Tag: dreams

all i want for Christmas

Published on by Jess StoneLeave a comment

bemerryLast night I had a series of strange dreams.  First, I dreamed that my family was celebrating Christmas in Arizona.  While we were waiting for the food to finish cooking, Mom and I decided to walk outside with my dog, Georgia.  Mom and Georgia went first, and I followed behind.  So as I’m walking out these sliding glass doors, I see a killer whale jump out of the pool in the back yard and onto the cement surrounding the pool.  It reminded me of how the whales slide on the ice to try to catch the seals, and in that moment my dog looked, to me, like a little baby seal.  All of this happened in slow-motion in my dream, and what followed was mass chaos.  I began yelling at my mom to catch the dog, both of whom were running around the pool like mad men.  Finally, I had to run to catch the dog and yell at the whale to ‘GET BACK IN THE POOL!’  Why he listened, I’m not sure, but he did.  So that was the first dream scenario that tried to ruin my Christmas.

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Then I dreamed that I was driving my car around town when every maintenance light began to light up the dash like our Christmas tree.  I’m certain that all of the lights were fake, but that’s beside the point I suppose.  I think my dream was trying to ruin my Christmas wish and prevent me from traveling home for Christmas.  However, jokes on you, nightmare, because we’re not taking my car home for Christmas; we’re taking Cason’s car, and it works fine.   (Mine does too, for the record.)  Alternatively, the dream could be about how much I dread the 13.5 hour drive home, which would be accurate.  If the cars break down, we HAVE to fly, right?  That would be nice.  Haha.  All I want for Thanksgiving and Christmas next year are plane tickets home.

merryandbrightNeedless to say, all I want this Christmas is to arrive home, safe and sound, and enjoy a nice break with my family.  I want to eat Nana’s creamed corn, have brunch with my friends and go dress shopping, open presents with my family, and make sure my teacup poodle doesn’t get attacked by a killer whale.  That’s not too much to ask for, is it?  Cason and I have so much to do in the next few days just to prepare for the long trek home, but we are excited, nonetheless.  We’ve prepared most of the presents for our families, purchased new Christmas outfits, mailed out Christmas cards, and done all of the laundry.  All that’s left is to clean out the cars, tidy up the house, pack all of our things, and make the journey home.  In just a few days we will be homeward bound!  Until then…

*The images in this blog come from various artists on Etsy.  Click on the images to redirect to the respective Etsy shops.  I just wanted to share some of my favorite holiday prints, as I am personally thankful for some extra traffic in my Etsy shop this holiday season.  Enjoy!

life is a roller coaster

Published on by Jess Stone1 Comment

Last Wednesday night I was watching TV with my mom upstairs and surfing the web when I decided to check my email.  Suddenly I jumped up from my favorite recliner, grabbed my mother by the hand, and led her downstairs to where my dad was reading and proceeded to read:

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“Dear Jessica,
The School Psychology Faculty Committee completed its review of candidates for the 2013-2014 academic year and we were very impressed with your application…We would like to complete a 30-40 minute interview via Skype in the next few weeks…”

Then my dad, not missing a beat, replied, “Well, I guess you’ll be moving to Texas then.”  Perhaps he got a little ahead of the situation, but I am very excited about interviewing with BAYLOR, and I’m certainly hoping and praying for the opportunity to attend graduate school there.

This whole graduate school application process has truly been grueling, but there are two moments thus far that have been more rewarding than I anticipated.  Obviously getting an email for an interview is a pretty rewarding moment.  However, I also keep thinking back to the difficult time I was having with writing my personal statement.  I tend to write in a stream of consciousness, often providing more details than necessary or desired, so coming up with a format that would fit my life history and future desires into a brief personal statement was a challenge in itself.  Content was also difficult; I wanted to include everything because everything feels relevant to who I am as a person.  However, I knew everything would not seem relevant to the professors who would review my application.  I had a lot of decisions to make when writing my personal statement, but quite frankly I was over thinking the whole thing.  One evening I sat down with a detailed outline and several very rough drafts, and instead of following those, I decided to write what was on my heart.  I thought to myself, “What do I want to do, and why do I want to do it?”  Then, I started crying.

That was the first rewarding experience that I had with this application process because for the first time in the past four years I felt like I was on the right track.  I know I want to help provide children with the same educational opportunities that I have had, and I know that I want to do that through school psychology.  My experience with tutoring children in Macon and visiting after-school facilities overseas only confirmed that desire in my heart over the years.  Now I’m at the point where I have to take the next step to reach my goals, and that involves graduate school.  So even though this application process has been more difficult than I could possibly imagine, I know that it will all be worth it if I get into a program that allows me to build on my education and enables me to provide children with educational opportunities in the future.  I pray that God will continue to open doors for my education.  He has been faithful, and I believe He has a plan.  Whether it involves teaching in China or going to grad school for school psychology at Baylor or both, I know He is in control.  For that, I am thankful.

A friend reminded me today to think about the desires of my heart in terms of Philippians 4:4-8, which says,

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.  The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

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