Our Hearts Are Restless

The first week of classes is over!  My mind is overwhelmed by the amazing vistas of knowledge which have been opened in front of me.  I've been enjoying the many fruitful and just plain interesting discussions I have had over lunch, in class, and just anywhere.  It has been an amazing week, the first of the semester, so I can look forward to many more.  Stress will come, I am sure, but for now the homework levels are exactly manageable and my schedule is slowly coming together. On a slightly different topic, I read an interesting article on my college's website.  Christendom has been named one of America's top ten colleges by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute!  We are right up there with Princeton, West Point, and other big-name colleges!  Check out the article on the college's website, here , and the actual assesment and rating of the top 10 colleges and the top 10 train-wrecks in America here .  I plan on a post soon here which will defend a liberal arts education...

The first day of the academic calendar started off with a bang! After a fairly full morning of Mass, history and lunch, I returned to my dorm for a brief period of rest before my next class.  I had woken up from a nap and was sitting down to read when the building began to shake.  I assumed, at first, that someone was jumping up and down or otherwise shaking the floor.  As the seconds passed, the shaking became harder and harder until things were rattling on shelves and walls.  There was perhaps thirty seconds of more intense tremors, followed by a longer period of lighter shaking. Indeed, we had an earthquake!  The epicenter was only two hours away from us here in Front Royal, and the quake itself was estimated to be a magnitude of 5.8.  You can see the United States Geological Society's information on the quake here .  Since we are situated in a mountain range, I suppose I should not be surprised that there is a fault line nearby.  However, it was quite a shock!  Feeling an earth...

Poem of the month: If, by Rudyard Kipling Inspiration can always be found in literature, for any time, place, or situation.  One of my favorite poems is this, by Rudyard Kipling.  I have it in front of me on my desktop now, and frequently refer to it when I am feeling stressed or depressed or in need of a mental pick-me-up.  There are so many wonderful gems in this poem!  Enjoy! If by Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think –and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same: If you can bear to hear the truth you...

Written August 16, 2011 Greetings, salutations, and welcome!  I believe an introduction is in order.  I am Rebecca, a young, homeschooled Roman Catholic from the Midwest.  I come to you from Edmund Campion Hall on the campus of Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia.  My purpose in this blog?  In the first place, to provide an inside view of the life of a student at a liberal arts Catholic college, as I grow in my faith and knowledge and become better prepared for life as the woman God wants me to be.  Secondly, to provide for those who wish to hear it, a unique view of the world, that of a committed, traditional, conservative Catholic young adult.  To those of you, my friends, who have urged me to set up a Facebook page, I offer this alternative.  If it be thy good pleasure, read this humble writing, and find out what I am up to at college!  In addition, I have the practical purpose of practicing the art of writing as I study for a degree in English Literature and prepare for a ...