Name:Annie Country:United States State:Illinois Gender:Female
Interests:music, my relationship with Christ, missions, skiing (water and snow), theater, thinking, cooking, dancing (the nondirty type), meeting interesting people.
Yeah, I'm up for just about anything...however spending hours filling this out does not qualify at the moment. Expertise:not hearing my alarm clock in the mornings (...I'm awfully good at it so it can be counted...right?) Occupation:Student Industry:hmm...
I find that it is good to record things that cause anxiousness. ...Then a few years later, when that particular anxious feeling is distant, you can look back and realize how ridiculous you were being way back when.This works for things like grades, and boys, and money, and fashion, and awkwardness etc. etc.
I am anxious about the future in general. I have realized that even after however-many years, there will still be a future to potentially apprehensive about. (You know, providing I'm alive and well etc. etc.) For as long as I can remember, I have been a person striving for present-mindedness. I am, in general, very content with my present circumstances. (Hooray for being alive!)However, I am such a relentless planner that I cannot seem to be fully present because of all of the silly plans that are constantly circulating in my mind.
Bleen.
Well, perhaps there are worse things than being a forward-minded-type person. Truly, I do enjoy the present; I am content... ...I just need to find a way to be excited and not "apprehensive" about all of the glorious unknowns.
I must say that it is remarkably freeing to write my thoughts on Xanga these days...especially since no one really uses this site anymore. I get to send these ramblings out of my mind and to no one in-particular.
Anyway...the point: (a pre-script: These thoughts are not being recorded in bitter cynicism...nor do I presume that these ideas will continue forever in me--they are merely the ramblings of a moment.)
So I think Paul had quite a bit of sense in 1 Corinthians. (Well, I suppose he had quite a bit of sense in all of his letters...) But specifically, his point about singleness really struck me this week. Basically: if you can carry it off and still be content...hooray for you. (1 Cor 7.) That is me. I have been doing some reading on this topic the last day or so and found an article which highlights a few pluses of singlehood:
"1. You can travel, move and spend money without a spouse’s permission.
2. You have more time to serve God and develop your spiritual life.
3. You can prepare to be a healthy marriage partner.
4. You can live without the stresses marriage brings.
5. You have more freedom to develop close friends and to develop abilities and talents.
6. You do not have to be concerned about having married the wrong person or married at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons.
7. You can keep the apartment/house the way you want it.
8. You can cook and eat only the food you want."
Well, I'm not completely hardened to the idea of not being single...but it makes sense to stay in this state and be content doing so while I'm here.
There is more to be written on this topic, definitely, but I'll rest it here for now.
It is very strange to be posting on Xanga, this long-forgotten site, right now. It is reminiscent of seeing an old friend that hasn't been seen/heard from/thought of in a really long time. One doesn't quite know where to begin the catching up process... ...My how times have changed in the last two years... The re-introductory statement: Well, life remains to be good.
The updates/corrections: I did not go to Africa; I went to India. I did not go to Moody; I went to UIC
The what-I'm-doing-now portion: Currently I am living in Chicago and am taken up with enjoying my last year as an undergraduate in this glorious city. The things that I have always loved to do...I still do. (...including, but not limited to: traveling, dancing, building relationships with people, studying) Mmm, yes, I still do these things, but perhaps on a amplified scale. I travel farther and longer; I dance more often and in varied forms; I have built/continue to build relationships with a much broader range of people (...assumedly due to the aforementioned activities.)
The what's-on-my-mind-and-can't-be-avoided part: So, with that being said, it is safe to say that I have fallen in love. ...in love with swing dancing... Coming up soon will be the two-year anniversary of this relationship, and I've confidence that this love will last a lifetime...hands down. It's funny to think of it in terms of a "relationship," but, truly, it is easily equatable.
Our story: We became acquainted when I was a wee thing (4 years old perhaps) in jazz and tap class. This friendship developed over the next few years, but became estranged when I was about ten. I would revisit this acquaintance on rare occasions, though, through the subsequent stages of my life. We maintained contact through such things as junior high dance class and in an "all-things-ballroom-type" class in high school. Then, thanks to an older couple with a function-able dance-space, we started hanging out again at the beginning of my college career on "Saturday swing nights." Then...well, then I moved to Chicago, where, unbeknownst to me, the swing scene is one of the best in the world. Wonderful... Through a general internet search I found an swing event advertised and made my way to the Galaxie a few days later. The band was hot, the floor was alive, and it was there that our love was established. Since then, we have hardly been separated.
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Alright alright, that's enough for now... Well Xanga, it has been...'interesting."
Well, I got my acceptance notice for Africa today. (I don't know if I mentioned on here that I was thinking about applying for a trip...but I was, and now it looks like that's the plan for next Spring.) It will be 3 months in Swaziland doing ministry type things and all the rest of it.
Here's the deal though. If I get accpeted to Moody I will most likely go there in the spring...or there's always the off chance that I may choose to go to UIC. If I do the school thing in the spring I would go to Africa (or somewhere else with AIM) in the Summer. If Africa is where I find myself in the spring, then I'd wait until next fall to transfer. Hmm, there are so many happenings in this time of life. But they're good...all of them.
Speaking of these "happenings"...apparently I'm headed off to Oklahoma for a few days next week to visit some friends. Sometimes last minute trips can be the best sort. Hoorah!
