College Memories!

So here I am, a college graduate. Sophomore and junior years, I thought for sure I would never make it! I repeatedly wanted to take a semester off, but somehow I kept pushing through and MAN am I thankful!

I want to take a few moments to reflect back on each year of college. I'll try to sum each year up in a few words.

Year #1 Freshman at Wheaton College.
Missed high school and family. Loved college! Modeling= Insecurity. Dorm life (floor: 3East the Beast)! Kevin Ryan+phone+long distance=first true love. Swing dancing. HIGH ROAD! (14 day hardcore camping trip. three days of fasting= closest I've ever been to God or others). Set goals. Loved life. Naive. Babysitting. Phonathon (<--sp?) A's. Sociology Major.

Year #2 Sophomore at Wheaton College.
Tea parties. Aubrey was my roomie! Back on 3E. Phonathon. Steel Magnolia's (I was Anelle). Kevin Ryan+more in love. Lots of trips to QC. Difficult British Lit. Amazing Bible classes. Questioning what to do with my life. Parents struggling. Swing dancing. Tennis! Running! my own car! Walks with Rainey. Rejected to be RA...summer in the QC. Costa Rica missions. Nanny. God is faithful! ElementaryEducation/English major.

Year #3 Junior at Wheaton College/St. Ambrose University:
Ice skating+downtown Chicago+Kevin Ryan=Engaged! Parties! Terrace Apartment+Kristen+Amanda+Aubrey! Excitement. Love. Confusion. Transfer. Move to QC. Senior trip to Destin! Pictures on the beach (haha). First half marathon in St. Louis! Craziness at home. Planning wedding. Living with Ethel from church (lol). Sweet tea entered my life. Got my own apartment. Lived alone for 1st time ever! Parents divorced. Became an English major. Missed my friends. Best summer ever. Nanny. Got married and LOVED IT! Honeymoon to Domincan Republic. KYC: Led a very successful small group and loved it!

Year #4 Senior at St. Ambrose University:
Won Vacation with Kev to Wisconsin. Worked full time at Channel 6 as Account Executive! Became a theology Major. Fell more in love with God and Kevin. Jack Canfield inspired me to dream big. First Christmas tree! Worked as Kevin's assistant. Overwhelming school. Led small group for girls seeking their Identity in Christ. Ran second half marathon. Completed thesis paper on "Christian Marriage." Started Crossfit! Misses living close to her family and friends. Loves kevin more than ever, has more direction and faith than ever before. Aspiring author. Graduated from Ambrose!

SO here I am on my last day off work before I start grown up life! Tomorrow I will become a College Intern Recruiter for Northwestern Mutual in Davenport, IA. I'm pretty excited to see how I can help my husband's Agency get even stronger reps. It's going to be a great adventure. God really provided this job for me, and we are so excited to see what he is going to do in our family and in our lives...

I see my mornings/nights filled with writing and brainstorming. Tennis and running. Passion and perseverence. I see my days filled with dress pants and meetings...hard work and successful progress! My 20s will be filled with living life to the fullest, if nothing else...

Thanks to everyone who supported and encouraged me to get through a long crazy 4 years of college...and the 13 years of school before that! If you are feeling overwhelmed with school, please be encouraged! It goes faster than you think it will and when you look back, you have some amazing memories with friends and family that you would have missed out on if you didn't go through it! Success doesn't come without hard work, and it definitely took me a long time to realize that I'm capable of achieving a lot. I just have to make it happen!

Woods: On our very first day at Harvard, a very wise Professor quoted Aristotle: "The law is reason free from passion." Well, no offense to Aristotle, but in my three years at Harvard I have come to find that passion is a key ingredient to the study and practice of law -- and of life. It is with passion, courage of conviction, and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world, remembering that first impressions are not always correct. You must always have faith in people. And most importantly, you must always have faith in yourself.

	So in the words of Elle Woods, Congratulations class of 2009 -- we did it!

Audio mp3 delivered by Reese Witherspoon

What are you looking forward to the most?!

Okay besides Jesus coming back/Heaven, there are a few things that make my top 5 list of THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOST IN LIFE! hmm, the pictures do not give anything away. don't be fooled! haha.

Here it goes from the things I'm least-most excited about to the most-most excited ;):

1. I can't wait to see who all 3 of my siblings end up marrying! My two sisters and one lil bro are a few of my very favorite people, and I can't wait to see the wonderful people that marry them!

2. I can't wait until I accomplish all the things on my 100 things before I die list. (it's an earlier blog entry if you want to see)

3. I am SO looking forward to growing old on one pillow with my husband. He will be a handsome old man. :) (We talked in my marriage class today about how our culture views sex as a thing only for youth, but older married couples are often the ones who get to enjoy it the most because of their deep intimate love on so many levels for one another...I think our culture way underappreciates the elderly and the wisdom they have about life.)

4. WHOA, 25 days until I am offically a college graduate. Need I say more?

5. Finally, and the thing I have wanted since I was 7 years old, is BABIES. And this, my friends, is the reason this blog is being written. I called my dad today to tell him of the AMAZING thing that just happened (which is that Kevin's mom's friend wants to buy 500 coupon books, so we have 5,000 dollars toward our MISSION TRIP!!! It's paid for, and probably part of our Africa mission trip too...Praise JESUS!) and I said, "Dad, I have amazing news! Guess what it is?!" And he said, "I don't know, you had 12 people at your yoga class?" and i laughed and said, "way better...." at which point I told him my story. But, when I got off the phone, I thought about how AWESOME it would have felt to tell him that the good news was that he was going to be a grandpa. We want to wait a couple more years, and even though I'm in full support of that, the anticipation is totally eating me away! This is definitely as bad as I couldn't wait to get married, but I know waiting is the smart thing. Financially, emotionally, and domestically we will be much 'readier' in 2 years. I just lovve BABIES and cannot wait to see what our little ones will look like. We want twins ...and then more! I want to stay at home to raise them, and write books on the side. I also can't wait to become a published author...so these two combined make up my biggest GOALS in life! God, if you want to give us a surprise at any point...bring it on! ;)

What are your top 5?