Story Time

Hey y'all!

Let's cut right to the chase: My Spring Break was wonderful! :) Because I got to see this guy.

Corey came to visit me in California for Spring Break. It was fantastic. Among our adventures included Corey's first trip to both In N Out Burger and Yogurtland. That is some good stuff. :)

We visited UCI too, but didn't ever make it to the beach because the weather was awful. Who would have thought that if you choose to spend your Spring Break in California, it will be colder and more rainy than it is in Kansas just for that week? Haha!

He got to hang out with my family and meet my roommate (Erin) and some of my friends. I know they were all really excited to meet him. It was really fun and exciting, even if we all didn't get to hang out for super long. 

It was so awesome to have him here, since we haven't been in the same place since December, and won't be in the same place again until maybe July. Oh my beard. But God is so much bigger than 1600 miles, and (risking being extremely sappy) I'm super blessed to have Corey Tindall in my life. :)

The rest of my break was fun too. I got to sing in a high school friend's wedding. It rained and the wind was insane, but both the bride and the groom were beaming and that made the messed up hair and blue limbs worth it. It was truly gorgeous to see them exchange their vows and devote their relationship to Jesus. :)

Now commences the grueling last quarter of my college career. I've got to be honest, I'm really not a fan of getting back into the swing of classes. Spring Break was so great, and now I'm having to force myself to be productive again. I'm sure you all know the feeling.

I think the most irritating thing for me is that I'm super impatient about where my life is going. I've found myself looking forward to all the cool things that are coming, and being very frustrated that I have to wait for them.  Not that being excited about the future is wrong, but I'm not just excited--I'm pining. It's not the best the feeling.

Interestingly enough, I found wise words and solace from a book. Nope, not the Bible, folks. A textbook for my Beginning Fiction Writing class.

That may sound strange, but that's what happened. Tuesday afternoon I was sitting in my room trying to focus on reading this textbook, while all I wanted to do was get to what's next in my life, (without even fully being able to visualize that). I stumbled across this and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

"We live in a society that doesn't offer any support or approval from ventures that aren't clearly articulated and alligned for a goal. A writer gets past this. It's going to be a mess before you're finished, and you may not have a name for the mess or understand it's utilitarian purposes." -- Ron Carlson Writes A Story

Nuggets of wisdom from a textbook on how to write a compelling story.

And it got me thinking about how often we don't think of our lives as being a story. On Project we focused so much on figuring out our testimonies, but at Keynote they prefer to call them "stories". Testimony implies something grandiose and intimidating--a giant tale of how God rescued you from the depths of a heroine addiction after losing your entire family in some house fire.

And that isn't to say that things like that don't happen, because they do, and God is faithful to rescue us from them. However, most people don't have a testimony like that. This is where the story comes in. Stories are small episodes of your life, not the whole thing. One moment where God made Himself so real to you that you couldn't ignore Him.

And yet in ALL of that, we as humans are discontent in not knowing the ending of our stories. I know I am. I have to have every detail planned out. And if I don't get it just right the first time, I have trouble reassessing.

So when Ron Carlson (the author of my textbook) tells me that I need to approach writing a story without knowing the ending, without knowing the details of the plot, without even knowing the main characters' names...well, that's a foreign concept to me.

And yet that's how God asks us to approach life. He wants us to trust that He has your best interest at heart. He wants us to hold tightly to Him, rather than try to plan out our 5-year plan. (Not knowing the end of the story.)

Not that God wants us to all go out into some field wearing clothes made out of hemp, waiting for Him to come out of a cloud and drop us into the middle of a successful career or loving relationship. He does however, ask us to move trusting that He will direct and correct our paths. Kind of like a loving, omnipotent editor, if we're continuing with the short story analogy.

Anyway, I hope this intrigued some of you. :) 

If any of you out there are keeping score I would love prayer in this area of my life. That I would be clinging to God and not to my own plan for my life. (Because I'm slowly seeing that plan disolve. Haha!)

Also, on a more concrete note, I can already tell my Post Tonal Music theory class is going to be miserable. I have sat through 2 lectures and understood maybe 10% of what out professor is talking about. It's like someone took Calculus and shoved it into music.

Thanks for reading everyone! Until next time!

--Hannah

So Much More Than Enough

Hey friends! 

It's Finals Week. Finally. I have been counting down the days until the end of the quarter all quarter long. Mostly, because Corey Tindall will be in Bakersfield in a grand total of 8 days! I'm so excited, but more about that in another blog entry. :)

My Finals Week was supposed to be pretty gross. I had two papers due today, my Piano final, and both my Psych final and my Music Analysis final tomorrow morning, back to back. Psych from 8:00--10:00 and Analysis from 10:30--12:30. Then absolutely nothing until Friday at 10:30.

I've been studying for Psych and Analysis all weekend, and I finished up my papers at the end of last week. So it's been a busy last few weeks.

Most of you will remember from my previous posts that I have to take a Piano Proficiency Exam in order to graduate. It's been really hard, but I have been feeling alright. God has blessed me in the fact that I've made a lot of progress. I still am terrible at sight-reading Bach Chorales, but I still have one more quarter.

Last Friday, I took a mock-Piano Proficiency Exam, and as expected I was good at the pieces I've been learning, and good at the transposition section. However, I botched the Chorale.

My professor said kindly, "I think you'll probably pass next quarter." I said I agreed and that I wasn't planning on passing, but that I just wanted the experience.

I spent the weekend studying for my Psych and Analysis finals, and practicing my piano pieces. Today I went to take my Proficiency Exam.

This is how it went:

I played the piece, "Toccatina" and made a rhythm mistake at the end. My professor reminded me to count and asked me to play it again. 

I played the Chorale, and in my opinion took it to a whole new level of awful. I made rhythm mistakes, note mistakes and in places didn't play my left and right hand at the same time. 

I played the transposition and missed the F# in the key of G.

It was a rough exam, but I just wanted the experience.

I left the room at 10 seconds later, my TA ran down the hallway:

TA: "Hannah! Wait!"

Me: "Yeah?"

TA: "You passed."

Me: "WHAT?!"

TA: "You passed. Come back real quick."

Me: "Are you serious?"

TA: "Yes. Come back."

I walked back to the testing room and my professor smiled at me and said, "Congratulations! You passed!"

Me: "Are you sure...?"

Professor: *laughs* "Yes. You could have played it a little faster, but congratulations! You passed!"

I have never been so floored in my entire life. I didn't deserve that. I did not meet the qualifications. Maybe they took pity on me. Maybe my staying after class, and making progress paid off. I don't know, but whatever the reason I know one thing: God was totally present in that room today. I think He told them to pass me in those 10 seconds I was out of the room.

It's moments like this that make me think, "How can we deny the existence of God?" It seems utterly impossible to me.

Not that I've needed more, but I've been praying for more and more confirmation that I am supposed to graduate early and join Keynote staff. The path God has placed me on has been clear, but the future has felt distant and fuzzy. And thus I've been continuously praying that God would remind me what it is He's doing. Today I heard His voice whisper, "I've got this. You just keep walking down this road. Just keep trusting Me."

I'm astounded. Passing the Piano Proficiency Exam at the end of Spring quarter would have been enough. Passing it this early is more than enough. God is SO much more than enough. :)

I was so excited that I came home and made gourmet macaroni and cheese with bacon. Here's a picture. It's got gouda and sharp white cheddar cheese and apple-wood smoked bacon. Yummy! :D

I hope this story was encouraging to all of you. :) Good luck on Finals. Always remember Who gives you the strength to study and Who gifted you with that brilliant mind to pass those finals! :)

--Hannah