Skip to main content

January 2024

It was my friend Nicole's birthday (in the middle)! Me and Steph went over to have some homemade spring rolls and play Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. It was my first time and it was pretty fun! You know those people that you've known for a while and have interacted with a little bit, but then one day y'all discover that y'all could be better friends? (That seems hyper specific but also like a universal experience?) That's Nicole! She was a part of UTD FOCUS and graduated recently and it wasn't until she graduated that we started hanging in the same circles more. I'm so thankful for unexpected friends! :-)

We had our Winter Staff Retreat the first week of January. What a sweet time to reset, reconnect, and prepare ourselves for the upcoming semester. Each Winter Staff Retreat, we read a book as a whole team and reflect on its message. This year, we read To Love As God Loves which takes you through the history of how we have thought through loving people as a (big C) Church—and what we could learn from the early church. This is a picture during some free time of us playing Mysterium.

This is one of the only photos I took at Winter Retreat (FKA Winter Camp). It was my first time doing Winter Retreat at this retreat center (if you remember, last year would've been my first time if not for that eye injury), so I felt a little in the dark heading into it. But praise God, it went smoothly (for the most part, you can't expect everything to work right at any of these camps). Our speaker, Dr. Daniel Lee, spoke about DISRUPTIVE GRACE. Which, if you are at all curious about what that means, I highly encourage you to listen to his talks on Spotify! You can listen to the first one by clicking here. I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that he is one of my favorite speakers we've had!

Jacob, one of my best friends, got married recently!! WHOOO!! Here is a picture of us during the rehearsal. So excited for him and Siena (one of our pastors at SMU) and the next stage of their lives together.

Our dishwasher broke! Or, at least it wouldn't drain. THANK GOD FOR WILLING AND HANDY FRIENDS. 😭🙏 Jeremy came over and we unplugged the dishwasher, took it apart a little, then put it back together and plugged it back in and it started working again. Not sure what we did (and when I say we, I mean he), but it was enough heat that the dishwasher started behaving again.

The theme this month (and honestly for the past few months of my life) is friendship. I've been thinking a lot about friendships: how they fit in my life, the priority they take, and how to be a good friend. If you remember his picture from last month, Daijon loves to laugh and smile. Here we are forcing him to celebrate his birthday with us. :-) Everything I said last month is still the same, he is a great friend to me and an inspiration of how to be more thoughtful of my friends!

Lol.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why are bananas curved in shape?

My mom celebrated her birthday this month and we all got on a video chat! (Peep the Zoom call in the corner.) My niece loves to clap with other people and so she was having a grand time. You'll have to go back (quite) a few blog posts to find when I first got my expander put in... who knew it would take this long for me to get my braces off?? Some friends told me that the braces were a part of my identity, so without them, what am I?! But seriously, eating is SO EASY again. Earlier this month, I got to go on a short trip to Boston with Steph and another couple. It was my first time (that I can remember) going to the East Coast. Being someone who grew up on the West Coast (and even now in Dallas), there has never been a rich history to the places I've been. But it was incredible getting to see the sights and walk The Freedom Trail. Going into Paul Revere's house definitely brought out the kid in me who loved him growing up, simply because we had the same name. Anyways, this ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Showcase is February 26

  Showcase is in 1 week! If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you can do so at anyfocus.org/showcase. All proceeds from the show go towards sending our prospective student leaders to SICM, a conference that trains and equips them to think pastorally on their campuses. This is a video of me and my family hanging out on Zoom on New Years Eve and celebrating the New Year for the West Coast (2 am in Texas). I decided not to attend any New Year's celebrations in person (and isolated myself for almost a week beforehand) in an attempt to not contract COVID before our staff retreat... I tested positive later that day. Though I tested positive for COVID on New Years, Winter Camp was a few weeks after which gave me time to recover. We flew in Rikk Watts to speak about the historicity of the Bible. It was nice to have some semblance of normalcy, as we had canceled Winter Camp the previous year. It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it to see the students bonding and having a good ...
Post a Comment
Read more

September 2024

It was my grandpa's 90th birthday and so we all surprised him by visiting Taiwan. The last time we all came back as a family to Taiwan was for his 70th birthday, 20 years ago. Here is a picture of all of us, including my cousins, and our significant others, and children (if applicable). I am so thankful for the opportunity to go back and spend time with my family! Here's the most readily available picture I could find of us, probably around 20 years ago, in my grandparent's house. The angle of the picture is close to the same, the flooring is the same. Not much has changed.  
Post a Comment
Read more