Theme of the month

I don't know if you ladies have ever felt like your semesters have had themes or not (I also don't know how acceptable it is to split your life into semesters once you're out of college but that's consideration for another post. Hahaha), but I feel like a current theme in my life has been friendship. It's been on my mind sooooo much lately, so I figured it made sense to devote a post to it. Hopefully it won't be tooo similar to things I've said in the past, because I realize that this isn't the first time I've written about my thoughts on friendship.

Now on to the new reflections :)

I think I mentioned in my last post that one of the best parts about the conference I went to was the conversations I had with friends. Well, another highlight was a talk I went to about friendship. One of the things the speaker said that really stuck out to me was that we'll likely only have one or two really good, virtuous friends in our lives--friends who will encourage us to grow in holiness, help us become saints, and offer us fraternal corrections when needed. When she said this, I was a little taken aback, not to mention a little disappointed, mostly because those are the kinds of friendships I strive to have. I don't want to have just a bunch of acquaintances who don't really know me. I want to have the kind of virtuous friendships she described. I want friends who will challenge me to become the best version of myself. I want friends who actually want to know how I'm doing when they ask. So that week, while we were still in Orlando, I started thinking of ways to make that happen, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Here's what I've been coming up with...

1. Instead of focusing on my lack of friendships at home, I've been concentrating on solidifying the friendships I developed last year. This has been an extremely fruitful exercise. I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact that I'm working now so I don't have as much time to obsess over all the things I'm missing out on by not being around my friends, but I've definitely seen a big difference simply due to the fact that I'm focusing on the positive instead of the negative. Plus, this new outlook has given me the opportunity to get to know my friends better, and it's been so good getting to that next level. I'm hoping to continue the trend with a few more friends each month. It'll definitely be easier with some than others, but I think I'm up for the challenge ;)

2. I've realized, with the help of a wonderful friend (who might be started a blog soon!! eeeeee!!), that I need to consider what wounds from past friendships might be holding me back from becoming better friends with the current people in my life. And not only do I need to recognize them, but I need to be willing to bring them up with the other person so that she can understand where I'm coming from. I hadn't really thought about it before this weekend, but I've actually done that with those few people who I'd consider my closest friends. And now that I know that's what I did, I can continue to do it when I feel like the time is right. Praise God for intuitive friends who are willing to listen to me go on and on about things I've been thinking about!

3. I'm reading A Simple Path by Bl. Mother Teresa, and in the introduction, someone described how people used to feel when she was talking to them. It was something along the lines of Mother Teresa gave her full and undivided attention to the person she was with and made them feel like the most important person in her life. In an effort to emulate her, I decided that anytime I'm talking to someone, I would silence my phone so that I wouldn't be tempted to answer a call or text while we were in the middle of a discussion. Because honestly, there aren't many more annoying things than trying to have a serious conversation with a friend who insists on responding to a text message in the middle of your story. Sure they claim to be listening to you, but we all know we can't listen to someone and type out a message at the same time--neither activity is receiving our full attention so we only end up hearing half of what our friend is saying to us and we end up sending a message that makes no sense. As a result of this newly implemented plan, people have been forced to call the person I'm with to get ahold of me. Hahaha that may or may not defeat the purpose of my exercise...

Well, that's probably enough for now. There's an episode of Parenthood calling my name and I still have to pack my lunch for work tomorrow. Why yes, I have regressed into the 8-year-old version of myself now that I'm working. Hahaha I go to bed at embarrassingly early hours, pick out my clothes the night before, and pack my lunch before going to bed. All normal things, right?

Life Update

Sooooo.....I don't know if you guys remember me or not, but my name is Jordan and a loooooong time ago, I used to be the author of this blog. Then absolutely nothing happened and I didn't post for over than a month. I hope you'll all accept my apologies and welcome me back without any hard feelings. Hahaha and what better way to do that than with a numbered list? ;)

What I've been up to since I last posted:

1. Well, I spent 6 days in Florida at an amazing conference, which you can read about here. In a word it was exactlywhatIneededittobeandmore. (If you say it in one breath, you can pretend it's one word). As you ladies (and whatever men happen to stumble upon this blog...) know, I was having a bit of a rough time last semester. And yes, it's still acceptable to divide your life into semesters even after you've graduated, thank you very much. Anyway, life = not as great as I wanted it to be pre-conference. Then I was surrounded by 6200+ of my closest friends, priests, religious, and missionaries for about a week! Honestly, I don't even know how to describe it, so I'll just focus on the best part for me--the conversations I had. Obviously, the speakers they brought in were phenomenal and I learned so much from them (more on that in a future post perhaps), but I had been yearning for good conversation so much, and I definitely got it. I caught up with friends I hadn't seen in months and others who I'd seen more recently but hadn't had any good heart-to-hearts with. Going into the conference, I prayed that God would bring me genuine joy again, and He went above and beyond that (what a guy ;) ). Soooo yeah. It was amazing. And exactly what I needed before I started my internship.

2. Speaking of internships, I started mine the day after we got back from Seek. Originally I was supposed to start the day we returned, but thankfully, my boss was okay with moving it forward a day! After a 20+ hour bus ride, I definitely needed a day to relax before getting into the swing of things. Anywaaay, I was pretty nervous about this internship. I really didn't have any idea what I would be doing since I've never taken any tax classes or even filed my own taxes. Me and uncertainty don't really mix that well...so I didn't have that great of an attitude about it either. Luckily, it's turned out to be a pretty good experience so far--the people I work with are really nice and very willing to help me out. Plus, they know that I don't have any experience so they're explaining things slowly and not overwhelming me with work (which is both a blessing and a curse since I spend a lot of time just sitting around waiting for them to give me another task...). But! so far, so good. We'll see how crazy it gets once the government finally passes all the tax laws and we can start actually filing this year's returns!

3. I got to spend Friday night celebrating a good friend's birthday and see this girl! After a couple weeks of not seeing my friends, it was great to have an opportunity to spend a good chunk of time with them. Plus we watched Perfect Pitch, which I was a little unsure about but the music was AMAZING!! and it wasn't as inappropriate as I thought it was going to be. Bonus.

4. Then on Saturday, my family celebrated what we like to call Second Christmas. Real original, I know. Since we can't all get together on actual Christmas, we've set up a date in January the past few years so that we can exchange gifts, play games (think Minute to Win It), and enjoy each other's company (sometimes that one is a little questionable. haha). I got all 3 seasons of Parenthood so you better believe that's what I'll be doing this weekend! Plus!!! My grandma got me the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours set, which I've fallen in love with already. Seems like I should have more to say about this, but how much do I really need to explain opening presents? Haha.

5. Now that I've started my internship and my friend has started student teaching, we've decided to start spiritual bootcamp. Sounds intimidating. Basically we're going to spend the semester (or however long it takes) reading the Diary of St. Faustina. We haven't exactly hashed out all the plans, but I'm really excited to start because I feel like I'll get a lot more out of it (and actually DO the reading) if I've got an accountability partner. I'll keep you posted on how it goes :)

Well, I think that's about it on the updates. I plan on spending my lunch breaks catching up on all the posts I've missed of yours! I hope you all had wonderful Christmas seasons and are surviving this single digit weather (which I am NOT fond of...).

I'll leave you with one of the quotes that stuck out to me at Seek. It's a prayer from St. Anselm:

O my God teach my heart where and how to seek you,
where and how to find you…

You are my God and you are my All and I have never seen you.
You have made me and remade me,
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know you…

I have not yet done that for which I was made….
Teach me to seek you…

I cannot seek you unless you teach me
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire, let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.

Patron saint of the year

We're five hours into our 22 hour drive. So far we've made one stop for dinner (aka a strawberry smoothie and a bagel), prayed a bus rosary, and met our fellow riders via "speed dating." But then we did something cool! A Christmas bag was passed around with a bunch of saint names in it and we were all asked to pick one to be our patron saint for the year. I ended up with Saint Margaret of Scotland, who I actually don't know anything about. So now I get to spend the year learning about a wonderful woman and asking her to pray for me.

Oh! And we also got an intention to pray for on our sheets. Mine is for big families. Not quite sure what that has to do with me but I'm excited to discover it this year :)

By the way, we'll be spending a lot of time in adoration this week so please let me know if you have anything you need extra prayers for. Know that I'm keeping you all in my prayers for things you've expressed in the past. I hope to keep you updated on all the amazing things that are sure to happen!