Last First Day of School

"Hey guys... guess who I am: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!"

Although I was probably the least eager to wake up an HOUR early and get "first day of school breakfast" on Ninth Street with Jerren & Christian, I was by far the most enthusiastic once 7:30AM rolled around. And despite the fact that neither of the boys appreciated my Nemo impression as we ate our Bruegger's Bagels, I hyped up my LAST first day of school like it was nobody's business.

Jerren & I before our 8:45 Spanish classes. Jerren still has at least two more "first days of school" to go, hence why he's not as thrilled as I am. Clearly.

I know, I know. There is a chance that today may not have actually been my LAST first day of school. There's always graduate school; I'm not about to rule out the possibility. But I've survived 18 first days of school between Clemmons First Baptist, Center Grove, Calvary Baptist, & Duke... and I'm reveling in the fact that today may have very well been my last. Let me revel, please.

In continuing with the gloriousness of all things "last first," we have:

My last first day of school flowers from Amanda.

Fun fact: gerber daisies are my favorite flower.

Correction: gerber daisies are actually the ONLY flower I like.

Amanda gives each of the RAs a gerber daisy with a note attached on the first day of school... and Christian & Jerren decided theirs had a better chance of surviving if they passed it along to me :)

We also have my last first day of school schedule.

...which I suppose, in theory, isn't actually my LAST first day of school schedule, since I'll have a different one second semester. We'll call this my "last first day of fall semester schedule."

Mondays are my longest days, but I have a beautiful five hour lunch/nap window (which I took full advantage of today!), so it's not bad. Who am I kidding---it's a gorgeous schedule. I'm still not sure how I was able to convince myself that having THREE 8:45 classes this semester would be a good thing, but I have the following days to recover :) I'm taking Education 100 with a professor I've already had and love, and everyone in my Documentary Writing class gets an iPad for the semester! My Visual Arts course is Digital Photography, and my other Education course is "Infancy, Early Childhood, and Educational Programs." Ah, to be in preschool again. Spanish is actually the bane of my existence, but we're just looking for a passing grade here, folks, and I'm pretty confident I can make that happen.

Moving along.

My last first day of school lunch.

There's nothing significant about this; I just really really really missed eating sushi over the summer. Enough to break my "I don't like taking pictures of food" rule. Nom nom, spicy chicken, eel, crab salad, & avocado.

My last first day of school celebration, also known as Forever Duke...

Forever Duke Class of 2012

(*Dear Mom, I brushed my hair today. Promise. It rained really hard on my way from class to the block party.*)

...in conjunction with my last first day of school gift from the Alumni Association.

Yep, I'm OFFICIALLY a senior :) And although this year will undoubtedly be filled with it's fair share of "last firsts" (this week alone, I'll go to my last first home football game and work my last first shift at the Coffeehouse), I'm not about to wish it all away just yet. I've still got 258 delightful days of student status ahead, no worries.

• • • • •

And now... some audience participation. If you've been silently blog stalking for the past year (aka, 95% of you), now is a great time to learn how to post a comment and help ensure that I have the best senior year everrr :) Win-win situation.

Ready?

I look forward to reading your responses :)

O-Week Recap

[row 1: Nasher Museum, "Taste of Duke" picnic, home sweet Southgate, & poster sale on campus]

[row 2: using fire extinguishers during the fire safety session]

[row 3: painting my room, mail(!), and Jerren sleeping on my couch]

I know, I know -- I'm aware that it's no longer Friday. For what it's worth, I actually had the Friday Phone Dump ready to go yesterday, but a lot of things came up. Adapt and overcome, I suppose :)

Why exactly did a lot of things come up? Because it's O-Week, obviously! Orientation Week started on Tuesday, and the six days that follow are nothing less than absolute madness. Just observing makes me eternally grateful that I was sick during my freshman year O-week and slept through the entire thing.

• • • • •

This year, my O-week started with bulletin board decorating. As I've mentioned before, it's one of my stronger points as an RA.

2009-2010

2010-2011

Since I'm going on my fourth year living in the same dorm, I contacted former Southgaters from the past three years & asked them to give their advice to the new Southgate class of 2015 (side note: 2015?! I'm so old!)

I then used my snazzy design skills and created this:

So many helpful tips (and not-so-helpful... "There are monsters in Southgate." Really, David?)

Once the buildings were ready to go, the madness of freshmen move-in began:

Southgate team checking in Gilbert-Addoms with Dean Gonzalez

FACs swarming the cars

the residence halls

And the mayhem of the morning slowly turned into the chaos of the night:

East Campus quad

And now? Well, now there are 1700 new Dukies finding their way around campus, as well as 5000 other undergraduates who have returned to the Gothic Wonderland after spending the summer scattered across the globe.

Everyone is finally back, just in time for classes to start on Monday. In the meantime, there's still a lot of reuniting & catching up to be done :)

Insta-Friends

In RA training last week, one of the resident coordinators mentioned the term "insta-friends." It's true. As RAs (Resident Assistants) in the dorms, we go through training together. We live in the building together. We have weekly meetings together. We plan programs and events together. We deal with crisis situations together. And because of these shared bonds & common experiences, we instantly have a group of go-to friends that understand an aspect of our life better than most.

Southgate 09-10

Southgate 10-11

Insta-friends are great for helping to paint walls before residents move in:

Or working on door decorations together:

Or cutting out letters for bulletin boards:

But sometimes, if you're lucky, insta-friends transcend the "co-worker/fellow RA" role and become genuine friends. Friends that stay up until 2AM together playing guitars and ukuleles, or until 3AM watching movies, or until 4AM having conversations that can only be had at 4AM. (You know what I'm talking about.) Friends that come over and order take-out together, or friends that come over to simply sit and be together. Friends that make you laugh and make you feel included, and friends that have already made the past week and a half better than the past year and a half.

Because, let's be honest... the past year and half has been rough. And now? Now, just when I needed it most, God provided a group of people that can sit around and talk about faith and Christianity and religious life on campus all afternoon long. Individuals who look into Summit small groups for us to join, or who purchase David Crowder Band tickets for both of us so I "can't back out." People who share a lot of my beliefs, morals, & values, as well as challenge me to be a better person and grow in my relationship with Christ simply by reflecting His love in their day-to-day lives.

"In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...any of these chances might have kept us apart...

But for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another."

The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others." - C.S. Lewis

I'm so blessed to feel like I finally belong to a small Christian community at Duke, and I'm so thankful for my "insta-friends" that have already become so much more (they read my blog -- heyy, guys!). Even more so, I am grateful to a Creator who has heard my prayers and met my needs, surrounding me with such an encouraging, supportive group of people. I'm excited to see how God will continue working in my life and the lives of those I come in contact with during the upcoming year :)

Deployment: Week 13 & 14

How in the world have 14 weeks passed since I last saw Zach?

For the most part, I've gotten into a nice routine of posting a little deployment update every other weekend. When I thought about it yesterday, I brushed it off, thinking that I still had another week to go.

Wrong. TWO weeks have passed since my last update.

Insane.

• • • • •

Before Zach deployed, I came across a list of FAQ that military significant others often hear. No lie---one of the funniest articles I've ever read. (As in... go read it right now for a good laugh.) All of the responses are super sarcastic, and the questions are beyond absurd. Surely nobody would have the audacity to ask some of those...

Wrong again.

Let's be real: I've been asked the majority of those questions (minus number 12... just saying) more than once. But truthfully, I don't mind. People ask questions because they care and because they genuinely want to know, and I feel honored to share what a deployment is really like with my little slice of the world. Besides, I didn't have any idea what life in the military was like until I started dating Zach three years ago, so who am I to judge?

Some other frequently asked questions:

No... not yet, anyways. Skyping requires an alignment of the stars unlike any other. In order to pull off a Skype session, we need the following:

• a computer in Afghanistan
• Skype to actually be downloaded on that computer
• a day without a desert sandstorm to ensure a strong enough internet connection
• a webcam
• a headset/microphone

And in the rare, rare instance that we've got all five of those things going for us, I also need an internet connection (which should be much easier now that I'm back at school) and a functioning alarm to wake me up at 4:30AM (this issue has also been resolved).

Perhaps it'll work out one of these days. In the meantime, I'm not too concerned about it :)

This varies from week to week. If Zach is traveling outside the FOB (forward operating base), I obviously don't hear anything for a while, seeing as how it's difficult to call from inside a helicopter or while on a convoy. If he's on a different FOB, it just depends. Some FOBs have internet and phones; some have nothing. If he's living in the armory, he isn't able to call, but he can email after hours. And if he's on guard force, he can call when his shift is over, which conveniently happens to be around 4AM over here.

Confused yet? :)

At times, the base will go into "River City", which means there's a sudden, prolonged lapse of time with restricted communication. It typically (but not always) occurs when something bad has happened, and nobody is allowed to have contact outside the country until families back home have been notified. It can be a little nerve-racking, knowing that something has happened, but not being able to get in touch for days. Fortunately, I have my best friend, Kacey, who sends reassuring texts: "Everything is okay! He is in a desert; there are mandatory weekly sandstorms as outlined under section 4b of 'Rules and Regulations of Deserts Worldwide,' aka RRDW."

She's always right.

I used to think this was the funniest question, but then I remembered that the Army has over 5x as many servicemen as the Marine Corps, so most of the things that people know about the military are based on the Army. Army deployments are typically a little longer, so they get a two-week break called "R&R" where they can come back to the States and then return to finish their deployment. Marines deploy, take care of everything they need to do all at once, and then come home. No breaks. As much fun as it would be, Zach doesn't get to fly in for a few days for my birthday or Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Zach's in a more remote location than some other Marines, so it takes at least three weeks. After that, it really just depends on when the mail truck comes around. Sometimes, it's decently frequent; other times, it takes even longer.

Lord have mercy, I won't know the answer to that question until Zach calls me as he's getting on the plane and tells me that he'll see me in a week! I do have a general range of when he might possibly be home, but we're not even halfway through deployment yet, so that's bound to change another 17 times. I think it's safe to say that as of now, we won't spend Christmas together, but he'll be my Valentine's Day date for sure :)

Simply put:

Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine,"

but it is lived by faith in the Son of God.

- Galatians 2:20

I have no doubt that Christ has given me a peace unlike any other to sustain me during this time. Do I miss Zach? Of course. Do I wish he was here right now? For sure! But am I more than okay to continue living my life and supporting him from 7000 miles away? Yeah. Yeah, I am. And that's a peace that only Christ can provide.

In addition, I have a lot of people who support me (and Zach!), constantly check in with us, and send the sweetest notes & messages of encouragement. Plus, it's not too terribly difficult to spend a chunk of a year apart when you know you'll get many more years to be together :)

photo sent 08/17/2011

• • • • •

When Zach called bright & early this morning, I asked him if he wanted to say anything on my blog. His response?

"My girlfriend is amazing... and you should write her letters."

I'm not kidding; that's exactly what he said... word for word. It's not quite what I meant when I gave him the prompt, but I'll take it :)

If this post has prompted some questions of your own, feel free to submit them below. They can be about anything, not just the deployment, since I'll be bringing back the "End of the Month Q&A" next week.

Happy Sunday!

Beff Ann

As I was packing my room up to move back to Durham one last time, I came across an article clipped out of the Chronicle, my high school newspaper back in the day (coincidentally enough, also my college newspaper...). At my high school, the AP Literature class was also responsible for the monthly newspaper issues, hence how my best friends and I ended up on the Chronicle staff. We wrote articles about current school events, athletic performances, and everyone's favorite: the senior features.

Since I attended such a small school, every senior had a write-up in one issue of the Chronicle during the school year, basically giving a short biography of their time at Calvary and their future plans upon graduation. My article was written by none other than Kacey, and I grinned as I began to read it for the first time since high school. (I don't know where it's been hiding all these years!)

In August 2004, Beth Haynes made her way through the doors of Calvary High School. Having come from a graduating eighth-grade class of only seven other students at Center Grove, the double-digit student count of the freshman class was a little overwhelming. Nonetheless, she adjusted quickly, and it wasn't long until everyone came to love our eco-friendly Lady Crazie.

After having conquered every math available at Calvary and downing a few too many school lunches, Beth's excitement over her post-graduation plans is uncontainable. When her long-kept countdown until May 30 finally ends, Beth will begin a new one for the day she moves to Durham to attend her dearly loved Duke University. There, this promising artist will study graphic design and carry on her friendly rivalry with her former classmates attending Carolina. When her college plans were brought up, Beth heartily declared, "I've wanted to go to Duke more than anything in my whole life. I'm so excited to head off to Krzyzewskiville!" Let's hope they are ready for her.

In her spare time, Beth enjoys wishing she had spare time. When school is out for the day, Beth can be found at dance class, playing a myriad of roles in Worth the Wait performances, babysitting, hanging out with the Brethren at youth or choir, debating on which teachers really meant for her to complete their assignments, or faithfully watching college basketball. In Joseph Thomasson's opinion, "Beth can typically be found at Golden Corral or in the parking lot of Taco Bell looking for scraps." If you have looked all around and still can't find her, your next best bet is to go north. According to Cameron Swift, Beth can either be found "at Krispy Kreme or in Virginia with her non-Calvary lovers." In Virginia, aka "the best place on earth," she has collected a second family of amazing friends. She hits the road every now and again and spends her weekend jumping off bridges, exploring caves, and doing whatever else Virginians do.

Beth's fanbase back at Calvary would like to take this opportunity to say a few words. Tucker Stevens reflects, "When she goes out to get the mail, it registers on the Richter Scale." Long-time bud and Carolina rival William Michael says that "Beth is a delight to have at Calvary, even though she might be polluting her mind by going to Duke." Amy Farrington sums it up by saying, "Beth is perfect."

Beth has definitely added flavor to the Calvary experience. No one in the history of the school has wielded a Sharpie quite so elegantly over poster board or produced such high-decibel screams at sporting events. One thing is for sure: wherever we go, no one will ever complain again without looking over their shoulder, expecting soon to hear Beth's taunting sarcasm: "My life is SOOO hard!"

Hello, blast from the past :) I think my favorite part of reading this (apart from being reminded of the daily "Beth is fat" jokes that followed me throughout high school...) was realizing that the six people who contributed to the article are the six people that I still keep in touch with and make an effort to see at least once a year (if not once a week)!

[Christmas Break: Tucker, Kacey]

[Movies: William, Kacey]

[Ice Skating: Kacey, Cameron, William, Tucker]

[Spring Break: Amy]

[Domo & Froyo: Joseph, Kacey, William]

And in keeping with the "blast from the past" theme, here are some winner photographs taken during our junior & senior years of high school:

I'm so blessed with old friends and the opportunity for the majority of us to live in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area for at least one more year! Can't wait to catch up :)

Here It Goes Again

This blog post title brought to you by one of my all-time favorite music videos. A blast from the past, if you will. And by "a blast from the past," I mean... this song was recorded during my freshman year of high school. And now I'm starting my senior year of college. Oh, boy. Anyway, I'm assuming you've all seen it, but in case you've been living under a stupid rock (Harvard Sailing Team reference), I included it for your viewing pleasure.

"Here it goes again" is right.
RA training started on Sunday. This is my third year as an RA (resident assistant) at Duke; my fourth year living in my beloved Southgate. Yep. All four years in the same dorm. The same dorm that I moved into as a bright-eyed freshman. The same dorm with hall-style bathrooms & no air-conditioning in residents' rooms. The same dorm that is furthest away from everything on East Campus.

Truthfully, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. I love it.
And as crazy as it sounds, I love RA training... most of the time :)


Clearly, Christian loves RA training as well.

When we're not sitting through talks about policies, procedures, resources, and fire safety, we're more than likely eating out. Free food all week from HDRL (Housing, Dining, & Residence Life)? Yes, please.

Thus far, we've enjoyed some Enzo's, Panera, Jimmy Johns, Satisfaction, Chipotle, Whole Foods, and Ben & Jerry's. And the week is only halfway over! So many more noms headed our way.

(Let it be known that I'm typically anti-food pictures, especially at restaurants. But a bowl full of "Coffee, Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz!" ice cream? Definitely picture worthy.)



In other news, I've also spent the week attempting to organize/decorate my room for the upcoming year. I promise to show pictures once it's all in place, but be patient. That could take a while :)

And lastly, I stopped by the post office on campus for the first time since arriving back --- and was surprised to discover that I had mail. Not just any mail --- I had a letter from Hipp! If you recall, Hipp and Zach attended the same MOS school up in Maryland and worked together at the USMC School of Infantry for over a year. They've remained good friends even though they're in different units now (Hipp has been in Afghanistan since March), and I'm so glad we've stayed in touch.

Oh, heyy... now would be a perfect time to casually throw out my address for the next nine months, I suppose ;)(You see what I did there?)
Box 91540Durham, NC 27708
There are very few things in this world that I love more than snail mail, and since I'm almost completely done catching up on responding to the abundance of mail I received this summer, I could use another stack :)

In the meantime, I'll be training and painting and organizing and eating and cramming six people into a pickup truck for trips to Target (AND making bulletin boards & door decs---probably my number one strength as an RA. Just kidding. But only sort of).

Here it goes again...