Kay, I'm back

Looks like it's time to play catch-up again, so here's a quick rundown of September and October!

• I'm still working for the Ames Tribune. Sometimes I love it - I'll get an interesting story that's really fun to tell, like this. Sometimes it's not so hot - on slow news days I find myself writing stuff like this.
• Since the Ames Tribune is a newspaper, they don't have a lot of money - this means I only get to work 30 hours a week. This sounds like a bummer, but I'm actually pretty thankful for it. This allows me to keep on doing the things I love at Cornerstone Church, such as acting for D6, playing music for weekend services and Salt Co. and playing keys for Anthem. (By the way, Anthem has some great new songs in the works - mark your calendars for December 4, you won't want to miss it!)
• "James & James" is still going strong with the release of a new EP and a critically-acclaimed Halloween show, featuring a tribute to Simon & Garfunkel:
  

James and I have a ton of fun together, both on stage and off. James is a solid guy, and we've had some great times of encouraging and challenging each other in faith this semester. If you want to keep track of upcoming shows and other goings-on, join our facebook group or check out our blog, which gets updated almost as often as this one.

Looking back, I'm seeing all the ways that God has blessed me since I came back from India. It's been a tough stretch in a lot of ways - everything was so different when I came back that I really had a hard time finding "home." I struggled to find my identity as I started a new job, got over a broken relationship and experienced some pretty confusing culture shock (e.g. "Hey, why are all of these cows fenced in? Shouldn't they be standing in the middle of intersections and taking up space on the sidewalk?").

But God is faithful - He has come through for me in so many ways in the last couple of months. I've got great friends, and some wise mentors who are teaching me what it means to be an independent, hard-working, disciplined-but-still-fun-loving follower of Christ. I've got no idea where I'll be in five years, but for now I'll trust in the One who's got it figured out. I'll write stories about Iowa State's garbage to the best of my ability, continue to pursue the things I'm passionate about and have a lot of laughs along the way.

And who knows - maybe I'll even blog about it every once in awhile.