I'm in College?

This past Thursday, I moved into my dorm at Kent State University. I'm officially a Golden Flash. It's still really odd for me to think of myself as a college student. I honestly don't know what to think yet. Everything is so new and I'm still adjusting to it. I'm feeling way too many emotions to count. I know that things will get better, but it's hard starting out. I know that I'm not the only one feeling like this, and that's reassuring. Another thing that keeps me going is that I'm only 45 minutes away from home. I'm not 5 states away. I would never be able to go that far away.

This morning I went to h2o, which is a church on Kent's campus. It was so refreshing and comforting to be around people that share the same beliefs as me. One of the songs they sang talked about God being on our side. One of the lines was, "I'm gonna be alright." When I heard that lyric, it hit me that I myself was going to be ok. God is going to be with me every step of the way during this new journey. I don't have to be afraid! And although I still get a lump in my throat whenever I talk to my parents on the phone, I know things will get better. God will never give me something I can't handle.

An Irish Girl

I was named after my Great Aunt Kathy. Even though I never met her, we have a lot on common. One thing that is strong between us is a love for our background. I'm Irish, German, French, and Hungarian. With my name being Kathleen Finley, you can see which heritage is the strongest. For as long as I can remember, I've had this strong desire to go to Ireland. My Aunt Kathy also had this dream. She ended up going, late in her life. She had a huge fear of flying, but she conquered it and went on the trip. Unfortunately, she became very ill during her time there and had to leave early, but her dream was reached.

I hope that I won't have to wait as long as Aunt Kathy did to go to Ireland, and hopefully I won't get sick either. I'm not quite sure where this dream of mine came from, but my mom told me I've been talking about it since I was little. There's just something about Ireland that feels like home to me. I can't quite put it into words. It's always been like that. My favorite color is green, I've done reports on Ireland for school more times than I can count. The background of my computer at work is of the Irish countryside. I even did a scene in my theatre class that required me to do an Irish accent.

There are times where I'm afraid that I'm going to go and it won't be what I thought; that I'll be disappointed by what I find. Then I think about all the reasons I want to go, all my dreams I've had since my early childhood, and I push all those fears aside. I am going to go to Ireland. And it will be beautiful.

One Year, Lots of Things

It was a year ago this past week that I went to Ecuador. I can't believe it's really been that long. So much has happened in my life between now and then. One minute I'm stepping off a plane in a new country; the next, I'm graduating from high school and getting ready for college. Some parts of this year are just a blur. It really does all go by fast. One thing that I'm not used to is talking about high school in the past tense. I feel like I should be doing that when I'm a lot older; not when I'm 18. Out of all the things I did this year, I will never, never forget that trip. It's going to affect me for the rest of my life. It has already changed me in just 365 days. I've talked about it, thought about it every day; I even wrote an essay about it in my AP Literature class. Our whole group has been changed by it. We all got together yesterday for a reunion. Seeing them again made me realize how much has happened since the trip. I discovered how busy I've been lately, and quite frankly, I don't really like it that much! I'm surrounded by these wonderful people that I had a life-changing experience with, and as looked around, I suddenly thought, how many of these people have I kept in contact with this past year? Barely any of them. The last time I saw one of them was over 3 months ago. It made feel sad that I hadn't put forth more of an effort to maintain a solid relationship with them. You don't just write these sort of people off. Being able to reconnect was so wonderful. I missed it so much. So I'm not going to let that happen again.