Transitions of an Overachiever: High School Reunion and Other Things

I received a call yesterday from my high school senior class president. I recognized her voice immediately even though I haven't heard from her in a little over 9 years. Admittedly it was quite strange answering her casual questions about general life. She asked that I send a paragraph about my life so far to be put on our reunion's website and into a book available at the reunion.

I've been thinking about what to write ever since she called. I'd just gotten over the idea of not labeling myself based on my career or accomplishments. Now I'm struggling with writing this update. I don't want to seem like I'm a nobody and have nothing to say for myself. But on the other hand, I don't want to get back into the rut of labeling myself based on my 'accomplishments'. It's just a difficult thing to describe oneself to people you once spent everyday with.

Onto other things...I've been a terrible blogger. Life has been incredibly busy so far this summer, which not unusal for the summer. The unusual thing is that I've been simply overwhelmed by everything going on. I'll give a brief update on things and try to get more detailed later on, but I'm promising.

Women's Bible Study Class:
So far things have went just ok. Ok is fine, but I was hoping for great. So far it seems that we are generally disconnected. I believe this is due to the fact that we simply don't have enough time to interact with one another. We watch a video one week and then do a discussion of that session the next week. It seems that we are always so rushed to fit everything in that we really miss that personal aspect of the class.

The class format is definately a learning experience for me. Don't get me wrong the study itself is excellent. But if I ever choose to do a video series study again, I will not do so in a church setting, unless I have my own projector and a longer class time. Ideally it would be excellent to have at least an hour and 30 minutes for each class or have the full 2 hours that's suggested.

I also miss being able to actually teach. This class simply allows me to moderate the study. But I miss digging into the Word for something to teach to my students. I'm a bit lost because the teacher in me is not able to emerge.

Deeper Still Conference:

Meeting everyone: I was also shocked at how natural it was. I found everyone to be exactly who they appeared to be online, which was very refreshing to me. I thought Nicole's home was even more beautiful in person than in the pictures she's shown online. Lauren had a great personal style that I admired. I enjoyed the times that we had to talk. It's a rare occasion that I find someone who has a love for music like myself. I was also impressed with how cultured Nicole was. Although I felt a little bit uncultured when the topic of cheese came up Saturday at dinner, LOL. Overall, I wish we had had more downtime together to just enjoy each other more. I too was exhausted during the car rides and drifted off to sleep a few times.

The Conference: By far my favorite speaker was Priscilla Shirer, which I wasn't expecting at all. I'm a big fan of Beth Moore, so I was expecting her time to be the best, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was a bit thrown off with Beth's level of personal vanity, like talking about her hair, etc. Priscilla seemed to be more concerned with delivering a fresh Word to us.

I was not at all impressed with Kay Arthur's speaking. I found myself bored and a bit frustrated at all the repetition she used. Also I'm not fond of using the platform she had for political influencing. I was however impressed with her as a person. I admired her knowledge of the Bible and how she could use scripture so effortlessly in conversation. I aspire to be more like that.

I enjoyed the life stories that were shared. I was encouraged in my own personal walk. But I didn't have that 'spiritual high' that many spoke about in the Deeper Still blog.

Overall, I enjoyed the conference but the size of this conference was a bit much for me. I was exhausted and felt like we were so rushed. I wish that it was either a longer conference so that things could be spread out or that not so many things would be packed in. We definately needed longer breaks.

Time Spent with Family:
With the conference I got the added bonus of spending time with my family. I enjoyed the times that Adrian and I spent taking silly pictures and teaching her how to digital scrapbook with Photoshop. I'll never forget feeling her little boy move (she's pregnant) and how excited he became when I got a nasty case of hiccups on Monday morning.

Creatively:
I've been working hard on finishing up some projects. I'll leave you with a little sneak peak of the blanket I made for Adrian's baby. You can head over to my creative blog for more details.