A Simple Sparkle

Well, I'm back stateside! It was quite the little adventure trying to make my way home, but I finally made it. I'm happy to be home with all things familiar and a summer of infinite possibilities ahead of me, but I'm a little homesick for Ireland and all the people there. But let's talk about France. After I left Ireland I spent six glorious days in France with my family and it was a magical experience. Paris is the most beautiful city I have ever been in. Everything about it so lovely and quaint. It's a place that titillates the senses. The sounds of the metro, though screeching and murmuring make you feel like you're being pulled into an adventure you never expected. I heard music in the rusty creaks of the underground escalators and the voices of arguing Frenchmen in the streets. Everywhere you turn there are more things to see and the most stimulating smells imaginable. On one corner you sniff the peonies from the florist and on the next your ...

How do I sum up an entire semester in a single post? I can't. If you've been reading you already know many of the things I've learned, but I feel like I need something to close us out since I leave the Emerald Isle tomorrow evening. I guess I shall simply follow suit of my good friends Leanna at  between a shamrock and a good place  and Arianne at  unicorns and peaches . The most significant thing I got out of this semester was friendships. I'm the type of person who can only be close to two or three people at a time, but here I lived with 31 people day in and day out for three months. We got pretty close as you can imagine. I learned to talk to people and open up to people that I otherwise would have never gotten to know. I'm not best friends with all 31 of these people, but I have more friends now that I think I've ever had in my life and it breaks my heart to think about leaving them tomorrow. I'll see many of them again in th...

Labels are dangerous. I am a moderately quiet person and because of that I have been labeled introverted. This has never really bothered me since I believed it to be a fact of my personality. This semester has taught me a lot, but most recently I've discovered that I am in fact extroverted. I get my energy from being around people, talking to people, and sharing things with others. I hate being by myself. I've always thought that the anxiety I felt when I'm alone was just my lack of independence or some flaw in my character. I've always assumed that when I'm stressed that I should spend time alone, but it never helps. I need to talk things out, I need to share experiences with other people. For years I've been trying to fit myself into an introverted box and that has not been working out.  It seems unfair to label people based on early impressions we have and yet we continue to do it. We're on our last week in Ireland and I'm still disco...

Today was a reminder that life is beautiful. I don't know why I forget that so very often. I went to Dublin today and went to The Hugh Lane Gallery and the National Gallery of Ireland. I love art museums; The calming atmosphere, the gentle whispers of admirers. I love how a single painting can bring tears to your eyes in a way you can't explain. I couldn't take pictures of most of the paintings, I only snagged one of a Renoir and I'm not even sure if I was supposed to. Looking at art has a special way of renewing the soul. All the stress and struggle of life just disappear and melt in to the canvas the longer you stare at it. I saw for the first time today Jack Yeats' paintings. He's one of my new favorites. I might have been particularly inclined to like him since he is the brother of my favourite poet, William Butler Yeats. "Grief" "For the Road" I just found myself staring at these paintings for what seemed like ages. Th...

One of my biggest insecurities growing up was uncertainty of my intelligence. Since elementary school my closest friends have also been those at the top of the class. I was convinced that I was never smart enough and the people I surrounded myself with only confirmed that my intelligence did not measure up to theirs. My obsession with being "smart" also made me very arrogant around people I thought were unintelligent. I projected my disappointment in myself onto them and instead of valuing their other talents and skill, I only ever looked at their grades. This was not a fun way to live life. I was either feeling shamed by other people's arrogance or inflicting my own arrogance on someone else. At some point in high school I decided that there really were more important qualities in people other than their ability to master calculus or successfully analyze poetry. I made friends in other places and became less concerned with academia. Somehow, though, I st...

This week I have been listening to a lot of music. A ridiculous amount really. After a four hour lecture, it seems to be the only thing that will keep me sane and prevent me from having to absorb any more information. My music preference this week had been all over the board. It's had a high country content, which is unusual for me, and there's been quite a bit of Elvis, and a few indie bands that are very much "pacific northwest" feeling. Also, I'm obsessed with the new One Republic album, so that's been in the rotation. It's like I'm caught between the perpetual cold of Ireland and the approaching Texan summer. So here's a playlist that you might like, and if not, I hope it makes you smile because of how ridiculous it is. Sophomore Slump by Elyse Kizer on Grooveshark Also during these painfully long classes I've been making my summer bucket list. I thought I was going to take an internship in Michigan or Illinois this sum...

"Intentional Community" is a phrase that gets thrown around Taylor University at such a frequency that it has become a bit of a joke. The school emphasizes it and the students complain about how we focus on it too much, or too little. But this weekend I have begun to understand what it is that TU has been trying to push for all these years. Don't get me wrong, the Taylor community is great and there are many things that we do well as a community, but for me there has always been something missing from our little bubble of a community. Today it finally clicked for me.  This weekend I have been on kitchen duty. This means that four other people and myself have been in charge of feeding 30+ people for four meals. We plan and make everything. Frankly, this has been the most wonderful weekend! We're only halfway through the cooking adventure, but it's been so wonderful.  This morning we made pancakes for lunch. We literally made 200 pancakes. It wasn't re...