Everyone is always asking "So how's the college life going?". I can't tell you how many times I have been asked that this past year, and my answer is always the same. "It's really different.. a lot different than high school", and it's the complete honest truth. College is so much different than high school or any other schooling I have ever had. College is difficult, exciting, stressful, trying, life changing and any other adjective you can think of. This year has been so exhausting but life changing at the same time. In the fall, I started school at the University of Memphis. I was not excited to be going to school there.. All my life, I always told myself that I would not go to school at Memphis because I grew up hating the Memphis Tigers. Might I add that, the only reason I hated them was because my daddy did and I like, hate, and do everything daddy does. Then we became Vols fans so i hated the Tigers even more.. but after attending Frosh Camp (f you are a future Memphis student attend Frosh Camp!!!) I slowly started to believe that I had made the right decision in going to Memphis. It challenged me in learning to have school spirit. Even though I'm not the most school spirited fan, who still bleeds orange btw, I'm learning to love my school. This past year I lived in Richardson Towers.. yes Richardson Towers, the one and only Ratchetson. You probably have heard awful things about this place and yes they are all true. Ratch is one of a kind but there is no other place I would of wanted to spend my first year at. I roomed with my life long best friend, Taylor. I was so excited to be rooming with my best friend because it was going to be just like a sleepover 24/7!!! Even though that was the case, sometimes it is really hard sharing such a small place with someone when you are use to having a whole house. Times where one of us was up all night studying with the lights on, or waking up early for 8 am classes (which are the WORST) were harder than the times where we would just stay up late talking and laughing and also our late night Gibson's and Mcdonalds runs.
We got really lucky in the suit mates we had this year, these are the 2 girls that we shared a bathroom with. We shared a bathroom with the 2 most caring, sweet, crazy, adventurous, active girls. Our suit mates, Lindsay and Sabrina, are from Obion County. I got so close to these girls and i'm so happy that God put them in my life. Through all the laughter and tears, I wouldn't of been able to make it through senior year. Sabrina is the sweetest most caring girl and always puts herself before others and this is why her nickname became "Mommy Sabrina". Mommy Sabrina was always there when you needed someone to talk to, go to the doctor with you, to calm you down during a panic attack, and also to have a shoulder to cry on. I was really worried about my transition from living at home to living on campus because I would be away from my family, but with Mommy Sabrina as one of my best friends, the transition was much easier. Lindsay is the most witty down-to-earth person you will ever meet. She is always making you laugh. Lindsay was great to have to help with school work because she is so smart! She helped me learn to branch out and to do/eat things I've never done before!!
 |
| Roomie Pic :) |
The first semester of college is one I will never forget. I was dealing with so much change (and i HATE change btw) which is really hard for me to do. I started taking 19 hours my first semester for some odd reason, it was way too many hours for me to handle!! I also had to learn to be able to wake myself up and go to class. I didn't have my parents there to say "Stephanie wake up, the bus will be here in 10 minutes!!" And also didn't have Shelby County Schools calling my parents if i wasn't at school. It was hard to get use to especially with 8 am classes every day. During my senior year, I found out that I have Dysuatanomia. This is a malfunction in my autonomic system. Your autonomic system if very important. It controls your heart rate, digestion, blood pressure, tempature control, and many others. My adrenal gland is always in overdrive, whenever I'm sitting down my adrenal gland is sending out adrenalin like it would be if I was running a marathon. Nevertheless, I get exhausted very easily. During the first semester of college, we were still trying to figure out the kinks to my dysuatanomia. Working with different types of medicines and figuring out what I need to do to help myself feel better. Not until the end of the semester, we realized that i can not function without 8 hours of sleep, even though I work best with 10-12 hours of sleep 8 is the very lowest I can function with. It helped a lot knowing this because for the past few months I was having all nighters or going to bed around 3-4 am. It got so bad that I would be in such a deep sleep that I would sleep through all of my 5-6 alarms that I had set and even turn them off in my sleep, which meant I had missed all of my classes.. This was really difficult to deal with since I wasn't at home to have someone wake me up and make sure I was awake. The second semester was much easier and better than the first :) I have met so many new friends this year and have experienced so many amazing things. Last but not least, I love being a Memphis Tiger!!!
For more information about Dysuatanomia, check out these webpages.
 |
| Sabrina and Lindsay wrote a song for me before we left for Christmas break |
Frosh Camp
Lower Lodge
Around this time last year, I was starting to pack up my things. In a few days, I would be heading to the beautiful country of Guatemala. For my senior trip at my church, they took all of the seniors to Guatemala. When I was in 8th grade, I gave my heart to missions. I did not know much about Guatemala at this time but I felt God was calling my heart to this country. When I found out that Guatemala was where our senior trip was, I broke down into tears. It was always my dream to go there because for all these years this country, that I had never been to, had such a special place in my heart. Bright and early on the morning of July 4, 2013, I was headed to the airport with all of my closest friends, my youth pastor, my mentor, and also my daddy! I was so excited but also very very nervous. I had never been on a mission trip before that was outside of the country. This was a moment where I was totally trusting God and going out of my comfort zone. As an extreme germaphobe, this was going to be an experience where I would be totally out of my element where I would be doing, smelling, touching, and seeing things that I would not normally experience. Thankfully, both our flights were great. We didn't run into any trouble. Once we arrived into Guatemala City,everything started to change. Everything was different. All the signs were in Spanish and we stuck 
