Looking on the Sunny Side

It's the weekend before finals. And I'm strangely calm. I'm not very stressed or sleep deprived like many other college students are about this time. I still have more studying to do. There's always studying to do. But I feel prepared. I feel calm. I feel at peace with this semester. 

I came across this verse the other day and it has brought me a lot of peace during this trying week. 

"Let me experience Your faithful love in the morning, for I trust in You. Reveal to me the way I should go because I long for You." Psalm 143:8 HCSB.

I've also been getting up earlier in the day and going to bed earlier. I usually get up early enough to see the sunrise. Maybe this sounds silly, but seeing the sun rise in the morning gives me a sense of hope in my heart. For those few quiet moments in the morning, everything is still. So still, that I feel like I'm the only one watching it. Even though I know I'm not. But it's like I'm getting my own little sneak peek from God to start the day, just for me. 

 I'm not usually a morning person. But I think I'm gradually starting to be one, thanks to sights like this. 

Thursday evening I had a Christmas party with the lovely girls in my small group from InterVarsity. It was fun to relax and unwind with this great group of girls. We had a white elephant gift exchange and made hot chocolate - with a little something special added.

  These are some of the best girls I know here at JMU. I've loved getting to know them this semester, and I can't wait for more time to grow deeper in our relationships. My awesome leaders are the ones with the Grinch shirt and the reindeer ears, naturally. They are such awesome people!

 For a special treat, we made marshmallows covered in chocolate and peppermint to put in our hot chocolate. They were so fun and easy to make! It gave the hot chocolate the perfect hint of peppermint and a little extra chocolate. So yummy. 

Friday night I went Christmas caroling with the Nursing Student Association. We went to Sunnyside Nursing Home which is part of the local community here in Harrisonburg. I don't think I could have spent my Friday night any way better. First of all, I just love singing. It makes me happy. And it's something I truly enjoy doing. Second of all, the faces of the residents when we told them we were going to sing for them made the evening priceless. I think it made their night as much as it made my night. Now, this was a bunch of nursing students. Not a choir of trained singers. We all shared a few copies of printed carols and winged it. We decided after each song which song we would sing next, and we even took requests. It didn't matter that we were terribly off key and completely unorganized. The residents loved it. The smiles on their faces and watching them sing along. It was basically the best study break I've ever had in my life. 

We also got to sing in the Alzheimer's unit. I don't have a ton of experience with that population of people, but I do have some. One man in particular stood out to me. He asked us where we were from and what we were doing - we would respond JMU nursing majors. He would exclaim that was a great school and that his kids went there. Then he would ask if any of us were mathematicians, because that's what he used to do when he worked for the government.  We replied no, only nursing majors. Then he would ask us again where we were from - we would reply JMU, and he would exclaim again what a great school it is, his kids went there. And so on. It made my heart hurt. But when we started singing, it seemed to brighten up the room. 

When we sang in one hallway, residents kept wheeling up to gather around us in their wheelchairs. We would finish a song, thinking it would be the last one, and someone else would be wheeled up. So of course we couldn't stop there. We had to sing another song for the new audience member. Before we knew it, there was a small crowd in a hallway and we were repeating songs. It made them so happy. Honestly, I never wanted to stop. And the residents in the Alzheimer's unit, I noticed, even sang along. Even though they may not know their name or where they are, they knew the words to some Christmas carols. I thought that was truly magical. I'm so glad I could be a part of it. 

Saturday afternoon we got a small group together to surprise one of our best friends, Abbie, at Buffalo Wild Wings. Her birthday isn't until next week, but with exams coming up we thought Saturday would work best for everyone. She was so surprised! We had some good food, good company, good football and really good cupcakes at the apartment afterward. 

 I'm glad we could all get together for a few hours. And these happen to be the girls I'll be living with in my apartment next year, which I can't even wait for! 

Even though it's exam week, I'm so happy. Which is kind of strange for me.  I think it's because I've been having the best kinds of study breaks, surrounded by friends and helping others. I've always been very serious about classes and grades. But life's too short to take it too seriously, and a good break every now and then is a wonderful thing. Instead of focusing on the bad going on (exams), I've decided to look on the sunny side. I'm surrounded by beautiful friends that I love dearly. And there's a lot of people out there who have it much worse than I do. 

I've also been listening to a lot of music lately. More so than usual. Not sure why, but it's helping me get through finals, and music just makes me happy! Some of it's new, some of it's old. But I think I'll post my finals week playlist below. That way I can look back and see what music I was listening to during final exam week 2012. Music always helps me study, and it makes it ten times more enjoyable. 
Fair warning - I like a lot of different types of music. So this has quite a bit of variety. Acoustic, Rock, Country, Instrumental, Alternative, the whole sha-bang.
 And I didn't realize how many songs I had on this playlist until I actually made the list. Like I said, some of it's brand new, and some of it is old classics. So this is what I've been listening to lately. I might have to share music I'm listening to more often on the blog. Sometimes the songs I listen to say more about me than any words I can say about myself. As my good friend Tolstoy puts it "Music is the shorthand of emotion."   

 But here it is, my finals week playlist:
 Far Away by Jose Gonzalez 
Growing Up by Monsters Calling Home 
Wanted (originally by Hunter Hayes) by Alex Goot and Julia Sheer 
Tonight by JJ Heller 
65 more years by Ron Pope 
Ho Hey by The Lumineers  
Skyfall (James Bond) by ADELE 
Stars by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals 
Hold on by Phillip Phillips 
Between the Raindrops - Lifehouse 
I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty 
Better Be Home Soon by Crowded House 
Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith 
Grounds for Divorce by Elbow 
Lonely Boy by The Black Keys 
If You Ever Come Back by The Script 
Somebody To Love by Queen 
Untitled 1 by Sigur Ros 
Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis 
One of Those Nights by Tim McGraw 
Cruise by Florida Georgia Line 
Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain) by Gary Allan 
Man in the mirror by Michael Jackson 
Soon Enough by City and Colour  
 
Let's go finals week. I'm ready for ya.