My life is full of polar opposite emotions right now. Joy in spending time with friends, partnered with extreme dread at the thought of all of my homework, excitement about the approaching holidays and break, and sadness at the thought that this is the last major break I will ever have in my career at Messiah College. My mind and my body don't really know how to handle these simultaneous conflicting emotions (which is probably part of the reason why I am currently having a knock-down, drag-out fight with a cold virus...I can't tell who's winning...).
In addition to the craziness of college life right now, I have always on my mind the thought that next year at this time, I will be in China. I feel like I think about China in every spare moment of the day, so much so that I'm even dreaming of it. I am so excited to have the opportunity to live and teach there for a blessed 11 months next year. There is some bittersweetness surrounding the thought too, though. Every wonderful thing I experience here is accompanied by the realization that I will be missing out on it next year. It broke my heart a little at Thanksgiving when my Mama mentioned something about me helping with the turkey next year and I had to gently remind her “I'm not going to be here”. Singing in all of the concerts this weekend also reminds me that this is my last Messiah Christmas concert, and one of my last concerts for a while...
Yet, with these sadnesses are intermingled plenty of joys. I know that though I will certainly be missing and craving these times while I am away in China, I will also be experiencing some other wonderful things that I can't even imagine yet. So for now, I will do my best to live for today and the joys it has to bring, not taking for granted what I am blessed with right now.
Speaking of blessings, we have a new gratefulness poster that we are creating for our apartment to remind us to be thankful. Since it is the season of giving thanks, I thought I'd share some with you! Please feel free to post things you're thankful for in the comments. Remembering all my blessings is definitely one of the major ways I have in staying positive in hard times! So, here's some of ours:
Wonderful roommates
Music
Nice people
Amy Garrett!
中国 (China)
Christmas Lights
Haircuts
Pictures
Being giddy!
And many more! I hope your day is full of many things to be thankful for!!
再见！
～爱琳～
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