What is to come...

Hello all!

   First of all I miss you all dearly. Second I should be writing one of my final papers but am just uninspired and so I thought I would blog since I haven't in awhile. 

For those of you who don't know my life has taken a turn. Thanks be to God, but I am basically graduating deficient in December. Basically due to my financial situation I was not going to be able to finish next semester at Westmont, but after many discussions with the registrar, my academic advisors and so on they have decided to allow me to graduate deficient, take classes at a community college in AZ this spring, walk in May and finish my last two Religious Studies electives during Mayterm at Westmont. So, I will be moving back home the end of December. This is something that was a bit unexpected but i am looking forward to what the Lord has waiting around the corner back home. So that is what is happening on my education front.

In other news, my college, Westmont in Santa Barbara was devastated by the Tea Fire that broke out Thursday Nov 13th around 5:30pm. The college lost the math building (I had many RS courses in this classroom), the physics building, the ceramics and sculpting classrooms, 4 buildings in the Clark dorm (this includes the RD's house who lost everything), much of the trees that make my campus so beautiful, and 15 faculty homes. Also quite a few of my friends who were living in off campus housing lost their homes in the fire. I can't believe that my beloved college has gone through such a thing. I still  have not seen the campus but the pictures that I have seen seems so surreal to me. Classes have been postponed until Dec. 1st due to smoke damage in the buildings and it being unsafe for students to return, as well as the professors who  lost their homes to regain some traction in their lives. Please pray for my college as well as the students and faculty. Also for the surrounding Santa Barbara area. Last I heard 180 homes were lost as well as much of the beautiful nature that surrounded the foothills of Montecito. Thank the Lord that no lives were lost in this fire and that everyone is safe.

Other then these few life changing events the past few weeks I am heading to LA for Thanksgiving on Tuesday. This will be my first Thanksgiving not with my family and not home. Even though I miss them dearly and wish I could be with them I am also looking forward to seeing my friends and seeing how another family celebrates this crazy and usually a bit dysfunctional holiday. Although it is a bit shocking to me that when I get back from break that I will only have two more weeks living in the wonderful city of San Francisco. This semester has flown by and now that I am not returning to Westmont right away I am finding myself in a whirl-wind of feelings of fear, anxiousness, sadness, and happiness. I am moving on to a new part of my life. Me being a real adult is coming fast. Bills, my own home/apt, hopefully a marriage and then a family. Oh my! No rush on my part though but I do know it is all coming in good time. Please pray for my future and for a peace that only the Lord can grant about my future and what is to come. Love you all and see you in the new year!

History has been made.

Hello everyone on the very early hours of the day after the elections. First off, YES WE CAN!!!!! I know not all of the people I know support or have supported Obama, but I am so happy that he is our President. And no matter how you voted history was made tonight! Tonight the first African-American became the President of the United States. That in and of itself is incredible to me. I am so proud to live in a country in a time when an African-American is president.

Tonight for the elections I attended a free election party downtown at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts. I had to wait in line but as soon as I got in the door screams and shouts filled the room because Barack Obama had been announced the President of the United States. I sat in a room filled with a majority of Obama supporters along with a few of my friends from my house who voted for McCain and listened to both McCain and Obama's speeches. All around me where shouts of happiness, tears of joy being shed, and bottles of champaine being popped. After hearing Obama's wonderful acceptance speech we hit the road for downtown San Francisco. As we stepped outside the doors cars up and down Market were honking their horns, waving American flags out their windows, and chanting Obama. We walked downtown to a park where hundreds of people had gathered together to praise Obama's victory as well as to wait to see if Prop 8 had passed or not for the state of California. I sat and watched people go through chants of Obama, to Yes We Can, and finally to USA. This last chant is one that struck a chord for me. I don't remember the last time that my generation has had a reason or has at all been proud to chant USA and been proud to be an American. Yes, we are raised to be proud Americans but tonight I felt like those chanting it around me actually meant it. There has been a new hope that has been found in Obama. I know many are afraid that he is to inexperienced, or is just good with his words and has fooled us all but as I stood there in downtown and then later at a street rally in my own neighborhood I realized that if nothing else Obama is bring the values of hope and change back to America. I hope that we as Americans can all get behind these two core values to push towards a better future for America and a more united United States of America. Because without unity we will fall even deeper into this downfall that has already begun. No changing it now, Barack Obama is our President and now it is time to support him and all those in the Senate and the House to make the changes we need to come out on top of this mess that has been made. We can do this! Things can change! We need hope and unity!

As one last thing I wanted to write on is that I am super stoked right now that Prop K for the San Francisco area did NOT pass! For those in Arizona and those not voting in San Francisco, Prop K legalized prostitution here in the city. Although beyond where you stand on that the last page allowed for the government funds to be cut from organizations such as SAGE and other programs that are in place to help prostitutes come out of prostitution and make new lives for themselves. Also the proposition made it nearly impossible for police to investigate any place where they suspected human trafficking and sex slavery to be taking place because as the Prop stated they were commiting "racial profiling". So no matter where anyone stands on the legalization of prositituion I know no one is for the legalization of women and men being sex slaves and trafficked into this country. So yeah for those early rainy mornings this pass week that we at Not for Sale interns handed out flyers for No On K because it mattered!

I hope no matter how you feel tonight whether disappointed about McCain not winning or overjoyed that Obama won I do hope that you know that God is in control. Remember Romans 13:1-2 "...there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Praise be to God that He is ultimately in control and not us. Either way history was made tonight and for that I am proud to be alive and an American citizen.

Hope and peace,
Adrienne