Beginning Blog

So, school started on Monday and I'm already 3 days in... going on 4 around noon. I have 4 classes and a 5th class that begins on September 24. I enjoy having time to myself at home. I don't have classes on Fridays and I think that's amazing.

I have had alot of thinking to do lately dealing with many aspects of my life. Everything has changed for me and it's amazing how quickly everything can change going into college. I've really begun to think about my future and what I want to do and when I want to be where I want to be at that time. I want to be an animator for Pixar. I want to start having children at the age of 28. I want to have 6 children... all of them being boys. I want to have each of them 2 years apart. I want to be able to own at least 2 houses... maybe 3. I want to have one where I work, one in Montana for vacation, and one in Germany because I plan to go there fairly often because alot of my very close and important friends plan on moving there. I want to live one day less than my husband.
But after all of these wants... I realize that half of, if not most of, these things will not happen. It's crazy that people say they have everything planned out and then one little thing throws everything off and they have to replan every little detail they had already had in line. It's stomach churning to think that such a small thing could completely throw your entire life out of whack.

Despite all of the thinking I've been doing lately, I've also had alot of fun this summer. I got out early because I was a senior and was graduating. I began in July when I went to Business Week at Presbyterian College for 5 days.
This was my second year at Business Week. It's an amazing experience. Last year I was the shyest, quiestest person you could ever meet. I was so apart from everyone else except one man, who I name as Matthew. Never did I know that Matthew would be the start of my life. All he had to do was just sit with me a lunch. He just sat there when no one else had sat with me at all. He said 'Hello, I'm Matthew' and it changed me. I was immediatley changed for the rest of my life. He was the beginning of my openness. After the week was over, I was so sad that I would just go back to being the person I had always been. But when I got back to school, my eyes were changed. I talked to people so much more than I had. I was a new person. This past summer though, I was even better. I came back and surprised everyone else that I had known the previous year. I saw Matthew and was so excited. We weren't able to talk as much as I had hoped at the beginning of the week. I was so anxious to tell him about my previous Senior year. I finally was able to tell him closer to the end of the week about everything that had happened. I was able to thank him for being the key to my life God wanted me to lead.
After I got home from Business Week, I went to Ohio with my family, including my Uncle Ken who lost him mother - my Gamma - and his wife - my Aunt Margaret - in the last 6 months. We had alot of fun with my Gramma and Gampa Jones. If any of you are ever up in Ohio, you need to let me know because New Riegel is the place to be baby! We fished and we went to the Amish country and had alot of fun! I took alot of pictures.
When I got back from Ohio, I went camping with 3 of the most amazing guys I've ever come to meet!
David, Hunter, Justin, and I went to a camping site on Mt. Pisgah. It was quite the experience to share with those 3. When we left, we stopped at a Krispy Kreme and had fun there eating a dozen doughtnuts. It was the first doughnut I've eaten in almost 2 years. We also stopped by the North Carolina Arbortreum. We went to the Bonzai Garden, which was amazing. Hunter loved going to that. We had fun making different silly poses by different backgrounds. When we got there, we set up our tent. We then went to Black Balsam. It was a wonderous hike to the top of a mountain where we just stood in amazement and awe. The cool breeze blew around our hair and blew our minds. We took pictures to our hearts desire. We sat around and talked and laughed and had our fun. Then we continued back down the trail. We stopped a few times more on the way down. When we got back to the campsite, we made our dinner and went on to the tent to play cards. We played for an hour or so.
The next day we went to Brevard College to see if we could see some white squirrels. We unfortunately did not see any. Then we went to the Mt. Pisgah Ranger Station. We just wanted to go on a trail that they had there. It had a suspension bridge there. Then we went on to Looking Glass Falls. We stayed there around an hour. It was amazing. We took a ton of pictures of the wonderous water flowing like it had no end. There were some swimmers. We didn't swim there though. Justin is very artistic with his photography and tried to get many different shots from different angles. Then we drove on to Moore's Cove. We had alot of fun on this trail. There was a huge tree that had fallen down and David and Hunter ran up the trunk. Justin and I took pictures. As we traveled along the trail, there was a huge rock and we climbed up on top and took turns taking pictures. When I wasn't up there and the guys were up there, one of them screamed as if falling off. When they did this there was a family walking through and they all fell to the ground. It was quite hilarious, but I was sort of angry. I called them idiots and said they were just mean and apologized to the family. We then go to the trickle of a waterfall. It was majestic feeling there though. We each took turns walking under the water. It was freezing, but it felt good. The guys climbed up to on top of the fall, where they shouldn't have been, and I took pictures. We hung around there for a while. Then we went on back and then stopped at Pink Beds for lunch. We had some wonderful sandwiches that were provided by Justin. We just talked about all sorts of weird stuff that best friends talk about. Afterwards, we visited The Devil's Courthouse. It was a torturous hike, but we made it. We had to stop a few times on the way. When we got to the top, we took some pictures and gazed around the entire horizon. We then enjoyed the great trip back down. After that, we went to Graveyard Fields. We walked the entire route and picked blueberries as we went along. Hunter ate all of them though. He eats just about everything. We got to the waterfall at the end and rested and took pictures. It began to rain on our way back, but when we got to the car, it didn't rain anymore. We went back to the campsite and made dinner and s'mores. Then we got back in the tent and played more cards and we began to get very loud and the 'neighbors' yelled at us to be quiet. After they yelled at us, we got quiet and went straight to bed. I didn't sleep much of the night. I stayed awake and just thought alot about everything. I talked to Justin and Hunter and David as they periodically came to and fell back asleep. One thing the 4 of us will always remember is that it was cold as Hell there.
The next day, we woke up to some Oatmeal Cookies and a postcard on our table where the 'neighbors' apologized for yelling at us. That was our entertainment of the morning. We packed everything and got ready to leave. When we left, we went to Turtleback Falls for some good ol' fashioned sliding off a rock into freezing cold water. We had on our bathing suits and took turns taking pictures an sliding off the rock. Then we trekked down to Rainbow Falls and continued on our photography spree. David and I relaxed on a rock while Hunter and Justin explored. After that, we went on to Whitewater Falls which is the largest waterfall in the SouthEast. We ate lunch at a table outside the trail and then went on up there and took our pictures and fooled around a bit. After this, it was time to get on the road back home. We enjoyed the hour long drive through Keowee, Clemson, and Easley. We finally got home close to 8. We unloaded our things and went home to all take a shower.
That was pretty much my summer.

I have now had 2 of these friends move away with many others along the way. Hunter's going away dinner was last night and I miss him so already. He's going to Massachusetts. David has already moved in at North Greenville. Jonny has moved to Coastal Carolina. I'm starting to feel that lonliness of your friends moving away. I'm not enjoying that in the least.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. I know that this was long, but maybe you lived through it!

KNZ