I've been back at school for a week and a half, now. It was so hard to leave the CMC. The friday that we left was a difficult day, and I ended up crying for days...It was such a unique, amazing, challenging, spiritual, bonding experience! I miss everything: the island, the food, the pond, hearing drums at 2am, my friends, my professors, having 5 roommates, laughing at the guys, struggling together, listening to each others' new music and watching it evolve...

Christmas break was fine. Both of my brothers came home, and it was really great to see them- I love them more than anything in the world!

School is hard, and I don't mean academically. It's strangely normal yet different to be back at Milligan. The place has become like home to me over the past 3 1/2 years. I know my way around Johnson City, I know the things to do around here, I know how college life, Walmart runs, and "Milligan things" go. But it's so different too! There are so many new faces- mostly freshmen- that I don't think I'll be able to get used to. I feel "out of the loop," I guess. I go away for 4 months and what happened to the world I knew? My friends are still my friends, and I love them dearly, but something has changed in the atmosphere.