Well, things are finally beginning to settle down and I'm getting somewhat organized in my room up at Penn State. For those of you who don't know, my room is absolutely massive. It has three closets, five windows, and more room than I know what to do with. How I got picked for this room is a mystery to me, but I'll take it. As I've begun to unpack over the past few days, I continue to come across items from this summer, and I find myself daydreaming for a second about the trips from the past months.

When I returned from my adventures this summer, my brother told me he had two surprises for me. The first, although it took me a second to realize, was that he had glasses. The second was a large collage of pictures from the orphanage arranged in the shape of Africa that he had made for me. It was probably one of the best gifts I have ever received and today I finally hung it up on my wall. In the collage are pictures of me and Johnny, Schola doing her homework, kids that we randomly met on the streets, giraffes eating from the trees and me teaching the kids how to dance. I've been thinking about the idea that if I had to make a collage of Africa, Australia, Lancaster, Penn State, Hempfield High School, and all the other places that have got me to this point; I wonder what pictures would fill my collage of that place. When I look at the pictures that make up Africa, I smile at all of them. Each one brings a memory to mind that makes me want to fly back to Tanzania and hold those kids in my arms again. And that gets me thinking about all those other places in my life, can I say the same about them?

Would those collages be full of pictures that I am proud of and can't help but smile at? For the most part I would hope I could say that, but there are obviously parts that wouldn't bring to mind those thoughts. Yet there's nothing I can do about those old collages; but there is a huge amount of influence over the collages that I will form in the years to come (actually I'm pretty sure I hold all the influence). I think this is what has me so excited about this upcoming semester and even more so for the next few years. I can't wait for a couple years down the road to be able to look back at all my collages to see what has shaped me to that point.

After writing this, I kind of want to actually make these collages at some point. One of my hopes this year is to be able to write and draw more. Last year I started painting more and it was such a stress relief, not that I really get stressed, but it helped take my mind off things. I think I found the same thing with journaling this summer. Especially with college, it can be so easy to get caught up in the craziness around you, that sometimes you just need to stop everything and not think. That's what happens when I paint and draw and I think it happens when I journal too. That's one of my prayers for this semester, that I can find and make the time to get alone with God. As I look back on the past summer and try to figure out all those things I learned, I realize that the reason I learned so much was the fact that I took a lot of time for just God and I. I've always said that I'm a Christian and participated in the Christian activities whether that be church or UCM; but I never actually took the time to really sit and listen to God.

I like to be busy and I like to always have something to think about, but when I have all that stuff on my mind, I kind of push God to the back and it's hard for me to hear him. American culture encourages us to be busy so we don't really see it as being out of the ordinary. But in Africa and Australia, everything is very laid back and less chaotic. In Africa, if you said you would meet someone at 5:00, they wouldn't show up until 5:45 most likely. Although this would annoy most Americans, it taught me that I need to slow down a bit.

It's so easy for me to get caught up and think that if I'm not working non-stop, then I'm not being used by God to my fullest potential. But by being so busy, I'm missing out on the important things in the margins. For example, in Africa when we were weeding the garden, the three of us were working quite quickly and efficiently to do the best job we could the fastest. As we went through the garden we would toss the weeds to the side and move on. As we neared the end of the garden I turned around and watched as Johnny sat there playing with the weeds. He would pick through the pile of weeds we had discarded and admire each weed in the sunlight as if it was the most beautiful thing.

It's funny how God talks to you sometimes.
I wish I had more Johnny's in my life.