life and the beginning of the lilly project

This past week, I experienced lots of beginnings. If you've been following my blogs or have seen me around campus so far this semester, you've probably noticed that I have been a little overwhelmed or scatterbrained. In the middle of this madness, I woke up one morning to find that I had kicked off a sticky note from the bulletin board beside my bed in my dorm room. On this sticky note, I found three guidelines I had taken in note from a service at Highland Park Baptist last year (that I attended with my friends Kristen Dunn and Elise Cofield!) Written were 1.) Rejoice in YOUR circumstances. 2.) Pray about everything...even the little things. 3.) Trust God's provisions.

These principles seem so simple..and maybe I had just overlooked them before, but over the past few days, I have begun to apply them to my life, and I can't even begin to describe the difference it has made.

In other news, this past week contained both the Honors Program Sadie Hawkins Dance and Homecoming (two events that I definitely enjoyed...here are just a few pictures of the highlights! :)..)

 

In case you don't know the people in the pictures: The top left is Jacob Wallace; he is one of my best friends in the Honors Program and was my date to the Sadie Hawkins Dance! The top right is Lesley Carter and Hailey Boeck; they are my Freshman Forum/ UPC/ Honors Program best friends. The middle left is my Zeta sister and Honors Program best friend Lauren Copeland right before the Homecoming Parade, and the middle right is a picture of new Zeta baby Alex Kelley, my Big Corinne Beckinger, and my Strawberry sister Sam Beckinger at the homecoming game! :) The bottom left is my roommate and best friend Elise Cofield, and the bottom right is new Zeta baby and "Look-a-Like" Sarah Beth Looney, and the picture right above this is my sweet sister, Dana Jacobs, who surprised me by driving over three hours to watch me in the homecoming parade and tailgate with me! I am one lucky girl!

 

 

This week also began my work for my Honors Platform with Lilly, the sweet girl at Kilby Lab School who I am mentoring/tutoring on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. Everyone had told me if I found what I should truly be doing for service, I would feel just as moved as the person I was helping; I would be lying to you if I said that I didn't discount that before I met Lilly. Imagine the cutest, sweetest, and most genuine five-year old you've ever met, and I promise that you would've just seen the face of Lilly Patterson. With my fingers crossed, I walked into her classroom Tuesday afternoon, hoping that she would warm up to me and allow me the opportunity to help her learn. Just a few minutes later, she had drawn me pages of animals, different types of foods, and had written my name as well as her own. Using Cinderella as the basis of many of my examples, I learned that all letters must be polka-dotted and the number 8's were just S's that kept going.

 

 

Over the last seven days, I've learned that there is a lot more to college...and to life than class or just making A's. I have so much to be thankful for, and I am INCREDIBLY blessed to be surrounded with the people that I am. Between my own family, the Honors Program, and Zeta Tau Alpha, I have the greatest support system I could ever imagine.

settle down, it'll all be clear.

To begin, I CANNOT get this song out of my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRkntoHkIE

Like a stereotypical nerd, I looked over the syllabus before the first Forum and tried to map out the speakers I would enjoy...Since I declared that Success by Six would be a huge part of my platform, I don't guess that it surprises anyone how much I enjoyed Emily Baker's lecture on Monday night.

Probably the most surprising thing we learned Monday night was that the director of Success by Six was only twenty-three. WHAT?! Considering I am going to be twenty in a few months, I seriously cannot imagine being offered a dream job before I graduate college (let's add that to my ever-growing to-do list.)

All of this really brings me to the point I'd like to make with this blog entry, and that is how incredibly THANKFUL I am for the life I am living. This semester finds me a little overwhelmed, but after listening to Mrs. Baker's speech, I realize how privileged my life has been.

Nearly half of America's kindergarteners are behind. Those who come from low-wage families are at least a year or two behind them. Fourth graders without reading skills are not likely to graduate, and seven out of every ten fourth graders can't even read at a basic level. Ninety percent of a child's critical brain development happens by age five. Kids learn through play. A one dollar investment towards every childhood development yields a sixteen dollar return.

All of these statements italicized above came from her lecture that was filled with interesting graphics and an amazing video that really hit home. Coming from the girl who probably cried when she made less than a 9/10 on her Accelerated Reading tests (when I was reading the hardest levels in the library just to earn more points), I really can't imagine not being able to read. I can't fathom not having books when I found it hard to pick out which book I wanted my parents to read to me before bed.

Because of these reasons, I find it hard to NOT want to work with Success by Six..especially when she confessed the organization only had one volunteer. (Being Fundraising Chair of Zeta definitely makes me empathetic to those who need volunteers...) Oh, and in other news, I am officially on schedule to mentor/tutor/help the little girl I talked about in my first blog. After lots of communication between her mother and her teachers, my first session with her will be next Tuesday! YESSSS! :)

Don't mind my little obsession with Success by Six..and expect to hear lots more about them in the future. Oh, and I hope y'all have a good week (considering it's Friday now, I consider that HIGHLY likely.. :) ...)

"We see so many tears turn into smiles."

Before I even begin, I need to form a disclaimer. There is absolutely NO way I could give last week's Honors Forum, the speaker Kay Parker, or her place of volunteerism (The Healing Place) justice. I was already impressed when Dr. Brewton said she had been speaking to Honors Program students for six years AND she was selected as the 2007 Shoals Woman of the Year. I've noticed there are quite a few women in the Shoals area, so that honor spoke volumes (and her speech only solidified it.)

I was enthralled "hook, line, and sinker" when she began by saying she was going to read her speech off of notecards: "I want to be sure I say everything I need and want to say." I was honestly moved more by Mrs. Parker's commitment and fluidity to speak about her faith than anything else presented to me that day. The words and phrases she used throughout her speech were literally too good not to quote, so I'm sorry (you may have heard them already) but here it goes:

"The world is waiting for you to do what you are good at."
"It helps to be crazy. It keeps you from being insane."
 "Forget perfect."
"What would you do for a living if you didn't get paid for it. Dream for a minute."
"Stress, pain, grief? Draw it out. Talk it out. Cry it out. Pray it out." 
"Grief is pain of the heart; it assigns itself to our entire body, not just a leg."
"It's easy to complain about what is wrong."

There honestly could not have been a better week for me to hear this speech. On Monday night, I was still living off the high of the great weekend I had with my family the days before. The words were easy to hear, but I realize that words are just that, easy to say and to hear. It's simple to say that you are going to change, that things are going to be different, or that you are going to refrain from a behavior that dominates your personality. I could have told you Monday night that I would take the words Mrs. Parker used and apply them to my behavior throughout the week, but realistically, I probably wouldn't make it past Tuesday afternoon. Oprah knew her stuff when she said she needed to find someone who would ride with her in the taxi, not just in the limo.

But what good is a speech if you don't apply any of the new material to your life? Mrs. Parker amazed me because she admitted that at moments in her life she cried out to God. She questioned God. Most people don't admit that they question their faith, but she spoke in a sincere and genuine way unmatched by any speaker I have ever heard. By being so open, she established immediate rapport within the room, and I doubt anyone left the room without a good feeling about The Healing Place. It's definitely somewhere I will think about volunteering this semester.

I'll end this with one last quote; it's something that I am pretty sure I paraphrased in my "About Me" section on Facebook that was updated right after I moved to Florence last fall..I love connections...."I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way."

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”

http://youtu.be/F7BivoCx4f0

Clearly, we don't live in central Texas...but the sweet lady in this video explains Success by Six better than I ever could, and the statistics really "hit home." My Comp II English paper was about the correlation between poverty and education levels, so it's crazy how these kind of things blend together.

round two...

Maybe it's just my personality, but as soon as I got comfortable in the routine of freshman year, I already wondered what my next years of college would hold. Having a best friend (and BIG) who is a year older than me allowed me to have the "upper hand" in terms of Honors Forum, but even with the advance notice, the decision of choosing a platform of service seems so...definite.

If you've talked to me in the past year or caught any of my past blog posts, you probably have come to realize that I have been a bit confused on where exactly my life is going (occupationally speaking.) I have always been the kind of person who thrives off of being in control, whether that meant that I had to campaign for an office or I just naturally assumed responsibility for unfinished tasks. Having this borderline obsessive-compulsive mindset, I have found myself in the midst of many service projects I loved...whether it meant tutoring children with learning disabilities at my high school (especially math!), teaching dance to 3, 4, and 5 year olds, participating in disaster relief after recent tornadoes, working a ticket table for a Habitat for Humanity function in my hometown...there are literally too many to name. However, I don't say this to "pat myself on the back," but rather to point out that I never actively searched for service projects...they found me.

Listening to Dr. Brewton  speak about having a plan for service literally left my mind reeling. How could I make a difference? How CAN I make a difference? From the moment I even heard the word "platform," I immediately thought...Child Literacy. I have always been incredibly thankful and honestly a little amazed at how much I truly LOVE school. I have always preferred a book over a ball, and I would absolutely love sharing that with others. Just like I mentioned how the service projects "found me" over the course of my life, I feel like that's happening all over again. With the combination of volunteering with Success by Six through United Way and mentoring the child of one of my favorite professors, I truly feel like I could make a difference...and perhaps this is superficial for me to say, but I am excited it may be a difference I can SEE..or feel.

So, maybe this isn't my final plan for service. Maybe it will change every few weeks (like my major! or my dream occupation!) The final purpose of this post will be to convince myself that it is okay to change my mind so I can adapt and grow.


I, Carrie Elizabeth Bailey, solemnly swear to keep smiling, breathing, and functioning properly if my life does not go precisely according to my detailed, almost perfect plan.