It's February Eve! And it's getting cold. I'm really ready for summer or at least warmer weather. I was at a loss for what to blog about this week when a friend (Eric!) suggested I talk about what there is for couples to do in Greeley. Maybe you and your girlfriend or boyfriend are thinking about coming here. Maybe you're single and you hope to have a girlfriend or boyfriend after you get here. Either way here are some options. A personal favorite for me is going for a walk. There are lots of great parks in Greeley that are really nice to go to. Some of them have bodies of water and lots of trees. Very nice! If you two are an active couple there are lots of intermural teams you could join. We have a great Frisbee golf coarse on campus. Frisbee in general is a good relaxed sport to play and there's lots of open space for many other games. Fun! You could go out for coffee at one of our many coffee shops which are also a combination of chains and independent places. For a dinner date there are lots of great restaurants to go to as well. Some are local and some are chain restaurants. If you're into movies, there are a couple nice movie theaters here as well. If you like doing art projects together there are some crafts stores nearby. Yum! Old town Greeley is fun to explore if you like window shopping. Classy! Overall a good date has some spontaneity to it and requires your imagination and Greeley gives you a lot of options that you can work with. Single or not, it's fun to do stuff with other people and you won't have a hard time finding something to do.

It's week 3 and I'm back into the swing of things. My first test and paper of the semester is coming up this week and I think it should be pretty easy. I care about how well I do here at school, especially considering this is my last year, but to be honest, I really care about my relationships with other people too. In the past almost four years I've grown to know a lot of people really well and every year some of them leave UNC. In a sense, I'm one of the next to soon leave the student world here. I'm sure I'm going to continue to be in close contact with a lot of the people I know from here now, but I don't know how different it'll be not being a student next year and being married. Both Allie and I are hoping to have a lot of time with friends, but with the more responsibility that comes with work and marriage it won't be exactly the same I'm sure. Don't get me wrong, I'm so excited for the next step in our life and I'm still really looking forward to it. It's interesting to think about all the things that we'll be responsible for after college. It's almost a shift in responsibility from classes to responsibility in everyday life. I have no doubt that there are plenty of things that I'm just going to have to experience in this next stage of life. There is no way I can prepare myself for those things. I know that my character is going to grow because of this. A reassuring thought is that that's kind of what starting college was like. If you told me four years ago all the things that I'd do in college I probably wouldn't believe you. Individually, college really shapes you into who you are. It's great because you learn so much about yourself and who you want to be and who you want to be around. Everyone could try to tell you what college life is like, but like I've said before, it's different for everyone. If there was one assured constant for everyone, it would probably be this: Nobody comes out of college exactly the same as they were before they went in. So I could tell you to "get ready for it", but you can't be. It's nothing to be scared of, but it's something that you have to experience to understand. I hope you're excited for that because you should be.

Week 2 and things are looking good. I didn't want this semester to be a deflating balloon class-wise where I just take a bunch of unnecessary classes. I wanted to be a little challenged but not so much that I don't have a social life. That's why I decided to take on a second minor in Psychology. I think I've found a pretty good balance. I only have 12 credits, but the classes are fairly engaging. One of my professors said I should know the material like I'd know an intimate friend. Well I only have time for one of those and that's my fiance so we'll see how I do in that class haha. Navigators is going really well. In case you haven't read my blog before I'm involved with this group called the Navigators. You could call us a "Christian group" and we are, but that's kind of cliche these days. I think a better description of us is "a group of people who want to know Christ better and help others to do the same". There's lots of great groups on campus you can check out. Work at the Visitor's Center is still going well. I've been really grateful for my job here. If you can, I'd definitely suggest trying to get an on campus job wherever you decide to go. It's reasonable hours for a student and UNC knows you're a student so they're flexible about working around your class schedule. I hope you're doing well. Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you son.

Today starts the beginning of my last semester. I like the first days of classes, they're fun and you get to figure out who your teachers are and guess what the class is going to be like. I've only had half my classes and will see the other two tomorrow. I'm looking forward to this semester. I want to finish strong and be involved in just as many things as usual. It feels weird to start the last classes I'll have in college. I'm not in any hurry to graduate, but it's the college life that I really enjoy. The classes are good too, but after 16 years of going to school I'm ready to move on. I could spend this semester reflecting back on how college has been so far, but if I do that too much I might miss this experience. A word of advice. College can go by really quickly so make sure you don't waste any of it. Don't be so absorbed in your classes that you don't meet new people. Challenge yourself to try new things and be smart when you do. I can't tell you how glad I am that I tried things that didn't seem fun because a lot of them became some of my favorite things to do. Try getting to know people you'd never talk to. There are all kinds of people here. You have such an opportunity to learn things from other's experiences. This might be hypocritical, but don't let other's opinion's of college affect the way you experience it. Everyone's experience is different so be optimistic because part of college is what you make of it.