Safe and Sound

Today I moved into college. The best college. I can't believe I'm finally here.

Last night mom and I finished packing everything up, and my room looked like this:

This is the cleanest my room has looked in...er...quite some time. The downstairs, however, looked like this:

And this isn't even a good representation. I still can't believe all of the stuff that I brought with me. I'm still unearthing more stuff and have like two bags to go through. One is only t-shirts (I'm such an addict).

Before we left the house, we had a family prayer, and (he's going to kill me for this) my dad got choked up and started crying! This is as monumental for me as moving to college. Really.

We arrived to Clemson safely and then sat in Clemson traffic for about an hour. We quickly unloaded everything into the dorm and tried to unpack. And by we I mean my mom, dad, and I. The little brother was worn out from his latest shoe night.

My dorm room is small and space is limited. There are a lot of inconveniences, such as we can only loft one bed, the position of the outlets, the fact that we're on the 7th floor, and the fact that there are boys -- immature, freshmen boys -- on the floors directly above and below us. BUT it's all good. Everything is fitting. And when I look out the window, I see this:

Now that, that makes everything better. I don't know if the picture shows it, but from my room we can see Tillman Hall and the top of the stadium (I CAN'T WAIT FOR FOOTBALL). We can also see the mountains. SO beautiful. I can't wait to see all of that green change into glorious yellow, burning red, and Clemson orange over the next few months. 

I had one last meal with the family and then had to say goodbye. It was so hard. I've been crying and crying the past few days because it's hard to leave my family. I know it's unusual for an 18-year-old girl who is about to spend the next year at the best school around to be sad, but they just make it so hard. The Lord has blessed me with such a fantastic family, whom I already miss terribly. 

But greater things are yet to come. I'm already meeting new girls on my hall, wondering how the Lord is looking to use me in their lives. I am already incredibly thankful for my roommate and her heart and look forward to getting to know her better. 

I'm not quite done with the dorm room. I still have several finishing touches, and once that's done I'll be sure to post lots of pictures. Clemson has tons of activities planned for us in this upcoming week, and I'm excited to meet new people, starting tomorrow at church!

For, praise the Lord, tomorrow is Sunday.