I know the sun will rise!

I realize it's been a while since I last posted an update about my life. A lot has happened, so I will be brief about each. Spring semester at UW-Madison is well underway; at the end of the month, I have 4 midterms in 4 days. That being said, however, I'm managing to stay afloat much better this semester. Classes are difficult, but my base level of happiness and peace is leaps ahead of where it was in the fall. Winter is dragging on and on, although the high of 40 today brings much needed relief from the cold!

This morning, I bought my subscription to Coaching Actuaries, a website designed to give us actuaries the best chance of passing the actuarial exams. I used their services for Exam P and was very pleased with the result, so I've decided to use it again for Exam MLC, which is now 69 days away! I'm a little nervous, but I'm also hoping that I will be studying little by little to avoid the awful stress when my countdown reaches single digits.

This Thursday marks the 4 year anniversary of Natalie Bolin's death. Natalie was a swimming teammate of mine in high school, who died in a car accident involving 3 other swimming teammates. It's an emotional time, although also an inspiring one. Natalie's motto was I know the sun will rise. I've been striving to apply that mindset to my daily life. Natalie's birthday was also in February, on the 27th. This would have been her 21st birthday, so my home swim team hosts a memorial swim in which swimmers complete 21 repetitions of some distance. I didn't go to the event this year, although yesterday I swam 21x100's on my own. It was a tough workout, considering I have not been staying in shape as much as I'd like to, but I finished it! It was thrilling to finish in honor of Natalie.

Finally, my other big news is that I'm planning to study abroad next fall! I have almost completed my application, and will be submitting it shortly. My finalized list (at least for now) of top choices is:

1. Oslo, Norway
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Copenhagen, Denmark

To say that I'm excited would be to understate my enthusiasm. Not many of my close friends at school know about it yet, because I wanted to wait until it was finalized. Regardless, the friends that do know about it are excited with me!

I should probably be getting back to studying, so goodbye for now! Prayers for God's will in my adventures next fall, as well as all those who are affected by/remembering Natalie this week would be greatly appreciated! May the sun keep shining down on all of you. :)

-T