The Blog Archive: Never ever ever give up!

"Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,

Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art."

~Be Thou My Vision

Well, it's been a while. Not for the average blogger, but definitely longer than usual for me. And for good reason... this week has been full of unexpected highs and lows. Anyway, I'm going to do a quick bullet point list so I won't have to work to organize my thoughts. ;) Oh, and the above hymn has little to do with this post - I just heard it recently and really liked that lyric.

After two years of healing and growth and soul-searching and considering all the negatives and looking into a myriad of other possible options, I've come full circle and I'm back to counseling!
I believe it's the degree I need to pursue right now, and it will open several doors for teaching and counseling and ministry...
The post-graduation path will not be as defined as it was with court reporting, but there will be several good options, and God will guide me when I get there.
Feeling confident and at peace about this decision is a BIG deal for me, so I've been pretty excited about that!
I emailed SNU and took it as a great sign from God that they still had everything in my application folder that was started 2 years ago... so the only step I was missing was the interview, and I found out on Tuesday that their interviews were scheduled for Thursday night (for a program starting October 6th)!
It all worked out perfectly - I even got a John Eldredge email about Isaiah 61 that morning, which included my theme verse for counseling in 2013.
There were 17 of us, and they can admit up to 20. Each student had to interview with two professors, and I was placed with the two that I felt most comfortable with. I felt good and spoke with more confidence than usual and I finally had honest, good answers for their questions about what I would do with the degree and why I am interested in counseling.
I felt so good about it all when I left that night... like the stars were aligning and God was working everything out and my life was finally lining up and I was right where I was supposed to be! I had a blog post already written about it in my head.
You can probably guess where this is going...
I got the email Friday afternoon: "Dear Ms. Muecke, We regret to inform you that you were not selected..."
Seriously!? Not the most devastating email rejection I've ever received, but it wasn't pretty. With the emotional high I'd been riding on, I felt like an over-inflated balloon that finally reached the breaking point and popped and shriveled back down. :(
They attached what had to be a form letter with six points that might help if I decided to reapply later, and only one of the six points applied to me at all. I know this will sound arrogant, but as a graduate of their psychology undergrad program with a high GPA, strong writing skills, and recommendations from two of their best professors, I'm quite baffled by their decision. Not even sad yet - just severely irritated! Right when I thought I was entering new territory... Rejected again. Feels good!
I had dinner with Sarah that night at her apartment - I brought Pei Wei over and we watched shows on Netflix and talked about all of this - I was in a ranty mood, so it's probably good I wasn't with a big group!
She said I can't take it personally or let it cause me to give up. I get that it wasn't necessarily personal on SNU's end, but it was very personal to me. #kathleenkelly
But I'm not giving up. God knows what He's doing. I took some time to pray and I feel better about it all today. I still think counseling is the right path, and I will probably try Liberty next.
IN OTHER NEWS, go see The Intern! Really good movie, and Robert De Niro's character is precious and reminded me of my Grandad. :)
Also, go see War Room! But skip 90 Minutes in Heaven and Everest!!
Friday night after our Pei Wei takeout, Sarah baked a recipe from a video she saw on facebook for monkey bread. To say the least, it did not go well, but it helped to make me laugh and lighten my mood! lol
It turned out half burned and half doughy, so she tried to pull it apart and cook it layer by layer, then some of the butter mixture burned and her whole kitchen and living room became a nice haze of smoke... we were both coughing and laughing, and she opened her door to try to fan the smoke outside! lol (Picture #1 below)
Another fun fact: Sarah has Disney coloring books that she colors in while she watches TV, and I find that endearing and adorable and hilarious! She also dates the pages when she colors them... I love it. (Pictures #2 and #3 below)
Finally, last night, I made lasagna rolls, garlic bread, and peach cobbler! Yay, me!! lol It was all tasty, even if it's slightly ridiculous that I'm the only one here to eat it. I needed a win, and a time-consuming distraction to keep my mind out of bad places. And now I've learned a new recipe for next time I have someone over, so it was a win-win! :) (Picture #4 below)
Thanks to Facebook reminding me about the Supermoon Lunar Eclipse "blood moon" tonight, I decided to get out and see it... so I threw on my Yale hoodie and went to Josh's to grab one last snocone for the season! :) The moon thing is pretty cool!
I always get annoyed when people act like they know when Jesus is coming back (there were several groups predicting this day because of tonight's moon) -- but I'd be overjoyed if they turned out to be correct! ;) #beammeup

Just in case you don't have enough details about my life, these were my 3 fortune cookie notes on Friday. lol I'll just take it as more encouragement to "never ever ever give up!" #michaelscott #winstonchurchill ;) You can't be known for strength and resilience without going through some crap and getting rejected a few times; right? I know this isn't over, and I'm choosing to trust God here in the middle of my story!