Strange College Things

    After being away from college for a year, returning has been a strange experience. Coming back to the strange situations that go on, on campus. Some of these things may only pertain to Parkside, but I thought I'd list them anyway.

1) If you live on campus, there's a strange pull to stay up past midnight. Almost no one goes to sleep before midnight, and if you do your one of the strange few.

2) In classes you might never get to know the person sitting next to you. The people in the classes (most of them) are there for the class and then to leave. No conversations, no friendmaking, in and out. This makes it increasingly harder to be intentional with people and even to make friends in classes, even though I suspect a lot of these people are probably lonely.

3) People sit in the same place every single class. We are creatures of habit so it makes sense, but at the School of Worship most people intentionally sat in different places each day so they could get to know others in the class better. With this in college, I feel switching seats every class would make people angry if I were sitting in "their spot".

4) People are kind of obnoxious on campus. While in other places people will try to be respectful and keep things at a quieter noise-level at college this is thrown out the window. Oh, you're trying to sleep at night, let me play volleyball at 2am with my friends outside. You're trying to study? Let me just not turn down my music or this video I'm watching online.

5) People you know don't notice you, due to looking at their phone.  Oh hey it's my friend, _______.  That's awkward, they didn't see me.....again.

    I'll probably add to this, but right now these are the top 5 things I've noticed after returning to college.

      I'm adding to this again as I noticed some more situations. This one has to do with #4. Not many things irritate me but this has been getting on my nerves so much. One of my roommates sings at the top of her lungs around midnight. She's a good singer but I am so sick of hearing it especially when I'm trying to sleep. Do you not know that this isn't a great time to belt out operatic tunes?

Working with Kids With the Heart of Jesus

             While reflecting on a situation that occurred today, God revealed something to me.


The Situation:  Some of my clients at work have multiple sessions a day. I came to do my session directly after this particular kid had had another therapy session. The mom warned me about how he was having a bad day, and would probably be really difficult for me. In the previous session he had a meltdown and showed bad behaviors, which I read about in the therapy records. Throughout the session the kid did really well with me, and didn't act out and even earned outside time at the end or session. The mother said she was surprised at how he had acted, saying that the other therapist was much more strict and hard on him, but somehow my personality with being calm, gentle, and soft-spoken had made him respond better to me. Stating how it was a miracle that he calmed down after such a bad session previously. I told her that the Holy Spirit was in the room, and able to create a sort of peace in the room, and she agreed.

    We are all peacemakers. Wherever we go, we carry the peace of God, and other's around us notice us, like in this situation. When Jesus dealt with children he was calm,gentle, and patient. He didn't yell, and thank goodness for us God doesn't yell at us, but has patience for us. This is how we are meant to be with people. Being patient, and slow to anger. Talking and thinking through a situation before reacting.