Farewell...

Hi! Well, the time has come for my final blog posting. I graduate in three days from a wonderful place and I can't believe my time at Bluffton University is about to be complete. I know that I will always have support and a great community here, though, so I just know that's it's not goodbye, even though I will never actually live here again. For my final blog, I would like to leave you with a little advice from my own college career. You surely do not have to take it, but these are the things that provided such an amazing experience for me these past four years.

Get involved - being involved in campus activities has helped me to meet so many people and have an awesome social life. In having things to do outside of the class work, I have learned a lot about being dedicated and working hard for something I am passionate about. I have met some of my best friends through those organizations and wouldn't trade my involvement for anything.

Keep an open mind - I came to college and met people that were so different from me and those people have taught me a lot about life. Being too set in your ways and unwilling to learn from others can keep you from meeting a lot of wonderful people in college and experiencing some wonderful things. Staying open-minded from the beginning allows a lot to happen and a lot of growth throughout your college years.

Take risks and be willing to have fun on a whim. My favorite memories from college are those times when we just decided to take a random trip or do a random thing on a whim. Stay up late and talk with people, even if you have an exam the next day - laugh a lot and take chances that you may not have taken in high school.

Enjoy every moment - at times it feels like college is going to last a lifetime, but when you look back, it goes by incredibly fast. I cannot believe that I am graduating so soon - it feels like I just got here. Savor the moments and don't take it for granted - someday you may look back and wish you could do it all over again!

I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog - it's been fun writing it. I wish you the best in your college careers and hope you have as great of an experience as I did.

Here's to college,
Mary

Spring Has Sprung

Hey!
Sorry it's been awhile since I posted... the end of the semester has gotten me pretty busy finishing up all kinds of papers and projects and whatnot. No worries, though, I am almost done with schoolwork for my undergraduate education... crazy!

I love this time of year on campus. Whenever the first string of warm days comes along the campus just wakes up and comes alive. I love walking around and seeing people laying outside doing homework or just chatting with friends, seeing people play catch or tennis or tennis ball golf (this game people play around campus - it's like golf only they hit a tennis ball and they have a course set up all around campus). It's great to just see people out and about being active rather than just hanging out inside because it's too cold.

Me and my friends have been no exception. We love laying outside just laughing and soaking up the sun. We've been doing that a lot lately since it's been warmer. The great thing is that we live right by a bunch of faculty and staff offices, so while we're laying outside our professors and other staff people are walking in and out just chatting with us. This is just another example of the kind of community that I'm going to miss when I leave Bluffton in a week and half. I love that we live in a place where we can just hang out in the sun and have our vice presidents come up and talk and laugh with us - the faculty and staff are so approachable here and definitely more of our friends than our superiors. It's such an awesome relationship adn something I'm super thankful for.

I love this time of year because you can just see the community on this campus and really spend quality time with people before the summer (and for me, graduation!) hits. I hope you're getting to enjoy the warmer weather as well.

Here's to Spring,
Mary

Down to the Wire

Well folks, 1.5 weeks of classes and 1 week of finals left and I am a college graduate. yikes. I cannot believe that we are this close to graduation. It seems like just yesterday I was moving in as a first year student - and now it's time to graduate? My, how time flies. I know this all sounds cliche', but time really has gone ridiculously fast here and the memories I've made are ones that I will hold close for many years. I know that these have been four of the best years of my life and I'm not sure I'm ready to leave them behind.

On a lighter note, it's the end of the year, and that definitely means papers and projects galore. Me and my friends have been writing like crazy the past few days trying to get everything done and in on time so we can enjoy our last week or so of college. I just finished a 15 page paper and 20 minute speech, and now I'm one paper away from being done with undergraduate college work forever - wow. That's the first time I think I've really thought of that. It's a stressful time of year for everyone, but it's also such a fun time of year because everyone is trying to spend as much time with friends as possible... there have definitely been a lot of laughs and good times these past few days and I anticipate a lot more of those days throughout the next couple of weeks. I am looking forward to graduation because I know life after will be exciting, but right now I'm just working hard to embrace every moment I have left here.

Here's to good memories,

Mary

pic: one of my new faves of me and scott...

Another Fantastic Weekend

Hi! So, I realize that always writing about my weekends may get a little boring, but they have just been so much fun recently that I can't help myself. This weekend was no exception.

On Friday I just hung out with my friends for most of the afternoon and evening. We just hung out in the lobby and chatted. Scott came over and we all played "Rock Band" together for quite awhile. One of my friends had her brother let us keep his Rock Band stuff for awhile, so we have had a great time playing with that and just enjoying some time together in the lobby. I haven't had as much time to play, but some of the girls have gotten really good at it - there's a Rock Band tournament coming up in a few weeks, so hopefully we can do well in that :). Then Friday night, Scott and his friends invited me and the girls to go to Denny's to become "lumberjacks." To become a lumberjack at Denny's, you have to eat the entire lumberjack breakfast off the menu, which is huge. I wasn't interested in beocoming a lumberjack, but decided to go anyways and one of my friends came along with me. It ended up that 30 people went to Denny's together. It was a total blast. Several people became lumberjacks, and the rest of us just had some random food, but well had a blast just hanging out and being together - we literally took up about half of the restaurant. The waitress and the manager just loved us and we all bonded together over the laughs (and lots of breakfast food). It was an awesome Friday night and definitely one of the best memories of college. I'm trying to embrace nights like that because I know that there just won't be many more before I graduate.

Saturday my Mom came over and we shopped most of the day, then Saturday night was Mother/Daughter night in the hall I live in. We played games, ate lots of good food, watched a movie and had a great time hanging out together and with our moms. It was so much fun to have them all around and we deifnitely laughed a lot. I had a blast spending the weekend with my mom - it was good to see her and spend some time with her.

On Sunday we got up and went to a nearby church to see our Shining Through ministry team sing. They were awesome and it was a great service. After that me, Mom, Scott, and Slurp went out to lunch then I spent the rest of the day just hanging out with Scott. Another good day.

It was just a fantastic weekend and it was great because I got to spend a lot of time with a lot of people. It's wonderful to get the chance to just laugh with people and enjoy my last few weeks of college.

Here's to another great weekend,

Mary

pic: all of the people that were already or became lumberjacks at Denny's

Chapel

Hey!

So, Chapel this week was totally rockin'. I always love going to Chapel, but this week was especially great. We had a different kind of week at Chapel this week because we did not have a speaker... it was all Scripture reading and worship songs. We do that every once and awhile as the students really get a lot out of our time of worship. I love singing praise songs, so it was a wonderful time of worship this past Thursday.

As I may have said before, Chapel is not a requirement at Bluffton. We have it at the same time every week and there are no classes scheduled over it so every student has the opportunity to go each week if they choose to. I find this to be a great aspect of Bluffton's religious life. Everyone participates in the activities because they want to, not because they have to. Having to go, in my opinion, makes it lose some of its meaning and beauty. I love seeing peope worship in Chapel, attend BASIC (brothers and sisters in Christ) group meetings, Spiritual Life Week activties, Sunday Morning Worship, etc. out of their own desire to grow closer to God, not because the requirements say they have to attend a certain number of events. I definitely feel God move on this campus all the time and it's wonderful that we can share in a community that embraces that and encourages that. Even if it's just in the residence halls chatting with friends, most people are open to talking about your faith and are excited to work together to grow. And not everyone here is a Christian, and that's definitely another way we can grow here. Non-Christians are certainly accepted here and we can learn a lot from people that have a different faith. It's awesome how we can use this community in so many different ways. It's an amazing aspect of Bluffton and I have grown a lot in my relationship with God since I have come here.

Here's to the blessing of a faith community,

Mary

pic: our worship leader band playing at Chapel.

Lots of Friends

So, it was a very good weekend - I hope I have a lot more just like this before I graduate. It was great because I got to spend a lot of time with a lot of people just chatting and laughing together - definitely my favorite thing to do and something I'm trying to soak up these next 5 weeks.

Friday was a crazy day, so I think I'll share that one in more detail... a few of us went out to the first home baseball game and watch the Beavers play. It was freezing out there, so Scott and I left early but it was nice to actually be outside. After that me and Scott just hung out with Slurpy (Scott's best friend) and one of their friends from home that came to visit. After that I was in charge of an MCB event called "1 versus Marbeck Center." It was a game-show type of game where students played against faculty/staff. It was a lot of fun and I love it when we can get faculty/staff involved. One thing I love about Bluffton is how the staff are so willing to get involved in games like that and just enjoy hanging out with students. There is not a hierarchy type of faculty/staff-student relationship ... it's like we're all peers and can do things together, which is awesome.
After that game was over, me and about 8 or 9 other people went to Steak-N-Shake. We didn't leave here until around 11:30, so we went and there was hardly anyone else there. We just got a big table and sat around and laughed a lot. I love it when those random trips happen because it's always a really random group of people that gets together. After Steak-N-Shake we went to WalMart to get a few things, then back home. I was only home for about 10 minutes when Slurpy called me and and I went to the Flying J with Scott, Slurpy and some friends. We had a great time again just hanging out and talking. It was hilarious because I was hanging out with people from about 3:00pm when my last class was over until about 4:00am when we got back from the J. I love those nights when there are just so many people around and so many laughs. I love random trips here or there because there are always fun memories that come out of that.

The rest of the weekend surely didn't fall short of Friday. I don't want to bore you, so I won't go into much detail, but I got to catch up on time with the girls, go out to dinner and spend the day with Scott, hang out with Slurpy and Scott, watch a couple movies and get a lot of random stuff done. It was a great weekend.

I'm really thankful that I have so many people to spend time with and laugh with. I can't believe that in less than five weeks I will have graduated from this place. I'm really going to miss it.

Here's to great weekends,
Mary

Enjoying Life

Well, I just got back yesterday from my last college break ever. We got Good Friday and Easter Monday off and I am officially in my final stretch of college. Only 5 more full weeks of class and bam – here I come real world. This blog is seriously just my thoughts – I’m sorry, because it may be boring for you.
It’s been a roller coaster of emotion for me these past few weeks and now it has hit me how close I am to being done at Bluffton. Recently it’s become apparent to me that I have to take the time to enjoy where I am and where I’m going. I know that I am going to miss Bluffton very much, but instead of thinking about that all the time, I’m trying to just enjoy every moment here. When I worry so much about this being my last few weeks here, I miss those weeks and before I know it, they will be gone.
Although I’m going to miss Bluffton like crazy as soon as I graduate, weekends like this past one when I get to spend it with my parents, brother, sister, niece and nephew, I am reminded that life after Bluffton is going to be fun and exciting too. Being able to experience life in the professional world, living in a new city, finding a new church, making new friends, being close to my family and having the opportunity to experience life from a whole different perspective is something I'm very anxious for. I am trying to remember that I'm anxious for it, even though it’s very hard as I sit here in the lobby with my best friends laughing, playing “Rock Band” and having a great time.
I’m excited because even though one chapter of my life is coming to a close, I am really excited to see what is in store in the next chapter. As cliché and philosophical as that sounds, it’s exciting to open a new chapter. I’ve come to know and love Bluffton, it’s a comfortable place, but I know that it won’t take long for a new city, new job, and new life to become comfortable.
Here’s to enjoying where I am and where I’m going,
Mary