So much has happened since we’ve last updated! A lot of you know we sold our products at the David Phelps Labor Day Barn Bash and we were so excited that many of you were able to sample our products! We also unveiled two new products at Barn Bash which we will be adding to website soon so that you can buy them. Maggie Beth made two different sugar scrubs (used for exfoliation and shaving) and I put together a cooling facial spray (for keeping your skin cool and refreshed during these hot summer days). Look for those on the website soon.
This is my third week back at Samford and I cannot begin to tell you how much more I love school. I thought college was incredible last year but this year is just blowing my mind! One of the most exciting experiences for me is the wonderful new group of friends I have been inaugurated into. I’m sad that it took me a year to find them and they have changed my perspective on a lot of things.
I take a long time to warm up to people. Part of the problem is that I have had the same group of friends for most of my life, so I’ve never had to make a new group of friends. This really deterred me my freshman year of college. I didn’t rush a sorority because it wasn’t my thing and I didn’t really involve myself in campus so I felt like my friend circle was very limited last year. A lot of that was me. I was too worried about looking stupid to put myself out there and make friends, which is ridiculous because who is going to just turn you away for being nice to them? So I told myself I was going to do fun things this year, talk to people I knew from classes, make actual plans with people, etc.
I remember, around the same time I decided this, I started to re-read one of my favorite books Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen. Let me just take a moment to say that I love Sarah Dessen and what she does with her writing. I love the way she takes teen fiction (which gets a shamefully horrible rap, by the way) and uses it to make beautiful observations about life and human nature. In this particular book, her character Auden encounters a guy named Eli. Up until this point Auden has been a social mess, always focusing on school and never taking the time to be a child and enjoy life outside of education. However, when she meets Eli she is instantly able to talk to him as if they’ve been friends forever. This part of the book, which is just a fleeting moment in the scheme of the story, always seemed so odd to me. I never really understood how you could just pick up with someone new like you had been together your whole lives. It never seemed to work like that for me. Then I met this group.
Remember how I promised myself I would talk to people I knew from classes? Well, I was waiting on a friend to meet me at our Back to School concert when I saw a guy from a class that I was in the year before. We had always been nice to each other and would say “hi” when we passed each other on campus, so I went over to talk to him and catch up. And we kept talking . . . and talking. Then a friend of his showed up and we all started talking. Then more friends . . . and more friends. And all of the sudden I found myself inside this group with interesting people AND I DIDN’T FEEL WEIRD. I didn’t feel out of place. I didn’t feel like I was crashing the party.
Then I finally understood what Dessen was doing with Auden and Eli. Sometimes people just find each other. They’re supposed to be friends and there’s no tension or wondering or initial awkwardness (though this doesn’t mean it will never get awkward, ever). And it reminded me that I had felt that way before - it had just been so long that I had forgotten the origins of relationships I still cling to today.
If you are on Pinterest and browse the wedding section, you will very frequently come across the quote from Song of Solomon 3:4 “ . . . I have found the one whom my soul loves.” (I used a pin as the icon for this post!) This is a beautiful quote that is awesome for weddings, marriage, and romantic relationships. However, I think this can apply to multiple different kinds of relationships. Sometimes we find people who we just know we are supposed to be with, whether it’s a friend, mentor, teacher, student, boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, wife, or any other relationship you can think of. And it just works. You just fit. You find the one your soul loves.
Slowly I remembered relationships I had eased into before: my best friend, my high school group, bonding with a professor. I realized how lucky I am to have found so many people that my soul loves and how lucky that I have found many more in this school year. Relationships are precious things and I treasure each one I get immensely. Now every time I think about this concept of “finding who your soul loves” I get so excited to see who else I will find throughout my lifetime. I hope you have all experienced this as well because there are few things in life more beautiful than a bond between souls. If you haven’t, go find it. It will be one of the best things you ever do.
This is my third week back at Samford and I cannot begin to tell you how much more I love school. I thought college was incredible last year but this year is just blowing my mind! One of the most exciting experiences for me is the wonderful new group of friends I have been inaugurated into. I’m sad that it took me a year to find them and they have changed my perspective on a lot of things.
I take a long time to warm up to people. Part of the problem is that I have had the same group of friends for most of my life, so I’ve never had to make a new group of friends. This really deterred me my freshman year of college. I didn’t rush a sorority because it wasn’t my thing and I didn’t really involve myself in campus so I felt like my friend circle was very limited last year. A lot of that was me. I was too worried about looking stupid to put myself out there and make friends, which is ridiculous because who is going to just turn you away for being nice to them? So I told myself I was going to do fun things this year, talk to people I knew from classes, make actual plans with people, etc.
I remember, around the same time I decided this, I started to re-read one of my favorite books Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen. Let me just take a moment to say that I love Sarah Dessen and what she does with her writing. I love the way she takes teen fiction (which gets a shamefully horrible rap, by the way) and uses it to make beautiful observations about life and human nature. In this particular book, her character Auden encounters a guy named Eli. Up until this point Auden has been a social mess, always focusing on school and never taking the time to be a child and enjoy life outside of education. However, when she meets Eli she is instantly able to talk to him as if they’ve been friends forever. This part of the book, which is just a fleeting moment in the scheme of the story, always seemed so odd to me. I never really understood how you could just pick up with someone new like you had been together your whole lives. It never seemed to work like that for me. Then I met this group.
Remember how I promised myself I would talk to people I knew from classes? Well, I was waiting on a friend to meet me at our Back to School concert when I saw a guy from a class that I was in the year before. We had always been nice to each other and would say “hi” when we passed each other on campus, so I went over to talk to him and catch up. And we kept talking . . . and talking. Then a friend of his showed up and we all started talking. Then more friends . . . and more friends. And all of the sudden I found myself inside this group with interesting people AND I DIDN’T FEEL WEIRD. I didn’t feel out of place. I didn’t feel like I was crashing the party.
Then I finally understood what Dessen was doing with Auden and Eli. Sometimes people just find each other. They’re supposed to be friends and there’s no tension or wondering or initial awkwardness (though this doesn’t mean it will never get awkward, ever). And it reminded me that I had felt that way before - it had just been so long that I had forgotten the origins of relationships I still cling to today.
If you are on Pinterest and browse the wedding section, you will very frequently come across the quote from Song of Solomon 3:4 “ . . . I have found the one whom my soul loves.” (I used a pin as the icon for this post!) This is a beautiful quote that is awesome for weddings, marriage, and romantic relationships. However, I think this can apply to multiple different kinds of relationships. Sometimes we find people who we just know we are supposed to be with, whether it’s a friend, mentor, teacher, student, boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, wife, or any other relationship you can think of. And it just works. You just fit. You find the one your soul loves.
Slowly I remembered relationships I had eased into before: my best friend, my high school group, bonding with a professor. I realized how lucky I am to have found so many people that my soul loves and how lucky that I have found many more in this school year. Relationships are precious things and I treasure each one I get immensely. Now every time I think about this concept of “finding who your soul loves” I get so excited to see who else I will find throughout my lifetime. I hope you have all experienced this as well because there are few things in life more beautiful than a bond between souls. If you haven’t, go find it. It will be one of the best things you ever do.