The Finish Line: Mar 19 - 24

We're going to start with Tuesday this week since Monday basically did not exist. Between the plethora of classes on Tuesday (four this week) I worked on the essay that goes along with the Management group project. So my partners were emailing me their segments all day. It was a massive task to tackle, putting everyone's pieces together and making them sound coherent with each other. Plus cutting about 1000 words or more to make the maximum. But, the paper got finished and we were only about 400 words over the limit instead of 1500. So Wednesday was back to the same old plan of homework all day. I did take a break and talk to Mom. No video, but voice news is better than no news. Just a few years ago voice would have been the best it got, and it would have been expensive too. The other break I took was for dress rehearsal for choir. It was a beautiful day so I was all pumped up and ready to sing. And then there was no one around...anywhere we had practiced... I was very sad, actually. I know I got some funny looks from the people watching me walk in circles around campus looking for people who didn't exist. The next day, Thursday, it poured buckets. After my first class I decided I was not going out again, at all. But then I got the email confirming choir practice for that evening...mandatory. So I had to go back out that evening. That was no fun because it was too windy for an umbrella and I don't really have a real raincoat. During my self-imposed exile during the day I did make some real progress on the Religions essay I had been ignoring for close to a month. About a third of it got finished before I got a Skype call, after which I had to go out in the rain.

The weather was about the same on Friday, with maybe just a bit less rain. Not much, just a bit. When I left in the morning it was just cloudy. So, in my silly way, I left without an umbrella wearing a not-so-waterproof coat. Apparently I don't know how to dress for Ireland. Friday was a very long day. I had to be to dance early for the exam. Of the three hours spent in the dance hall, I danced for less than an hour. The rest of the time I was standing, waiting for other people to finish their exams. It would have been fine, normally, but I needed to get to the main campus for the choir concert. As soon as I finished my exam, I booked it to campus. I have never walked that fast, and probably never will walk that fast again, in my life. I made it though, just on time. So we stood on the stone floor of the chapel for 30-40 minutes, had a few minutes to rest and sit, then back to the chapel for an hour long concert, again standing on the incredibly hard stone floor of the chapel. In the span of about six hours, I was off my feet for maybe 10-20 minutes. My body was tired.

But I wasn't done yet. After the concert, some tea and biscuits and socializing, I headed back to the apartment, did some work on my essay, laundry, packed, and headed off for what I thought was going to be a very long walk to a weekend retreat. Google told me it would take about 50 minutes. I made it in 20-ish. And was very early because of it. I am very grateful to whoever put the sign on the side of the road saying "The retreat is here!" otherwise I would have walked right past it and been lost, completely and utterly lost. So I spent a very spiritual and reinvigorating weekend with other young people from the Munster area. It was fantastic and just what I needed after a hectic week. Small world story: I might a Franciscan brother originally from Nebraska. He's actually been through my hometown a bunch of times. AND we had the same band teacher. AND we have a mutual friend. How crazy. I'm pretty sure he thought it was pretty awesome too.

I am proud to announce that after coming home from the amazing retreat, I finished my essay. In about an hour and a half I wrote two-thirds of a paper that had been haunting me for a month. God is truly amazing because I'm fairly certain if I had stayed home, not nearly as much would have been written. Then to make the day even better yet, I got to talk to my brother and his girlfriend. They always call me right as I'm getting ready to turn the lights out and so I go to sleep happy afterwards.

In summary, I had a ridiculously crazy week. I about lost my mind a couple times, and would have surely forgotten my head if it hadn't been attached to my body. But it was an absolutely amazing week with no regrets.