Westward Bound!

            So, the post I promised: sorry, that didn’t happen. But, today you get a nice long one since I am on the Megabus westward bound for another three and a half hours. It was an early morning—5:15 alarm—for the 7am bus, but, totally worth it! I am so excited to be going home for spring break, as I haven’t seen the family for two months, almost to the day! Way too long. It’s always said that “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” and that is so true. My family is amazing, and I could not ask for anyone better. When choosing Pitt, I underestimated the distance between Michigan and Pennsylvania, but I’m making it work. There’s always a reason for what happens in life, so I’m just looking at it that way.

            I think I may have found that reason, which makes it even better! Throughout these past six months, I have been blessed with the community of the Newman Center at Pitt, who have really become family in the Steel City. They are some of the best friends I could ever ask for; we even call each other family. Each Monday for lunch, and Tuesday and Thursday for dinner, we have “family dinners” at Market Central, where about ten of us gather to eat together. We scout out a large enough table, say a blessing, and scatter around to find food. It is something I always look forward to, and I am sad when I have to miss it.

            In addition to family dinners, I am involved in many other ways: discipleship, bible study, Friday night Dollar Dinners, and Catholic Action. Dollar Dinners are pretty self-explanatory: I pay a dollar, and I get pasta, salad, and bread in return. It happens weekly after the 5:15 Mass, and on the first Friday of each month, there is “First Friday Feast” that features a bounty of deliciousness in a form other than pasta. Catholic Action happens post-6pm Mass on Sundays, and is a discussion about how the Church’s teaching applies to our daily lives. This past week we had a speaker about our conscience, and it was a really good topic. The Church calls us to always abide by our conscience, even when it may be very difficult. However, a little bit of suffering on earth is worth the glory of eternity in Heaven. It is like training for a race; a few hard miles may seem terrible while you do them, but the race will inevitably be easier because of your training.

            Bible study and discipleship are two of my favorite parts of the week. Bible study is with about a dozen other Tower B girls, and we are currently focusing on 1 Corinthians. Catholics tend to not study the bible like the Protestants, but in reality, that is where a lot of the Church teaching stems from. 1 Corinthians has a lot of good background on some of our moral laws, if you are interested. I enjoy bible study because the questions really challenge me to think beyond the face value of each passage.

            Discipleship stems from bible study. Each study leader selects two participants in her study (or others she knows) to “disciple,” or mentor, each spring; I am Erika’s disciple and a future student leaer. Throughout the spring I will participate in a variety of FOCUS workshops with other disciples, as well as weekly one-on-one sessions with Erika to grow both in my relationship with Erika and with God, most especially the latter. Erika’s role is to keep me accountable for working to improve my relationship with God and, as I mentioned earlier, be a mentor for me. In the fall, I will begin leading my own bible study with new freshmen students. That will be the most exciting part! I also am hoping to lead one at St. Joseph this summer in the Creek for college students that are home. One of FOCUS’s goals for student leaders is to prepare us to not only share our faith on college campuses, but to equip us with the skills and confidence to spread God’s message to all those we encounter.

            Along the same lines as a student leader, FOCUS, as I have mentioned before, has awesome missionaries that serve students on about sixty campuses across the country. The role of these recently graduated missionaries is to help college students grow in their faith at this critical point in their lives. They do so by living as Christian examples practicing virtues and seeking a greater holiness in their lives. Each missionary takes on a two-year commitment (although many stay on for three or four years) at a campus around the country, where they help people like me. The missionaries fundraise their own salary, which takes a lot of faith in God by itself, and truly devote themselves to enriching the lives of young adults. Some are single, some are married, and some even have families while doing this—Brett and Natasha’s two little girls are adorable!! I am thinking that I might want to be a missionary someday—It would be such a great opportunity to serve God and college students. Two Pitt seniors have signed on for that mission, so keep them in your prayers! We will see what God has in store for me in a couple of years.

            Transitioning into another topic, this week is spring break! Italics probably weren’t necessary, but I am so happy right now, that I decided to use them anyway. There are so many things I want to do while I am home that I don’t quite know how I am going to fit everything in. I have about 36 hours with Valerie tonight and tomorrow before she leaves for her alternative spring break (ASB) trip in Kentucky, and then I will see Caroline tomorrow night and Sunday after she returns from ASB in Baltimore. (All five of us might be home together for maybe a couple hours.) I considered doing an ASB trip, but decided that this week was probably my only opportunity to come home during the semester. I will probably get to see them both again next weekend—Caroline on Friday when Molly and I head over to Ann Arbor, and Valerie on Saturday, when I become a Spartan for the day. Yes, I am becoming a Spartan for about eight hours—Valerie’s running club needs an extra girl for their relays against University of Michigan, so she picked me up a uniform and I am going green for the day. (Sorry, Caroline! This does NOT mean I love her more! It just means that I’ll do what I can to help a girl out J ) Besides, I like running, and this will be fun!

            Mom, Dad, and I are traveling up north this week for a few days to hang out. We hope to ski, but seeing as the temps are supposed to be in the low 40s, I am not sure how that will work out. If nothing else, we’ll get a great view of Lake Michigan and some necessary R&R time. What else do I want to do on spring break? What don’t I want to do is probably a better question, but we’ll attack the former.

·      Bake, cook, and be merry—I hate not being able to cook at school! I miss the sense of accomplishment and the creativity of it. There just isn’t quite the same effect when I watch them douse my stir fry in soy sauce on an industrial size griddle.

·      Knit and craft—I finished my first skein of yarn minutes ago, and am ready to incorporate #2 onto the needles. I was hoping for internet connection on the bus to watch a YouTube video, but no such luck. (How am I writing this? Word document to be later copied to my blog) Maybe I will be inspired to do some Pinterest crafts as well.

·      Kick back on the sofa—I’ve watched a few movies over the past two months and viewed a few episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” online, but nothing beats cuddling on the couch with a homemade blanket and a fire. I have my homemade blanket with me in Pittsburgh (and brought it home—I feel a bit like Linus), so that does make it better, but not perfect. After all, there are no kitties sitting on my bed in the tower.

·      Play the piano!—I brought my favorite Mozart book back to campus with me, but always forgot to take it with me to the Newman Center where there is a piano I can play. I almost forgot to bring it home, but then I received a lovely text from Mom late last night reminding me. So glad our telepathy is working!

·      Work on scholarships and get ahead in microbiology—Yes, unfortunately I will need to do a bit of work this week, but hopefully by doing so, I will take some of the stress out of the weeks when I return. I have found that working a little bit at a time is WAY better than trying to cram. For example, this week I had three exams, two quizzes, and a lab report due (hence the no blogging), but I got a solid eight hours of sleep every night because I was able to study over the weekend for the exams. Oh, the benefits of good time management!

So you’ve probably had enough of me ranting about my life, and I will let you get back to yours now, but I just wanted to update you on the happenings of this Pittsburgher. I will try to post throughout the week with pictures and snippets from the break! Hope your weekend is as great as I know mine will be!