Yesterday I packed up the last of my dorm things and turned in my key leaving behind my freshman year of college. I have to admit, it was a rough start and it ended unexpectedly but overall it wasn't a bad year.
the chapel is so pretty
first day of college
walking to class
I'm pretty sure this is the only picture Emily and I have together! We took this on one of our late night snack runs
Although I had been looking forward to going to college it was still a hard adjustment. The year started off pretty rough and I was ready to transfer schools at semester. I started the year in an organization where I was living in an apartment style dorm with six other girls and to be honest, I absolutely hated it for numerous reasons. By the third week of school I was packing up all my things to move to the other side of my building where I would move in with a girl I didn't know. Little did I know that by doing this there would be lots of rumors spread around about why I left the organization. For the first two weeks my new roommate and I didn't say a single word to each other and I thought I was going to have another dreadful roommate experience. We found something to bond over one day which broke the ice and now we're the best of friends. Emily, my roommate, is the sweetest funniest person I know and I truly think it was God working through the whole rooming situation. Life tip: don't judge someone by the things they post on their Instagram feed, it's just a highlight reel. Before I moved in with Emily I followed her on insta and I thought she was going to be stuck up because her Instagram is very put together and perfect which is part of the reason we didn't talk in the beginning and now I wish we would've so we could have become friends that much sooner.
this is my small group at the college group Christmas party
I definitely felt that college was my time to come out of my shell and try some new things. At the beginning of the year I was offered an internship at a church by a family friend. They were hiring me to come in and lead small group for a group of middle school and high school girls. Sure, I had done that for years at my home church but those were girls I went to school with or knew for various different reasons, at this church I knew no one and was expected to come in and lead. If you know me that is not like me at all. I love working with kids and I knew this would be another opportunity to gain experience so I took the internship. I was so used to how things were run at my home church so this new one took some adjustment but ultimately I ended up enjoying working there. With my internship came joining the church's college group. I'm not an extrovert so I was nervous to go to the first event and meet everyone but I went and it was amazing, the group as a whole has so many wonderful people and I love meeting up with them a few nights each week.
bid day!
I knew before I even got accepted to DBU I wanted to rush if I went to school there. I liked that Greek Life at DBU is service based and not at all like a national sorority. If you know me you know talking to people is not my strength so everyone was shocked when I told them I was going to rush. Rush week was not bad at all! I had so much fun talking to everyone in the different sororities and going to the events. By the second day I was torn between three of the six sororities! I have upperclassman friends in two of those sororities who had given me a feel for what their sorority was like and the third one just felt like home once I got there to talk to everyone (which is the one I ultimately went with). Each of the three were very different and appealed to a different part of my personality. I had such a hard time picking which one to put as my top choice on my bid card because each of them said they would give me a bid so basically it was up to me to decide where I wanted to be. I actually changed my top choice minutes before submitting my bid card which I still think is crazy, I am not one for last minute change of plans. I ended up getting my top choice and I was ecstatic! I had so much fun getting to know all of my new sorority sisters better during our bid day event and I couldn't wait to see what the rest of the year had in store. Once I got to the first meeting I had a bad feeling, I just didn't want to be there. It had nothing to do with any of the girls and honestly I'm not entirely sure why I felt that way. Once the meeting was over I was beyond anxious and ended up sitting in my car balling my eyes out on the phone with my mom. I wasn't happy there nor was I looking forward to the rest of the year. Like I said, I still couldn't really tell you why I felt this way. I thought maybe the next day I would feel differently so I waited before dropping out of my sorority. This was constantly on my mind for the next week and one day I couldn't focus on my homework so I went to a quite place on campus and just prayed about it. Obviously God was saying it wasn't the place for me, even though I so badly wanted it to be so I dropped out that afternoon. I let it bother me for a whole week before dropping out because I thought I would get FOMO or I would regret my decision but the Lord brought me peace about my decision and I haven't thought twice about it.
Jeanna and I at family reveal
our family reveal was jungle themed and we had the cutest shirts!
my family group- love them so much!
I was sad I was no longer apart of an organization on campus so when a new women's ministry was started at the beginning of second semester I thought I would give it a try. The group is called AO and is similar to a sorority at DBU except there isn't a rush/application process and it's more focused on bible study. The president of the group was a friend of a friend and one day she reached out to me over Snapchat asking me to come to their first meeting. I was nervous so I brought my friend Jeanna with me and we had the best time! Our group is small now because it's our first year but I love all the girls and I can't wait to see what next year holds for us! We had a family reveal once the organization was really established and it's similar to big/little reveal in a sorority only your "family" is your small group who you meet up with for bible study. I love AO so much and I am so happy I was able to find my place on campus.
disposable cameras are our new favorite thing!
for our November best friend date we went to the Twenty One Pilots concert
we got bored one night and turned my living room into a vsco hangout and watched movies all night
It was a huge adjustment being two and a half hours away from McCray, we practically lived together throughout high school because we were always together. Thankfully McCray was willing to make the drive home pretty much every other weekend so she could see me and her parents. We planned monthly best friend dates as we called them to make sure she came home at least once a month and we always did something fun on those dates. I had planned on visiting her on campus but it never happened so that is something fun we have to look forward to next year.
Jeanna and I at the Halloween party
Our birthdays are a day apart so we celebrated our birthday with a fun dinner
our trip to Waco
we went to the cutest Christmas pop up coffee shop on Ross Ave.
DBU Christmas tree lighting
This year I met my sweet friend Jeanna. We have so much fun doing literally everything together. She is also an intern at church with me, a member of AO, and she was one of my roommates at the beginning of the year so we spend a lot of our time together. This year we did some fun things like take a day trip to Waco, spend a few weekends at her lake house, went to all of DBU's events together, tried out lots of fun coffee shops, and explored new places in Dallas together.
I had to wear all this crazy stuff for my sleep study!
I feel like this year we were able to take a step forward with getting my health in the right place. It's not something I talk about much on here but if you're new basically I had unexplained leg pain and have gone to numerous doctors over the past six year to try and figure out what's wrong and have had no luck. In September I started seeing a new pain management doctor who diagnosed me with Ehler Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and recommended I also go see a cardiologist. The cardiologist then diagnosed me with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). I am not going to go into detail about what all of that means in this post but its nice to put a name to a face. The doctors have been able to now put me on medicine that keeps my energy up and pain levels down which has been so nice.
I lived on the first floor so the easiest way to move everything out of my room during move out day was through the window
What a crazy year of new beginnings it was! I'm so happy I decided to stay at DBU all year instead of transferring and I can't wait to be back next fall.
Shilo
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