1) My anxiety about church has mostly disappeared, because, drumroll....I joined Trinity! Becoming a member at TFC pretty much means completing 6 classes, signing a piece of paper, and standing at the front of the sanctuary to shake everyone's hand after the service. Nothing technically changes, but I feel so much more peaceful. No more thinking, "These people might be my new family, how do I feel about that!?" Now I know, "These people are my family, no matter how I feel." Comforting.
2) It also helped that I spent the Bible study hour talking to Michelle, a new friend who had spent the previous three weeks travelling to Turkey, Morocco, and France on a mission planning assignment. And that on Sunday evening I went to my first Connection Group at a new couple's house, and I had the loveliest time laughing and eating and discussing the morning's sermon. It lasted three hours, and I still wasn't ready to leave. That never happens to me with new groups of people!
3) My mother is not allowed to die before me, because as soon as she flew to Senegal, I thought of twenty things I immediately needed to text her about.
4) Michelle invited me to Christar's Thanksgiving lunch for all their missionaries currently on stateside assignment. I talked with a couple who are working in Turkey about their vision for bringing counselors to work with Iranian refugees. It was, um, quite exciting. If I can be British about it.
5) No one warned me about the Freshman 15 of graduate school. I don't weigh myself, but my pants are getting tighter, so I'm sure there's some weight gain happening. Thankfully my feminist friend Michal Ann told me about this hilariously cheeky and true book, French Women Don't Get Fat, which is all about loving food and appreciating it, not shoveling it into your mouth while you mindlessly watch TV. Point taken, book. Already today I...ate cereal out of a smaller bowl. Oui oui!
6) Last night I took a bath at 6:30, then sat in my room until it was acceptable to go to sleep. I held out until 9:00, then pulled my covers over my head. I don't even know what was going on with me.
7) No, but I do. School is stressful, but not really the schoolwork. I'm on top of that. It's all this learning and self-reflection, putting my life together in Dallas and setting new habits, relying on new people and forcing myself to be disciplined, glancing into my yawning future with excitement and trepidation before reminding myself to live in the present. It's a lot, is what I'm saying. I still love my classes (well, minus one), but I hate going to them (well, minus one). I'm just tired of doing stuff.
8) Which is why it's so exciting that this is my LAST WEEK. What? you might say. And true, it's not my last week at seminary or even my last week of the semester. But after this week is Reading Week, which is basically Pre-Thanksgiving Week. I cannot wait to do nothing for two whole weeks.
9) I rode a horse with my IL->TX friend Bridgett. The ranch was an hour and a half outside Dallas, and. I just can't. We drove on two-lane highways! There were men wearing cutoffs! I saw actual trees with yellow and red leaves! I won't lie, I got very nostalgic for the countryside. I thought of Lindsay, who loved big cities, but now loves living in the middle of nowhere. I even thought, maybe this is for me, the smell of hay and animals, the slow pace, the dirt, the friendliness. There is a part of me that definitely loves the country life. But when I drove back to my house and saw the Dallas skyline stretching into the sky in front of me, I thought, there's a part of me that loves this too.
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