guest friday- all the way from South Carolina!

Hello all! It’s me, M. You know, my mom’s daughter who went off to college and has been buried ever since under a pile of homework?

updated to add new information below:

that is a slight exaggeration, although it feels true sometimes. Life has certainly been busy since I arrived here at Bob Jones University, located in Greenville, SC, and home to about 5,000 students.

As a freshman nursing major, I am taking a variety of classes: chemistry, biology, orientation, English, math, and Old Testament Messages. I am enjoying my science classes a lot; I really enjoy learning all the details of God’s creation, and how and why it all works. Right now in biology we are learning about genetics and inheritance. Chemistry isn’t quite as interesting at the moment; we’re working on reaction equilibriums. Another thing that makes chemistry less than enjoyable is the impending lab final, where we have to memorize all the procedures and equations for the entire lab, which will take about 2-3 hours to perform. Of all my classes, I dislike English the most. However, I am enjoying all the wonderful chapel speakers. I also like the fact that each class starts with a prayer. it reminds me of what’s really important.

My days generally go something like this- wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, go to classes, work (3 days a week),chapel, lunch, classes, dinner, homework, sleep. On the days that I don’t work, I either have classes or do homework during that time.

My roommates are great. We all get along and actually enjoy being around each other. We have fun, motivate each other, and provide excellent pieces of advice, along with a sympathetic ear and shoulder to cry on.

that was just a quick overview of all that goes on here. We’re all also in a society (there are 45 different ones). At a minimum, we go to our society meeting every Friday, and society Sunday school. Society also offers the chance to become involved in sports, prayer meeting, and extension ministries. Although I would love to play basketball for my society, I decided that it would just be too much this year.

There are couple of big events coming up right now. Besides the fact that these next few days will be pretty busy for me (multiple quizzes and three tests) we also had Artist Series Tuesday night (a required event) and the Turkey Bowl on Saturday. Artist Series occurs every semester, and is an activity designed to expose us to culture in order to help us appreciate it. This time it will be a production of “The Pirates of Penzance”. I am very excited about going. I’ll be attending with two of my friends. From what I’ve heard, it should be really good. Plus I’ll get the opportunity to hear the famous “I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General” in context, and if nothing else I will enjoy getting all dressed up, since this is a formal event.

Then there is the Turkey Bowl on Saturday, which is the championship game for the guys' society soccer. I am told that it is the Super Bowl down here- the stadium will be packed with people from the school and the surrounding area, and the excitement level will be high. What I’m really excited about is halftime. This year they are doing an Olympic theme for halftime, and I qualified for the women’s 100meter dash, and the team I am a part of qualified for the women’s 4x200meter relay. It will be a nice break from all the studying. It’s getting really hard to study anymore- my body and mind miss physical activity.

we just received a rather excited and breathless call from M- she was so excited to tell us that she placed first in the 100meter dash, and her relay team placed third in the 200meter relay. there was an award ceremony at halftime, and she received a gold medal, as well as a bronze! she will also be featured in the campus newspaper, sometime next week. she called to talk to us as she was walking back to her dorm- she has a lot of studying to do, and wanted to get started right after she took a shower! what a girl!

The biggest event on campus is a countdown: The countdown of how many days left until Thanksgiving break. This much anticipated event is the cause for great rejoicing as it draws nearer. 4 days to go……………