I am Thankful for...

...the mess to clean up after a party 

because it means I have been surrounded by friends. 

...the taxes I pay 

because it means that I'm employed. 

...the clothes that fit a little too snug 

because it means I have enough to eat. 

...my shadow who watches me work 

because it means I am out in the sunshine. 

...the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot 

because it means I am capable of walking. 

...all the complaining I hear about our government 

because it means we have freedom of speech. 

...that lady behind me in church who sings off key 

because it means that I can hear. 

...lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing 

because it means I have a home. 

...my huge heating bill 

because it means that I am warm. 

...weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day 

because it means that I have been productive. 

...the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours 

because it means that I am alive.

-- Nancie J. Carmody

This week was one of those hectic weeks. You know the weeks where you buy 2 cups of coffee a day on average? The guy at Starbucks knows my schedule, my name, and what I order. You know the week where every thing that could go wrong within the span of 3 minutes does and you can't do anything about it but sit there and laugh at how ridiculous life is? Yesterday, I was running out of the house to host interviews for an organization. I changed really fast, grabbed my bag, tried to hit the light switch off and failed 4 times and hit the wall instead, ran around the corner and fell out of one of my shoes, slid into the counter, put my shoe back on, grabbed my coffee, spilled my coffee down my shirt, changed my shirt, ran to my car, forgot my keys, tried to find my keys, put my coffee on top of the car, forgot my coffee was there and started driving, the coffee fell off the roof of the car and spilled...again, so i sat there and laughed. It was one of those weeks where "simple joys" were the highlight. For example, eating cookie dough every night, sneezing more than 4 times in a row while everyone looked at you, the first scoop of peanut butter out of a new jar, laughing so hard that you are make no noise at all, realizing you are going to be in the background of a picture and smiling at the last second, Christmas music in September while you are studying for a test, etc. -- That kind of stuff. It's the good stuff. 

I realized that, yes...life is hectic, but that's the beautiful thing about it. I've become more content than ever in finding the beauty in every little thing, which is cool. Do I know what I want to do with my life? Nope, but I realized that's okay. Sorry parents, i'll make something up in the meantime. It's the beauty in the journey to where Christ will lead me. There is a quote that basically says to write your life in pencil, because the Lord is the one that will erase it and write it with pen. I noticed that wherever God has me is the safest place for me to be. This week I was asked the question, "Why are you in college?" I have asked myself this several times and I know I have challenged my mom and dad with this same question. I have always just wanted to go out and help others and never understood why I just stayed in this environment. If you look at it from another direction, you realize that you really are constantly surrounded by God and you are constantly studying Him. Yes, I am studying calculus and still think it is the only subject where "you can buy 60 cantaloupes and no one asks what is wrong with you," but He created that in the first place. So when it comes down to it, I am studying what He created and the beauty in that. Basically, I am constantly learning about Him through my studies and should relish in that fact. By studying history, I am studying what Christ created. How cool! I realized the importance of taking a step back and really being thankful about what I have. When tasks seem so overwhelming and unmanageable, I remember the phrase ASAP. 

Always

Say

A

Prayer

It's a ridiculous life, but that's the beautiful thing about it. This is what I learned this week. I also tried to learn about journalism: american mass media, Interpersonal communication, and intercultural communication because I had tests in those. I am still going with the philosophy of the "greater education." It helps the self-esteem. 

"Every good and perfect gift comes from above..."

-James 1:17 

I hope you all are doing wonderful. 

Let me know and we will set up a skype or phone date. 

Miss you, dearly. Love you more. 

Cheers to 28 Years.

Today is my wonderful parent's 28th anniversary. I am in constant gratitude for what they have given me. I couldn't imagine going through life without their guidance, jokes, love, and support. I will keep this short, because I will write what I really want to say to them in a card. Basically, know that they are the greatest parents. I'm glad that they met each other. They have been the foundation for our wonderful family. 

Love Love Love. 

Colossians 3:14 - " And over all of these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." 

"Now That's What I Call High Quality H2O"

There are 5 seasons in a year: Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, and Football. Corny, but go with it. This is the probably the most "redass" update I will ever give you. This past weekend was the first Aggie football game. These football games are epic. As lame as it sounds, there is nothing like Kyle field. 

I decided to try to explain what this weird Aggie cult is by coming up with a "Top 10 List to Why A&M Football is the Best." Here it goes:

1. The food. Naturally, this is the first on my list. Tailgating at A&M is just stellar. No further explanation needed. 

2. The entrance. This is probably Papa Reilly's favorite thing. They enter with just the Corps of Cadets drum-lines' cadence. The students wave their "12th man towels" as they enter. One of the best, but most annoying things is being smacked in a face every 3 seconds by a white towel.

3. The yells & the yell leaders. Yes, we don't have cheerleaders. They are yell leaders. It's something unique about the university. The yells are also great. My dad likes to make fun of them because they are simple. He calls it "Aggie hooked on phonics." Each yell has a "pass back," or a hand motion to go along with it. The yell leaders do the motion and the student section "passes it back." You then "hump it." Woah, that sounds awkward, right? Don't worry, we keep it PG. "Humping it" is an aggie term (see #4) which basically means put your hands on your knees, making you yell louder and allow others behind you to see. After the yell, you do your "wildcat"-- another weird Aggie term (seriously, see #4) which stands for a hand motion and yell to represent your class year. A&M has been known to have the loudest student section. 

4. The terminology. I am convinced that this is what makes us seem like a cult. 

To name a few: 

• Howdy- The official greeting at Texas A&M. 
• Whoop!- An exclamation of approval and excitement. Only Juniors and Seniors can do this. 
• Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck!- Sound at the beginning of the Aggie War Hymn to represent a cannon being loaded. 
• Gig em.'- It's a thumbs up. It has a long story about how it was coined, but if you are actually interested you can google it. 
• 12th man- This is a tradition symbolizing that at any given moment, a student will step in the game if they are needed. There is a cool story about this also. Google is great. 
• 2 percenter- Aggies who choose not to participate in traditions. 
• Hump it- During a yell, the crowd leans forward and places their hands on their knees to maximize the noise and so that those standing behind them can see.
• Good bull- This is a phrase used when someone is a good Aggie. 
• Hiss- Rather than "booing", Aggies "hiss" to express disapproval. It is supposed to represent a horses' laugh. 
• Wildcat- A noice and a motion that represents a student's class year. 
• Red ass- An Aggie who closely follows traditions and has a lot of school spirit. 

5. The Aggie band. Our band is better than any other band. Not cocky, just confident. Our band is comprised of members of the Corps of Cadets and their routine is focused around military formations. 

6. No one leaves until the game is finished.  No matter what, the student section stays until the end of the game to show support for the team. "I've seen them lose, but i've never seen them quit" is a common phrase. 

7. We do not sit. This sounds brutal, but it is great. It's another way to show support for our team. They only time the student section sits down during the game is when the other school's band is performing. Again, the Aggie band rocks. 

8. Spooning. There are a ton of students. Once everyone gets settled, you usually end up spooning the person next to you because it is so crowded.

9. The oddities. A&M has several things that most people don't hear about unless you are in the student section. 

1. Visor guy. There is a guy that sits in the alum section to the right. He yells constantly for the team and is easy to spot. Let's be honest, there's always one of them. He wears a visor every game. Naturally, we deemed him visor guy. He also has a facebook page. I don't think he is aware of this. 
2. Not only Charlie Sheen can win. Student's have a saying, "Whenever the Aggies score, you score." If you have a date to the game, you get to kiss them. 
3. Memorization. The student sections knows every single word to the videos and will say them in unison. They also know the bands entrance and join the commentator in saying, "Now forming at the North end of Kyle Field, the nationally famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Band..." Stellar. 

10. The War Hymn. In high school, I will admit to the fact that I never knew the words to our fight song. It was awkward. That's not the case here. Everyone joins in on the fight song. There is a special part where students hook arms and sway back and forth to "saw Varsity's' horns off." During games, you can see the press box swaying from side to side. Pretty darn cool. 

Psalm 126:10. "Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them.'"

Fish Camp

Oh my goodness gracious, I have waited way too long to post this simply because I knew it would be a long one. This update is about fish camp. I went to it about 2 weeks before school started as a counselor. I always tell people that I am involved in fish camp and they usually give me the "wow, i have no idea why this girl is so excited to go fishing for four days...she is odd" face.


Basically, it is a freshmen orientation program at A&M where we teach incoming students about the traditions of the university and help them transition into college smoothly. It's the largest run orientation program in the nation. Our camp was around 120 freshmen. We were a part of green camp. There are 6 different camps, all representing a different color. There are 24 counselors, 2 co-chairs, and a namesake in one camp. A namesake is a nominated person from A&M who has gone above and beyond for our university. We had two awesome namesakes this year, forming us into Green Camp Starcke-Rieckenberg. Yes, that is an outrageously long name and it took me about a month to learn how to spell or pronounce it. I'm a communication major and it was incredibly too difficult. We began to refer to camp as "CSR." We have partners to lead a small discussion group (DG) over the four days.

We prepare for camp for about 6 months. The counselors become very close to each other. I've never met a group cooler than this one. Our namesakes introduced "YNWA" at the beginning of the year. It stands for "You'll never walk alone" and is used as the Liverpool logo. They said it encompasses what fish camp is truly about...being a family. We prepare hilarious skits, color our hair green and the guys make theirs awkward as heck(camp pride, whaddup), make up yells in order to be louder than any of the other camps, paint banners, plan activities, etc. Most of the stuff we do is completely ridiculous, but it's okay. We are judged by everyone because we are never in congruence to social norms, but again, it's okay.

I am aware that all of these do not make sense, but here are some yells that we do:

"You can't ride on our green dragon, the tails are broken and the wings are saggin."

"Aqua's awkward, 

purple is too, 

red and blue, we dominate you, 

yellow camp...so what? 

Starcke-Rieckenberg, we kick butt."

"Starcke-Riecke, we so green

we all win like Charlie Sheen"

Day 1: Counselors wake up at about 5:00 o'clock in the morning, which is not easy for college students. We dress up crazy and head to where the freshmen will get dropped off. At about 8:00, freshmen start to arrive and we basically scare them with being so weird. When I was a freshmen, I turned to my friend and said, "Can we leave? They are spazzing out. Let's just turn around." --Now, I am honored to call myself a spazz. We take a 2 hour bus ride to the campsite while the freshmen get to know each other. After we are there, we start programs and camp time, consisting of team building games, skits, and introductions into the Aggie family.

Day 2: We wake up early again and start the day off. We do a bunch of skits. The freshmen go to programs on Aggie traditions and we play more games. That night we have a flashback mixer. I have never been so sweaty from dancing in my entire life. I took a shower in my own sweat. It seemed to be a theme of fish camp in Texas' 110 degree weather. 

Day 3: We wake up early again. Yes, this is another theme with fish camp-- delirium, awkwardness, sweat, and sleepiness. We present more skits and hold more programs. One of the programs is called, "community of respect." This is an awesome program that allows people to recognize the diversity within the camp, and the university. We have a country mixer (come on, it's texas) later on that night. 

Day 4: We leave the camp grounds and go back to A&M. Everyone sleeps for about 20 hours afterwards. It's glorious. 

As I am typing this, I realize that this post will never do justice about how amazing camp actually is. Camp has a quote that sums the experience up-- "From the outside looking in, you can't understand it. And from the inside looking out, you can't explain it." I hope the pictures say at least a 100 words, because I know my words will not get anywhere close to explaining the experience.


Real Talk: I love Fish Camp.