I may even go to see the last Hunger Games flick with my mom after my exams are finally finished.
It's weird; I'm sad that classes are ending but that's also super exciting. More time for writing my novel (more on that to come, I promise) and reading y'all's blogs, ya know?

What do you do to mourn/celebrate the end of another semester or school year? (: 

+ I have too many stories swirling in my head and I really can't wait to put them down on paper. 
I miss writing something awful. You all have thoroughly inspired me with your NaNoWriMo posts!