Jen Russum

College {your thoughts please…}

October 25, 2011

Above you will see me on my college graduation day. Rah Rah TCU! I am all about pulling the old awkward pics off Facebook these days. For more mid 2000s goodness, see HERE. Anyway, since I am talking about college today, I thought I would go back and find the very first picture of me ever posted on FB to provide some lovely college-esque photography for this post. Fittingly enough, the very first pic ever posted of me - or at least that's still up on FB - is at my college graduation. These are some of my friends. Most of them were also seniors that same year, but I graduated a semester earlier than everyone else {thank you high school AP credits that saved me over $10,000}, so I pretty much got to be the star of the show on that chilly December day. Do I look swollen to you? I think I look swollen... But this post is not really about my college experience or to figure out whether I was overweight, bloated or if I had just previously been crying when this photo was taken... Tonight I have the honor of speaking to a group of college students who are Young Life leaders in Scottsdale. Most of them are freshmen in college and our area director has asked me to come and give them some advice on how to succeed in college. I have some ideas on what to share, but I haven't really had a lot of extra time these past few weeks to craft a big, fancy talk with lots of pointers. Here is where you come in... if you had to give a college freshman one tip {or more} about how to thrive in college, what would you say, knowing what you know now? I want to focus on three areas: succeeding academically, socially, and spiritually. So what would you say for each of these? Please tell me below and I might use some of your tips during my talk tonight. Thank you and love you, sweet friends! Okay, I couldn't resist one more... here I am at a "thrift store prom" party. I was a sophomore and these girls were freshmen in a Bible study I led. 80s never goes out of style....} ... Read more

meet my REAL friends

October 24, 2011

So in one of my grad classes recently we were talking about how interpersonal relationships work online {yes, I have the BEST grad classes ever!}, and we were specifically discussing how people discount online relationships because they are not "real" friendships. Now let me be honest with you. Last winter {almost a year ago now!} when I began studying blogs for school, I would constantly see bloggers rave about all the amazing friends they met through blogging. I didn't quite roll my eyes, but I was tempted. I mean, did these ladies really consider their blogging friends true friends? Did they have other friends outside of the internet? Maybe just the really successful bloggers were able to have true blogging friends as they mentored and supported one another and went to blogging meet ups and the like. I was skeptical to say the least. And for the first year that I blogged. I really didn't have any blogging friends. I don't think anyone who wasn't already a friend or family member read my blog for at least the first six months. But then I started to notice names on my Google Followers list that I didn't recognize. Then I started getting sweet comments and e-mails from people like Jennifer and Jordan. And then one day, on my one year anniversary to be exact, I received an e-mail from the sweetest girl, Heather. And I didn't know it then, but it was the beginning of a real friendship. Through countless comments and e-mails, Heather became my REAL blogging friend. And just a month or so ago, I met another lovely lady who quickly became another REAL blogging friend, Erin. The great thing about Erin is that she lives less than 20 minutes away from me. Take that skeptics. Erin is my internet friend and we can meet for coffee face to face any time we want! So last Thursday night, Heather, Erin and I had the JOY of meeting up in person! We went to dinner at a fab little restaurant in Chandler, AZ and ate a smorgasbord of happy hour food for dirt cheap {sweet potato fries, mini bruschettas, and pitas with hummus equal a meal right?}, talked, laughed, took way too many pictures, and just enjoyed our real friendship that was born on this here internet. After dinner, we headed over to the Ocotillo Country Club where we got to meet another blogging friend, Ashley, and support The Shine Project to raise college scholarships for inner city high school students. We were welcomed to the country club by a high school drum line {I am a sucker for a good drum line}, and we enjoyed delish cupcakes while we watched the high school students perform speeches and music. We laughed some more, met a handful of other bloggers that we love, and took even more pictures. I am so, so thankful for Heather and Erin. I feel blessed to know them and I am excited to see our friendship develop over the years. They are amazing women of God with beautiful hearts and I am proud to call them my "internet" friends. P.S. Funny story. So Erin and I were a bit late meeting Heather for dinner due to crazy directions, so Heather had to wait at the restaurant by herself for over a half hour before we finally arrived. She was dressed up all cute and sitting alone, which caught the attention of some old men sitting at a table nearby. Finally one of them turned to her and said, "Honey, who are you waiting for?" probably assuming she had been stood up on a date or something. She looked at him and said, "Oh, just two friends I met on the internet." And here are some of our pics from the evening. You will notice the same exact pictures on Heather and Erin's blogs. Did we share our photos with each other? No, we asked everyone to take the same picture with three different cameras. We are those girls. Not annoying at all... {delish dinner} {golf cart ride from the country club parking lot} {getting to meet Ashley!} {the shine event} {and afterward we went to fro-yo because we just didn't want to stop hanging out with each other!} {bye friends! hope to see you both again soon!} ... Read more

Flowers Fade Friday: A New Song

October 21, 2011

Last week, I had the honor of attending a David Crowder Band concert. If you haven't heard the news yet, DCB is on its last ever tour. The band is breaking up and headed on to new things. While I could be sad about this as they are probably hands-down my favorite Christian group {probably because they don't really fit the traditional Christian music mold...}, I am simply thankful that I got to attend the concert courtesy of my little bro who bought tickets for my mom and me for our birthdays this year. {Happy Birthday, Mopsy!!! It's today...} The concert was awesome. The music was great, but what I loved most about it was that it functioned as a little trip down memory lane for me. You see, the David Crowder Band has been together for eleven years and I have been a fan for ten of those years. I was first introduced to DCB waaaay back during my freshman year of college. One of my TCU friends took me down to Baylor for the weekend where we visited UBC, the church where David Crowder first started his career. I loved it. And I've been a fan ever since. But not so much a fan in the sense that I look at the DCB webpage and go to every concert. I've only been to two concerts in my life. More a fan in the sense that I own almost every DCB CD {except the first two I think - and this is huge because I never buy music!} and the music on those CDs has comforted me, encouraged me and brought me joy during so many seasons over the past decade... Make a Joyful Noise - This is probably the first DCB song that I love, loved. This song reminds me of the fresh beginnings of college and learning to love and worship God in new ways. O Praise Him/No One Like You - O Praise Him reminds me of quiet, calm mornings on the river at the camp I worked at in college. I would wake up early to spend time with God before the kids woke up and the craziness of the day began and the work crew in the kitchen would blast this song as they prepared breakfast joyfully for hundreds of campers and staff. No One Like You reminds me of crazy worship sessions at night, jumping up and down with tons of middle and high school kids for the glory of God. Come and Listen/Never Let Go - Quieter songs. Quieter time in my life. This song and many others on the Collision and Remedy albums comforted me in my unknown years. I left all my friends in Texas, moved home to Washington, was dating Micah, living my parent's basement and life was strange for a while. However, I clung to God during this time and He was faithful. DCB songs remind me of the humble simplicity of this season. How He Loves Us - God is good. This is the song I walked down the aisle to at my wedding. Sweet memories of joy and gladness. So instead of being sad about DCB calling it quits, I choose to be thankful. Thankful for the music they made and the way it spoke to my soul. Thankful that a group of men were so faithful to the ministry God called them to for so many years. Thankful that they were willing to write "new songs" when so often those in the Christian music industry just make music that fits a certain churchy mold. When I went to Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Pastor Mark one time discussed why we sang "weird songs" at our services. Mars Hill is very dedicated to new music and having different musicians write their own songs and lead worship services in creative ways. Pastor Mark explained that the Bible calls us to "Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts" {Psalm 33:3}. People gifted musically should be writing new songs of praise to the Lord. That doesn't mean we can't sing old songs too. We sang plenty of hymns at Mars Hill and DCB has covered many hymns as well. It just means that those called to lead worship should be faithful in using their musical creativity to write new songs to honor God. I am thankful that David Crowder and his band has been writing new songs to worship God for the past eleven years, and while I'm sad to see my favorite band move onto new things, I am thankful for their faithfulness and I am eager to see the musicians who follow in DCB's footsteps in writing and singing new songs to the Lord. Gungor, anyone?! ... Read more