Going home?

After a wonderful week with my family, I am headed back to Provo for the spring term. I knew it would be hard to leave, since I usually come home to stay at the end of April, but so far it's much harder than I expected! It seems like no matter how old I get, it never gets any easier to say goodbye to my family when I'm going back to school. Part of it, I think, is that I am the oldest, so everyone else is still living at home. I'm the odd one out living in semi-distant lands. Thank goodness for cell phones and the internet so we can all keep in touch!

I am not quite sure what to expect for this summer. I will only be working part time, 10 hours a week as a research assistant. My program doesn't offer any classes during spring/summer term. However, I will be busy with school stuff. If I want to finish my thesis on time, I need to write my prospectus over spring term-it's the beginning part of my thesis that proposes what I want to study. If I finish it in the next six weeks, I can defend it soon after I get back for fall term-and if it passes my committee's approval, I can move ahead to finish it up so I can graduate on time. 

I've never written a prospectus before. I have no idea how hard it is going to be. You have to discuss ALL of the existing literature on your topic, but my topic is fairly obscure and not often studied, so there isn't that much out there for me to report. 

So... basically, I'm not sure what to expect this summer. I will either be super super busy working on my prospectus and research... or I could end up with a lot of free time on my hands, old school summer style. We'll have to see. I'll admit I'm afraid of having too much free time-silly, right? But I wouldn't really know what to do with it if I had it. Oh well. I guess a girl can learn. :)

When I didn't stay for spring/summer, it seemed like everyone else I knew was staying. But the vast majority of my friends have headed back to their homes for the next few months. Such is the transitory nature of college. People are always coming and going. Sometimes it drives me nuts. I like to have a little bit more stability in my life. But a benefit is that this way I am always meeting new people and making new friends. I am curious to see if we will get any new people in the ward over the summer. Since so many people are gone during summer, I've heard the ward gets really small over spring/summer term. This means that everyone who does stay gets to know each other a lot better. I'm looking forward to that.

It blows my mind that I will be done with school in a year. Right now, I have no clue what's next! Should I go on for a PhD? Should I try to find a job? Can I find a job? Sometimes I wish I could see a little bit farther in the future so I know what to expect. But I guess it's better that I can't. Life is an adventure. I need to enjoy the ride without worrying too much about where I'm headed. As long as I'm doing my best, things are going to work out in the end. I know God has a plan for me. I need to trust Him and move forward.

Anyways, that is the super long update on what's going on with me right now. I am going to stick to my goal of blogging more often (especially now that I know there are people who actually read this! :) so hopefully there will be a lot more entries this summer!