Life at Masters College was much more different than anything I'd ever experienced, but I was able to survive it. It had it's good times and it's hard times. I made a lot of cool friends, and I was able to get involved in churches, organizations, clubs, and cliques, and it was amazing to be able to be in absolute control of what I did and when I did it. It took me a few weeks to learn how to keep my room clean, and a few more weeks to learn how long to leave the laundry before it needed to be cleaned again, but I learned that too. Life at Masters ended up being amazing, even though it was hard leaving everyone to go to Masters.

My room at Masters! And an introduction to my fiction writing hobby


The first semester at Masters, i began to make friends and start into school. I was taking a fair load, mostly sciences. I also was really excited, because I felt that on my own, I could get a fresh start and get involved in churches and do some stuff, to put it in so many words. So, I signed up for teacher (aiding) at a kids Sunday school class at the nearby baptist church, and I started working with a teen youth group in inner LA, and I joined a high school choir (helping the tenors) and started volunteering with a evangelist club on campus that would get together and go to the mall in the week and spread the good news. Between school and youth group and Sunday school and witnessing, I was a little cramped for time, but this semester was the time for me to learn how to buckle down and focus.

Organic Chemistry and Human Physiology were two classes that I knew I could handle going into the semester, and I regretted them later. I was definitely biting more than I could chew, but it wasn't until the second semester that I started to find out that all my classmates in Ochem that were succeeding were not taking any other upper class courses at the time, and all my classmates in Human Physiology weren't either. That would explain why I didn't get the most stellar grades - I was taking all the hardest classes together. It didn't help that because the college didn't accept Ochem from my junior college (even though all the CSU's and UC universities did), that I had to wait two years between Chemistry and Organic Chemistry (wince)... catching up wasn't my best performance.

Because I got a C in Organic Chemistry, my parents and I decided that I wasn't going to help out in the witnessing team, or in the Sunday school or in the choir or the youth group the next semester, but was going to buckle down and focus some more. Which was smart, cause next semester I had Ochem 2, Human Physiology 2 AND physics... if I thought two upper class courses were tough, wait till I had THREE! O boy, it was intense. I never studied more in my life! Every class I'd run back to my room to review for an hour and a half, and then run to the next class. I was pulling overnighters to review when I didn't even have a test to study for! Just cause I couldn't get the material (Just so you know, that's pretty dedicated for me)! But to no avail. This semester completely drained me, and the Sunday school and youth groups that I thought were distractions from school, I began to miss as my stress relievers, as school dried me out, and I began living from class to class, pretty much living for the opportunity to go to sleep five nights or so a week. It was enough to drive me nuts, but as long as I could keep a smile on my face for extended amounts of time, I figured I could do pretty well. There were those times, though, when I got bad tests back, or when i pulled an overnighter again for a test and knew I wasn't gonna remember the material on the ream of flashcards that i had run through over and over again, those times when it was hard to keep that smile on my face for extended amounts of times, but my wonderful Hotchkiss support group, our small group, kept me in the word and kept my spirits up. I don't know what I would have done without them!

As the finals are drawing to a close, and my projects are all in, and I am starting to pack for summer, I know I didn't do well this semester. I don't know if I did better now than last semester, but I do know one thing. Last semester, I didn't know if I could have worked any harder, and I knew if I could have done more, than I had wasted an opportunity to shine. But this semester, I went into with the knowledge that my career depended on these grades. And, though my grades have caused me no small pain, I can say with all honesty that I did put my all into it this semester. I seldom went to a party or a game last semester, but I gave absolutely everything up and put every ounce of energy I had this semester into Ochem, Physics, and Physio, and the rest of my classes this semester, and as poor as the results are, I know that they are a product of my very best work. Despite the overachieving course planning on my part, and the distractions that college life provides, I know and am confident that wherever God leads, I will follow, and I will not waste opportunities, because I will put my full effort into whatever he requires, and will trust him for the rest.

Next semester will be a little different. My course load will be about the same, with a biochem, a course well known as the most difficult at the university, and a full complement of Theology, Bible Survey, Philosophy, Bio Seminar, and more, but I will be off campus, which will raise commute time, and unfortunately, I will have to workstudy part time to afford the college... Yeah, those academic scholarship things only last as long as you are an academic scholar, funny things those. So, part time job, plus same study load... God will teach me many things this next semester! I certainly will try to be ready! I deeply appreciate prayers at this time in my life, I certainly wasn't expecting God to be opening and closing doors so early in my career, but as scary as it is, it can also be exciting. Planning your own life over and over again does end up getting boring, and I'm ready for God to show me his plan for my future, instead of letting me stare at my own plan week after week.

For the summer, I'm in Africa! I'm gonna be writing on this blog - check it out!
http://www.our-missionfield.blogspot.com/