Seriously.

To return to my original purpose of this blog (which is updating people on my internship), I need to write about the first semester as a whole. I was briefly sidetracked for about 3 months with randomness and trivial posts. For the more serious followers of my blog, I apologize. For sillier reader, I am sure I will digress again. But for now I am completely serious.

I cannot explain what it was like to move to a completely new place, knowing practically no one and having to instantly be friends with people, to pursue them and initiate all points of meeting. That was definitely new to me. I don't think I understood what that meant (and probably still don't) when I first moved to Norman. Looking back over the past 4 months I can honestly say there was not a collective time where I thought I had made a bad decision in going through with the internship. At each point I have been thankful for what I was learning and the relationships that were forming. And I have so much joy in talking with the girls I have had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with. I honestly cannot imagine myself doing anything else at this time in my life.

I did not notice any significant change as the semester progressed, but thinking of all that has happened so far it is really interesting to see how the students have changed, how I've changed and the overall experience of being an intern has changed. I feel like the Norman/RUF/Christ the King Pres community is a 3rd home. Third only because Huntsville and Oxford are homes too. I was telling a couple of people the other day that I am extremely excited about going home for Christmas. I get to see some friends and my family, there really isn't a better time than that, but I am sad to leave for two weeks before coming back for Winter Conference. I am happy here, I am also happy at home or in Oxford. It's strange but such an amazing feeling. Originally, I would have never thought that living in Oklahoma and being an intern at OU would have been a great fit for me. Now I couldn't imagine anywhere better. I am so thankful for the people that God has put in my life here, for the people I get to work with and the friendships I get to invest in. I love being involved with the people here and most everything about my job. I am looking forward to coming back to Norman and OU in January for another semester. I am so glad that God is at work and that he is in control of things. That is a hard concept for me. I cannot wait to see what 2009 is going to bring. It will definitely bring back the exclamation, "HOT DOG!!" I'm bringing that back. Get excited! It'll be awesome.