Top of the sun!
Coming to CMU has been such a blessing already. I should begin with describing how I got here. I applied for graduate school before I went to India, accepted when I got home, and then came to the area without an assistantship (no money) and no place to live. I met a wonderful woman--we'll call her Mary Kay lady :) She taught me that inquiring never hurt. I had already inquired a few times about other assistantships, but never checked up on the actual status of the assistantship that I didn't receive. It turns out that my application was never processed. I found this out between teaching classes for Upward Bound, an amazing program that welcomes inner-city students to our college-prep classrooms.
I ran down to see what I could do--how my organizational skills hadn't paid off. The Dean accepted my application and awarded me an assistantship at the Writing Center. What a great opportunity!
So here I am. I didn't receive the emails about beginning the work before the orientation, but they were very forgiving :) I jumped right in and actually have a blessed opportunity to not only consult students with their work but to also develop and give presentations on the Writing Center (and train others to do so as well... my trainer father would be so proud!).
Central is quite different than Alma, yet it has a nice "homey" feel as well. I live in a house with four smiling, God-loving women. OH--I never mentioned ThAT part. (I'm looking for an apartment, met with potential roommates, nothing worked out. So I decided to walk around a part of a neighborhood that felt "good." My new friend Aubrey called me later that day and said that she had a few friends who hadn't met me but wanted me to be their roommate if I wanted to accept. We met at Music in the Mall--it was magic. NO..it was God!)
OK...so, now I'm here. Yesterday there was quite a big welcoming program with several student organizations, tons of food, free giveaways, a marching band performance, and an Eve 6 concert. It's really great to be part of a larger university. Now I've been able to experience intimate Alma as well as a little bigger venue. I only know what I see. I can imagine==and that's pretty huge. The rest is faith. I'm glad I was able to see how big it is here. Now I can guess what even larger places are like.
What about the largest place of all?...
