One chapter. Nine commentaries. Eight pages. One night.

I had to write a Hermeneutics paper for my Biblical Interpretation class. It had to be at least eight pages long and include 5 sources. We had almost six weeks to work on it. I started at 4 pm, when it was due at 10:30 am the next morning.

“That’s ridiculous!” you might say, “Talk about procrastination!” But please, let me explain.

I work really hard, and I have a moderately heavy workload. Thus, I spend a lot of time on my homework. So I first work on whatever is most pressing, and then I take a few hours to sleep. Thus, I never really got to my paper because there was always something else to do. However, I am confident in my cramming and writing abilities. Plus, eight pages really isn’t that much.

The day before I had decided on what passage I was going to do, which was Philippians 4. Once I got to the library, I found a desk, and began looking for commentaries. My stack ended up looking like this:

There's a lot of words.

When I had to go to dinner, I hid them among other books. I know, I’m a terrible person, but I really needed those commentaries. Once I got back, I collected them all again and found a new desk to work at. And let me tell you, I dug into that passage. There was just so much to learn. It has a lot to say, and it’s very applicable to my life. I left the library shortly before it’s closing at midnight. I went back to my dorm and kept working. I kept writing until I was finished. It was a late night, but I’m pretty used to those.

I didn’t have my 8 am speech class the next morning, so I got up and read through my paper once to fix my errors. To be frank, I think I wrote a pretty great paper. I ended up using nine sources, having 46 footnotes, and it was eleven pages long. I was pretty satisfied.


POSTSCRIPT: I got my paper back the next week, a shining “99” at the top. Not a single correction on the paper. I’d say that was a job well done.

Downtown Disney.

Biola has been a ghost town these last few days. Very few people are back from Thanksgiving break. A few of my friends are back, though, and some of them never left. We were bored and wanted something to do, and we were aiming for it being Christmas related, so we decided to go to Downtown Disney. We walked around, went into random shops, enjoyed the Christmas tree and lights, my friends danced around like crazy people, and I shot a lot of pictures. Rather than words, I think I’ll just let a few of the pictures speak for themselves.

We were so excited to see the Christmas tree! (Charlie, Sarah, Katie, Tanner, me)

Sarah and Darth at the Lego store.

There's nothing more Disney than Mickey.

I loved the bokeh.

Sarah and Bumble at the Build-A-Bear store.

Charlie and I.

One last shot as we left.

A thankful heart is a happy heart.

For Thanksgiving, I wasn’t able to go home. Tickets home are really expensive, and it’s nearly impossible to find one without a layover. Thanksgiving break is rather short, so a lot of my time would have been spent traveling, so it just wasn’t worth it. My RA, Kristy, invited me to her house in Brea, so I went there for a few days.

We spent our time hanging out with her family, watching movies, and sleeping. It was a wonderful time of conversation and relaxation. I loved it. Plus, her family is absolutely fantastic, and they were really fun to be with. Her mom even asked to see my pictures from the UK, which I showed her gladly. I love when people ask me about the UK.

On Thanksgiving day, we did what we could to help around the house. They were going to have nearly 28 family members coming over that afternoon. Once they started arriving, I got to meet them, and they were all great people. Not to mention, they all brought some different food with them, so Thanksgiving dinner was more of a Thanksgiving feast. It was beautiful.

Shortly after dinner, everyone gathered in a circle in the living room. We all got a candle, and the first candle was lit, which was the one Kristy’s mom was holding. The lights were turned off, so there was just the light of that candle. Kristy’s mom talked about what she was thankful for, and then lit the candle of the person sitting next to her. This went around for the whole circle, and we all said what we were thankful for.

I talked about these things…

I am so thankful for God’s faithfulness. Moving 2000 miles to a place where I didn’t know anyone was scary, but He hasn’t wasted any time reminding me of His love for me or that He has a perfect plan. It’s hard leaving friends that you’ve had for literally 19 years, but I have already built amazing relationships at Biola. I am so thankful to have been able to spend Thanksgiving at Kristy’s house. It was hard being away from my family on a day like Thanksgiving, but everyone was so welcoming and loving. I am so blessed. God is so good.

That night, we went back to Biola, because one of Kristy’s cousins wanted to see her dorm. With the use of some blankets and sheets, a fort was built in the end lounge.

The FOLD fort.

You have to admit—it does look pretty epic. And dangerous. But that’s beside the point.

All in all, it was a very successful Thanksgiving.

Things I love about Biola || The Prayer Chapel.

Next to the library is the Rose of Sharon Prayer Chapel.

The brick is beautiful.

The chapel is open 24-hours, allowing for quiet time with God at any time.

Kids, don't try this at home.

This is not something that I would recommend.

Oh, Annie and Charlie.

Especially because Annie almost got stuck in that dryer. Yes, it’s true, my friends are crazy. But, in any case, I love them dearly.

GYRAD.

Biola has a traditional event called GYRAD—get your roommate a date. Each hall is in charge of planning their own GYRAD. They’re basically just big group events, and it’s all meant in good fun. Some halls go skating, mini golfing, or do other such activities. It’s doesn’t necessarily have to be your roommate that gets you a date, either—a friend of mine got one for me.

Our GYRAD was a murder mystery masquerade, which was held at a clubhouse in Brea. We had dinner and then did a murder mystery kit, where everyone was assigned a character. Probably my favorite part was just getting ready for the night. I had made masks with the girls across the hall from me, which was a lot of fun. I curled my friend Madeline’s hair, and I love doing people’s hair. So I really enjoyed that. Not to mention, I think it’s fun to get all dressed up.

"I love you!"

Madeline lives right across the hall from me, and she is wonderful. Her brother is Mackenzie (who I’ve previously mentioned), and he lives on our brother floor, coincidentally enough. Madeline, or Madz as I call her, is the first person that I met from my floor (besides my roommates), and we get along great. We’re incredibly different in a lot of ways, but somehow that brings us together. She’s one of my favorite people to share my stories with, and we laugh together all the time. I have been so very blessed to be her neighbor.

I love you, Madz.

The Freshmen Fifteen.

A number of my friends are on an intramural ultimate frisbee team. They are the Freshmen Fifteen. They have a game every Friday, and I almost always go watch. Sarah and I are their biggest fans.

I love this picture of Sarah.

For playoffs, I went to the grocery store and bought them grapes, bananas, and caprisuns for after the game. There’s nothing like having food after you’ve worked hard.

Sarah and I missed the first few minutes of the game, but we were fully engaged for the rest of it. I alternated between taking pictures and watching the game intently. This was my favorite action shot that I captured:

Kendall makes the throw!

Because I don’t really have class on Fridays, I loved going to their frisbee games. It became a part of my Friday routine. I would pick up my newspaper from the Journalism office, and then head to the field. If I was alone, I would often call my parents and chat while I watched or I’d skim the paper. As Sarah started coming to more of the games, we would always have fun conversations while we cheered on our friends.

Unfortunately, the season came to an end after that first playoff game. The Freshmen Fifteen played great, though, and—like their cheer says—they kept it classy. After they ate up the food that I had brought them, I organized them and shot a few pictures. This was one of my favorites:

Their team color was green, clearly.

Great job, Freshman Fifteen.
Thanks for all the fun that you brought.

Chocolate and hugs: a beautiful combination.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m a fan of chocolate.  And hugs, but we’ll get to that. This semester I’ve become rather attached to Dove chocolate. It’s just so wonderfully delicious. Plus, you get these encouraging little messages on the wrapper. What more could you want from chocolate? One of my favorites that I got a while back was, “Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted at all!” What a thought.

This here is my new favorite, however.

Brilliant.

A hug. That’s beautiful. As I mentioned, I really enjoy hugs. I realize that this isn’t a sentiment that everyone shares, but I just happen to find them incredibly comforting. A lot of times some of my friends don’t know what to do when I’m upset. Really, I don’t need them to do or fix anything. A hug would totally suffice. It’s kind of like saying, “Hey, I’m here for you.” And sometimes, that’s just the reminder that I need.

Sorry California, this isn't fall.

Another beautiful day.
An outdoors sort of day.

I asked a few friends if they wanted to go to the park to do homework. They agreed, and four of us packed up our backpacks and headed that way. We enjoyed the conversation and the sunshine on our short jaunt. Once at the park, we found a nice spot half in the sun and half in the shade.

I can hardly believe that this qualifies as “fall” in California. It’s ridiculous. I’m definitely not in Minnesota any more.

The beautiful pond.

In the distance, I saw someone walking a dog. My eyes adjusted and I realized it was a friend of mine who lives off campus. He came our way and stayed with us for a while. He let his dog, a long-haired Chihuahua, run around. She is one of the cutest dogs I’ve ever seen. I’d gotten to hold her at other times on campus, and she’s really soft. She ran around and tried to lick some of us to death.

She took a liking to Mackenzie.

Only one of the four of us got any work done. I had a feeling that would happen. However, the sunshine was far too beautiful not to fully enjoy it.

And enjoy it I did.

Oranges, Playgrounds, and Brick Walls.

Some nights you just need an adventure. I was in a pretty bad mood when two of my friends, Kyle and Charlie, told me that we were going on an adventure. I almost refused, but I knew that they were working pretty hard to try and cheer me up. So off we went.

We walked off of campus, and down the road to the orange tree that my friends sometimes take oranges from. The tree is technically in someone’s yard, but it hangs over a brick wall and over the sidewalk. We had brought two wire hangers that were straightened out to hook the branches and pull them down. After about five minutes of trying to get that to work, Kyle gave up, handed me his phone, and jumped up onto the wall. He began to throw oranges down to Charlie, and we ended up with five oranges.

Charlie and Kyle looking serious with our oranges.

We began to walk back toward campus and decided to go to the park. We also decided to cut through the cemetery. That was our first mistake. After we crossed the cemetery, we discovered that a fence stood in our way of the park. However, not letting anything stand in our way, we made up our minds that we would climb over it. It wasn’t that tall. Well, I was wearing a pair of chucks (Chuck Taylors/converse for those of you who aren’t down with the lingo), and those aren’t exactly climbing shoes. I took them off and threw my purse over the fence. I then climbed my way over the fence, my feet hurting from the metal and landing in the wet grass.

Once all three of us were over, we crossed the parking lot toward the playground. The whole park is a really nice place. There’s a waterpark, and behind that there are two playgrounds and probably eight or more tennis courts. There are two, eighteen-hole frisbee golf courses, and a nice grassy area with a pond and lots of geese.

We headed to the bigger playground. It has a fair number of swings, and then all kinds of equipment that swings and allows for all kinds of potential danger. It’s awesome.

The boys enjoying the playground.

After some time at the playground, we decided to take a different route to head back to campus. We cut across the farther frisbee golf course and went down a big hill. I wasn’t entirely sure where we were. We then went up a different hill, meeting a brick wall. Kyle pulled himself to the top of the wall to see what was on the other side. Charlie jumped right over. It was then that Kyle came back down and informed me that it was a police station. A few moments later, I got a phone call from Charlie. He told me there were police cars everywhere, and I told him it was a police station. We got off of the phone, and a minute later he jumped back over to our side of the wall. I couldn’t stop laughing.

We eventually made our way back to campus. We had eaten one of our oranges back at the park, and it was absolutely delicious. The other four oranges were distributed among the three of us. What a night it was… Quite the adventure.

Beautiful weather and beautiful friends.

Today was another beautiful day.
California weather is just so predictable.
I guess I can’t complain, though.

I decided that I wanted to go outside for a bit. My dear friend Sarah came with me, and we sat at one of the round tables and chatted. I took some pictures during this time, just for fun. I captured a couple of shots that I really like, too.

This is one of them:

I love laughter. And Sarah.

I’m not sure how Sarah feels about this picture, but I love it. Please, allow me to tell you a little about this friend of mine…

Sarah has a sense of humor unlike almost anyone I have ever met. She says the funniest things in the most matter-of-fact ways. I can’t help but laugh all the time when I’m with her. She is such a beautiful person. Always upbeat, I’ve never seen her legitimately mad. She is crazy in love with the Lord. She takes life at it comes, not letting things get her down.

She also has a huge passion for music. She writes her own music and lyrics, and has even allowed me to read her stuff. It’s really good, and I mean that. In fact, that leads to one of my other favorite photos. This shot is of Sarah writing lyrics:

I love the depth of field.

Sarah is such a blessing to have has a friend. I sincerely hope that everyone has the privilege of knowing someone like her sometime in their life.

BounceU!

For Wyldlife, we went to this awesome place called BounceU, which is located in Orange. There are two rooms filled with inflatables to play in. It was a lot of fun. I raced a friend of mine, who is also a leader, in the obstacle course and went in some of the other inflatables. I spent some of my time shooting pictures, which I really enjoyed. There’s nothing quite like a big group of wild middle school kids running around.

Room One.

Room Two.

"Through the Pain" feature piece.

For my Foundations of Journalism class, we had to write a feature piece of a topic of our choosing. I chose to write my article on my friend, Annie. Normally, this is the part where I would give a little introduction as to why her story is unique, but I think that would give too much away. Instead, I will leave you with a picture I recently took of her and let you read on.

Annie King.

Piano performance major Annie King should not be playing piano. For the past three years, tendonitis has plagued her arms to the point of almost crippling her ability to play altogether.

Having played extensively for twelve years, piano is far more than a hobby for King; piano is a way of life. Her path to reach this point has not come without its share of challenges, however.

A strong-willed five-year old, King started playing piano because her older brother played. She wanted to do everything her brother did, and “was determined to do it better,” she notes. Her father, who had played violin as a teenager, wanted all of his children to play piano—something he wished he had done. Early on, he saw her interest in piano and passion for music, so he let her go for it.

It did not take long before piano became central to her life. King was homeschooled for half of elementary school and all of middle school in order to allow time for her to practice. Spending up to nearly eight hours a day practicing piano did not allow her to have a standard school schedule, and she spent a lot of time by herself. King said that when she would practice alone for such an extended period of time, she had a lot of time to think. These countless hours became part of her prayer times, and she grew closer to God. In her everyday life, playing piano was as natural as breathing.

In her freshman year of high school, a developing pain threatened that lifestyle. Tendonitis was beginning to set in. According to the Mayo Clinic online, tendonitis is the irritation of the tendons—the fibers that attach muscles to bone. Tendonitis is more commonly referred to as tennis elbow, or perhaps in King’s case, pianist’s elbow. As the tendons fray, the pain can be excruciating. King avoided mentioning this pain to anyone.

She played through the pain, but it kept getting worse. Eventually, she worked up the nerve to tell her teacher and her parents. They searched for ways to help the problem, but her arms continued to go downhill. King talked to a couple of doctors regarding what she should do; both of them said she needed to rest her arms by not playing. These instructions left her conflicted. She was in the height of competition and strengthening her skills. King continued to play.

Soon, she began to learn from a teacher who showed her different playing techniques, hoping to lessen the pain of her tendonitis. These techniques helped her arms, but they did not fix them. This teacher became the first person to tell King she should quit playing piano altogether. He said if she continued to go at the rate she was, she could ruin her arms permanently. She would never be able to play piano again—or even do daily tasks.

When King first heard these words, emotions began to take over. She could not imagine her world without music. Rather than let this possibility discourage her, though, King became more diligent than ever. She became determined to master the techniques that could improve her tendonitis. It made her more passionate about music, and she cherished every minute she was able to practice.

Through these struggles, King knew that music would always be a part of her life, but she was not entirely sure to what extent. Last April, nearing the end of her third year in high school, King’s guidance counselor looked at her transcripts and told her she could graduate in June if she took two more classes. So King did just that—completed those two final courses and graduated a year early. Because of how late these decisions had been made, King did not have many options when it came to colleges. Biola was the only school where she could get an audition for music, and it became the only school where she applied. “God just kind of threw it on my plate—and now I’m eating it,” she says.

An integral part of King’s decision-making has been the influence of her family. Over the years, music has brought them together. King’s siblings are musicians, and together they are able to share in a unique language. Her parents and her siblings are proud of what she has accomplished. King’s sister, Megan King, admires her younger sister for how she uses “her unique style to glorify [God].” A musician himself, King’s father, Mitch King, acknowledges that his daughter’s gift is God-given, and “people have been blessed by it” because of the work she has poured into her craft.

When King talks about music, her face lights up. Her eyes are bright and a smile spreads across her face. On the other hand, while sitting at a piano, her face turns serious as she becomes engrossed in the music. Her lean fingers effortlessly dance across the two-toned keys.

With each note she plays, the pain burns through her arms. As the music builds, so does her discomfort. She clings to the fact that God is working through her struggle. He has taught her lessons that reach far beyond piano playing. She has learned that she must depend on Him on a day-to-day basis. He has a plan that is so much better than her own. King has no intention of giving up on her love for music. As long as she is able—by God’s grace—she will continue to use her gifts for His glory, even through the pain.

Midnight Madness.

On 11/7 at 11:07 pm, we had “Midnight Madness,” our kickoff event for basketball season. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t feeling well that night—so a hot, packed gym and loud music didn’t make things much better. However, I decided to stick it out and shoot some pictures.

The event consisted for a series of different events. The men’s and women’s basketball teams were announced by name. Every other sport that Biola has was announced as a team and they ran across the court.

Announcing the men's team.

There was a three-point shot competition, where the men’s team represented lower campus and the women’s team represented upper campus. The women won, and names of people from the four dorms on upper campus were pulled out of boxes. Those four people took part in a free-throw contest, and the winner got an iPad.

Xopoc, our dance troupe put on a fantastic performance. Later, the cheerleaders taught everyone how to do Biola basketball cheers.

One of my favorite moments came early on in the event. The King’s Men performed the National Anthem, and it was absolutely amazing. They are all incredibly talented. A friend of mine is a part of the group, so that made it even better.

My friend Mackenzie is third from the left.

At the very end, they invited everyone to rush the court, and they shot off all kinds of confetti canons. It literally was madness.

Confetti like crazy.

Despite having work to do for the next morning, it was a pretty fun night. If any of you are interested in seeing any of the actions live, here is a short video that sums it up well:

Three of my favorite things.

More Old Testament homework.
It’s really interesting, but it’s just a lot of work.
Sometimes I get distracted, to put it lightly.
If I’m sitting at my desk, I usually pick up my camera and take a few shots. Here are some from my latest distraction period.

I was pretty tired—no surprise there—so I made myself a pot of coffee. I used my favorite mug, a gift from my dear friend Danae. For my graduation party, she drove five hours to come stay with me for a couple of days and help. She is wonderful. This cup is from the shop where she works, and the owners make everything by hand. Isn’t it beautiful?

I love this cup so much.

This necklace is one that I used to wear every day. I wear a lot of scarves these days, though, so you can’t see it. Thus, I don’t wear it every day. I do, however, keep it somewhere nearby so that I can see it. In this case, it’s hanging from my desk lamp. My grandma bought me the necklace when she, my mom, and I were in Seattle just after my sixteenth birthday. A year or so later I found the cross charm to add to it. It stands as a reminder of what I have been given, and that it is more than I could ever deserve.

I'll always enjoy this necklace.

I was looking down at my keyboard, seeing the lights peeking from the keys of my Macbook Pro, and I thought “that would make some pretty neat bokeh.” I’d say that I was fairly correct. I really like how you can read some of the words in my Bible and others are completely blurring. Oh, aperture. And if you didn’t notice, that’s my purity ring. For those of you who don’t read Hebrew, it says, “A woman of valor—who can find?” which is Proverbs 31:10.

There's nothing quite like keyboard bokeh.

It’s kind of strange, each of these items is so small. They could be overlooked incredibly easily, or even labeled as ordinary. However, each of them has special significance to me. And I like that.

Voting, Jimmy Kimmel, and Anberlin.

November 2nd was a big day for me.

I voted for the first time. So many people take this privilege for granted, but after nineteen years, I was thrilled to be able to vote in an election. I decided to register in California, so I voted right across the street from campus. After doing so, I was proud to display my sticker.

They really jazzed up the stickers this time.

A second cool thing happened that day. Anberlin was going to be performing at Jimmy Kimmel Live. I had found this out only a few days prior, but a friend of mine said she wanted to go, too. A friend of hers also wanted to go, so that would make three of us. We requested tickets online (free of charge!) and were able to print them off later that day. I was ecstatic.

You see,  Anberlin has been one of my favorite bands for a bit of time (four or five years), and despite the large number of concerts I’ve been to, I had never seen them live. I was finally going to get to see them perform.

That evening, we headed to Hollywood to the Jimmy Kimmel studio.

Leaving campus.

Jimmy Kimmel is located right across from the Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. After some confusion on where we were suppose to park, we found a spot in the correct parking garage and headed to Jimmy Kimmel.

A quick picture before we headed to the studio. Editing credit: Gabby.

The concert was at their outdoor stage. We waited in line a few minutes, because they had to check IDs and then everyone had to go through a metal detector. Once through the gate, we managed to edge our way toward the front of the crowd. And then the waiting game began. We chatted with a few guys standing next to us. They were definitely diehard Anberlin fans. During this time, everything that was taking place inside the studio was projected for us to see outside.

Finally, Jimmy Kimmel came out and we all cheered. We were instructed on how we were supposed to cheer when they announced Anberlin and stuff like that. And when they did finally come on stage, everyone went wild. It was so exciting.

The first song they performed was “Impossible” from their newest album, “Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place.” In fact, here is the performance:

After that, they played “We Owe This To Ourselves,” also from their new album. For the first eleven seconds of this video, you can see me in the very left of the shot, jumping up and down. I’m standing next to the girl in the green jacket, who is one of the girls I was with.

Those were the only two songs that they recorded for the show. Anberlin also played “The Feel Good Drag,” though, for the crowd, and it was amazing.

The first 250 people to show up got Anberlin posters. Well, we weren’t there early enough, but all three of us ended up with a poster. A random girl asked us if we wanted two of them, which we took. We then asked a couple of people if they wanted theirs, and they both offered their poster to us.

Once we got back to the parking garage, we had trouble finding our car. That’s the trouble with parking garages being set up so uniformly: everything looks the same. We eventually found our car, though, and even snapped a few pictures with our new posters.

Our new Anberlin posters.

What do you know—another titanium Tuesday night.