Sunday, March 28, 2004 / Comments (0) / by elizabeth

from my livejournal...


Well, I am back from good 'ole New Jersey/New York City. Spring Break is officially over...5 more weeks until I graduate...huh? Where did this semester go? Wait, where did the last 5 years of my life go?

For the past 5 years I have said how much I want to get out of Murfreesboro, and now that it's almost time...I kinda want to stay here. Or near here. I mean, why would I leave? My family is here. I have great friends here. My church is amazing.
On one hand, I want an adventure. I have lived here my whole life and it would be nice to experience another place. On the other hand, I have had my fair share of traveling while following a band around the southeast. It was great fun, and I don't regret a minute of it...but the more I stay away, the more I just want to be home. Could "home" become somewhere else? Or has my hunger to get "away" been satisfied by all of my travels? I guess that remains to be seen. Not that I currently have options either way...just some thoughts.

Anyway, Spring Break was awesome. I love meeting new people and getting to hang out with them. I love being a "Jesus freak out in the streets/handing tickets out for God" because that's pretty much all we did for 4 days. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to laugh, and my stomach hurt every day from laughing so hard. I love God. I love New York City.
We got to go to the Empire State Building, Rockafeller Center, Ground Zero (more about that later), St. Paul's Chapel, The Staten Island Ferry (passes the Statue of Liberty), Times Square (twice), and Chinatown. I love shopping in Chinatown! I spent too much money there.
Okay, Ground Zero. Man. I mean, you see it on TV and stuff, but the reality of it is shocking. It's a hole in the ground. I was almost angry that it is such a tourist place; I hate to inculde it in the "sights" we "saw" like it is just another place to "do" while you are in the city. Being there made me so emotional. I looked across the street and there was the Millenium Hilton I stayed at the last time I was in NYC, in 2000...it was so weird. And then we went to St. Paul's Chapel, which was so neat. They had all these pictures and stuff displayed. The strange thing is, when you are at Ground Zero and at the chapel, everyone is silent. No one can bring him/her self to speak. If you must, you whisper. I wonder if there will ever be a time when people can talk in normal voices when looking at it and thinking of all the suffering that took place there. I remember when I saw the Vietnam Memorial no one spoke, so I doubt it. My favorite part was probably the fact that there were construction workers everywhere, and the rebuliding has begun...I mean, it shows that life goes on. I hated all the commercialism surrounding 9/11, because I felt that it made us kind of immune to the reality of it...so I am glad I went. It made it real to me.
Anyway. On the way home yesterday we drove through Washington, D.C. and passed the Washington Monument and the White House and stuff. It was cool, even though I have been to D.C. more than once.
I slept pretty much all day. I am exhausted, and was sick the majority of the week. BUT I am so glad I went, I had so much fun.
Now on to the rest of the semester...April will be such a fun month and I will get to see so many of my friends that live too far away. Then there's May, the month that I graduate, go to China...and then...I have no idea. I need some stability, I would love to have a plan for what comes next. But...whatever it is, I am excited about it!