farewell

The end is coming near, the year is drawing to a close. People are leaving or have already left. Tonight was the last RISD Christian Body meeting of the year, and it was rather bittersweet. Worship and glorifying God is always a joyous occasion, but when you must say goodbye to loved ones who are graduating and moving far away, and I know that it will be 7 months until I myself can come again into this wonderful community, I can’t help but be really sad about it. I love these people. They are my brothers and sisters, best friends and support systems. You can feel the love of God pouring fourth amoungst them and through them. For those who are leaving, they will not be lost and certainly never forgotten. They will live forever in my heart and in my prayers. I am grateful for those who have decided to stay in Providence after graduation, happy that I will see them again next winter. For those traveling far and wide, I shall miss them dearly, but I must remember that this is not goodbye. I will see them again someday, and I must hold fast to that belief. In the meantime, I know that they will go on to do great and wonderful things, they will make a difference in the world and they will continue to touch people's hearts and people lives as they have touched mine. For all of this I am incredibly thankful.

miss you,
Rachael

written on May 20th

crash

Just as I predicted. I crashed.
After spending night after night working non-stop trying to get all my finals done on time my body just flat out refused to function anymore. My eyes literally could not focus on my work and i was practically falling asleep standing up, or at least I would have been if I had been able to stand up.
I crashed for a good 8 hours and I missed my final for Presentation class. OOPS
theres not much more I can say about that.
But it's not yet over there is still much more to be done and so little time to do it in.
This coming week is going to fly by like crazy, I just know it.
Pray for me. Pray that I get all my stuff packed on time and that I have a place to sleep when i get back after Jeff's graduation. Pray that my job and my housing in Massachusetts all works out splendidly. Only the grace of God can save me now.

loves

Just Keep Swimming

oi ve, last week was rough, and it doesn't look like its about to get any easier from here on out. I had to pull an all-nighter (only my 3rd of all time, which is still pretty good by RISD standards!) on Wednesday-Thursday to get my packaging model done on time, in my opinion, it turned out looking like crap because the methyl-chloride turns the plastic cloudy white when I needed it to be clear. And then in my crit, they complained that I didn't take enough artistic liberties with the design and that it was not creative enough, which i had already known, but when you're making something that could feasibly go into mass-production then there is a lot more you have to think about than how different it looks or creative it is. I did my research. I knew what was doing probably more than most everyone else, but such knowledge can sometimes be too much of a restriction in the design process. Then Thursday night I started on my exploded-view drawings for Presentation the next day. Most people just got blueprints off the internet, traced them and then colored them in, but I took the time to actually take something apart and draw each individual piece by hand which took me all night and the next morning. I was still drawing by the time class started and so I wasn't even close to being done, while everyone else who traced their shapes had finished their presentation boards long before I. I don't know why I do these things to myself. Maybe I wanted to get more out of it. I think I did in terms of learning how to draw exploded views but in terms of sleep, they definitely got more than me. Friday night I finally slept for a normal amount of time, but when I wonke up on Saturday morning I was quite sick and had to cancel all my commitments for the day. I have 1 more week to finish my metals project and I haven't even started yet, I don't even really know what I am going to do. I'm not too worried about CAD, but my next DP project is redesigning a common gardening tool to make it more ergonomic, so I'm trying to research that. As well as starting on my renderings for Presentation on Friday. I still have a cold, though I'm feeling alot better than I did on Saturday, and I can't really talk very well, but I make do with what I've got.
Wish me luck!

Weather or not You Care

it's raining, it's pouring
the old man is snoring
he bumped his head and went to bed
and didn't wake up in the morning

hmm. how morbid. it's strange how some of those old nursery rhymes have gotten started. Just think about "Ring Around the Rosie" Children are so cruel, playing the Black Plague off like it was some sort of game. (haha, just kidding)

It's been raining all day. cold. dreary. wet. Typical Providence. Last week was so nice, I heard people saying that they felt like it was going to stay that nice and warm for the rest of the semester. Wishful thinking. If there is one thing you ought to know about Providence weather it's to expect nothing and plan for everything. Growing up I had always heard the typical elementary school rhymes such as "April showers bring May flowers" but I had never understood it because back home it hardly ever rains in April and come May, all the flowers have pretty much bloomed and are dying away due to the extreme heat and drout. Now I see that all those typical rhymes that stereotype the seasons come from New England and therefore should not be used to describe South Texas weather. Perhaps a better rhyme for us would be something like: "Rain and gloom cause ebony trees to bloom" or perhaps better yet: "The much needed rain makes mosquitos go insane, which will cause you great pain, with very little gain" hahaha.

I need a better raincoat. The one I have, while I enjoy wearing it because I like the way it looks, is not actually water proof. Crazy right? Who in their right mind would make a raincoat that's not completely water proof? They call it "water-resistant" which pretty much just means that anything more than a light drizzle or a couple of minutes walking outside and the water will start to soak through the fabric and make me feel cold and damp. I saw a really nice one the the Eddie Baure outlet store during Christmas vacation, but even on sale it was too expensive for my budget, plus they didn't have the right color in my size in stock. I also really need to get a new umbrella. Mine is partially broken, which happened literally the first time I had to use it. plus there are some spots on the cloth from rusting metal and what could very well be the beginnings of mold. Though I probably won't buy a new one until this one is no longer able to keep me fairly dry.

Ever notice how people's attitudes change along with the weather? Everyone is so joyful and cheery on bright and sunny days, but on days like this, simply looking outside seems to cause people to become tired and bitter with the world. Did you know that statistically speaking, there are more car crashes on really beautiful days than at any other time? Apparently it's due to the fact that people become so happy with the world that they get distracted by the clear blue skies and the beauty all around them while driving instead of paying attention to the road. I can see how that would happen. Last week while walking to studio I almost walked right into a tree because I was so enjoying the walk and trying to take in everything around me that I really didn't care where I was going, lol.

happy birthday Sergio!

~Rachael

Pictures of Spring

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung! last weekend was beautiful! I got to finally spend some time lying in the sun, got a little bit of a tan. It was needed greatly. The flowers are also beautiful!. Daffodils, Lilies, Tulips, even the trees are blooming! The Dogwood trees have lots of while star-shaped flowers all over them, while the cherry blossoms are pink, I have even seen some yellow and purple trees around Prov. I don't know what kind it is, but there is a tree outside my house that has very large rose-like blossoms all over it. No leaves, just flowers. I can finally go outside in shorts and a t-shirt and not be extremely cold. The return of good weather has also meant the
return of the mounted police. I think they are around during the winter, just not as active. I love seeing these massive horses trotting down busy streets all around the downtown area. It reminds me of olden-days, not that I was alive during olden days, haha, but think I would like to go back there anyways.

There is a white swan that likes to swim along the canal. Also to be seen in the canal is the Brown crew team, apparently they are the best in the country, though they don't look like their going THAT fast. There is a man who, dressed in a business suite and carrying a breifcase, rollerblades down the sidewalk in front of my window on his way to work every day. It's a joy to see that. Finals are coming up, though it doesn't really feel like it yet, wish me luck with that. I dont want this year to end. It means that a bunch of very loved friends are graduating and moving away. I truly hope that we will never lose touch, because I will miss them all very much.

Happy Birthday Sarah!
~Rachael

Roads Less Travelled

Things don't always turn out how we expect them to.

So I got into EHP. . . . .

Yeah, I know.

But I got in for the fall class, something I never even considered a possibility until about a couple days before I got the notice.

I am not yet prepared.

There is so much to do, to think about, to consider before I leave. I have an internship in Massachusetts over the summer with a packaging design company. A well-paying internship, which is something I am desperately in need of as I have suddenly found myself pretty much broke for most of the month.

"Three months," I told them. Well now if I go to Italy that time will be cut down to less than 2 months. I haven't told the company yet.

I was supposed to have a meeting with them last week, but then they had to cancel it at the last minute. So again, I was supposed to have a meeting with them on Friday, but yet again they had to cancel at the last minute. So I'll try to go on Monday, because I'm seriously running out of options and come finals, I won't have any more time to be doing this.
I also need to find a place to live for two months, as close to work as I can get seeing as how I don't have a car to drive.

I never even saw this coming.
When I read my acceptance letter you never would have been able to tell what it said by the look on my face.
Open and ready for whatever fate was to befall me, my first thought was plainly, "OK....What do I do now?" The decisions I had to make were just one more burden to bear.

I set to the task of calling those people who have followed along with me on this journey, unsure as to whether I was delivering good news or bad news. Perhaps it was news of no real meaning or conclusions at the time, but significant news none-the-less.
As of yet I am going about as if I am definitely going.
Why should I not be? This is the opportunity of a lifetime, and I would be remiss not to take part. Plus, I can't even imagine telling them that I am turning it down, that I don't want to go live in Italy this year. I might not have a place to live when I come back to school in January, but I do believe that everything will work itself out in due time.

I go where the wind takes me. Not really knowing where it will blow next, but still assured that my final destination will be exactly where I am meant to be, and that I can do many good works along the way. Of course I still worry about how I will live and such things, but I am learning.

Learning to trust God for all that I need.
It's amazing, how thus far everything that I have worried about, prayed about, asked for, has been provided for me, often in really unexpected ways. I often find it hard to pray for my own concerns, since there are so many people in the world in greater need than I, but I have been praying for guidance and reassurance in my plans for the summer, before EHP was even on the horizons. Maybe this is my answer. Sometimes it's hard to recognize where God is leading us. Our own wants and emotions get muddled up in the message, but this is the path that has been set before me. So I must go and follow it to the very end. Who knows? Maybe this could be even better than I ever could have imagined, or maybe it could fail. One thing is for sure, I will certainly learn a lot about the world and about myself along the journey.