Week 33: Anti-Hermit Crab Week

Hello, friends!! How are you all? Most of you guys who follow my blog are people that I would see pretty frequently when I lived in Chicagoland, so I miss you guys! I hope that all of you are doing well, and I hope the turning of seasons to Spring has brought a little bit of sunshine and happiness into your lives. My week being barefoot was fun! I wasn't able to buy a pair of TOMS because I've been low on cash, but I plan on buying a pair when I have some money.

I will start by saying that this move to Quincy has been many things, but the word that sums it up would be "challenging." God is challenging me in many ways, and already, I feel like I've grown a lot in just two weeks. I have some really great days (mostly when I'm with people), and then I have some pretty not-so great days. I'd say yesterday was by far, the worst day I've had here. I don't know what was going on, but I didn't feel well and just felt depressed. I've been trying to figure out why this has been so hard for me, and I think it's because I was just so used to being around people all the time. In 2005, I started at Trinity and for 4 years, I lived with 2 or more girls each year. Then I lived in Blue Island, and lived with Meghan, Rebecca, Neisy, Amber....Then just a couple months ago, I lived with Rebecca in our lovely, sketchy house. THEN I moved back in with my family, where my niece was always over. So all that to say, I am used to having people around, and I love it. Even having a person in the same room as you, not even talking, is comforting.

Here in Quincy, I live by myself, and that's been difficult. To make things a little easier, I want to take this week and look up some things to do, maybe a class to take, a place to volunteer, etc. Now, I DO NOT want to completely fill all of my time so that I am never alone (something I would have done before), because I know that God is using this time on my own to teach me that He is really everything that I need. I want down time, but I also don't want to live like a hermit, holed up in my little apartment. I need to take a step out, so that is what this week is about! Now, I do realize that I called this week anti-hermit crab week. Sure, I don't want to be like a hermit crab in that it tends to stay in its shell, but mostly I didn't want to call this week "Anti-Hermit" week, because I didn't want to seem against those who do actually seclude themselves from society. I am also not against hermit crabs, especially since my new friends have one as a pet-I just didn't know what else to call this week. So sorry to any hermits/hermit crabs I may have insulted in this post. That was not the intention : )

Any way, first thing I did for this week was e-mail a guy who spoke at our advisory board meeting. He works with homeless youth, and I would love to volunteer some time at a shelter. There is one in Quincy, so I talked to this guy after the board meeting last week and then e-mailed him today. I'm hoping to hear back from him soon! Tomorrow, I'd like to look and see if there are any community classes that are being offered. As I find some things to do, I'll let you guys know!