I would say that this year is off to a good start, but it’s already the end of September, and the school year is well under way. This is a little bewildering to me. I suppose that living in town all summer has lessened the excitement of coming back to Bethel for school, but this year just seems like a continuation of last year instead of a whole new chapter. This combined with the fact that it’s my last year at Bethel makes for an interesting set of emotions to start off the year. It’s been an exciting, challenging, stressful, and generally fulfilling first month of school. Classes are interesting, and I’m done with all of my GE’s, so they’re all relevant to my major. It’s great to fit back into the familiar group of friends, and the mod that I’m in this year is full of fabulous young women who I look forward to getting to know better. I’m also doing my social work placement at Sunset Elementary this semester, and I’m happy to say that it’s a really good fit for me, and I’m enjoying everything I do there. I have a job in town that I love, and I’m in the Fall Fest play. I’m also preparing for my vocal recital that I and a friend are giving on October 9th. So…my life right now is pretty much focused only on things I love to do. The only problem is that my life is a little TOO busy right now. I’m finding it hard to keep up with homework, and I’m more stressed than I would prefer. I’m also finding myself looking forward to a few weeks from now, when the play and my recital are over. I wouldn’t say that I’m complaining…but I’ve really packed it in this semester because I want to experience all I can before my senior year is over, and now I’m feeling the consequences! But I try to focus on each experience I have here at Bethel and make it count for something. That way, even though I may be more stressed and frazzled than I’ve ever been in my life, I can take away some wonderful memories.Like this evening: a friend and I have just finished cooking dark chocolate fettuccine. Let me explain. Brad and I were walking around the festival grounds while we were at the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival and we came upon a booth that was selling fresh, custom-made pastas. I was very interested, but not as excited as I was when I found that they had a dark chocolate flavor of pasta. There was a recipe shown with it explaining how to make a chocolatey dessert with the fettuccine. So we decided to buy it. And in a few minutes we will eat it with chocolate sauce, strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream. What a yummy finish to a rushed, overloaded week.