Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Here we go!!

Dental school starts TOMORROW!!!

I'm excited. I'm anxious. I'm kinda nervous. And I can't believe it's already here. Man...there is so much running through my head right now. I don't wanna do much tonight so I can get to bed early since tomorrow will be an early day, but I don't know that I can sit here at the apartment all night. I wanna get out, but I wanna take it easy. Hopefully I'll calm down enough so I can get some sleep tonight, haha. I'll be sure to post about orientation in a day or two in case anyone is just itchiing to hear how it went, which I'm sure will be everyone who reads this blog, haha. ;) Switching topics...

I've started reading my Bible regularly over the past week. That's something that I've really been struggling with for a while. I read it, but it's so inconsistent. It's amazing how much of a difference you feel when you're regularly in the Word. God's awesome. :)

Oh, and sunburns not only hurt, but they also itch, in case you ever wondered.

Let me tell ya about the Class of 2013...

One of my dental school classmates threw a party at his house tonight for our class. It was a 'last night to relax, have fun, and get to know each other' kind of deal, and it was a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of my classmates for the first time, and I'm pretty sure their names will all run together before I see them again on Wednesday, haha. And funny enough, tonight was the first party I'd been to that had alcohol. I have nothing against alcohol, but going to BCM parties for 4 years and then going to dental school parties...its almost like a different world, haha. I had only been to one other party like that, and that was a sorority dance, so it was still kinda new to me. But it was a lot of fun getting to meet everyone, hanging out, and not stressing out about school while we can. And I think I learned a few things about our class from the roughly 40 of us that were there...

1) Our class knows how to party, and will do it well over our 4 years together. If tonight was any indication, then our class obviously knows how to have a good time.

2) Our class will get along great. It's hard to get a feel from only seeing about half of the class together, but from what I saw tonight, everyone made a point to say hey and spend some time with everyone. It seemed like everyone really got along and had a good time. I feel like all 80-something of us will get along great and will end up being a tight-knit group, and that would be awesome.

3) Our class may like to party, but we'll take school seriously. Hopefully, we won't be all party, all the time. But you've gotta think, we all got into dental school because we did well in undergrad, and they think we've got what it takes to be a dentist. I think our class will study hard and will find a happy medium between that and having a good time. Plus, even in a party setting, we couldn't keep from talking about our classes that we'll be starting soon...we're all nerds at heart, haha.

I dunno...those are just some observations I made tonight, so we'll see. But I'm really excited to see what the next 4 years are gonna bring with these people, and I'm excited to get started and learn all about being a dentist with them. I'm also excited and really curious to see how God is going to use me over the next 4 years. He's already placed some fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in my path, and we've talked about starting a Bible study or prayer group or something like that. That should be really cool. It will give us a small support system of sorts and will give us the opportunity to encourage and serve each other as well as our classmates. Anyway...its late. I'm gonna wrap this one up and get to bed. Hope your week is off to a great start!!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

T minus 6 days...

Dental school is just 6 days away. Hard to believe right? I don't know if I can tell you how excited I am about it. While there are a few things that I'm anxious about, the excitement outweighs any reservations I have, at least for now haha. I met with my Big from the sophomore class today, and we spent an hour just talking about school and life. She gave me some great advice, and I was able to ask her questions about what to expect, what was hard for her, what she enjoyed...that kind of stuff. I'm more excited about it after meeting with her than I was before. I'm trying to think of the best way to explain why I'm so excited, but nothing's coming to me. I guess the best way to describe it is that it's like realizing a dream...I dunno. If you know me at all, you know that I've wanted to be a dentist since 7th grade. Not just that, but I feel like its what the Lord wants me to do. Just knowing that in less than a week, I'll be on the road to making it a reality is really, really, exciting. I know it won't all be fun and games, but its still exciting nonetheless.

And a little update on life here in the Ville- it's gotten much better. I think just the idea of the whole transition thing, on top of moving to the biggest city I've ever lived in really overwhelmed me. I've gotten to hang out with friends that are slowly trickling into the city for dental school, and I've gotten in touch with WKU people that live in Louisville too. And slowly but surely, I'm beginning to learn my way around town. Overall, I've just got a better attitude about it, and I know God is helping me adjust. Just gotta do things in His time!! :)

Sidenote- Transformers 2 was AWESOME. And I love NCIS marathons on USA. That is all.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Two weeks!!!

I start dental school 2 weeks from today!! It hasn't really hit me yet...I'm still more excited than anything. But I'm sure as July 1st gets closer, the nerves will start to kick in. I just can't believe it's so close!!!

On a sidenote, one of my leg muscles is twitching.

The most unproductive day ever

I have done absolutely nothing today. Seriously. I woke up at 10 and ate breakfast. Then I watched TV and got on Facebook. Then I showered and ate lunch. And then I watched more TV. Got some more computer time...you know, YouTube, blogs, check my email over and over, check for updates on ESPN, more Facebook. And then I talked to my parents on the phone. Watched the 6:00 news only because they did a story in Etown and got a shot of my mom at work...so I saw my mom on TV. And then my roommate came home. And we watched TV together. And then I ate dinner. And then I watched more TV and sat on my computer all night, and its now going on 1 AM. Oh...I did text a lot today. But hey, at least I showered and got dressed with the hopes of doing something productive or fun. But it rained all day. Kinda ruined any idea I had of playing in the pool all afternoon. Oh well. I guess we're all allowed to do absolutely nothing at all once in a while, right? I hope so...haha. I do have some plans tomorrow...thankfully.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Transitions

Let me apologize in advance for this really, really long post. I've had a lot on my mind, and I'm getting it all out with this post, so consider yourself warned. Haha.

For those of you who don't know, I moved up to Louisville a little more than a week ago on Friday, June 5. I knew that moving to Louisville would be an adjustment, but I didn't anticipate how hard of an adjustment it would be. My first weekend here was really rough for me. I moved in Friday night and then Saturday I went to a wedding with some new dental school friends. The whole trip, I kept thinking about all of my BG friends and got really depressed. We didn't get back to Louisville until Sunday afternoon, and I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to finish unpacking. At the point, everything just hit me really hard. If you know me at all, you know I can be a sentimental/emotional guy. Everything I unpacked reminded me in some way of WKU and all of my friends in BG. Needless to say, I went home the next day. I actually went back up to Louisville that night with some good friends from high school, a couple of which live in Louisville. We went to a Bats game and then hung out for a while on Bardstown Rd., and that turned out to be a really fun night, which is just what I needed. It was reassuring to know that I can have fun in Louisville. I don't mean anything against the people I've met from dental school so far, but it was just really hard for me to go from constantly being around really, really close friends all of the time to being around people that I liked, but barely knew.

I ended up making a trip back down to BG while I was home to see everyone still down there. Another thing that's been kinda hard for me to swallow is that all of my best friends are still in BG. Either they live there or will be back there in the fall, and I don't like the fact that I'll be away from them. I guess it's one of my flaws, but I hate the fact that there will be stuff that I'm gonna miss out on with them. Anyway, the visit to BG was exactly what I needed. I got to spend some time with more family when I got back to Etown, and now I'm back in Louisville, a week after I left.

Here comes the part that's difficult to write, mainly because I don't exactly know how to string all of these thoughts together into words, but also because I'm about to be really open....yeah. So bear with me, haha. I know that in time, God will make this adjustment easier. I'll get used to Louisville, I'll make a ton of new friends at school, and everything will be ok. I've been praying for that, and I know that God has brought me to Louisville for a reason. I need to have faith that He will do things in His own time. The human that I am wants things to happen now, and that's not how God works. And this sounds dumb, and there may be more of you out there who think this way too, but part of me is afraid of losing my friends in BG. I know it's ridiculous, but that's how my mind works. Many of my best friends from high school are still in BG, and there are those who I've become friends with in the last 4 years who are still in BG as well. I know that people who I'm that close to won't just stop being my friend just because I live 2 hours away. Our friendships are stronger than that. God has blessed me with those friends, and I know we'll be friends for life. It's just hard being away from them when you're used to being around them all the time for 2-4 years, or longer. Along with that, I've been surrounded by a great community for 4 years. The BCM has been such a blessing to me. I made so many friends there, and I experienced so much growth in my time there. I was also blessed with a great church home in BG at Living Hope. I felt like a part of the community there, and not just some college kid who was stopping by for a 4 year visit. I got connected there, I was loved, I was able to serve, and God helped me grow so much while I was there. That type of community I had in BG isn't here in Louisville. That has been hard to swallow too. No accountability, no church family...another reason I love BG so much. I realize that God will lead me to a new church here in Louisville and that in time, I'll have that same type of community. But again, it's just hard to leave that environment. At times, I feel like I'm alone, which is ridiculous because there are plenty of WKUers who are from Louisville and are home for the summer. And I've got high school friends and family up here. And ultimately, even without them, I'm not alone because I've got the Creator of the universe with me at all times. While that should be more than comforting, it still isn't enough at times. It just goes to show how flawed I am and how much I really do need God.

I apologize if all of that depressed you or made you wonder if I'm an insecure nutcase...I'm not I promise, haha. I just had a lot that has built up over the last week or so that I needed to get out. I've told some people about it, namely family and a few friends, but I've kept it mostly to myself because I didn't want everyone to think that I'm insane. I also wasn't sure about how to tell people without sounding like a needy, attached person. (I may have done that anyway with this post, haha) I guess the sucky part is that a lot of people experience this when they first start college, and I'm just now going through it now. But all of that said, I KNOW that God has led me here to Louisville. I know He has plans for me and that dental school is where I'm supposed to be right now. I know that the friends He's blessed me with will never let me down, and I know He'll bless me with new friends, a new church home, and a great support system here in Louisville. I've just gotta have faith, and sadly, that's sometimes the hardest part because of who I am...a human and a sinner. Thankfully, God is so much bigger than any of my problems and has a much bigger, clearer vision of what's in store for me than I could ever dream of. Thank you Lord for being everything I'll ever need. :)

Friday, June 5, 2009

Fireproof

So I finally watched the movie "Fireproof" tonight. It was really good. And I mean really good. I'm still processing my thoughts on it, but I really wanted to blog about this before I went to bed, so forgive me if this post is all over the place. I'm not even married and feel like I'm a horrible husband...is that weird?? Haha, maybe. I thought it was really cool to see the transformation of a man who didn't "need" God and who disrespected and belittled his wife into a man who couldn't live without God and who learned what it meant to truly, unconditionally love his wife. Its heartbreaking to think that marriages all across the world have to fight that sort of situation daily. What's worse is that most of them don't have any sort of hope. That's why I'm thankful for my relationship with Jesus. I know I'm not perfect. I know that when God blesses me with a beautiful, loving wife that our marriage will have really good times and some really rough times. It's gonna take a lot of work between us, and a lot of us depending on God and not ourselves. But you know what...I can't wait. :) And I'm so thankful that God doesn't require us to depend on ourselves. Otherwise, this place would be worse off then it already is. My relationship with God still requires a lot of work. While I know that I don't need to try and depend on myself, I still do it everyday, and the results are disappointing. But thankfully, God gives us grace everyday. Some movies just get ya thinking.... :)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Just blogging and watching Conan

As I write this, I'm watching The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. I've missed watching Conan and I'm glad he's back. I think he's hilarious, and honestly, I'm glad I don't have to stay up as late to watch him anymore, haha.

In other news, I start dental school on July 1st. That's one month from today. It's hard to believe it's so close to being a reality. As many of you know, I've wanted to be a dentist since the 7th grade, and I feel like it should still just be a dream. Kinda like when you wanted your driver's license and you finally turned 16, but you thought it would never actually happen?? Yeah, it's like that. But it's gonna happen in a month, God willing!! Exciting stuff.

It also hit me today that I am actually going to be living in Louisville. I drove up to the apartment today to check it out and officially meet the roommate (he moved in on Friday) and it hit me on the way up. I've always been familiar with Louisville, because living in Etown we always went to Louisville to shop, eat, and all that stuff. But now I'm gonna live there. It may not seem like a big deal, but I've only lived in Etown and Bowling Green- not exactly big cities, haha. It will take some getting used to, but I'm looking forward to it. I will miss the BG though...don't worry, I'll keep in touch with everybody!! :)

I'm also excited about finding a church in Lousiville. Living Hope has been such a blessing over the last 4 years and I am really gonna miss the people there. God is doing incredible things through Living Hope. But there are some really great churches in the Ville, and I'm excited to see what God is doing up there and through them. Please pray for me- that I'll find a church where I can grow and learn more about the Lord, but also where I can get plugged in, serve, and be a part of the community. Thanks. :)

Anyway, back to Conan. Have a great night!!