Moving Forward

Crazy times!

It's been a while since I've posted and I'm sure those of you who know me are well aware of why. I have been insanely busy for the past 3 weeks. School has basically taken over my life, not to mention the things I've had to deal with outside of school. BUT I gave my senior project presentation last night and I'm done!! It went fairly well, but of course I'm always going to think I could have done better. I did the best I could and I don't care anymore because I'm done. I also had a major presentation this morning where my group and I were repsonsible for 35-45 minutes of class. This is a major protion of our grade in this class, but that went well too. So I'm not too worried about graduating at all. I'm very relieved and can't tell you how nice it is knowing that I only have one actual test for finals... and I don't even have to study for the test because i've done really well on the other two tests in that class. It's been the longest five years of my life, yet they've flown by... if that makes any sense. I'm actually not sure if I'm ready for the next part of my life, you know? I'm comfortable having every afternoon free to just sleep or run or fly kites :o). I have to start looking for a job... as in a real job. I could settle for Walgreens, but I promised myself better. Not to sound cocky, but I deserve better. I feel like I've paid my dues. We'll see though.
As per the things outside of school I've had to deal with... my brother isn't doing very well. He and his fiance just broke up which means he has to sell his brand new house and move back in with my parents. he can't pay the morgage on his own. I'm really sad for him. Don't get me wrong though... I'm glad this girl is out of his life because she was a money-hungry you-know-what and so selfish, but i want him to be happy. He's had it rough, only because that's the way he's chosen to live his life, but I don't believe he deserves to be in pain... who does? So my heart goes out to him. I've really wanted to be able to go home and be with him, but school hasn't allowed me to sleep let alone go to Arizona for the weekend. I also have a few friends dealing with rough spots in their lives and I'm trying to devote as much time and care as I can to them. It's hard. Time management is not my forte.
Then there's just stuff I've had to deal with personally. I recently chose to make myself vulnerable in a situation which isn't something I like to do (as I'm sure you know) and it was really hard to do. But things are working out well and life is moving on. I'm really glad to be moving forward, if you will. It's exciting.
Easter break was amazing though! I saw so many people I haven't seen in forever, which was awesome. Also, my sister agreed to come to church with me and she brought my niece, Kayla, who has never been in a church is her short, little life. And of course anytime I spend time with Kayla is great. She brings me more joy than I ever thought a niece could. Plus... she's hysterical. She definitely has my sister's attitude. (if you don't know what Liz is like, count yourself lucky *wink*) She's just very blunt, sometimes rude to people she doesn't know, and she definitely doesn't care what ANYONE thinks of her at all. She's funny though and I love her.
My parents and brother, Vinny will be out here in a week and I can't wait to see them. It's only been a month and a half since spring break, but having the whole family together is always a good time. My parents and Vincent haven't seen Kayla since Christmas, so it'll be fun!!
I haven't forgotten about the topic I said I would write on, but for now this is all you get. I'm going to go take a nap until graduation!

posted by Moving Forward @ 2:06 PM 2 Comments

So many things really...

Only 3.5 weeks until graduation! So much to do, so little time. I cannot wait to be done with school... but if you've read any of the past couple of entries you know that, so I'm gonna stop here. It's actually been a busy couple of weeks with lots of work, but I've been having fun. Two weekends ago I went home to my sister's and which is always a good time. It was really nice to just relax... usually when I go there I have a full schedule, but this time I only had two things set to do. My cousin's son had his 6th birthday party which made me feel really old! And I got to hang with Carley for a while. Good times.
this past week was crazy busy. I had stuff due every day, plus a fundraiser I was in charge of was on tuesday, then on thursday night Carley and Matt came to visit. It was so nice to have someone from home here... it's been forever since anyone has been able to make it down. They stayed until friday night. Friday afternoon an old friend, Tim came to visit. It was really cool to hang with him... he graduated from IWU in '04 and I hadn't seen him since then. We played guitar forever friday night and it was amazing because I never get to play with anyone who's decent enough for me to play around on my own. (maybe if Trent would actually practice *wink*). I always forget how nice it is to just sit and talk to someone you don't talk to much. Good convos are fun.
Anyway, last week I had to make a decision that affects my future (in a way) and that was hard for me, but it'll be good, I'm sure. It's so crazy to think that decisions I'm making now have the potential to affect the rest of my life. That's huge! Up until this point in my life I don't know that I've made any huge decisions that directly affect the way my life may go. Deciding on a college was a huge choice, I guess. And actually my choice of college has directly affected this other decision that I've made. Confused? Yeah, me too.
As a result of a recent conversation I've been thinking about how people sometimes change their life plans because of others and I've always been against stuff like that. I hate when people are set on doing something or going somewhere and then they change everything because of someone or something else. I think that we need to do what we want to do, when we want to do it and other people can wait. That is, until I decided to put something off that I had already had my mind set on. I can't credit this choice completely to one person because lots of stuff has changed since I set my mind on doing it, but I'm a little disappointed with my change of heart. I never understood how you could be so passionate about doing something and then just be willing to put it on the back-burner. I've thought about this a ton and as much as I hate when people do this, it's something I feel like I have to do. Sometimes new things present themselves and priorities change, and that's ok. Great justification, I know. Does this make sense at all? Probably not to most of you, but I'm kinda just rambling to ease my own mind and since this is MY blog I can do that. If you wanna know, just ask.
Anywho... is it possible to go through the motions and live your life in a Christ-like way without ever really doing God's will? My thoughts to come at a later date. Right now it's time for the Cub's season opener! GO CUBBIES!! (I realize that sounded horrible... in no way do I think the Cubs game is more important than this subject, but I want to have some time to think and I want whoever reads this to have some time to think as well.)
~Chris~

posted by Moving Forward @ 2:18 PM 0 Comments