The Chamber of Secrets is Closed Again

Can I just say that I love when Harry pulls Godric Gryffindor’s sword out of the sorting hat? I’m pretty sure I’ve cheered both times I’ve read it. I also love that Harry’s second year of school sucked. That sounds pretty harsh, but my sophomore year at Greenville was really hard, but I learned a lot.
That year has come up a lot lately in my mind, and for good reason. I’ve been at Senior Staff training these last couple of days at GC. First of all, let me just say that I feel like I fit in so well with the Senior Staff-talk about finding your niche. I love being around all of those people. It’s kind of like what my friend Anna talks about (I know I mention her a lot, but I really like what she has to say) concerning mentors: it’s not someone that you go to for advice once a week, but someone that you live around and gain knowledge from being in their presence all of the time. That’s the way I feel with the Senior Staff, especially Kelcey, Joy, and Hadessa. Besides counting every bit of furniture on campus and talking about next year, the staff did things like go out to eat at P.F. Changs in St. Louis (oh my goodness, so good), go to Ted Drew’s together, eat breakfast together, and generally have a really fun time. This time with the staff was like food for my soul (to be completely cheesy, but also completely honest). We were riding back from St. Louis last night and I realized that I was excited for walkabout because it’s become part of my existence. This will be my third year and I’m excited to go back and add to the experiences that I’ve had before. (Hopefully it will be better than last year, but like I said, second years suck, at least for me).
I didn’t get the camp job that I was looking forward to. As I was listening to the lady explain that the selection process was hard and that they were looking for people with more experience with children, I felt peace. It’s fine that I’m not doing it. I just don’t know what I’m doing with my summer right now, which lead me to realize that everyone around me doesn’t know some important aspect of their summer: Shannon doesn’t have an internship/job, Anna doesn’t have a place to live in Nashville, Corrie doesn’t know what the next step is, Ryan doesn’t have a summer job, Hadessa doesn’t know what the next step in her life is. I am overwhelmed with empathy on this subject despite the varying degrees of our circumstances. We all seem to be kind of waiting and thinking that everything will work out.
This led me to my journal and my mom. I journaled all of my feelings and prayed, and then I talked to my mom. I cried when I hugged her. I love that I have this support system around me-at home and at school. I feel so loved. When I went to look up the scripture I was supposed to read for today through these little books Shannon gave me (I started reading the one on guidance yesterday haha) it started off with a quote from C.S. Lewis: “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” He still went because it was ‘the will of the Lord.’ I read in Acts 20 about Paul being called to Jerusalem even though he and everyone else around him was pretty sure that he was going to die, and they were warning him not to go-even claiming that it was ‘through the Spirit’ that he was not supposed to go. To quote the Fray “sometimes the hardest things and the right things are the same.”
The book asked me to reflect on a time that God prepared me for something hard. I thought about Shannon singing me to sleep when I cried really hard for a week and Joy giving me guidance at the hardest time of my life and God always being faithful as I cried and journaled at the same time to strengthen me and give me peace. These were concrete examples that I could feel at one of the hardest times of my life through the Holy Spirit Himself and through the people closest to me. This was all during my sophomore year at GC.
So Harry Potter, I raise my glass to you and drink to your perseverance. You have not failed to do the right thing.