HI, FRIENDS

First things first: I'm writing this so that I don't completely inundate everybody's Twitter feed with my Knoxville excitement. I like to be respectful (and retain a decent follower count) on there by not being too thematic of a tweeter, so this is my way of clearing my mind and not making you hate me at the same time. 

Update on me: I am now on my third college in three years, and that is solely because I have been known to make poor life decisions.

College attempt #1: University of Arkansas. Studied international business. Left because I missed home.

College attempt #2: University of Memphis. Studied elementary education and then switched to English because I figured out that I wanted to do speech-language pathology. They have an incredible grad program for SLPs but really no undergrad courses to prepare you for anything, so I had to transfer. My options were: going through this complicated dual enrollment program at Miss. State, going to ETSU, MTSU, UT, or going back to Arkansas. Dad quickly vetoed all out-of-state colleges, and I wanted to go to a school where I wouldn't go in blindly with zero friends... so six hours eastbound I went.

College attempt #3: University of Tennessee. Studying communication disorders (which I love). I work for the Daily Beacon, aka UT's newspaper, as a copy editor. 

I don't know who came up with the saying "third time's the charm" but they seem to be right. I guess if the saying was "fourth time's the charm" and I looked for all the times in life where something worked on my fourth attempt, I'd be happy with that saying too so really it's kind of a pointless statement now that I've said all that. Whatever. I'm going with it anyways. 

I moved to Knoxville a month ago tomorrow and it's been so much better than I ever could have expected. I knew I didn't want to be home anymore and all my friends knew I didn't want to be home anymore but I could also understand where they might have thought that I was just running away like I did when I went to Arkansas. They had a valid reason for saying and thinking so and I didn't try to prove them wrong, but I knew that I wasn't running away. Mainly that was because the whole reason I even seriously looked at transferring was for academics, not any sort of beef I had with Memphis. Excited to get away? Yes. Thinking that Knoxville would be perfect? No. I learned the first time around that moving away and going to a completely new school can be bumpy, but I had also learned from my mistakes. Home isn't necessarily where I'm supposed to be like I'd thought for nearly 20 years, and I am so, so, so thankful for my friends being so understanding of that (that part's for you, Bek. You're incredible and I miss/love you much).

When I went to Arkansas, I was so scared that my 901 friends were going to forget about me, so I made it to where they really couldn't forget me by coming home every other weekend or making them drive to come see me. It was really kinda pathetic in retrospect, because the friendships that lasted there are on solid ground and aren't going anywhere no matter where we are, so that was a lot of gas over some silly insecurity. I just hadn't figured it out yet. Now that I've learned that little lesson, I feel like I can enjoy Knoxville so much more than I ever let myself enjoy Fayetteville. 

Three of my friends down the hall (Diane, Sarah, and Jess) go to Cru and have introduced me to a ton of really nice people who love Jesus and want to see the best in others and it's super refreshing. The three of them call me their honorary roommate because we do most things together and I'm at their apartment more than I'm home, but they are three of the best people I've ever met. Seriously. I'm not really one to just go over the top with praise all the time, but they deserve it because they have been so good to me when they really didn't have to be at all. I could go on for days but I'm not gonna do that because there's some statistic out there that says that you hold people's attention for six seconds or something and I've already exhausted the six seconds on the topic by now. So, moving on. In church this morning, I was thinking about them and about some of the other people I've met here (that I'm not gonna namedrop yet because we aren't on that level) and I just couldn't wrap my head around how things have gone so well - better than I had even hoped for, and how undeserving I was of all of it due to the part where I can be a total brat. And then on top of that, I started thinking about Bekah and how supportive she's been from Memphis about the whole thing and about me making new friends and not being jealous like I would probably be. That really probably won't seem like a big deal to the third party, but it is to me. I could also go on for days about that one too, but 6 second rule. 

I'm going to Nashville next weekend to meet my family and I'm excited to see them.... but I also have FOMO (which is the only way my friends here ever articulate their Fear Of Missing Out) and it's almost TMTH (Too Much To Handle). That was never a feeling I felt when I was at UA, ever. Coming out of high school, I knew that the two schools I would never ever attend under any circumstance were Tennessee and Ole Miss and that Arkansas was going to be the best school ever. Aaand look where I am now. Happier than I've been in years and loving everything about Knoxville. (But still pulling for the hogs too on Saturdays. That one isn't up for debate. I texted Daddy the other day to say I love Knoxville, and he responded with "good! go hogs." Welcome to life with my father, everyone). Also, Ole Miss is still and forever will be the worst - also not up for debate.

I guess I didn't really have all that much to say, but thanks for caring enough to read all of this. I'll probably come back and read it in 3 months and think that (1) I knew absolutely nothing about anything or anyone when I wrote this because I was still new and (2) I am annoying. If you can blog things and not go back and read them later and think you're the most annoying person on the face of the earth, then I envy you.

Also, for all you vocab Nazi's out there, I strategically did not use the word literally in this whole thing. That's not to say I won't say it out loud though :) 

Alright. Peace, my doggies.
Have a good week.