my journey contines

Last week some of the students went for a Q&A with Tony.

sometimes you sit staring at a blank page for hours. sometimes for minutes. sometimes you can’t remember what you were going to say. sometimes a thought comes and goes. sometimes it comes and stays. other times it comes and stays… and hits you hard.

for the girl who grew up at home, blessed with a wonderful family (with which she’s super close), who originally wanted to be a graphic designer living in the same city as her parents. this same girl was a picky eater, wasn’t too big on “adventure”, and might possibly have had a fear of spiders… she didn’t really cook either. (lol) for that little girl a whole lot has changed, and every now and then it hits me. today was one of those days.

yea i have a definite passion for people… friendships/relationships are important to me. learning at least a little about a person’s story, where they come from, where they’ve been and where they want to go… yea sure, i can sometimes compete for airtime… a little bit of a chatterbox. random ideas and stories jumping out of my mouth every once in a while. but i can listen too… and i love doing that. everybody has a story.

have you ever taken a seat and just watched people? maybe when you were at a mall, or perhaps looking out the window of your car, or looking down from a balcony. each person has a story. they have joys and pains, victories and struggles…

looking back on life it’s often a lot easier to see God’s hands on your life, moving around the pieces and working His master plan - the big picture, than it is looking forward and guessing what that might be. you can guess if you want. might even be fun. when we catch up in 10 years, naw… even 5, let me know what you thought and i’m sure we’ll both be surprised.

today it hit me that this little girl, somewhat of a homebody, is changing… not completely. i’ll always be daddy’s little girl (and mom - urs too!)… i’ll always care about relationships and probably always still jump when i see a spider. but something from ProSem today led me to really feel like once I leave and go abroad, it’s probably unlikely that I’ll be at “home”, settled back in Canada, for a long, long time…

it’s exciting! it’s a little nerve-racking… i feel totally excited, curious, and incredibly ill-equipped. and i miss my family already, but i’m excited to see what God’s going to do - what doors He’ll open and what things i will learn.

hehehe… although many of you might think i’m being sarcastic (ok well you can take that sarcasm and aim it at you cohortians that read the fascinating posts on my blog but fail time and time again to post on my blog. hehehe)

But no, really, there have been a few people that have commented on not being quite sure as to how to go about posting a comment on my blog. This is how you do it!

1) Scroll to the bottom of the post for the day on which you want to comment.
2) Click on “0 comments” ahaha… ok well it might say 1 or 2 comments, but the place where it shows the number of comments left. This will take you to the comments page.
3) The empty space where your mouse cursor is blinking is the space where you can leave a message, respond, challenge, etc… Whatever you’d like to do on my blog.
4) Don’t stop there - or else it won’t really add your comment!!! Rather:
- Scroll down and “choose an identity”
- This means you can identify yourself if you’d like or you can leave yourself a mystery person
- First option, if you have a blog of your own (in which case you probably know what to do…), you can login to your blogspot account and it will show your name beside any comment you leave with a link to your blog
- The OTHER two options, which is more likely most of you will use, are self explanatory pretty much… Other allows you to enter your name to show beside your comment. Anonymous will… be anonymous.

THEN……….. click publish! (if you want to preview your comment first you can.)

Ta-Da. You’ve left a comment and probably put an extra smile on my face that day. hehe…

Thanks for reading!
Shannon

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Some common goal setting tips:
1. Be decisive. Know exactly what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it.
2. Stay Focussed. Any goal requires sustained focus from beginning to end. Constantly evaluate your progress.
3. Welcome Failure. Frequently, very little is learned from a venture that did not experience failure in some form. Failure presents the opportunity to learn and makes the success more worthy.
4. Write down your goals. It clarifies your thinking and reinforces your commitment.
5. Keep your goals in sight. Review them frequently, and ensure that they are always at the forefront of your thinking.

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I’m going to have the list posted on the side, for those of you who might be interested in seeing it… And I’ll cross it off as they get completed. Interesting, EH? (hehehe)

does anybody know a good place for blogger templates? i could make my own, i’m familiar with html and all… but likely i’d get sucked into it and spend too much time creating one.

for those of you that keep checking, thanks! i haven’t posted lately cuz this week was kind of crazy… but tomorrow is “the weekend” come 4:30pm… so I’ll post more soon.

this weeks readings consisted of:
- Naked Economics - Wheelan (good book - read it; wish I read it prior to my other economics text books).
- Preferential Option - Amy Sherman (neoliberalism)

I’m doing my research project on cross-cultural orientation and preparation. it’s still in the works but I think it’s going to be really interesting! so there was also the research proposal draft, a paper for Biblical Faith & Economics (Stapleford was on a roll this week, picking on the Canadians. ahaha… poor baby seals.), Logical Framework online course + readings, and tonight finishing up the readings and paper for Economic Development of Developing Countries class tomorrow.

Thanks for reading
Shannon

Seeing as it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d put up something related to “love”.

A camp counsellor gave me this one summer. I was about 14 and she told me it wouldn’t mean much to me then, but that I should keep it because one day I would really appreciate it. I do.

Tonight we were treated to a really nice dinner prepared by Faith. Grac(ias)! haha…

A lot of community and fellowship happens around food. There was a little more of that going on tonight.

Janell + frosty = ….

Chris finally got that mad thing down pat… (i.e. previous mad/glad attempt)