Today was a great day. The air was crisp, the breeze was refreshing, and the sunlight danced.

I had the opportunity to do a lot of walking around campus today. First of all, it's because I live in Hill but had my first lecture in Huntsman, followed by my AIB seminar in Williams Hall, then back to Hill for a nappy-nap during the lunch break, and on to Claudia Cohen, then Huntsman again.

And today, during my FNCE 103 lecture, I was informed that I wouldn't have to go to my WH191 Oral Presentations class because we would be having our one-on-one's with our communications instructor instead. So what did I do?

I walked and talked.

After leaving Huntsman, I decided to head into the wind tunnel between the high-rises, take a left to hit up Spruce, and then walk back down to make a left at Williams again, bringing me right back to the familiar Locust Walk.

What did I do during my walk? I looked, listened, and mumbled my rehearsed status report. But more importantly, I breathed.

For me, there's nothing quite like a breath of crisp autumn air. I feel like, if my lungs had arms, they opened wide as soon as I stepped out into the open air today. Today was an especially wonderful autumn day. The leaves on Locust Walk weren't soggy, even dead leaves looked refreshed, and the breeze was the kind that gently caressed your face as it waltzed by.

And around 5PM, when the sky was just starting to get darker because of Daylight Savings, it was such a beautiful shade of gray. While they aren't the Carolina blue sky that I'm used to, gray skies in Philly seem to have a wisdom that truly humble me. Whenever I look up at a gray sky, it seems to say to me, like a sage well-worn by the years, "Yep, I've seen it all. The storms, the cloudy days, the slight drizzle. And yet here I am, still. This is life." While it may seem rather depressing, it's a simple reality that at times can actually be incredibly refreshing.

It is what it is.

So onto praise for today:

1) Praise God for breakfast at Hill.
I'm a huge breakfast person. I usually always have some sort of breakfast, because I never really feel full unless I've had breakfast that day. As such, I truly recognize the blessing of living in Hill, where the dining hall serves an absolutely delicious! breakfast. I had an omelet this morning with ham, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and egg white, since I'm trying to watch my cholesterol. *blush* For carbs, I had a bagel, half plain and half with peanut butter. Not only that, but I was able to have breakfast with two fun friends, which was a great start to my morning. Everybody likes a good laugh at the start of the day. =)

2) Praise God for yogurt parfaits.
So yesterday I bought a yogurt parfait with my pasta from Houston Market, and put it in the fridge to have today. Mmmm, was it yummy-licious. Yogurt parfaits are one of the things I actually acquired a taste for after coming to Penn. I had my first one for lunch before the first Sunday of the school year and my first service at GCC. I feel like it's such a delicious and nutritious part of any meal. Yumsies! ^__^

3) Praise God for reminders of home.
On my walk around campus, I saw a lady in her early forties pushing a woman who I assumed to be her mother in a wheelchair down Locust Walk. I immediately thought of my own mother, who always used to patiently push my maternal grandmother around in her wheelchair. Because of Grandma's weak legs, it was more convenient for her to take the wheelchair when the family went out, so it was always either Mom or my grandfather who would push her without complaining and with an inspiring heart of servanthood. Now that I'm in college and my grandparents have gone back to China, there are very few reminders of old age in my university life. Seeing this reminder of family, however, put a genuine smile on my face. :)

4) Praise God for caring friends.
As I mentioned in my last post, I have my status report on Thursday, which means we have our rehearsal in front of the team tonight. O_O! My friend and teammate Suzanne, who's been ridiculously sick, called especially to wish me luck because she wouldn't be able to make it to the rehearsal tonight. Even though she herself is resting at home, recovering from a fever, she took the time to call me and wish me luck, which was such an encouragement and blessing to me with my jittery nerves.

5) Praise God for learning opportunities and positive feedforward.
Not to sound repetitive or anything, but the status report rehearsal tonight will undoubtedly be a great learning experience for me. My team will be watching my partner and me present, and then will give us constructive criticism on our critical thinking, structure, evidence, audience analysis, and delivery. I am particularly concerned about my delivery, because even though I've been practicing so much, I've been told, and I know from previous experience, that sometimes it turns out completely different from all the times you've practiced it, you know? So right now, I'm trying to find the delicate balance between familiarity with my material and memorization. I've been practicing my status report in different accents to make it more entertaining and less routine and monotonous for myself. Meh, memorization. I hate to be the person that, because she gets one word off during her presentation, freezes up and is unable to function from that point forward. Anyway, it's definitely been something that I've really been keeping in my prayers. I really just want the chance to give this over to God so that I can really relax and have confidence in my dependence on Him.

And tagging along with praise is prayer, not too far behind. Five prayer requests I have for today are:

1) Praying for health!
So many people are sick! :C While I'm one of the fortunate few still not suffering from sniffles or coughs, I'll be praying for continued health for those like me who are peachy-keen, and recovery for those who are sick. ^_^

2) Praying for peace of mind.
I think this applies to so much more than just the nerve-wracking status report. All of us probably have so much work and so many things to do in the next few weeks before Thanksgiving Break, so I just want to pray for us to learn how to rest in Him, to be still, and know that He is faithful.

3) Praying for revival.
I am so pumped about GCC's Passion Revival Conference this weekend! I've really been praying a lot for myself personally, and for our entire church and the other people who are attending. I'm really excited to see God's kingdom come during our time and witness all the marvelous things He is going to do during this conference!

4) Praying for cohesion.
I want this to apply to our freshmen class at GCC and my Management 100 team, which, admittedly, are two extremely different groups of people, but both ones I identify very strongly with. In the upcoming weeks, my Management 100 group will need to stay strong together as we really pull our project together and deliver a successful event for our client. Similarly, I hope that God will really just pull our freshmen class together at GCC so we become a family and a community that really build each other up in Him.

5) Praying for direction.
Tomorrow is Penn Courses and Majors Fair! Next week we'll start pre-registration for classes in spring semester. It feels so super early, but at the same time, first semester is really just flying by. I'm also still praying about the dual-degree and t'have actually even started thinking about what I want to do over my Spring Break and Summer 2010! I feel like Wharton creates so much hype about internships that people who haven't really even thought about them are beginning to feel ridiculously behind (*coughs* me).

My life seems so ridiculously chaotic.

Oh, what a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.

Praise the Lord. :)