A Letter

To Whom it May Concern,

My upcoming departure for college is steadily growing closer, and I find that my feelings are bittersweet. I want to be with my fiance and all my friends, and yet I know already I will miss the freedoms I get to enjoy at home. But...it is my last semester, and I am ready to be done with college. The next fifteen weeks will be good, I can feel it, and God is always good.

Tonight, I said good-bye to most of the people at my church and got to spend some time with Neicy. I'm going to miss her a lot; I wish we could have talked some more. But I plan on keeping in touch, as well as with my otherfriends I'll be away from.

Sometimes, I wish that good-byes weren't necessary; that everyone could be together all the time. But then...well, I guess we would start getting tired of each other. You have to be apart from the ones you love to truly appreciate them, and fall in love with them all over again. So in the end, I guess this time apart can be a good thing, as long as I look at it that way.

Well, I'm not sure if I'll be back on here before I go back to school, but to all my friends and loved ones, I'll see you soon!

Love
~Nichole

Two More Weeks...

Well, in two short weeks, I will be returning to college to finish my last undergraduate semester, and I am pretty excited. I am so ready to see my wonderful fiance and spend what time I can with him! And I cannot wait to see all my friends! I also cannot wait to be back on schedule again; I get so much more done that way.

Last week, I went on vacation with my family and my mother's parents to Myrtle Beach, SC. It was a bit of a trial once in a while, but we managed to have fun. One of my cousin's got married, and we thoroughly enjoyed celebrating with the whole family.

The pictures below are of the beach where we stayed.

This last picture also includes a poem I wrote while watching the sunrise.

With the wind barely kissed by the dawn

a pale light blushes in the eastern sky;

it turns the gray a blooming rose

as the neverending waves break the shore.

It seems such a simple thing:

the reoccuring rising of the sun,

and yet it is unlike any other,

for this one I deemed to watch.

I watched as the sky was painted,

gilded gold with unseen Holy fingers:

as the water tinged a soft blue-gray

by the sweeping of the gentlest hands.

As the clouds were stained a golden pink

while their backs still cling to nighttime's shadow.

Never before was this landscape fashioned

in a portrait such as this.

This, this is the one and only sunset of its kind.

there will never be another like it in the world.

Family Fun

I just had the privilege of spending the last 9 days with my future sister-in-law, Dakota. We had a very busy, very fun week! Dakota is younger than me by a little over 6 years, but we have quite a few things in common. Other than running around doing errands for both my parents, I got to take Dakota to several of my favorite restaurants around town, such as: Chick-fil-A, Red Hot and Blue, and Hibachi.

We also got to go to King's Dominion, though we had a bit of a wild goose chase. I completely forgot to print off the tickets until we were 5 minutes away from the park. I quickly asked my brother to use his Droid to find the closest public library and we drove the small town of Ladysmith until we found the library. 40 cents later, we were headed back to the park, this time with tickets in hand.

Other than that, Dakota and I decided to just relax. We watched several movies, including Miyazaki's newest amazing movie: Ponyo. We also played some video games and did some writing. All in all, I had a really fun time with my new little sister.

I hope you have a good school year, Dakota, and I can't wait until we get to hang out again!