Hello blog!
Lots of things have happened in October. So much to discuss. My word to describe fellows is that it is just so rich. There are so many things to learn, so many people to build relationships with, so many cool God sightings, and so many fun and silly moments.
Let’s start with a recap of fun things! It was kind of exhausting but am so glad each of these things happened:
Went to a college friend’s wedding at the end of September. It was so fun and sweet to see a ton of UVA friends and now I’m excited for everyone I know to get married.
Went to Ashley’s lake house for a girls weekend! The boys are still mad at us. I LOVED the weather and it was healing to swim in the lake in October.
Two friends - Jaida and Anna - visited me and our friend Kendall for the weekend. I felt so loved having them here and it was so fun to introduce old friends to new friends and have everyone in the same place. It was so restful to catch up with them and spend quality time together. Shoutout Billy and Cathy for not caring about all of them crashing here!
The next weekend I went up to Charlottesville for UVA’s homecoming and it was so great. Seeing Charlottesville in the fall was just what I needed and I miss it so much. It was just so great to see so many friends and pack in a ton of things in 24 hours.
Last weekend the boys were on a men’s retreat and the girls spent a restful weekend in Raleigh together (we missed you Maddie Grace!). We went out for dinner, sat in the hot tub, went to a coffee shop, went thrifting, and cooked dinner.
The fellows went to the state fair together! This was my first state fair and it was so silly.
We did a recruitment cookout event at the NC State study center!
Halloween last night was so fun! I am not a huge halloween person but I actually had a blast and the costumes were iconic. And since I am following the rules and posting this on Nov 1, you don’t get to hear the recap of Ashley’s birthday party but that is happening tonight and it might be the best event of the year.
Some of the things I’m learning:
I am starting to get better at learning how to listen to God more and tune into the things that are being stirred up in my mind. This was kind of a goal at the beginning of fellows and I think I’m slowly figuring it out. I’m grateful to have a spiritual formation class with intentional time to sit in silence and prayer with God. I’m also grateful to have such a great mentor, Elaina, who has helped me figure out what time with God looks like during a busy fellows year.
I am reluctantly learning (kind of) how to dream. For our spiritual formation class we have been assigned to sit & dream with God about our future and write a eulogy to reflect how we want our life to look like. I am naturally really bad at dreaming and thinking about my future; it just is not something my mind does. So this is very new for me and I’m not good at it but I guess it is happening a little bit.
I’m learning a lot about how to think about justice and how to better process injustices from our class on Just Leadership. I am really grateful for the topics we read and talk about and that we talk about hard things in a biblical setting.
With all the busyness and fun things I think I am learning how to better rest and be more intentional about true rest.
Things I’m loving:
I really enjoy our weekly rhythm of having a prayer partner. Each week we are paired with one of the fellows and we get together and talk and pray together. I love an intentional, 1-on-1, hangout, so this has been super life giving to me. It’s the best way for me to get to know the fellows better and feel like they can know me too.
I am enjoying all of our classes! I am loving the opportunity to learn just for the sake of learning.
This month I spent a lot of time with college friends which has been awesome! I’m so glad to have opportunities to see them in-person for various things and am grateful for really great friendships that I want to keep up post-college.
I’m loving to listen to the new albums from Sabrina Carpenter & Olivia Dean. Ok Bevi that is pretty basic and doesn’t seem like a huge deal. But something about me is I am really bad at listening to new music so I want to shout out Hailey for driving me to work and getting me obsessed with the music she’s loving.
I’m loving the new season of Nobody Wants This on Netflix.
I’m loving my friendships with my fellows buddy Tessa & my mentor Elaina.
Hard things:
Feeling like I have the capacity for all the rich content and experiences happening. It’s so great but sometimes I get overwhelmed.
My sister just moved to Ethiopia! (Hi Valerie miss you)
Still dealing with head symptoms like pain & fogginess, although I am grateful to have seen a little bit of progress in the past few weeks.
Thanks for reading my October update!
Love, Bevi Lundeen