9 Things You Should Do Your First Year of College

Since I spent many of my waking hours at college this year, now have many college friends, and by
the end of the summer will have taken 12 college courses I figure I am at least semi-qualified to tell you about college. So here are 9 things you should do in college (preferably starting your freshman year)...

1. Get on the professor's good side before you need something
Your professors will have lots of students. If you can stand out in a good way that is very important because when you need something they will be a lot more interested in talking to you and trying to help you. You don't want to need a favor and your professor see you as 'the kid that walks in late every day'. Be respectful and kind. They work hard and deserve the respect. Many are very willing to help you pass the class or help you get that internship but if you never respect them you will have a tough time.

2. Take the opportunity to talk to people you don't know
There are several hundred to several thousand people on campus. You will not know everyone by week three. I guarantee you that. Even after year three chances are there will still be people in your own class that you don't know. Still, take the time to talk to people you don't know.You could become best friends. Okay, while not extremely likely that will happen with everyone you sit down and talk to you may be surprised to hear the things you have in common. At the very least you will probably have an interesting conversation so take the time to talk to the person you are sitting by at lunch or in class.

3. Go to events
Yes, you are not paying thousands of dollars to go to events. True. But if you are going to be paying thousands of dollars and only get a few years there, make the most of it. Go to football games with friends - even if you hate football. You may not remember the game but you may remember the time you were jumping around cheering for the team and your friend made you fall on the guy in front of you. Go to the band concerts and cheer on your friends. You may not remember the pieces they played but chances are that friend will remember you were there for her. Go to events - if you are lucky you may end up with a new friend or at least some free food. Both are pretty good.

4. Live on campus

If you can, live on campus. There is something special about living 100 feet from your friends or (if you are lucky) living with your friends. Some crazy adventures happen and if you don't live on campus you will miss a lot of them. I know because I have missed out on some crazy adventures with my friends by living at home. But that's okay because this year at home has made me realize how much I want to live there and next year I will appreciate those times all the more.

5. Join something
When I ask fellow college students what they recommend freshman do I always hear the phrase 'join something'. Join band. Join choir. Join track. Join swing dancing club. Join something. Joining something gives you the chance to get to know people outside people in your major and your hall mates. When I joined a group I honestly feel like I joined a family. So get connected right away by joining a group and be part of something incredible.

6. Buy your books online or from other students
Whatever you do, don't buy all your books for the campus bookstore. That is a rookie mistake. Check out all the best textbook sites and see what other prices you can get. Also, another great place to look is down the hall. A lot of students are looking to sell their books back and 90% won't ask nearly as much for them as the campus bookstore. And even if they want to keep their books many will actually just let you borrow them for the semester.

7. Meet with advisers and have a plan
If you know what major you want to pursue and if you have any other plans (like internships you want to do or adding on a minor) then it is a very good idea to meet with your advisers. They know what classes you should be taking and in what order.

8. Talk with juniors and seniors in your major
They know what professors to take and which ones you want to avoid like the plague. They also will know which classes you will need to study for the most and which ones are okay to slack on a bit. Like previously mentioned, you also may be able to borrow or buy some textbooks from them too! (Side note: another great tool to find out which professors are good is ratemyprofessors.com - true, some students have the poorest reasons for rating professors as bad or good but overall it can give you a fair idea of what a professor is like)

9. Enjoy the journey
Above all though, do not let these moments go by you. Don't spend your whole four years wasting time and be preoccupied with other things. Go out on late night adventures with your roommates. Meet new people. Take interesting classes. Enjoy your college experience while you can. You will never forget it.

Chicago: Because We Don't Want to Say "Tomorrow" Today

I left the Blaine campus of Eagle Brook Church at 8 a.m. on  the morning of June 22, 2015 for Chicago, IL. I didn't know what God had planned but I was excited to see what it was. Life with God is like a good book - there are always grand adventures. Life with God is much like life with Ferris Bueller - not all at what you expected it to be. The next few days were a whirlwind of an adventure and I want to share with you some of the observations I made, things I experienced, and things I saw. The way I will do this is take you on the trip by telling you a little about each day.

Monday: Keep a Mission Trip Mindset
When we arrived at North Park University late in the afternoon we knew the drill: get your room key and bring your luggage to your room. So we did. It just wasn't quite as easy as we expected it to be. For one thing, it was dreadfully hot outside and surprisingly, nearly as hot inside. We were all banking on the expensive private school in Illinois to have A/C. Apparently not. Secondly, the line to check in and get our room keys was quite long. So not only did we have to wait in line but we had to do it with all our luggage piled on us while we were dripping with sweat. Then when my roommate and I got our keys we discovered that the elevator we assumed was down the hall didn't exist. And our room was on the fourth floor. Most people would complain to the management after an experience like that but we didn't because we were on a mission trip. So we got a better hold on our luggage and said "mission trip" and lugged our things up to the fourth floor. Throughout the week we used that phrase "mission trip" as a way of saying "okay, let's do this". And it got me thinking - what if we did that all our lives? Instead of complaining and wishing things were different what if we just pulled up our boot straps and did what needed to be done? We would be lights to the world and we be happier at the same time.

Tuesday: We Need Fun As Much As We Need Work
I did not plan to enjoy the sightseeing part of this trip at all. When I am on a mission trip I want to work. But I truly enjoyed seeing the sights. Not just because it was fun to splash through the fountain although it was. Not just because it was cool to take pictures of ourselves in the Bean. Not just because it was awesome to buy Ferris Bueller merchandise in Chicago. And not just because it was epic to take a picture of myself staring down at the ground from the top of Willis Tower like Ferris and his friends do in the movie. It was because it was with people that I love dearly and I often forget I need fun even more than I need to work. Working is vital to our vitality but so is play. We remember this when it comes to animals and kids but forget that even when you grow older you still need time to relax and have fun too.

Wednesday: Listen to God's Promptings
That evening we went to Navy Pier. Now that was a very interesting experience but one thing that stuck out to me was the prayer walk. I am a big fan of prayer walks and my favorite parts of the past two trips were (you guessed it) the prayer walks. So at first I was pretty discouraged by our results. We had talked to several families but we only got to pray with one but even then it wasn’t a very long or touching conversation. We were getting to the end of the half hour the pastors had asked us to pray with people and the others in my group seemed to be getting antsy to do the “fun things at Navy Pier”. But I didn’t feel like God was done with us yet. So I asked for one more group hoping that God would intervene. We went to pray with another group – rejection. Still, I was unsatisfied but I had made a promise to my group members that I would finally shut up about praying for people for the evening. About twenty minutes later a couple asked me to take a few pictures of them so I did and as I did a light bulb went off – pray for them! So after I took some pretty awesome shots of them with the city in the background I jumped into the Zone of the Unknown. I started talking to them and found out they had just moved to Chicago from Egypt and were getting married in the fall. They said they needed all the help they could get and let us pray with them. That encounter with them stuck out to me. In fact a week after I returned from Chicago I started reading “Just Walk Across the Room” by Bill Hybels (you should definitely read it – I mean, I haven’t finished reading it yet but so far it is great and Bill is great so just trust me on this) and this one line stuck out to me as well. I think that encounter at Navy Pier and this line from the book go quite well together actually. (Are you mad I haven’t told you the line yet? Are you dying of suspense yet?) Either way, the line is “life’s greatest moments evolve from simple acts of cooperation with God’s mysterious promptings”. That is so profound to me because that moment was not one I will ever regret and it was led by a prompting from God. Come to think out nothing God has called me to do has ever been anything I regret in life. It’s only when I don’t listen to Him that I fail. I think Bill is right. Life is best when we let God in the driver’s seat. Now once you know the circumstances of this encounter it gets better. This moment would have never happened if we hadn’t lost my friend. She disappeared and the only reason we were there when that couple was is because we were making phone calls looking for her. It just goes to show that sometimes the greatest moments of your life can happen in the middle of mess and just when you are asking God where He is He is waiting to show you His presence.

Thursday: Love People
Thursday was the first of two days we did VBS. It was much different this year than previous years though because we were serving on the south side of Chicago. We consistently had to break up fights. We heard a kid (who shouldn't have even known what rape was) say that another boy was trying to rape him. We also heard a little girl tell us how her daddy threw her sister against a wall. We didn't have to be told about the gang wars and violence and poverty and constant shootings that happen in that neighborhood to understand what these kids were coming from. The kids told us and showed us what they were growing up in. Things like that break your heart. One of the girls from my small group told me going into the week that she was terrible with kids but by the end of our second day she was crying because she didn't want to leave them. She was experiencing the mission trip pain of not being able to stay. I know it because I've gone through it before. I hate trying to answer questions like "are you staying?" and "when are you coming back?" because there is no good answers to those questions. You can't lie to them and you can't tell them what they want to hear. Still, you want to say "yes, I'll always be here for you". You want to save them. But instead you are reminded how powerless you truly are. You can choose to do one of two things - you can either wallow in grief or you can just choose to love people as much as you can for as long as you can. There is a quote that is so accurate it's scary and it says you can't save people, just love them. No matter what we cannot truly save anyone, only Jesus can. We do, however, have the ability to love people and that is powerful all by itself. I think we should choose to love all our lives. Everyone we encounter will have their own struggles and they need to be loved. As much as we want to save them we can't. But no one can take away our ability to love people.

Friday: Choose To Thank God For the Good Rather Then Be Angry About the Bad
We left the Willis Tower around 4:45 in the afternoon. It was raining - not sprinkling, raining. And I had taken my poncho out of my purse that morning before we left. The bus did not pick us up for an hour. At first I had nothing but my purse which I over my head to shield myself from the rain. Thankfully, I have got connections. Just kidding, thankfully I have friends and one gave me his poncho. There are two ways to look at this situation - just as there are two ways to look at any situation. I could look at the bad and be upset. After a full week of work we were all tired and we wanted to get back to campus to relax. We didn't want to wait around especially in the rain when many of us did not have ponchos. Even those that did were still cold. One girl was visibly shivering. We could have said that was a terrible experience but I want to choose to see it differently. For one, when I looked at the weather before we left it said there was at least a 20% chance of rain. Two of the days were 50% or over. Yet not once did it rain when we were serving. That is incredible. And I was lucky enough to have a friend that offered me a poncho. And we could have been homeless people who just had to deal with it. Instead we were waiting for a Coach bus to take us to a private college where we were staying. You could look at everything in life through different lenses, You could look and see the bad or you could look and focus on the good. It is your choice but you will always be happier if you chose to see the good.

Saturday: Remember to Invest in People Because They Bring More Meaning to Life
Looking back it is interesting to think that people who I didn't know on Monday could became my friends by Saturday. People who you swear you have never even seen at your campus are now someone you've shared dance parties and unforgettable moments with on mission trips. That's just the way a mission trip is. It's a beautiful thing to see - it really is. This is the 4th time I have seen it happen - strangers become inseparable friends on a mission trip. When I think back to the early part of the week I am struck by the fact that people I didn't know made my days so much better simply by being there. Two girls in particular I spent a lot of time with. Before Monday I knew neither but now I consider them to be friends of mine. I also met a lot of other girls from my campus who I want to get to know better next year. In fact, it has inspired me to really try to meet new people at Revolution next year. As much as I love my friends from small group I want to invest in others - others who are new or just need a friend. Not only that but people I already knew become even more important to me. I experienced a lot of that this year. In fact, on Friday night during our debrief session we spent time breaking down our week into definable themes. Out of the six choices the category 'people' stuck out to me the most. It's not that people haven't been important in previous trips but for some reason they stuck out this year. I grew a lot closer to my small group leader and the three girls from my small group who accompanied me. I'd known two of the girls for nearly three years and the other for a year but this trip really bonded me to them even more. We have so many more adventures and memories we now share. We know more things about one another than we did before. We are simply closer and I am extremely thankful for that. I trust those three very much and am blessed to go through life with them.

Home Team: What it is & why everyone needs one

What it is?
A home team is a group of people who have your back in good times and bad. They could be your parents, your coaches and mentors, your friends, your siblings, your grandparents, your pastors, or your small group leaders.

Where can you get one?
Your home team could consist of people from any part of your life. They could be people from church or school or work or home.

When should you get one?
You should find yourself a home team before life takes a turn for the worst because that is when you will need one.

Why do you need one?
We were made to be in relationships. We need companionship - even us introverts who may sometimes beg to differ. As the saying goes, no man is an island. Life is much more meaningful when we have a home team by our side. They are the people who will cheer us on and celebrate with us when we finish that marathon, ace that test, get into college, get that promotion, and finally receive the adoption paperwork. But they are also there when we are in the hospital, a person close to us dies, we don't get the job, and find out we can't have kids. We need people there with us no matter what we are going through.

How do you get one?
You don't have to ask people to be on your 'home team'. Frankly, that would probably sound weird. Just take a look at who you know in life and make a list of people you know you can count on. If you find you don't really have that many people then maybe it is time to make some new friends and discover who could be on your team.

How many people should be on your home team?
There is no set number of people you should have on your team. Your home team may have three people on while another person may say they have eleven on theirs.

Personal Notes
We talk about home teams in church on occasion and one occasion came up recently. It got me thinking about who is on my team. I'd always absorbed the message (yep, we need people - got it) but never took a look at my own life. So I decided to sit down and write out my list. I came up with 13 people. The interesting thing is that eight of them have been there for me since I was a little girl and the other 40% were people who came into my life less than 3 years ago and get this - all five of them I have added to my list in the past 3 years I met through being involved at church. Being involved in a group (whether its sports, clubs, youth group, or tech team at church) is one nearly guaranteed way to meet some people who will be there for you and take their places on your home team.

Two Challenges
Now for the challenge part. I want to make two challenges for you. Number one - make a list of the people on your home team and find some way to thank them for being there for you. Literally write down the way you plan to thank them and post it somewhere. I would really love to hear if you did this. Secondly, I want to challenge you to take a look around at your life and think about whose team you may be on and whose team you could be on.

Why Your Children Should Read Harry Potter: The Valuable Lessons Of An Incredible Series

First things first *SPOILERS * SPOILERS *SPOILERS

Now that that is taken care of it's time to get to the post...

It is surprising to me the number of parents who still disapprove of the Harry Potter series. I understand that they don't want to promote witchcraft and sorcery and the like but Harry Potter isn't made to promote it and I have never met a person yet who got into sorcery because they read Harry Potter. What I have seen though is people who fell in love with reading and learned valuable lessons because of it. The Harry Potter series made me personally fall back in love with reading. While I could discuss that point more, I won't because that isn't part of my purpose today. My purpose today is to convince you of this: the Harry Potter series has infinite value. Here is why...

Judging Others: Harry was wrong
about every one of these

Teamwork
Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George were just a few of the many characters who showed us true teamwork. In my mind, Fred and George are the ultimate team. They work together on everything and they show us that two can be a whole lot better than one. Also in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the famous trio (Harry, Hermione, and Ron) need the strengths and expertise of each of them to keep going. They have to cooperate and work together to stay alive. They have to trust each person to lead them in the right direction and to keep them safe. In the final book there is a battle at Hogwarts and it takes everyone working together to defeat Voldemort and the Death Eaters. The "good guys" work together and come out victorious while the Death Eaters don't because while they are working for one cause they don't cooperate very well. They are constantly struggling for power and when it comes down to it they are not at all willing to make sacrifices for one another. So not only does the series show us the qualities of a good team but it shows us what will make a team fail in the end. For a large part of my life I have been one to always try to do everything on my own, but Harry Potter and his friends taught me that you cannot master everything and sometimes you need someone with a different skill than you to do something. For more about HP and teamwork, read this.

Judging Others
When I think about the series and the topic of judgement I jump right to Harry and Snape. Harry made judgments about Snape throughout the entire series and yet in the end we learn that all we thought about Snape was completely false. Snape was a hero in many ways but we don't understand this until he is dying. Snape is not really how we viewed him for most of the series. I think many of us can learn from this because I think all of us do what Harry did. We make judgments about someone and later learn something about them that completely changes how we view them. This one truth will stick with me forever mainly because of Harry Potter: things are not always as they seem. This is clearly illustrated by the photo on the left. Harry was ridiculously wrong on all of those assumptions yet he still kept making them. We look at Harry and say 'get it together'. Then we often go and make our own wrong assumptions about others.

Lightness and Goodness
In many books and movies we are told or shown who is "good" and who is "bad". I think the Harry Potter series does an excellent job at showing us that people are very complex and cannot be accurately described as good or bad. Sirius Black once told Harry, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are." In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore says that we must choose between what is right and what is easy. I think that this ties into choosing what side of us we will act on. What is easy is often not what is good. It is often much harder to do the right thing, which is why we make so many mistakes in life. Another wise quote from Dumbledore relates to the topic of lightness and darkness is this one: "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light." The series teaches us to act on what is good and right.

Friendship and Loyalty
Those who know me know I am not really a crier. I don't tend to cry at movies or songs or even books. It's rare for me. But nothing makes me want to cry more than Dobby's final words. "What a beautiful place to be with friends. Dobby is happy to be with his friend...Harry Potter." Dobby is probably the most loyal friend one could ever have. He shows us what a true friend is and in the end, he dies saving his friends. Dobby is not the only character that shows us the true value of friendship and loyalty. Hermione put a lot of emphasis on doing well in school but she always showed us that friendship comes first. In the very first book Hermione said this: "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things -- friendship and bravery." The Harry Potter series made me (and probably many others) want to have friends like Harry, Ron, and Hermione so in many ways the series encourages to make new friends and keep them central in our lives.

Love
Harry Potter proves that love is the closest thing we have to magic. Nothing can stop it. Lily's love protected Harry even after she died. Hermione, Ron, and Harry took risks for one another out of love. Dobby risked his life for the trio out of love. Snape protected Harry out of love for Lily. Love is shown by so many characters throughout the series it would be impossible to list them all. Many characters show love for others to their deaths. The series does make this clear though: the ones that love us never really leave us. The series helps us cope. It shows us how to move on but it also shows us to treasure the love we are shown and also, to show love back.

Life

Life can be incredibly hard. The HP series does not shy away from conflict or death. It embraces them head on. There are over 20 major deaths in the series. Harry grows up as an orphan living with his unloving and uncaring relatives. Snape loses the love of his life to the man who bullied him in school. Tonks and Remus died just when their lives together were beginning and Teddy grew up an orphan. Arthur and Molly Weasley lose a son. Hogwarts loses Dumbledore. Harry loses Sirius, the one family member not lost to him already. Neville's parents lose their sanity. There is so much reality in this series about a fictional world. The Harry Potter series teaches us that life isn't fair, people we love will die, and things will never be happily ever after. But that doesn't mean life isn't a wonderful thing.

Other Good Lessons

A. Our words have power - “Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.”
B. Live in the present - “It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live.”
C. We are the same in many ways - "Though we may come from different countries and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one"
D. Watch how someone treats their inferiors - "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
E. Living without love is more pitiful than death - “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.”

The Harry Potter series is seen by many as simply a series about witchcraft and wizardry but it is not just that. It is a series that promotes teamwork, shows the importance of not judging others, tells us that there is no such thing as good people and bad people, gives us a picture of true friendship and loyalty, demonstrates the importance of love, and gives us a realistic perspective on life. If you haven't read the series, then do yourself a favor and read it. You won't regret it.

You've Got A Friend In Me: The Infinite Value Of Good Companions

J.D. and Turk, Betty and Wilma, Woody and Buzz, Harry and Ron, Ted and Marshall, Laverne and Shirley, Wayne and Garth, Chandler and Joey, Shawn and Gus, Lucy and Ethel, Jerry and George, Ron and Kim, Timon and Pumbaa, Bess and George, Phineas and Ferb, Cagney and Lacey, Copper and Todd.

I don't even think I need to ask at this point but... what do all these duos have in common? They are all best friends. (Great respect to you if you got all those, by the way.) They are honest with one another, they know each other even better than they know themselves, they spend time together, and they laugh together. They are always there for each other through thick and thin.

Although friendship shines in the light times it is truly proven in the dark times. For example, when Buzz was chosen to be tortured by Sid and Buzz wouldn't fight, Woody fought for him. He risked his life to put together a team to save his best friend. When Lily left Marshall, Ted was there to pick up the pieces. Pumbaa and Timon took Simba under their metaphorical wings. Friendship is often proven in hard times, like when you are facing a trial and a friend sticks with you or even sticks up for you.

Friends are really the family that you choose. You know the saying blood is thicker than water? Well, its meaning is often misconstrued. The whole phrase is the blood of the covenant is thick than the water of the womb. Friendship is a strong bond. Friends don't always last forever but some friends may be in our lives for our entire lives. We all need friends in our lives. They are infinitely valuable. Thomas Aquinas once said "there is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship." In good times, friends help you celebrate when you get a promotion, have a child, get married, or get asked out and in hard times, true friends will be there when your pet dies, you get fired, your husband leaves you, or you don't get into the college of your dreams. Marlene Dietrich said “it's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”

Never be too busy for your friends. Life can get busy but friends make life more meaningful. Leave time for your friends - in the good and the bad times. I love what Jon Katz says: “I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don't take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.”

Its also important to always be open to making new friends. Step up and introduce yourself. That person may become your friend and they may just change your life. Life is too short to spend alone so strike up a conversation. Find out what you have in common. What do you have to lose?