Rachel just returned for her 3rd semester in the Missouri State Bear POWER program. She truly loves being a college girl.

While she was home, we were cleaning out her notebooks. Actually, it was mostly me cleaning out her notebooks. Around her sophomore year of high school, I have avoided looking in her notebooks as much as possible. All those loose and crumpled papers cause my organized self to hyperventilate, but I did make her sit with me as I tossed as much as I could. We opened one notebook, and it had what looked kind of like journal entries. She and I read them together. I asked her if I could share a few on my blog and she said, “Why not!” So with Rachel’s permission some of her thoughts.

“I love making new friends. I try to make new friends and sometimes you have to treat others the way you want to be treated. I love being here because I love my friends. I care about my life and my friends. I want to support my friends. My friends are very important to me. I love my life and my friends.”

“I am happy to be in the Bear POWER, and it is fun to be a part of something fun. I have great friends and love going to ball games and Halloween party and lots of fun things with friends. I am excited to focus on college and being independent woman and show that I love my friends here. I love them.”

“Hannah F. is very funny and sometimes is very crazy and she loves talking to me and is so cool to be friends with her and sometimes she will will take time to get my prize and she is very cool to be friends with and she is on my mind a lot. I love her a lot.”

“My favorite thing is hanging out with my roommates and they are so nice and I am glad I have roommates who love me and help me and help me be an independent woman.”

And my favorite: “I love my friends and Bear POWER and Rachel Heinz and my classes. I love The Vine is a great way to worship God in your heart and praise to God and love on your friends. Now God is always there for you all the time because of being in your heart. I love God and God loves me no matter what I do.”

Disclaimer: I corrected spelling errors but otherwise to the best of my interpretative skills, these were Rachel’s original thoughts and writing.