Well, that was an epic fail.

The subject line is referring to my attempt to keep this blog up to date. Its pretty sad that my last post was in, what, October? When at the end I made it a goal for myself to update more? Awesome. Oh well, I'm here now I suppose. And this time, I'm really hoping to go through with my word.

As you can probably guess, a lot has happened in my life since the last post. But here's the nutshell version: I finally completed my first semester at Goshen College, after many long and emotional days of being homesick (and sometimes actually sick) and ended up with a 3.21 GPA. Not bad. Not amazing, but not bad considering. I was really worried about my grade in Transforming Conflict and Violence because the grade system online said that I had a 78.9%, which is usually considered a C+, but she curved her grading for the semester. Hallelujah. I got one B-, two Bs, one A- and 5 As, and hey, I'll take that for my first term away from home. Thankfully, I have made some outstanding friends at Goshen that brighten my life and bring a lot of comfort to me in times of hardship and stress. They are each special in their own ways but all play a large role in my life while I'm there. I am very lucky to have them, especially hearing horror stories from some of my other friends from high school about drama going on between old, and even new, friends. Goshen really is a beautiful place, despite the hardships that come along with it.

I've been home now for 2 weeks this Saturday. Home. In my own bed, with my parents and sister, my cat, my friends, my church...everything. On my flight coming home from Chicago, where my connection was from South Bend, the pilot came onto the loud speaker and said, "We are making our final descent into Portland" or something along those lines, and I remember just loosing it. I was already listening to a semi-sad song on my iPod and it didn't really hit me that I was actually coming home until that moment. Three and a half months of being away from everything I've ever known for 18 years was very difficult. I obviously lived through it and am fine now, but there were a lot of tears shed on Canby, Oregon's behalf during fall semester. I love it so much here. I love the cold mornings that seem like a vacation compared to the -15 degree windchill that resides over Goshen's campus. I love being able to drive in a car by myself on familiar roads and see people I know at the store or at Starbucks. I LOVE MY BED. Best thing that ever happened to me. I love my cat's quirky personality of knowing I'm home too. I love how out of tune and dusty the piano is. I love the smells, the feelings and the many additional comforts of being home. This is exactly what I've been needing for so long and it's finally here.

Sadly, I don't have time in this post to talk about all the crazy things I've done since I've been home, but I PROMISE I WILL. For reals this time. I have yet to talk about work, Christmas, Casey, next semester and further plans for the future. It should be good. In the meantime, you can assume that I'm on cloud nine in Canby.

Em