Hey April!

Somehow I managed to graduate this past weekend. No really, I’m surprised! In the days prior to the graduation, I received two confirmation emails stating that I was officially going to get my diploma–one from the CALS department and another from my biology faculty advisor, Wendy. While I had received the confirmation emails, I was still waiting for someone to come tap me on the shoulder and say, “Actually, we need to take that pin and diploma back because we realize we made a mistake. You haven’t actually completed all of your requirements.” Amen that never happened and I’m back in California now (so they really better not even try to take my degree back)!
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39. Make a significant impact in someone’s life (which means someone would have to say that I have impacted their life in some way…)

Well, it’s been quite a month as a disciple (I’m already over 1 month)! I’ve had to put a few things on the back burner for the time being (this blog, Almost A-List), as I juggle school, job hunting, graduation, volunteering, and helping lead Bible studies. I’ve somehow been able to handle everything, but that’s really just God and nothing I have done (because people who knew me when I was in the world would know that I typically flip out at anything stressful, lol).

For a while I was taking my status as a disciple for granted. I wasn’t realizing the value and honor of the position that God has called me to because I was being prideful and ashamed of what the world would think of me. In my pride, I didn’t want to be shamed or branded as a “crazy Christian”. I didn’t want people to see me as this “goody two-shoes that always talks about the Bible and goes to church”. I’ve really been trying to fight this stereotype because I wanted to blend in with the world. I got tired of being persecuted by my family and closest friends for the life that I have chosen, so what better way to avoid that than to deny that I’m a Christian and just blend in to the world (ok clearly my heart was in the wrong place, lol).

So what does this have to do with me completing #39 on my list?
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This has been going around Facebook like crazy. Every newsfeed I see on my homepage is about one of my friends who has done this thing. I got tagged but I don’t feel like burdening 25 of my friends (considering how only a few responded to my Top 20 songs thing, lol). So I figured, I could just do it here and people can follow if they want to (or not). Here we go!

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12. Share my faith with someone I’m no longer friends with (or who I know holds a grudge against me for some reason…lol this is DEFINITELY going to be a challenge–but a good one)

This is probably the most challenging item on the list because not only do I run the risk of being persecuted for my beliefs, I run the risk of simply being persecuted because that person doesn’t like me (lol). But alas, I did it! Well, God definitely pushed me to step outside my comfort zone on this one, but amen. I invited Anonymous out to Bible talk and got a very insecure and worldly response from that person. It was very superficial–”Just get in contact with me and I’ll think about it”. Meanwhile, this person was trying to not only ignore me, but they looked threatened enough to try their best to not associate with me.

It happens.
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My first full week in the faith was amazing! I’m definitely running low on sleep since I’ve been on the go constantly since coming back to New York, but it’s been an encouraging week and I’m so thankful to be spending my last semester at CU as a disciple! Woohoo!

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Students at the CU bookstore waiting for Obama to be sworn in as president.

First and foremost, this week has been insane!!! I’m not even talking about the random, wacky moments that just so happen to find their way in to my week–I’m talking life changing insane! As my last blog mentioned, I was baptized on Sunday (there is a video of it thanks to my sis, Hopey, on Facebook!). Honestly, never in my entire life would I have thought that I would be baptized and what do you know–I finally stopped being lukewarm about my faith and gave up my life for God. My life from the moment I came out of the water was definitely changed forever and I will never forget that day for the rest of my life.

Monday was my first day in the faith and I invited two girls out to Bible talk, even though I had never met them before. This was a huge deal for me because I’m really shy about talking with people I don’t know but I’ve been so pumped about spreading the word. Yesterday also marked the very first day of MY LAST SEMESTER AT CU!!! That’s insane in and of itself because I never thought I would see that day come…

And now, today, is another ground breaking day in my life as well as in history. President Barack Obama was sworn in as our first African American president!

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Today was the best day of my entire life and it will be the most important day ever. 

At 1 PM EST January 18, 2009, the old April died and the new April was born. I was baptized and I am ready to do God’s work! :] I have already written out everything that has happened today and have stored it away for safe keeping so I can remember how much this day has changed my life. I hate being legalistic about checking stuff of my 101 list, since I’m trying to repent on that…I also don’t want people to think I made this decision just to do so. I have counted the costs and I know I will be losing a lot in making the decision I made–I have already lost close friends that I have told about my decision. However, the benefit of being with God and preaching the truth goes far beyond friendships. I wanted to be urgent about this decision because I want to change before God, and my worldly life was holding me back. Now that I have been forgiven, I feel so much more liberated and just so ecstatic for what the future holds. I have never been this excited about anything in my life. Sure, I’ve had my fair share of crazy fan moments (Shia LaBeouf and Mickey Mouse), but the emotional “high” always wore off within a couple of hours. The way I feel right now can’t even compare to that because I am just so thankful and grateful for today and the people in my life who have helped me get to this point. 

The real journey has just begun and I know it’s going to only get harder from here. I’m ready, though.

It seems like yesterday I was spending the night in the baggage claim at LAX…

This winter break has been extremely brief–yet wonderful! It’s probably the first winter break in which I constantly kept busy, instead of sitting in front of my computer like a total slacker. I definitely had those days, but for the most part, I’ve been on the go.
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I decided to make a list of 101 things to do over the next year. I wouldn’t say that they’re “resolutions”, but things that I want to accomplish (and hey, maybe some of them will turn in to habits). Creating this list was incredibly hard–I’ve either done many of the things that would seem “exciting” or the “exciting” things I have yet to do are not practical for this upcoming year. Nevertheless, I’m extremely eager for this challenge. I’m ready to start crossing some of these things off!

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Stealing from Ms. Jenn. Gotta love the yearly “questionnaire”…

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Besides getting my hair cut professionally (yes, that was a first this year, lol), the biggest thing I did this year was study out the Bible. It has been an amazing journey and the most rewarding. I’ve learned so much about myself in my journey to be more like Jesus’ character. Realizing that my heart was spiritually hard was definitely a battle because I had lived my whole life thinking that I’m pretty much a goody-two-shoes. I’m extremely blessed for all those humbling moments in my life, though. Most of all, the friendships I’ve gained over the course of this year have been a blessing as well, considering I feel closer to my disciple friends than I do to some of the friends I’ve known for ages.

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