back.

So today was the first official full day back here at Lynchburg College. And can I just say I missed it here and all my friends here a lot. I embraced everyone with a hug when I saw them. It was if everyone hadn't seen each other in a month or something. I think it's because I basically live with most of these people, and I see them 24/7. So to go from that to not seeing them for a week, you really do notice. My heart is always torn when I leave here or leave home. I'm sad to leave all my friends back home because I love them so much, but I'm happy to see all my friends here because I love them as well, and vice versa for the other situation. But, I am happy that I love both places so much. I miss all my friendsies from back home though! Today was a great day. Pretty laid back in my classes. Tonight was La Ca night, which is always fun, and all the waiters love us and talk to us in Spanish and joke around with us. Then we went to Target to get some essentials and some Christmas decorations. Can I just say that I absolutely love my new room because: new roommate, so much more space, it's not crammed, it's cute, we have a tv and a wii, and christmas lights. Basically our room is the party room and people are over all the time. I love it! :) This is my new room! :)

friendsies.

I have the best friends in the world. I just love my friends and am so glad they are all in my life.I love that I can come home from college and it's like nothing has changed. We still hangout and act the same as we always did. The distance and time apart hasn't affected our friendship at all, which I am so thankful for. I like being able to catch up on each other's lives. I like being the person to just sit there and listen to all of your struggle and things you're going through in your life and just being there for you. I also like how I become closer to people. I love all the crazy things we do together. And I love coming home and going to the party at David's and people and dancing and hanging out. I love the deep conversations I have with certain people. I love feeling loved. I love staying out into the wee hours of the morning hanging out. And I love how loud we are because we just have so much to talk about and cramming a ton of people in my house. I am so blessed to have all my friends in my life. :)

thanksgiving.

Well, today is Thanksgiving...like you didn't know that already. Haha. I am at my grandparents house in Newport News and will be coming back tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited to eat lots of good food today! I'm looking forward to the cherry pie the most though, not going to lie. Today is the day to talk about what you're thankful for. The one day that you're supposed to be able to relax and think about all the great things in your life...we need to have more days for that. I am thankful first and foremost for a God that loves me and forgives me, because believe me, I screw up A LOT. I am also thankful that I've got a mom that will always be there for me and loves me no matter what. Also, for the family that loves me. I'm also extremely thankful for my friends. My friends have helped me through so much and always have my back. I'm so grateful for being able to go to college, a roof over my head, clothes, and food to make my stomach happy. :) I have also come to be thankful for the challenges in my life, because I continue to grow and learn from them. There is so much more I am thankful for but that would take days to write down everything. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, gain a couple pounds today! ;)

It's not easy having no one there.

Harry Potter. You just rocked my world.

TOMORROW!

So, tomorrow starts a whole new journey for me for college. I'm moving in with my best friend here, Mary! I AM SO EXCITED. My current roommate has been interesting. But hey, I will have a TON of stories! Haha. If you ever want to hear about some of them, just let me know! And in all honesty, this whole experience has taught me a lot about different kinds of people, and that I can handle literally anything now. But Mary and I have the same morals, and are a lot alike. I really hope it all works out. I'm not going to lie, it does make me a little nervous to room together because we are so close, and we do spend a lot of time together. But I do think we hang out with enough different people to the point where we will be fine. I'm praying for it! Our room is now going to be super cute! Cue the Christmas lights around the room, a seating area, and wall decor. Now everyone MUST come visit me! We will have lots of room now! I seriously can't wait until tomorrow! :)

Oh so happy!

Well, this weekend has been so much fun! And this week is going to be so much fun too! And then I'll be home for 9 days for Thanksgiving break! So excited! So this weekend was fun. Friday I just hung out with Kait and Emily and relaxed. Saturday I got to sleep in late, praise! Afterwards, I went to lunch/shopping around with my friend Alissa. Turns out she locked her keys in her car, so we had to wait for someone to come let us back in. It was pretty funny though. Later that night I went to this snowboarding competition at snowflex with Luke, Melisa, and Elizabeth. I love having them so close. :) Today I went to church and got to see people I love. Then I went to brunch with Tony, Megan, and Kelsey. Now I'm hanging out in Kait's room, and later I will be going to La Ca for dinner with Jake and Elizabeth. This week is going to be amazing too. I'm doing so much stuff with so many people! I really love my life right now. And I love all my new friends that I'm going to go do stuff with. :) AND. I'm moving in with my best friend here! New roommate! Somehow everything is falling into place here, and I am SO happy! :) And I get to see all my friends back home in 5 days! :)

so.

Here are a couple updates on my life, because I don't get to blog so frequently being so busy in college and everything:

-El Chaps has been replaced while I'm in Lynchburg with a new crew, and a new place called La Ca (short for La Caretta). And instead of going on Wednesday nights, we go on Monday nights. PS, the waiters already know us, know me as Catalina, and hug us goodbye. This makes me happy.

-I was home for the weekend this weekend and it was so much fun. I got to hang out with all the people I love dearly. It went by way to fast though.

-I'm thinking about being in a sorority. I would have to rush in spring semester, so I still have a little while to figure it out. I'm thinking either Alpha Sigma Alpha or Kappa Delta. Thoughts on joining a sorority?

-I'm applying for next year to either be a Bonner or a CL. A Bonner does 900 hours of community service in 2 years. But, the school pays you for it because they want you to focus on doing that rather than having to do a job also. A CL has a class of new freshman students. They meet once a week and have a class about random stuff, like studying skills and so on. Also, they are here for all of the orientations.

-I am currently going through the training to be a young life leader for next semester! Woop woop!

-I now have a ring in my nose instead of a stud. Not sure how I feel about it yet. Thoughts? People continuously ask me if I just got my nose pierced.

This is all I can think of right now. So now you're updated! Haha.

All Smiles.

This weekend was so much fun! I went with lcf on a retreat to Eagle Eyrie. At Eagle Eyrie, there were colleges across Virginia there. UVA, VT, JMU, CNU, Radford, and a bunch of other ones. The worship was amazing, (thank you lcf band ;) and the speakers were as well. I also got to know a lot more people on this trip. I love how that happens on retreats. Especially because this was only a group of about twenty-three people. I've finally hit that point where I know people well enough to be like "Man, I miss retreat and seeing these people 24-7." Haha. It's a very good place to be in. But besides that, I felt such a connection with God this weekend. It was really incredible. This is kind of funny because I don't usually talk too much about God and so on in blogs because of my own opinions on that. But this is something that I want to look back at and remember. I was sad to come home...this is totally off topic but it's so weird that I call this "home." Huh. Haha. I also spent the night at Elizabeth's dorm and got to hang out with her, which was quite fun! This weekend has really been great. :)

Young Life!

So, the other day I was walking to my friends dorm and I saw a flyer in the hall about Young Life. I stopped to check it out and it basically said they want more people to be leaders to middle schoolers or high schoolers and to e-mail someone about more info. I thought it would be kind of cool so I decided to e-mail the person to get some info about it. Unfortunately, the training meetings are on Tuesday's at 7, which is the exact time as my Spanish class! I was really bummed, but the girl who was in charge of it told me she could meet me on Mondays instead as well as another girl who's going to be doing the same thing. She's going to pick me up, and she said there were quite a few people here that are Young Life leaders too. I'm excited to get to know them! I am absolutely ecstatic to go through training to be a leader! I can't wait to hang out with some cool middle school or high school kids and learn about them! I know for me growing up in WEAG it was great to get to know some of the leaders, and they were there for me when I needed them. I can only pray that I will be that to them! I am soooo excited for this! I do have to admit though, it's kind of weird thinking that I'm going to be a leader. I feel like I'm not old enough to be a leader yet when I think back to WEAG and youth group. It's weird to me. But I love it! I'm excited for this new thing in my life, and I ask that yall would please pray for me as I do this! I really want to be the leader like some of the leaders that have affected my life. I can't wait to meet all these crazy kids and hang out with some cool leaders! :)

I kind of love this. :)

friends.

After being home this weekend, I've realized even more that I have the best friends in the entire world. I absolutely love that I can come home and hang out with people and it's as if nothing has changed. Like I'm not two hours or more away from people, and am only home for a few days. It's just like back to normal. I really love that I'm still really close to mostly all of my friends. We still know mostly everything about each other's lives, our burdens, the exciting things, and so on. We are always there for each other no matter what. I can not thank you guys enough for being such good friends. I also love coming home and still being able to go out and do all the crazy things we do together. This weekend was great because I was home for fall break so it was longer than a weekend. As I go back to school I'm sad because I will miss all these amazing people in my life. But, I am happy to go back to see all my friends back at school too. I miss you all already, and I just really love each and every one of you. Thank you so much for staying in contact with me, and still being friends even though were away from each other! Keep doing that! I LOVE YOU ALL! :)

take me.

So, I've always wanted to try this tea. And I don't know how many people have texted me or told me that Peace Tea reminds them of me. It's the drink I need to try. So. If someone really loves me and wants to take me to Goochland or downtown with some Peace Tea this weekend that would be oh so lovely. I like the country, and I like downtown. I like to see things. I think they're both gorgeous. And I like to look at everything, and take lots of pictures. And I like to be there when theres sunsets too. And I think I would like this Peace Tea. So, someone should take me and go do this. :) I'll be home tomorrow night until Sunday afternoon! Yay! :)

fall.

It's October 11, isn't it supposed to be fall? I need fall weather! It's supposed to be 87 freaking degrees here in Lynchburg! What the heck?! I'm wearing a dress and sandals right now. I'm supposed to be wearing a dress, leggings, and boots! I love fall because it's chilly but not too cold. And we have a place that serves Starbucks so it would be nice to drink some hot tea and walk around because this campus is gorgeous! Fall, I would appreciate it if you started acting like it! I'm ready for fall clothes, chilly weather, soccer games that aren't blistering hot, hot tea/chocolate, and crunchy leaves to walk on! Well, this weekend is Fall Break! I will be home Wednesday night. PS. GO TO EL CHAPS AFTER YOUTH GROUP! I can't believe that tradition hasn't been kept up since my class left! Come on yall! It has to live on! Haha. So be there this Wednesday...me and some others will be there. So, you should too! :) Have a fabulous fall day that feels like summer! Haha.

unknown.

So last night I was up pretty late thinking "What am I going to do with my life?!" I have no idea. I really have thought about physical therapy for awhile. In any career I have, I want to help people. This job allows me to help people get back to normal again, or help them start a new life by learning how to live normally. Also, I can support myself with the salary. Of course I would love to have a husband, but you never know what can happen in life. What if my husband ends up getting sick or hurt or something? I don't want to rely on someone in life. I am my own person and I am a strong, independent woman. I am in charge of my own life, besides God of course. Haha. I just want to do something that God wants me to do. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but for now I'm going for physical therapy until He tells me differently. And I would of course LOVE to go to Brasil for awhile too. Maybe I could be a missionary physical therapist there. Haha. Any thoughts on what I would be good at? I'm still trying to figure out my life, with the help of God, my family, and my friends. :)

home.

Wow. This weekend was so much fun. I absolutely love seeing my friends back home. I really, really missed them and all the crazy things we did together. And I missed Richmond. Friday I got home and had dinner with my mom. I love her so much, and I miss her already! Shortly after, Carisa, Matt, Julie, Jesse, Destry, and Elsbeth came over. We "watched" Iron Man 2 aka talked the entire time and caught up on each others lives and told random stories. After we all departed, I took Matt home and then I just drove around Richmond for awhile. I missed driving and being around Richmond. I drove with the windows/sunroof down, music blaring, and dancing. It was great. Then I picked up Eric and we attempted to get Elizabeth to come to Waffle House with us...no luck. Then we tried Jake...no luck. Then Ricardo...no luck. So we ended up just going and we had to leave because the wait was so long! We went to IHOP instead, with blueberry pancakes that had cranberries in them?! Haha. Saturday I met Connor, Elsbeth, Colin, Sissy, Jesse, Julie, Alex, and Elizabeth at Chipotle for lunch. HEAVEN. Afterwards we shopped around. Then me and Elizabeth and Alex watched a disgusting movie on fearnet. We then proceeded to pick up Eric to go to Sweet Frog. Afterwards we stopped in Eric's neighborhood to pet the cows! They were cute yet icky. Haha. Later that night Carisa, Luke, Zach, Elsbeth, Lauren, JBlair, Matt, Julie, Destry, Jesse, Andrea and I went to Sweet Frog and then Burger King. It was so fun to all be together and crazy again! Afterwards Julie, Destry, Matt, Jesse, and I went back to Julie's house. We played some poker and had some good convos. The next morning was church where I got to see everyone! I really did miss WEAG and everyone that goes there. Wow I need to stop this blog now. It's way too long. But I had to talk about my fabulous weekend! I love you all sooo much! I'll be home in a week and half for fall break! So get ready for some chillers again! You guys make me SO happy!!! :) I LOVE YALL!

hmm.

Sometimes I wonder if people miss me. Especially the friends that I have to start the conversation with every single time to see what's going on in their lives...

mhm.

I really honestly love my life right now. My classes are all pretty interesting. Yes, some may have a lot of work, but it's not unbearable. I like being my own person and making my own decisions. Yes, I did that at home. But here I am completely independent. It's a whole different world. I love it. Today was a me day. Stepped back from the chaos and being around people 24/7. I hung out in my room and did homework and did stuff for me today. At 5 I met some people for coffee and chatted, which was really nice. Then I had to go to a poetry reading for Composition, which was fine. Then I went to Walmart with Mary, Kelly, and Chesley. Yay getting some more good food! And Chesley got her tragus pierced! It looked SO painful! It made me not want to ever get that pierced. Haha. This weekend is family weekend and I can't wait to see my mom! She's like my best friend, and I know she misses me. She asks me every time I talk to her if I'm homesick, because I think she wants me to be homesick cause she misses me so much. I miss her, but I'm not homesick. Also, I will get to see Elsbeth and Connor this weekend! :) So excited! And next weekend I'm COMING HOME! I'm really, really excited to see everyone! I love you all and please, please keep in contact with me! If I keep having to text/call people first I feel like I'm a nuisance! So text me/call me! :)

retreat!

So this weekend I went on a retreat with lcf (Lynchburg Christian Fellowship). It was totally not what I'm used to. I'm used to WEAG where I know everyone, I have a lot of different friends, and people know me. On this retreat I knew no one. I definitely went out on a limb for this one. I was the new kid that didn't know anyone. I understand now why it's difficult for people to come to church and stuff, because it's kind of hard not knowing anyone. But, I also made a lot of new friends this weekend because luckily everyone in it is super nice! I'm really excited about that. This retreat and WEAGs retreat are so different. There were only about 35 people on this retreat. We stayed at a church called MCC in Mechanicsville, which actually happens to be WEAGs sister church! Small world! We had worship and lessons. The worship was so good, and the lessons were amazing! I actually got a lot out of every one of them! On Saturday we went and did missions work instead of a bunch of activities. We went to a man named Otis' house he has. It's for men who just got out of prison and are trying to get their lives on track again. I ended up painting all day long. Then that evening we handed out hot dogs in Monroe Park to the homeless. It was definitely a really cool experience, and we all bonded together while we were doing work and stuff. Can I also just say that it is SO weird technically being home, but not going to my house and seeing my friends and stuff. I loved being in Richmond again though! I also ran into Eric and Justine while we were there, which was great seeing them! :) We had another lesson that night with worship, which was incredible. I starting to fall in love with God all over again. I've been mad at God for awhile now because of stuff that has gone on in my life in the past year, and I finally let go of being mad at him and blaming him. I pushed him away when I shouldn't have, which has created distance and has strained my walk. I'm so excited that I can finally say I am no longer mad at Him and am falling in love with Him all over again. I think its almost because I'm not at WEAG with everything that's familiar that I could really focus on God, and with different followers. I don't necesarily know why that is, but I'm thankful none the less. I'm so excited for the rest of the year with these rad people I can now call my friends. Yay being brave and doing something out of your comfort zone! I challenge you to do the same, because it could make all the difference in your life. You never know what things could happen! :) Oh, sorry this was super long. I just had a lot to express about this weekend! Haha.

blessed.

What a crazy whirlwind life is. Life is so busy all the time. My mind is constantly racing of things I need to get done for classes, how my friends are doing, what I need to do in general, and so on. And when I haven't been doing that, I've been hanging out with my friends. Lately I have not just sat down and reflected on life. I really need to let myself do that more often. I think all of us get caught up in how busy our lives are, and we don't sit down and really see what's going on. I need to realize how blessed I am to have all these opportunities in my life. The biggest thing I can think of right now is being in college. I mean, not everyone has the opportunity to go to college. We're paying thousands of dollars for me to have this education. Sure, college is fun and an amazing experience, but that doesn't mean I'm going to put my work on the back burner. I did that in high school a lot because quite frankly I didn't really care all that much as long as I had a B average. In college, I am striving to do well, but also have a ton of fun. There are so many people who would die to be in my place right now. I am truly blessed to be here. Even the little things, like sunsets. They are so beautiful, and I should be thankful that God gave me eyes to see it. Even as I lay in the grass and feel the way it moves through my fingers, I should be blessed that I can feel it. When I'm doing my own laundry, buying my own food and necessities, and being responsible for every single thing in my life, I am blessed that I can be independent and do things on my own. I have the opportunity to grow up, discover myself, and go through life as my own independent person. Basically what I'm saying is I am so thankful for everything in my life once I sit down and really think about it. I need to do this more often, because there is so much to be thankful for! :)