Spring and Summer 2010 update

Well, so I got super behind on writing quarterly blogs, or any blogs, during spring and summer of this year. So, before beginning my third year of college, an entirely new adventure, I thought I'd briefly write about how my second year of college ended.

My spring break was a bit of a hardship, as instead of going to Yosemite, I had jury duty. The case was a case on prostitution. Enough said.

For some reason, I always seem to take my hardest classes during spring quarter. Last year I took CSE 12, which was the most difficult programming course that I had taken to date. This quarter I took CSE 140, a class on logic design, and its associated lab. This course proved to be more difficult than others that I had taken.

The first week of spring quarter brought some more stress, but after that things began to get better. Following this was tabling for the Admit Day where the new admitted freshmen visit the campus and see what the university has to offer. One of my friends from high school was able to visit as well. Following this was the Upper Room spring retreat. We went to a church in San Clemente and spent time on the beach and took time away from school to get to know one another and get closer to God.

The next few weeks brought on a further onslaught of school, coupled with going nocturnal and taking naps during the day for two days straight. Further problems in my life kept coming up and I kept having to spend more emotional energy dealing with this. The only break in this was the Sungod festival, where two Christian bands, Relient K and Thrice played. (Well, Thrice isn't necessarily Christian, but I won't get into that now). Following this was more chaos, ending in a week with three days of going nocturnal.

Towards the end of the quarter was the girls' appreciation night, which was definitely one of the highlights of the quarter. Then came the madness of finals and a journey to Fishfest, where some friends and I saw TobyMac and Jeremy Camp playing, as well as Thousand Foot Krutch.

One week later, I began my job at a Christian camp for the summer as the producer of the weekly camp videos that the kids purchased. While I still enjoyed what I did, this year was more hectic than the past year, with the same amount of kids from last year crammed into two fewer weeks of camp. With a second junior high camp of 275 campers and a high school camp of 360 campers, there were some weeks where I was entirely drained after two late nights of 4 hours of sleep followed by an all-nighter lasting until sometimes 8-10 AM.

So what was the point of all the stuff that happened the last six months?

There were times that I wanted to give up throughout the spring and summer and where I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually drained. A lot of my Facebook statuses, Twitter posts, and blogs evidence this. At these times it was solely God who got me through these times. Many of my prayers were asking God to give me just enough strength to make it through the week because I had no clue how I would do it on my own. And God gave me just enough strength to make it through the week.

I also learned more about how important trusting in God really is. There were times when I trusted Him in something and times when I tried to rely on what I could provide for myself. It was usually in the latter when I failed and realized that I couldn't do it on my own. Even through all my failings God still managed to use me throughout the course of this quarter, and the course of this year, and I am continually blown away by this.

Finally, God revealed to me one of the things that I should be doing this coming year. Tabling for Admit Day was an eye-opening experience for me that showed me the need that Upper Room has for people who are willing to do PR and to make people aware who are looking for a Christian fellowship and for community. This year I am serving as one of the PR officers for Upper Room and working to accomplish this goal. I know that God has me going to UCSD and in this position and in Upper Room for a reason, and though I frequently don't understand life (school, work, girl problems, for example), I know that God is in control.