La Parisienne, No. 1: Travel Troubles

I did it. I made it to Paris. Which, given the last 24 hours of my life, is quite a feat. Here’s the rundown: After a LOT of waiting in the San Francisco airport, I finally got on my flight. Frazzled and overwhelmed by the fact that in an American airport all the announcements are

Summer in Sunriver, Oregon

Oh, summer. How lovely you are, especially when spent in Central Oregon, which just so happens to be one of my favorite places. Here’s why: Amazing weather, clear blue skies, a sparkling river, miles of bike trails, great restaurants, and, in my case, family! For sixteen years now, my whole family has met up in

A Weekender’s Guide to Santa Barbara

I’m just going to get straight to the point: Santa Barbara is basically the coolest place in the state of California. Need convincing? Check out my post 10 Reasons to Love Santa Barbara! I am so fortunate to call this place home for my time in college, and over the course of my freshman year

10 Reasons I Love Santa Barbara

I have been living in Santa Barbara for a little over three years now, on and off, and that is certainly enough time to have done a good deal of exploring. And in that time, I have pretty much concluded that Santa Barbara is the greatest city ever. Don’t believe me? Well, here’s ten reasons

Truth Talk: Being a Christian at a Large Public University

Alright. Truth talk. Staying strong in your faith in college is hard. Staying strong in your faith at a large, public college is harder. Staying strong in your faith at a large, public college known for its reputation as a party school is, as you can imagine, a bit of a challenge. I’m not going

What Moving to College Was Really Like

I have been at college for seven weeks. I would like to tell you that so far, they have been the best seven weeks of my life, but that just wouldn’t be true. In fact, they have been stressful, terrifying, exhausting, overwhelming, confusing, and incredibly difficult. When the first of my friends left for school

Easy Ways to Give Back this Holiday Season

We’d all like to think we’re generous: we hold doors for people or hand a few dollars to the homeless man on the corner of the freeway exit. Some affiliate themselves with every charity they can get their hands on, while others feel that anything they could do would have no effect in such an aching world. No matter where

A Look at a First-Timer’s Mission Trip

Ten miles southeast of Ensenada, Mexico lies the small, poor village of Lomas Bonitas. For a decade now, my church has returned to this struggling community each summer on a missions trip. Some of the most notable accomplishments: in 2007, volunteers built a brand new church; last year, they constructed a house for the village’s

Today’s Laugh: The Struggles of Sincerely, B

Ready for a good laugh? #1: Physical Exhaustion. Anytime you want to work outside of your house, somewhere like a coffee shop, for instance, you have to bring all your materials with you. In my case, that means my laptop, charger, phone, notebook, journal, Bible, and pens. Which is fine except for the fact that the

Here’s the Deal with the Holy Spirit

Often times, we as Christians regard the Holy Spirit as if it is a lesser version of God, like some kind of Jesus Jr. What we tend to overlook, though, is that the Holy Spirit is not merely God’s messenger boy – it is the presence of God Himself. We need to learn more about