October: Part One

October…

The month where summer finally starts converting to fall, the hayrides come out, pumpkins get carved, fall retreats happen, so do Halloweekends. As a college student if you haven’t been home yet, it’s that time of the year to where it has been long enough that it is okay to pay a visit home. Besides the actual holiday of Halloween, and the fact that although it is turning from summer to fall, and the seasons are completely bipolar, it’s a pretty decent month.

But wait! I forgot one small flaw that October has, and it makes every college student cringe… Take a deep breath... in… out…

Midterm week.

Or as I experienced this year, midterm weeks.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. My October started off pretty well, and still ended pretty well. The in between was just a little crazy.

Being back at college, I typically had this rule that I could only go home once I got settled into being back at school. Meaning, my classes had started, the gymnastics team was rolling and my college life was back to normal. But what is normal really when you are in college?

It really never is “normal” you have ordinary days, where nothing interesting really happens. You may get a text from an old friend, or an old photo arises on your timehop and that is the most interesting part of your day sometimes. But there never is a “normal” day of college. Something is always a bit messed up. Like when your professors clearly think that the only class you are taking is theirs.

October was filled with many of these ordinary days, but there were also some extraordinary days as well.

The first weekend in October, I worked my Saturday morning, and left as soon as the gym was cleaned up. I love my job, but I was in a hurry to get home.

These are the wonderful kids and parents who help us clean up the gym after work!
So thankful for them!

 With all that had happened in September between Katie and I, there seemed to be a lot that I had to tell my family, and I couldn’t wait to see my siblings and get back to Dayspring.

Apparently my parents had been telling the dog all day that I was coming home, but she didn’t believe them until she saw my car pull up and she started going crazy. She wouldn’t leave me alone, but she had to. I quickly changed into something warmer, and we headed off to the apple orchards as a family to go apple picking.

Every time we try to say hello. #HawkNelson

Me and the Sister..

My lovely Mom and I

Carrying the Apples

Mom and Dad

Buttercup freaking out when I got home.

He's taller than me now

Getting lost on our way to MaQueens

Me and The Brother!

It was great to spend that time with the family and just be calm together, but the job had to quickly be done, because that was the night of Bethany’s sophomore homecoming and I was doing her hair.

She had been asked to the dance by a guy at her school. He had given her a baseball that said, “I might strike out, but homecoming?” It was cute, and she clearly said yes. Although, as I was doing her hair, she told me the story about how he ignored her the week before, and was talking about ditching her. So she decorated the other side of the ball to say “Three strikes you’re out,” in the meantime, she was texting the guy that she had a crush on for forever, and they were making plans to go together. Last minute dates… sounds very familiar, Bethany seems to take after me a lot without meaning to. But Oh how I do NOT miss the high school drama (though part of it never seems to leave).

Going back to church on Sunday was another interesting part of my weekend. It was weird to be back. We had taste of the nations that day, and I have been trying to get myself to try new foods when the opportunities arise, so I took advantage of that opportunity. I got reconnected for a minute with Gela, whom I had missed very much, and I had explained to her all that had happened while I was away. She gave me some really good advice, which is what I had needed.

Later that day, we had life groups, and it was really cool to get to know the family, and share part of my testimony. The girls seemed like really sweet girls, and they really wanted me to play with them, and eat with them. At that point I realized that my role of being an older sister to the young ones was sort of up. I am an adult now, not their baby sitter; my desire (although they are awesome young girls) is to sit in with the adults and the bible study. It was really weird knowing that it was no longer my role to entertain the younger ones. My sister however, is still stuck in that stage of life, but is quickly moving out of it.

When we were home, we rented a couple of movies, I bought The Fault In Our Stars, Mom and I cried, and cried. Then it was all over, and it was time for me to come back to Ypsi. Mom kept trying to throw food my way, and I told her I was fine, but she still made me take apples, a loaf of bread and some hamburger helper. I said goodbye to everyone, including the dog, who was very upset I was leaving her again and found my way back to Ypsilanti.

That week took an exciting twist. I had stopped talking to Katie about personal things, and she was catching on. Soon enough our conversations were slim to none, and very very dull. The same thing happened with Becca, I found out quickly that everything I was confiding in her about was getting told back to Katie. So although I was not telling Katie anything, she was still finding things out. Eventually I just stopped talking.

But, as I was sitting in biology lecture, I got a text from Katie, which was the final thing to push me over the edge. She triggered emotions I didn’t know I had, and so all I could respond was, “Understood, we need to talk.”

I realized though that when I got home, I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to sit in my room and get a good sob out before I talked to her. But she came knocking on my closed door, and invited herself in. She cleared the books from my pink chair and she sat down. We talked, and we talked. I explained my side, and she explained hers. Then we changed the subject and talked some more on the subject of dating. In her opinion, I should drop all of the standards I have set up for dating and just go out and have fun. Kiss a couple of guys, make some mistakes, and figure out what I want. I told her that’s not how I am, and that the standards are set up so that I don’t get hurt again. The more we talked about it, the more we disagreed, in a calming way, but I reassured her that I was not going to pass up any good opportunities, if I think that it is the right step. She seemed to be satisfied with that, and all seemed better.

That weekend I left for the Ohio Chi Alpha Fall Break Away. If you want to know what happened there, the whole story is in the previous post. All I am going to say is that God is amazing. I came back from that weekend, and told Katie and Becca what had happened. They looked at me like I was nuts, asked questions, and I answered them honestly. That Tuesday, October 14^th, Katie and I ended up making a bet. We wrote it down on paper and signed it. Eventually I’ll give the details of this bet, but just note that it was made… On October 14^th.