Faith, Life, and Lessons

Lesson 4- It’s not about me This past summer, I spent nearly 3 months up in Durango, Colorado working at a utopian-esque community called Camp Kivu. Owned by the same company that had sent me on the Gap Year before college, Kivu was a summer camp that had become a place of refuge, honesty, and love to thousands of kids and staff members alike over the years. As this was the last summer of Camp Kivu (they will be focusing on the Gap Year from now on), I’m so glad I was there to learn TONS of valuable life lessons before they officially closed. One of the most memorable and tangible lessons was about humility and service. While I am pretty invested in “service” back at Vanderbilt, I had spent much of last semester pondering what humility actually meant. I don’t want to be someone who, like the Pharisees, serves to impress others. I want my life to be about more than myself and my own contentment. As a result, I had read books about humility (okay, a single book), prayed about it, and

Lesson 2- The Little Mermaid is alive and well, and she lives in Nashville. Lesson 3- Identity is way beyond skin deep If you’re at all connected to me on social media, you’ve probably seen that I recently dyed my hair from its usual bleach blonde ways to a dramatic auburn red. Admittedly, one of my favorite pastimes is creating shock-factor, but that was only one of a few motivations for this particular decision. I’ve heard it said that girls who change their hair too often have self-confidence issues. 1) I don't believe that & 2) I think I may be the opposite and just not have enough self-confidence issues. (My poor roommate knows this all too well as I would often walk around the room “less than dressed” shall we say…) So while I had been planning to go red eventually this year just for fun, it wasn’t until I found out that my brother’s upcoming military training at the Corps of Cadets is called “Red Phase” that I felt like it was the perfect timing. Praise the Lord that

Lesson 1- Blogging is fun, and it's worthwhile to remember your own lessons. Oh wow. A whole year has gone by without me touching this little archive of all my gap year adventures. I think it's about time I shake off the dust, crank the engine, and get this blog rolling again! I'm not really sure why I decided now is the time to begin blogging again. It just feels right. Honestly, while reflecting on this past year (my first year of college at Vanderbilt!) I couldn't keep track of all the lessons I had learned because of how many there are (lots of room for growth, ammirite??) And that's when I realized that it could be fun to share some of these learning opportunities in the hopes that it could benefit someone else. Who knows? Maybe we're going through the same things and don't even know it! And besides that, I occasionally do really crazy and dumb things, and it could potentially be entertaining for you to read. I don't mind laughing at my own expens