jbu, jbu, eagles, eagles!

today kelly's korner is doing a "show us your alma matter."  i wasn't going to post, but thinking about jbu makes me happy so i decided to dig up some old photos.  when i reflect on my 6 years (yes i stayed for 2 years of grad school because i love the place so much, ha) at jbu, i am so grateful for the holistic education i received at jbu.  i truly loved every aspect of the school--the classes, social life, spiritual life, etc.  sure there were people i was not a huge fan of and things frustrated me from time to time, but overall the jbu atmosphere was so positive and encouraging, and i loved my time there.

my two favorite memories from jbu are my girlfriends and meeting james. when i see the pic below, i am taken back to the beginning of senior year when 8 of our 9 fun-loving friends were single ladies ready to make the most of our college career.  we'd been through many good and bad times, cried and sympathized with each other over boys, classes, etc.  we were determined to create memories our last year together.  tara, rachel, carajean, jenna, summer, emily, lisa and charity--miss hanging out with you!

after you've been at a small school for 4 years, you feel like you've met/dated anyone you might be compatible with, and so i'd given up hope of finding my spouse at jbu.  i decided to just have fun my senior year getting to know a wide variety of people and actually went on dates with 3 different guys the weekend james and i went on our first date, haha.  james was my favorite and 5 years later, here we are married with 1 1/2 kids.  even though there are times i wish we could've dated longer while we were at school, being single for most of college allowed us to grow and experience things we wouldn't have if we were together the whole time.  love you, baby, and glad that God brought us together!

one of my other favorite memories is intramurals.  i love competition, camaraderie and staying busy, so i played virtually every intramural sport the school offered.  james and i actually met (we think) for the first time on the intramural field our sophomore year when he reffed one of my flag football games!

one of the biggest surprise blessings of my time at jbu was the opportunity to get to play for the tennis team.  by no means were we any kind of prized athletes (at all), but i loved getting paid to workout and improve my skills in the sport.  i miss playing tennis every day!

my time at jbu would not have been nearly as enjoyable with my best friend and roommate of four years, lisa.  it is nice that we only live 5 minutes from each other now and can still be a part of each others' lives!

my favorite tangible piece of jbu was by far my roomate charity's love sac!  i loved, loved, LOVED this thing (seriously spent several hours each day doing accounting homework on it).  i want to buy one for our house now but cannot swallow the cost of one so i keep putting it off.

even coming from kansas, people questioned why i would want to go to school in arkansas.  my friends and i wanted to experience true arkansas life so we went to brandon's house in hector for a weekend and experienced true arkansas with chicken houses, four wheelers and good ole' country fun.

because of my major, i had a lot of good platonic guy friends.  thanks for the memories dusty, tj, todd, etc.!

i loved getting to know different groups of people at jbu, and my friends and i had fun hanging out with everyone from the basketball team to the crazy young sophomores. 

looking at all of these photos really makes me want to have a reunion!  it is sad that most of my friends are spread out across the country now and we don't talk to each other enough.  when we graduated we went on a cruise together and had a blast.  hopefully we can do something like this with our spouses again since almost all of us are married now--good times.

i would highly recommend jbu to anyone who is looking for a small christian school experience.  you will look back and treasure your time there!!  love yall.