Week one, done!

I am officially three days into my summer actuarial internship. I love the people at my job - they are all friendly, funny, and brilliant! It's still a bit overwhelming and I'm a little anxious to start working on my first project, but I know that God will be with me and help me through it!

All in all, however, this week has spoiled me! Tuesday my mom and I drove here, I moved into my hotel, and then I went to the Brewer game, where we got to sit in the Dew Deck! Wednesday was my first day of work, and it featured a LOT of introductions, meetings, and getting to know my way around the office. Like I said, everyone is super friendly and welcoming! They also took us out to lunch at Stir Crazy, which was delicious. After my first day of work, Alex and Colleen met me at my hotel and we went out to dinner to celebrate Alex's birthday. The food was not pleasing in the slightest, but afterward, we went to Kopp's for custard, which certainly made up for what the food lacked!

On Thursday I had a bit more open time but also more meetings and introductions. When we went down for lunch, a group of coworkers asked us if we wanted to play Telestrations with them. It was a ton of fun! Then, after work, I ventured to a nearby Walgreens and successfully purchased some cookies and Tupperware! Later in the evening I went to Alex's house for a bonfire and got to meet some of her friends.

Finally, that brings me to today. We were free all day today at work - which meant a lot of time to spend just looking through company files and excel sheets. It still went pretty quickly, though. And one of the other longer-term interns approached us around lunchtime and asked us if we wanted to join them for lunch. So we walked across the street to a local mall and ate in the food court.

Tonight has been relatively low-key. I found a grocery store nearby and bought a few more things. Then I ran and have just been taking it easy for the night! My roommate/the fourth intern comes tomorrow night, so I'm enjoying my last night of living by myself! :) It is a bit boring though. I might go to sleep soon just for lack of anything better to do.

Anyways, that's my life, at least recently. May God be with you!

Merry Christmas!

Well, wow. I've survived another semester at the University of Wisconsin. It's been quite a while since I've posted, but this just means I have lots to catch you up on!

After struggling with depression for the first couple months of this semester, I can joyously say that God has been helping me recover, slowly but surely. I have a few friends who have tirelessly been there for me throughout this entire process, and for them, I am eternally grateful. God graced me with extremely patient, kindhearted people to stay the course with me, and most importantly, to constantly lead me back to Him even as I continuously push Him away. With that, however, I have had some trouble separating my emotional stability from these friendships. One in particular, prayed with me countless times, and I found myself often turning to him even before I reached out to God. In the past couple of weeks, through little fault of his, he has been distanced a bit and we've been talking less and less. At first, this was excruciatingly difficult for me - an unanswered text left me in tears and feeling distraught. Little by little, however, I've been praying that God help me to rely only on Him for my joy. At this point, although I still find myself sometimes feeling like I need to talk to my friend, I have been much more content to let him be, focusing my attention on God instead. As my winter break continues on, I'm not sure if God is planning for our friendship to pick up again or fizzle out quietly, but I'm learning that as long as God is in charge, I will be ok with either outcome.

After over committing myself to Cru at the beginning of the semester, I took a gigantic step backward. What last year had been something I eagerly awaited to connect me to Jesus had become an obligation. By association, therefore, spending time with Jesus had become an obligation - something that I had to do, and therefore began to dread. In order to find my own personal passion for following Christ again, I stepped back and began a more personal journey with God. I still attended a Bible study each week, but stopped going to the large group meetings and decided to stop leading the freshman Bible study. Looking back, I'm glad this decision was made, and I'm looking forward to becoming more involved once again with Cru this coming semester. I plan to begin an in-depth study of Romans with my discipler and continue to grow closer with the wonderful group of ladies in my bible study. To begin this next step in my faith journey, I'm soon headed to TCX, a winter conference held by Cru in the twin cities. I'm both scared and excited - although I know several people in Cru, I don't know any of them well. I'm hoping that God provides people willing to room with me and take me in, so I can begin to develop closer friendships with my fellow Badger Cru members.

Because this is already turning into a long-winded post, I'll cut my other updates into shorter little tidbits:

• I have started swimming a bit again. The first half of this past semester I was attending Club Swimming practices fairly regularly, and hope to schedule them in more consistently for the coming semester. 
• I have officially accepted a summer actuarial internship position at a consulting firm near Milwaukee, WI. After a month or so filled with extensive interviews and even a few plane rides and fancy hotels, I am confident that my coming summer will be a wonderful opportunity to grow both professionally and personally.
• I finished the semester with a 4.0! My appeal to apply to the Business School, despite being over the credit limit, was granted, and I plan to apply this coming spring. 
• My roommate from first semester is studying abroad next semester, so I will be soon assigned my fourth random roommate - prayers that God helps me use this situation in whatever way He plans would be greatly appreciated! 
• As some of you may remember, I had some issues with my current group of friends at the beginning of the semester, many of which stemmed from my depression as their root cause. God has faithfully and gracefully worked to restore these friendships through honesty and forgiveness. Although there are still some moments that are tough, I'm so grateful that God has blessed me with these women in my life. 

That's all for now - I doubt that I will post again before leaving for TCX, so I wish you all a very happy new year! May God bless the end of 2013 and bring in a wonderful 2014!