There must be a correlation between how nice you are and your ability to say no. I see this being an big issue in to different circumstances. The first is will discuss comes when dealing with telemarketers, and people wanting to sell you stuff. For me I'm awful at telling these people no right away. Do i every really want to buy what they are selling or answer their questions, no. But i find it really hard to cut them off and let them know I'm not interested in their office supplies or that i could save hundreds of $ on ink if i only bought it from them. I've gotten better when it comes to people on the phone, usually if I'm lucky and they don't reel me in too fast I'll ask them if they are trying to sell me something and then that gives me the opportunity to say I'm not interested. If i don't get that question out their they're never going to make it easy for me to say I'm not interested, so I'm screwed. I once agreed to "go to jail" for an hour and raise money for muscular dystrophy, man where those people good. Once they sent me the info i emailed them back and told them i was unable to do it lol. I don't get many people coming to my door trying to sell me stuff due to the fact the apartment complex i live in doesn't allow solicitors, but sometimes one will slip through. I'm probably the worst when i comes to these fokes. They are always so nice and friendly and i never want to be rude to them, its impossible for me to just shut the door in their face. I will somehow say no to them it just takes forever to get it out. In all of these circumstances I'm usually dealing with people I don't know and things I really don't want to buy or give an answer too. Still this can be all too difficult.

Where I can really have issues is when it comes to doing favors for friends and people I know. I for one can't say no to someone asking me to do a favor for them if it fits in my schedule. If I'm going to be gone or doing something important at the time of the favor its very easy for me to let them know i won't be able to do whatever it is. But if its just the fact that i don't what to do whatever it is or i want to do something unimportant, or if it's something i have scheduled for myself. Also if changing that won't effect anyone else the its like I'm programmed to say yes. Now this usually only happens when someone asks me something to my face or on the phone. If it's threw and email or a text that's a whole different ball game. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that i don't want to help people, i actually love doing things for others. What i really need to work on is not over crowding my schedule. Lately I've felt like i don't have a moment of rest. I'm not saying that I'm running around constantly with out some break all the time, but recently a lot of my days have been like that. Then there are times where i could rest, but because of things I've agreed to do, I'm someplace where I'm not getting the most rest out of that time. Something i think I've know but not actually realized until last semester during my leadership class is that as an introvert i need time by my self to recharge. I find myself around a lot of extroverts which is why i exhibit extrovert tendency. Extroverts need to be around people to recharge. So you could say that i spend the time i should be by myself with others recharging them and not myself. This can be very detrimental to a person. This summer sometimes i would go to work on Monday and think to myself OK now the next time you're going to have a free moment is after work on Wednesday for about 30min. Then the next time you can "rest" is while you drive home Saturday morning. That can really make you stressful. I loved all the things i did this summer, all the new people i met, and all the cookouts i was in charge of. Looking back i realize that i needed to say no to some activities, and i needed to take a vacation of some sort, get away and recharge. It seems a little backwards but i think my school year might be less stressful than the summer.

So all in all i need to work on saying no when its going to be harmful to myself even if i can fit it in my schedule and work on being more aggressive when it comes to those pesky telemarketers and door to door salesmen. They may seem nice but its just because they want something from me.

How do you guys deal with the pesky people? How do you handle the time you give to others?

Going Going Gone

Man if there's one thing i really don't like its having to say goodbye. When it comes to short term farewells, people I'm going to see in the next week or so i don't have problems with. (If that short time frame was an issue it would be very difficult to get threw a day!) The time frame of 3 weeks or more when someones going to be gone, i get sad. But the thing is it shouldn't make me sad especially when i know I'm going to see them again. Then what i do to overcome those feelings is put them out of my mind and almost forget about them because i know when i think about the person i will get sad again. I guess what this shows is that i really care for everybody that I'm in contact with, and that i have a heart. I'm not one to cry that often but the whole leaving thing really gets to me. Usually i deal with emotions with laughter, sometimes good sometimes bad. Somethings scary i laugh, something sad i laugh(not always the best emotion to have), i'm frustrated i usually laugh. So you'd think that with the whole leaving thing i would be able to laugh and it would be all good. Nope! Is this a fairly common thing, or is this just me? Is there something else that effects you like this?

might as well post again, i'm on a roll

When I'm at work i answer the phone the same way, "Thank you for calling Trinity Mission, this is Rachel, how can i help you." I've been using this line for some time now. What is really funny is when i go home our house phone has the same ring as the phones at work, so when i got to answer it I'm thinking in my head "Thank you for calling Trinity Mission, this is Rachel, how can i help you." I've come so close to saying that so many times the day that it actually comes out is going to be pretty great.

Grab somthing to drink and find a comfy chair casue this post is long

Here's a little update about what I've been up to this summer and what i plan to do in the course of this next year.

This summer i decided to stay up in West Lafayette and continue to work for Trinity Mission. I've been working with them during the school year since I've been at Purdue. I'm really glad that i decided to stay not only has work been great but I've had a great time with my friends as well. At the beginning of the summer i was a little concerned that it would be boring because i new so many people that were leaving. I soon found this to be very false. I'm currently involved in two bible study type groups meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. There is a weekly dinner that one of the homes Campus House, the church i attend, owns. As well as a dinner that happens on Thursday that different people host. Then the all to fun cookout that happens on Sunday nights. Throw in going to church on Sunday, swimming in wild cat creek, watching movies, eating/ making ice cream, road trips to ceder point, and the Michigan dunes, and i find myself with very little "free" time. I started the summer with some fun things i wanted to learn how to do or get better at and with all the other things I've found myself doing its hard to fit those things in. On the other hand I've learned and perfected things that were not on my list like, honing my carpooling skills and large group event coordinating. Will i find time for those other things, yes, but they will come in their own time.

There have been a lot of things that this summer has taught me so far. Number one and probably the one I'm the happiest to know and figure out is what hobbies really works for me, unfortunately it can kind of can get expensive. I LOVE to cook. It doesn't matter what it is, something simple complicated doesn't matter.

As the school year quickly approaches i find myself both looking forward to it and not wanting it to be here yet. I'm looking forward to it because i feel like I'm finally going to get a break, which seems odd. As you read above I've been very busy this summer and have found little to no time to actually rest. It may seem funny but I've gotten less sleep this summer than i did last school year. Now don't get me wrong i have loved everything I've been involved with this summer I'm just looking forward to having a break in my day every now and again. The i have feelings on the flip side, by beginning this school year it means I'm going to graduate from Purdue and have to get a job and start the next journey in my life. I'm both excited and somewhat timid to the fact that one part of my life is going to come to and end and another is beginning.

I have many things that I'm looking forward to during this year as well. First off I'm very excited for the arrival of my niece. My oldest sister Sarah and brother in law David already have one child, my nephew Aaron. They've done an amazing job so far at raising him and he is the cutest almost two year old. I'm going to have to really work on balancing school and home life this year because i know that I'm going to want to visit all the time. Last year i tried out to play the piano during the worship time at Campus House i "got in" and absolutely love it. I'm looking forward to playing this year as well. When i think about it i wish that i would have started my freshman year, but i can't change the past. In my first semester this year I'm taking the capstone courses for my CGT degree. This is going to be a lot of work and I'm looking forward to being done with that, and starting my spring semester. There's probably more that I'm looking forward to for this year i just haven't thought enough about it to recall them.

As well as playing for campus house and being a part of the worship mosaic, I'm also going to be a leader for one of their service mosaic. I'll be working with a group of 4-5 people from Campus House weekly to fix up some houses that are run down. We will be working with Habitat, were the program is call brush of kindness, as well as the Community and Family Resource Center. The plan is to work with high school students from the CFRC on Monday afternoons. By doing so we will be building the leadership skills of the High School students as well as building community between the people from CH, the students from the CFRC and the people we will be serving in the community. I'm really looking forward to being a part of this. I love serving and i love doing repairs and what not so this opportunity i right up my ally. I am also the VP for the Women in Technology group on campus where we have biweekly meetings. Sometimes we bring in speakers from different companies or organizations and sometimes we just do fun activities to build community. We also do two events to help recruit girls into the College of Technology, one in the fall and one in the spring.

As for my plans after graduation, i have nothing set in stone quite yet. I have the option of finding a job doing something with forensic animation, or just something in CGT. But recently I've been considering and praying about staying with Trinity Mission. As i envision my life after graduation its hard for me to see myself not being involved in some way with them. They have become such a big part of my life. They have been something constant i could see each year as i came back to Purdue. I love the people i work with and i love what we do. Some people might think, "Well Rachel you just spent 4 years of your life working towards a degree in CGT." I respond with the realization that i don't know if i could be happy doing animation or some other CG thing full time. I definitely can see myself doing CGT on the side. Do i still enjoy doing CGT stuff, yes, but i find my heart and passion not as strong for CGT as it was when i came to Purdue as a freshman.

With the many changes i have ahead and the busy schedule i see for this upcoming year, the only way that i could make it threw is by relying on God to some we the way. He's been by my side and will continue to lead me down the right path. This is quite possibly the longest thing i have ever written that was not assigned to me. I hope this shines a light into what I've been doing and where I'm headed. I know that I'm not very good at telling people things so this was done in hopes to not keep whats going on in the dark, because that is definitely not what i want to happen.