Thursday, August 28, 2008

Little Miss Popular

Three times now in the last two days, I've had a whole gaggle of frat boys chanting my name. Loudly. I've also been told several times that I'm the coolest person ever, as well as receiving a handful of requests for a new post on my blog.

What does one have to do to earn such popularity? It's not hard, really-- just hand out free food on a college campus and be too busy to blog for about a month. Suddenly, you're Miss Popular. It's nice to feel loved.


After three months-- yes, three months-- of traveling, Chris & I finally returned home to our beloved little apartment and let out a sigh of relief (briefly). It is so, so good to be home-- to not be living out of a suitcase anymore, to sleep in our own bed, cook our own food and just have our own space. It's glorious, really. Not to mention the fact that we are head over heels in love with our City.

However, we haven't had much time to soak it in, as we had exactly one
week to settle into our new office, plan for the Fall, prepare for three interns to arrive, design a website, celebrate Chris' 30th, and kick off the first week of classes with our students. Now if you've spent much time in Campus Crusade, you'll know that the first week of classes is a three ringed circus-- sometimes in a good way, and sometimes more like Siegfried & Roy's little tiger incident. This week has mostly been the good kind of circus, but tiring, none the less.

Really, when it comes down to it, we bought our popularity with a giant percolator of coffee, 25 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, and 10 pounds of burritos (each on a different day) to hand out to grateful, hungry college students. They're too easy.

I had a ton of fun, going from table to table, meeting every sorority & fraternity on campus, being invited to play on the women's rugby team or sing in the Gospel choir or join the Japanese Student Association while I offered free donuts & got to know club presidents. It really was great: the weather was surprisingly hot & sunny and the campus was bustling with that first-day-of-school excitement as students of every shape & size swarmed around the Student Center in between class. Nervous freshmen, eager sorority girls, strung out hippies, awkward geeks, smug professors, and conspicuous old people handing out fliers (no, I was not one of them!). I ended up sunburned & exhausted, with almost no voice left, but the deep satisfaction that comes from loving your job & knowing that you're exactly where God wants you. It's been good.

It's a little bit crazy to think through what's next. I have no idea. We planned out life through this Sunday (when we have a little welcome BBQ for our students), and beyond that, we haven't had time to think. One thing we do know is that God has called us to be here, so I feel at peace and content about whatever is around the corner.

Hopefully it's not a group of frat guys chanting my name-- or Roy's tiger...