A Journal of Impossible Things

Girl in the Fireplace

2010-11-26T15:09:00.005-05:00

Hamlet:
O shame, where is thy blush?
Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax
And melt in her own fire.

Hamlet, Act III, scene iv

Ahh the holidays have begun! Let the food coma begin, bring on the Christmas music!!!! Wave so long to regular season football, get ready for the playoffs and bowl games! Which, sidebar, Tennessee is going to be bowling this year :) yayz!

Well, Thanksgiving was great to see and hang out with family. I came back to Knoxville Saturday morning so that I could go to the game cause I got front row, holla! Aaaand i ended up being on TV! WIN!

So that was cool and all, and then my parents came up for church on Sunday and that was a lot of fun. Dan's sermon was exactly what I needed to hear. He spoke about Zecheriah and Elizabeth and how God answered their prayer for a baby as "Yes, but not now" I'm excited for how God will use me and answer my prayers.

I have 3 classes, a performance, a paper and then 3 exams then Christmas break. I'm headed to South Carolina for a week to spend some time with friends I haven't seen in a while as well as my sister and brother-in-law. And I'm also excited about being able to go to Passion this year in January. Over all, life is going really fast right now and I'm trying to put on the brakes a little and enjoy the ride.

School Reunion

2010-11-07T22:17:00.003-05:00

A thousand times the worse, to want thy light.

Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books,

But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

Romeo; Romeo & Juliet, Act II, scene 2

Watch out people! I am blogging within a month of my last blog...IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!! Haha not really.

Ever had one of those days that you felt like running away because you needed to clear your head? Well, Saturday was mine. I went to Gatlinburg to go on a 2 hour trail ride in the Smokey Mountain National Park. Well, they don't send out the trail rides if there is any precipitation and regardless of the fact that it was clear the whole hour ride up there, as soon as I got about 5 minutes away, it started snowing. So that was a major buzzkill. But thankfully, I had remembered passing another place that had trail rides back in Sevierville. So I headed back and stopped at a Cracker Barrel before I hit it up. It was great to just sit there, drink my root beer, eat my chicken n' dumplin's and read my book for an hour.

Aaand then I went down to the other trail, which only had 1 hour rides, but was still satisfying. The trail guide asked if I had ridden before, I said yes, he asked if I ever showed horses, I told him no and told him that I moved to much. He also told me that I should. Haha he made that ride a lot of fun and it was very very relaxing. After that, I went to Smokey Mountain Knife Works and bought myself a Celtic Clover knife :) Overall, a great, relaxing day.

Tooth and Claw

2010-09-20T17:08:00.006-04:00

"He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health,

a boy's love, or a whore's oath."

~Fool, King Lear, Act III, scene vi

(Tooth and Claw is about a werewolf )

Exciting things have been happening lately. Both fall break and a weekend trip home have happened since I last blogged. Fall break was super bittersweet. Sweet because I was able to be home for Faith Baptist Church's 20th anniversary celebration and hang out with both friends and family. Bitter because they showed a few videos of people that had been there since the beginning of the church and one of the people was the oldest member of our church (Clifford Gilliam, 86) who is basically my grandfather because I didn't have a grandpa on my mom's side growing up and also living 8 hours away from my family...you tend to adopt the people around you as family. But seeing that video of him, made me realize how much I wanted to stay in Youngsville for him, but I know that I am where God wants me right now, here in Knoxville at Calvary.

In my three weeks here in Knoxville between my two visits home this month, I had an Economics test, an Accounting test, an English paper, and a German paper...actually those were all last week...not so much fun :/ but I punched through it and made it home for AnchorSoul alive! :)

Also, I know God has been calling me away from my opening a bookstore dream and leading me to being a Drama Coordinator at a church somewhere. Among other things, I FINALLY found a University with a Theatre Ministry Masters program. I didn't even know they existed, but I randomly google searched it and whoop there it was! After a few emails back and forth with a "recruiter" for Regent University in Virginia, I discovered that all but 8 weeks of this 1.5 year program can be done online! I'm now super excited about it! I know it's still 2.5 years until I finish my Undergrad, but I know this is the path God is leading me down and I am so excited to see how I get to where He wants me (life-wise) and where that is (location-wise)!

New Doctor

2010-09-18T21:28:00.002-04:00

O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world

That has such people in't!

~The Tempest, Act V, scene 1

Yet again, what I want to blog about strangely goes right along with the title. A new year, a new semester, a new month, a new week and new day. This summer and first few weeks of the semester have be crazy, hard and tiring. But thanks to God, Chunky Monkey, and Chick Flicks...I have persevered! This is the first day of the rest of my life.

Well, enough with the life lesson. After an incredibly busy summer of 4 jobs and attempting to have a life while still helping out at my church, I was really looking forward to the normality of Knoxville. I started right back in my internship at my church, and soon afterwords, classes commenced. I love my Theatre, English and Economics teachers, and my German and Accounting teachers are hard, but good. Surprisingly all of my teachers this year have an American accent (virtually unheard of at the University of Tennessee).

KidStuf has gone great, I love being down there with the kids :) Making/finding props is becoming steadily easier as I get the hang of it. The Children's Pastor gave me some sample gels (the colored things that go on stage lights) to see if there were some we could use. College Drama is also fun. We are doing "God's Chisel" by the Skit Guys tomorrow and I am so excited.

In other news, Monday night I was playing church softball and while I was tagging a guy out at second, he managed to slide into my left pinky (throwing hand) and consequently tore a ligament. I thought it was only a jammed finger, so I played the last two innings. I went to the doctor on Wednesday because it was all black, blue and swollen (that usually doesn't happen to jammed fingers) and they took x-rays and told me I had to wear a splint for a day and go to the physical therapist. So, even though I didn't want to, I went to the PT and she told me to keep the splint on until today after the game and then just tape it and come back next week, grrr. Also, I got a call that my finger wasn't broken or fractured.

Side note, my dad has broken his wrist in church softball and his hand in church basketball, so he is banned from church sports for the rest of his natural life. Good news to that is, since I didn't break a bone, I am not banned. WIN!

Well, peeps, I have updated you on my life. I promise that I will try to keep up to date this year. Peace out, live long and prosper!

New Earth

2010-06-13T21:05:00.002-04:00

O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world

That has such people in't!

~ Miranda, Tempest, Act V, scene 1

This title is actually somewhat appropriate for this post because I'm going to talk about something that is new to me. I'm actually in the process of writing a play for Christmas. I'm mean...I've been writing drama's since I was 13, and I wrote a play with my Drama Pastor when I was 17, but never anything this big on my own. It's kinda crazy. I mean, I wrote the first draft and let a few people read it, one was my Drama Pastor and one was his assistant and both of them said it was really good. Of course both offered suggestions too, but that's what I wanted them to do. I am pretty excited but now is the hard part...editing. I'm not a huge English person, but I'm working on it and will have some peer editors to help me out.

Now that summer is in full swing I am lifeguarding 2 different places and helping out at the church. It's great and hopefully I'll be able to get a small chunk of college paid for with the money from lifeguarding, but I'm still looking at having to take out a loan which really stinks.

On a completely different note, my sister got married two weeks ago. I'm still kinda getting used to the idea that she's married and I have a brother-in-law. Do all younger siblings feel like this when their brothers and sisters get hitched? They went to the outer banks for their honeymoon and had tons of fun seeing lighthouses, jetskiing, and eating seafood. Alicynes wore my mom's dress and had an outdoor wedding which was beautiful!!! So mom and I were talking about the similarities between her wedding and Alicyne's. The dress, married in May, going to the beach for their honeymoon. So I joked and said "Ok, so I have to wear your dress, get married in May, and go to a beach for my honeymoon? Well, tough. I'm going to get married in November, get a new dress and go to Ireland for my honeymoon lol" And we laughed about it and mom was like "Fine, I don't care, it's not my wedding" and we laughed some more.

It's kinda weird being the only kid that lives at home now and realizing that in 3 years, I'll be out of college and on my own. Maybe I'll be like old times and just live with my parents until Mr. Darcy comes calling. I'm sure they won't mind :P

Well, that's all I got for today folks. Peace, love and word to your mother.

Christmas Invasion

2010-04-18T16:05:00.002-04:00

Marry, I will, let them play it. Is not a comonty a Christmas

gambold, or a tumbling-trick?

~The Taming of the Shrew Induction, scene 2

Yes, I know, it's not Christmas. Nor is this post about Christmas. Way to observe.

Sorry again for it being soooo long since I've blogged. Wow, since before spring break. Well, I went to NYC for spring break and it was pretty much amazing...and since then I have been SUPER busy! But that's not the reason for this post...

So this weekend started with an amazing KidStuf awards that was a TON of fun and then Saturday I drove down to Chattanooga for the day to throw my sister a wedding shower and drove back up so that I could be at church this morning and Night of Worship tonight.

Yeah so, I'm usually scatter-brained and/or crazy for everyone who knows me, you can attest to that fact, but I need to have a serious moment today.

Lately I've been thinking about a ton of stuff. Mainly school but a lot about life also. This summer I'm going to be working 3 jobs so that I can continue to come to the University of Tennessee because I really feel like God is calling me to be here for this season in my life. Where He wants me and what he wants me to do after college is a completely different story, because I have no idea! God has really been convicting me of not handing stuff over to him lately and one of them is my relationship life, or lack thereof would be a better way of putting it. I started talking to this guy back in NC and I was thinking "Wow this is so cool! I'm going to have a boyfriend this summer." But the more we talked, the more I realized that he isn't very spiritually mature. I started making excuses for him being that way but I started feeling guilty and I knew it was the Holy Spirit convicting me, I just didn't want to admit it. Then this morning at church the Pastor spoke about leaving all the extra baggage we have and I felt super convicted that this guy would just be extra baggage right now. It was hard, but I had to end up sending him a facebook message explaining that I feel like it wouldn't be right for us to be together. And that really took a weight off my chest.

Well, I really feel that God is telling me to spend more time with Him, and He'll bring in who He has for me in His timing, not mine. And if that ends up being in the next few days or in the next few years, I have decided to leave that to Him and give Him control.

The Parting of Ways

2010-02-20T14:00:00.003-05:00

Parting is such sweet sorrow,

That I shall say good night till it be morrow

~ Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene 2

D-Now...what is it? Awesome, a time for God to move, powerful, moving, and fun! Disciple Now is a weekend that we get a speaker to come in and we just spend a weekend really focusing on our relationship with God. I've gone to it all but 3 of the past 8 years. And this past year I had the opportunity to be a leader for the one at Faith. But now, I am taking part of one for college students at Calvary. We finished up this morning and I loved my first college Disciple Now at Calvary Baptist Church!!!!

So, since the last time I blogged, it's pretty much been uneventful yet incredibly eventful at the same time. How is this possible? Well, it's pretty much same ole same ole, but a LOT of it. The biggest thing that's happened needs a little background...I'll save that for later on in the post. Another big this that happened is that I had my first speech last week. After taking a pre-speech test online to determine my speech anxiety, it saying I had "significant speech anxiety", me pretty much dying of laughter, and my teacher saying that she will tell the person who made the test that it was wrong, I decided to speak about Haiti and how we can't forget them because they still need our help. After interviewing Amie via facebook and doing research on my own I ended up getting a 95 on my speech. I was pretty happy about that and my teacher told me that I knew about my topic and that I was passionate about it.

And on Wednesday night, I stayed up until 4AM writing a paper, got 4 hours of sleep, didn't have the most brilliant day Thursday. But I got to spend 3 hours driving around shopping for props which was a great de-stresser for me.

Ok, now background to big news. I have been involved in church drama, every aspect of it, since I was about 7 years old and I love it! So much so that I have actually been praying for about the past year if that is what God wants me to do with my life and for opportunities here to be involved. After 6 months of praying if God wanted me to be involved with Calvary's drama, the Music Pastor here sent out an e-mail to the choir and KidStuf team that he was looking for an intern to help him out. I e-mailed him back and asked for more information, praying that if God wanted me to do it that he would just make it blatantly obvious to me. When I got the e-mail of what the intern would need to do, it was scary how perfectly it described my talents. So, while still praying, I sent an e-mail back saying that if he still needed someone, that I was interested. And the big news is...I got the internship and its the most fun I have ever had at any job.

Aaaaand that brings us to this morning. Quick rewind, last night around 10:30, I got a text from the music pastor asking if I maybe could be in KidStuf this morning, I said yes and then proceeded learning the script. We get to church from our host home, all the student's cars that were left at the church overnight (mine included) was covered in post-its. We then get to choir practice and the Music Pastor tells me that he just found out that the girl I might have had to replace was able to do KidStuf, she just hadn't told him. I was completely ok with that because I wasn't ready for it as much as I would have liked to have been anyway haha. Choir practice and Sunday School went great, it was the last session of D-Now and it was an awesome wrap-up talking about community. We then walk over to the church and I decided to stop by the KidStuf area just to make sure everything was going to run smoothly, turns out 3 main props weren't down there...ok, so then I go find Kevin (Music Pastor) and say "Giant mirror, non-slip mat, ladder." After a moment of a very confused look, he figured out that I was talking about the props and told me he forgot. (Now he knows that when I'm looking for something, or talking about a drama that's about to take place, I neglect to use complete sentences) He tells me where I can find the props I need. After sorting all that out I realize that there isn't anyone to run Power Point downstairs...I find Kevin again and we figure that I can go down there after choir and help them out, he then promises that I won't be doing anything next Sunday so I can sit with my parents...What goes through my mind? 'BWAHAHAHAHAHA I've heard that one before' But it turns out they got it all sorted and I was able to stay in service this week.

If it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm not. I love helping in drama, and part of that is running around 5 minutes before you go on finding props :D I just love it!

Bad Wolf

2010-01-16T09:56:00.002-05:00

"He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health,

a boy's love, or a whore's oath."

~King Lear, Act III, scene 6

Back to the old grindstone...yes, that means that college has started again and I am taking all new classes. German 102, Astronomy 162 (the professor looks like a middle-age Mel Brooks), Architecture 111, Communication Studies 240, and English 101. They are all good and I know I will enjoy them, but as with all school, I will be ready for them to end.

Today, was a particularly uneventful day...I woke up around ten, lost track of time and missed what was apparently a great basketball game and just sat in my room doing homework, watching TV, reading and in general...being a real dorm potato. (Which is my version of a couch potato but I have no couch nor anything even remotely close to a couch so I think that my new saying will do well in this world.

There's not really anything to talk about, so I would say this could be a very short entry...if it's like this every week, maybe I should just blog once every other week...

My birthday is this coming Wednesday...it will be my first birthday away from my family...and it's on a Wednesday, which, to any normal person, would be no big deal, but to me, I have waited for years for my birthday to fall on a Wednesday because our praise team has a tradition that whoever has a birthday, we sing a really bad version of Happy Birthday to them...it sounds weird, I know, but I really wanted to be sung that at least once in my life...but alas, I will not be home for them to sing it to me...they said that they would Skype me, but I don't know if they will remember and I don't want my world to come crashing down if they forget. In other words...I don't want to put all my eggs in that basket only for them to spill...oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait until Wednesday and see.

And...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Boom Town

2009-12-27T00:23:00.003-05:00

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how

infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and

admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like

a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet,

to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me—

nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

~Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2

Day after Christmas...recovering from the food coma, taking inventory of your gifts...working? Yes, I had to work today. Which, I suppose, in a way, was good for me. Four hours of mindless, communicationless (is that a word?) time to think...think about where my life is, where it's going, how fast it's going, where I want it to go, and at what pace I want to go there. A very big realization came to me today as I was watching Doctor Who. You see, a sort of seed had been planted in my mind yesterday...maybe I really wasn't as ready for a relationship as I thought...maybe that portion of my life was going to fast...maybe, I just needed to focus on school for the time being and let God sort everything else out in His time, not mine.

It may seem like a weird time for a revelation, but everyone who knows me knows that the piece of flair on my facebook that says "Do not disturb me while Doctor Who is on" isn't just a joke...it's a serious statement. Someone sent me that piece of flair for a reason...it's my favorite show and it's one of my biggest pet peeves to be interrupted while I'm watching it. I was interrupted tonight.

"What a piece of work is man" Alas Shakespeare you've done it again. You've put the actions of man into words which none can do better. As Hamlet questions why his Uncle could kill his father...I use his words to question my life actions and the actions of those around me.

As for my Christmas, it was great. I got 4 Shakespeare plays (Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth and Hamlet), money for cowboy boots and 6 month of netflix. I loved spending time with my family and just flat out having a ball with just the four of us. This will be our last Christmas like that. My sister's getting married in May, so soon there will be a fifth to our clan. I'm ok with that...it's hard not to want a relationship while I see my sister and her fiancee...but I am thankful that they have each other and I know that I will find my Mr. Darcy/Phantom one day...that's just not for me right now...I have already decided a New Year's resolution...to blog at least once a week...now before all of you fall out of your chairs...I'm going to put it in my computer now so that an alarm goes off every Saturday at noon for me to blog. Merry Late Christmas to all and withing you and yours a prosperous new year!!!!

The Doctor Dances

2009-12-01T22:42:00.001-05:00

Florizel:

"When you do dance, I wish you

A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do

Nothing but that."

"A Winter's Tale" (Act IV, scene 4)

Ahh, the start of my first college finals...today marks the first study day for final...i.e. no classes, just study. I have a Physics exam on Friday, a Math exam on Monday, and a German exam on Thursday, and then I'm home free!!! Today and tomorrow have been set aside for Physics studying, Saturday and Sunday for Math and Tuesday and Wednesday for German. I can't believe that my first semester of college has flown by so fast. this means that 1/8 of my college is done...that seems so weird to me.

So I went to my Math teacher's office today to turn in some extra credit and there was someone sitting at one of the desks, thinking it was my teacher I proceeded to tell him that I had my work...well, then he turned around...it wasn't my teacher...yeah...So I bumbled that I was looking for Ryan Clark's office and the guys told me that it was his office and I could leave my work on Ryan's chair. OK, so then I stammered out of the room apologizing and the guy was just like, "it's really OK". But then, as I was walking down the steps, who should be walking up but Mr. Ryan Clark himself. Yeah...that was embarrassing.

Anyway...then I went back to my room and proceeded to clean it. I had so much trash and recycling that I had to make a run to the trash room to empty out both bins. Then I studied for Physics which I will continue tonight and tomorrow. After a little studying, I went to choir practice and then a Christmas party. Now I am Skyping with the fam for our Christmas Devotions that started yesterday and will continue through Christmas Day. It is complete with advent tree and paper ornaments. :-)

The Empty Child

2009-11-10T09:39:00.003-05:00

Richard:

"So wise so young, they say do never live long."

King Richard III (Act III, Scene 1)

So. I finally get to update this thing. College has made my life so busy, crazy, fun and stupid...all at the same time.

Since my last post...half a semester has come and gone. One of my classes, Business Administration 100, was only a half a semester long, so it's already over. It was a really fun class and I miss it.

German 101 is kicking my butt. I'm working really hard and its starting to pay off, but I keep wanting to put Spanish words in there, I don't know how people who speak like 5 different languages do it. Also my TA in that class is a Carolina fan and he has been very helpful since he found out that I am from that area. :P

Physics 101 is really boring and I hardly understand the teachers accent...I think its Russian. I actually think that I learn more by reading my book than her teaching...but I still go to class.

Math 142 I kinda boring because everything we are learning, I've already learned before. I really have to work to stay focused and do well.

Tennessee Sport Legends (yes that is a class) is awesome! I love my Professor and I think that I am one of his faves :) Like, the other day I was walking back to my dorm from the library and he happened to be walking out at the same time. We then walked back most of the way back to my dorm talking about all kinds of random stuff then he split off to his office and invited me to come by sometime hahaha and I proceeded to my dorm.

Finally, Theatre 100...now I love theatre and drama, but this class is really getting on my nerves. We were put into groups, I ended up being group leader, but mine was split up because we weren't doing very well on our projects and we were changing stuff like 2 days before the project was due. In our new group, there was a different group leader and I was glad because that meant that I didn't have to do as much...HA! Well, turns out that our leader wasn't so good and when I e-mailed the teacher about it, she e-mailed me back asking me to be the new leader...grrr. So I was ok with it, telling everyone that I wanted their opinion and suggestions when it came to our final project. Well, here we are, the project is due in 2 days and no one had told me that they wanted to help or anything...until this morning in class when a girl said that she wanted to change her character's costume...I tried to work it out calmly and she was like "Don't get mad! Gosh you're always getting mad at us!" I told her that she was putting words in my mouth and that's why I didn't want to be leader. To which she responded, "You're the one who asked the teacher to be leader" I told her that that's not what happened, that our teacher put me in the leadership role and I didn't ask for it. Then she told me that I never am open to suggestions. I didn't know what to say, I had included my cell phone number and told them if they had any questions or suggestions to text, call or e-mail me. Really long explanation, I know, but I can't afford us doing a bad job on this because I need a good grade in this class. This project is worth a big portion of our grade, it's in leu of a final. I wish I knew how to handle this...

On a lighter note, I'm going home this weekend and I'm going to be a leader for D-Now, which is like a church retreat, but staying in town. I'm pretty excited.

I also found out that I won't get my car back from the shop until probably Wednesday and I leave on Thursday...

God is really teaching me something, I just wish I knew what it was that He's trying to teach me.

Father's Day

2009-08-08T22:08:00.004-04:00

"My father—methinks I see my father—"

~Hamlet, Act I, scene 2

I moved into college this past Saturday, to the school of my dreams...It's everything I expected, and more. But in the same way, it doesn't seem real. Getting ready for classes this morning was easier than I anticipated...partly because I was so ready to get into a routine, partly because my roommate gets up earlier because she has an earlier class, but mostly because this morning, our coffee maker exploded. Yeah you read right, exploded...not in the traditional sense of the word, but what else to you call 4 cups of somewhat coffee/water and 2 tablespoons of wet coffee grounds all over our vanity?

So while Hannah was up, getting ready for class and all that, I was in bed contemplating whether or not to get up. Then all of the sudden, I hear "Oh no!" and I lean over the edge of my bed to see Hannah frantically trying to get all her stuff out of the puddle of coffee flavored water. I said "Oh snap!" and jumped out of bed to help her clean it up. Needless to say, it was hilarious!

I also had my first class this morning, German 101, it was, well, German...I think it went well, but it's gonna be hard.

When I finished my class, I call PJ Harrison and talk to him for a bit and we talked about...you guessed it...FOOTBALL!!! It was really good to talk to him, but at the end, I was at the verge of tears...anyway...good day at the University of Tennessee!!!

The Long Game

2009-07-24T17:56:00.012-04:00

So farewell—to the little good you bear me.

Farewell? a long farewell to all my greatness!

This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls as I do.

- Henry VIII, Act III, Scene 2

Nothing about games...good grief Shakespeare, you're letting me down...

Me at the WWII Memorial in Amsterdam

So...my trip in a nutshell...doubt it's possible, but here it goes.

So on June 20th I flew from RDU airport to ONT airport in California to join up with the rest of the Global Surge 2 (GS2) team. The rest of the team came on June 21st to the California Baptist University (CBU) all of them were from that area and I was the only one who had to fly in, therefore I had to come a day early. We then spent 3 days training for our trip. With lectures and simulations and games, they taught us about different cultures and how to react when we're in them.

We actually chased the sunrise for a while on our 10 hour flight

So on June 25th, we flew out of LAX airport on a 10 hour flight to London Heathrow where we were supposed to have an hour and a half layover which turned into about a 3 hour layover because our connecting flight was delayed. So when we finally were on our connecting flight we flew for about 2 hours from London Heathrow to Dusseldorf, Germany. Then when we got there we checked into our Hostel and just sort of chilled for a few days.

The building across from the tram station in Dusseldorf

While in Dusseldorf, we went through more training, the field workers gave lectures that were almost like the ones we had at CBU except that they were from the field workers point of view. We also had a night that 4 Christians formed a panel, 2 from Holland and 2 from Germany we were able to ask them questions about being a Christian in a post-Christian society. They told us how hard it was but rewarding for those who they ministered to.

Windmill in Amsterdam

On June 28th, we took 3 trains from Dusseldorf to Amsterdam. One of them we had reserved seats and therefore kinda had our own space for the first leg. But for the other legs, the trains was so crowded that we had to stand for both trips. I've never ridden on a train before (lots of firsts on this trip, first time west of the Mississippi, first time out of the country, first time flying by myself and first time on a train) Then after we got there and checked into our hostel we pretty much had a free day. Then, for the rest of the week we had zones that we walked around and kinda scoped out what kind of people were there and to try to build relationships with them. We did that at different times during the day and we also had some training while we weren't walking our zones. After a week of that, we had a day that we changed Hostels to one across town.

The Muslim woman we had tea with

During that first week in Amsterdam while we were walking around, we saw a woman standing in her window so we went up and talked to her. When we asked her if she spoke English, she said said "nee" which is Dutch for no. We tried to make simple conversation using little Dutch phrases and hand motions. Then she invited us for coffee on the terrace. Through that coffee, we learned that she had 3 sons, 2 granddaughters, one of her son's lived with her, he was a taxi driver, and they were Turkish. I also got to tell this story along with some encouraging words to a Dutch church and it was translated from my English to Dutch. That in and of itself was a surreal experience and I was more nervous talking to them than I would be talking to any other group of people.

This blog is long enough, the rest is to be continued.

Dalek

2009-06-01T11:50:00.004-04:00

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows."
~Trinculo Tempest, Act II, scene ii

So what? My quotes aren't exactly matching my titles...I wanna see you try to find 16th century quotes to match a 21st century TV show!

Well, it's been a REEEEALLY long time since I've posted anything and part of that reason is...hmm let's see, since my last post I've graduated, gone to college orientation, went to California, then Europe (Germany and Holland), then came back and had knee surgery, went to a friends wedding, and tried to organize my life before I go to college in 3.5 weeks. Really? It's that close already? Wow...it hasn't really hit me yet.

So, I've posted about graduation, a guy toward the beginning tripped and fell flat on his face. College orientation was as it should be, I am signed up for classes and I feel oriented. I'll keep California and Europe to a separate post because I was there for 3 weeks, it's going to be a lot! My meniscus was torn and so the Doctor went in lapriscopscly and cleaned it up my knee still hurts, but I have physical therapy and my stitches get taken out Monday.

Emily Poling is now Emily Rudolph and that is so exciting because she has sought after God and what he has in store for her and He has blessed her with Mike and 3 kids. 1 of the kids is already married which I think is somewhat humorous, the kid being married longer than the parents. I can't wait to see what God has in store for this wonderful family in the future.

College....wow, I am a college student. For those who have known me since I was 5...I made it! I'm sure there were times that you didn't think I would, good grief, there were times that I didn't think that I would...especially this past year. High school is said to be the best time of you life, well whoever said that lied. Yeah, I'm going to miss some of my friends, but we can get together again. I'm so glad that I'm out of that drama-infested school. Looking forward to not having the same classes every day, having more than 5 minutes between classes, having 15 hours of class a week as opposed to 35, and most of all, I'm looking forward to being back in Tennessee. I will miss NC, but I'll be back for holidays and summer and D-Now. But I love the mountains, the football, the orange, and the tradition.

No great sum of wisdom can I share,

Just a hope beyond compare

A hope that you will run

Run long and hard to glorify the One

The One who endured a harsh a painful cross

So that we can count all our gain as loss

Press on toward the finish line

And know his love so divine

World War Three

2009-05-15T12:06:00.003-04:00

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages."

As You Like It Act 2, scene 7

I've always loved this quote...I see it as a challenge to live our daily lives out like everyone is watching and learning from us. I never liked the idea of everyone watching everything I do...especially being a small town associate pastor's kid...not fun...like living in a fish bowl, and I can't breath underwater (just to let you know).

As I approach my last day of high school...ever...I seem to think that I'm going to miss it...even though I only got to be there for two years, it seems like Wake Forest-Rolesville High School has become a very real part of me that I don't want to lose. They're gutting our school next year and it seems like they're gutting part of me too. Those hall are full of memories, not only for the class of 2009, but all the way back to the class of 1959.

Over the past two years I've gone to public school for the first time in my life, met AWESOME friends that I hope to keep forever, met some jerks, was the center of a few incredibly stupid rumors, gone to actually school play that I was friends with the main characters, not just the chorus members, seen people come and go, and some come back, thought one thing about someone and then found out that I was completely wrong (both good and bad) and been disappointed and lifted up. ( I totally know that was a run on sentence, but who says this has to be grammatically correct?)

I only wish that high school had more of the good times, and not all the drama junk.

When I see all of the friendships that I've made and rekindled in the past two years, I can't help but think that I'm never going to see some of these people again. As I look toward the next stage of my life and take the leap of moving to a different state for college, I see all the people that are staying here. When I wear my Tennessee Orange, I remember those that are wearing Carolina Blue, State Red, App Black and Gold, High Point Black and Purple, Duke Blue (yuck hahaha), Pembroke Yellow (or is it gold?), and Wilmington Teal. How will we look back on this time in our lives? Will we learn from it or ran away, not daring to look back for fear of what we'll see? I hope that it is the former, that we will boldly step out into this world wanting to change and learn from our past. Like in the Lion King...

Adult Simba: I know what I have to do. But going back will mean facing my past. I've been running from it for so long.
[Rafiki hits Simba on the head with his stick]
Adult Simba: Ow! Jeez, what was that for?
Rafiki: It doesn't matter. It's in the past.
[laughs]
Adult Simba: Yeah, but it still hurts.
Rafiki: Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or... learn from it.
[swings his stick at Simba again who ducks out of the way]
Rafiki: Ha. You See? So what are you going to do?
Adult Simba: First, I'm gonna take your stick.
[Simba snatches Rafiki's stick and throws it and Rafiki runs to grab it]
Rafiki: No, not the stick! Hey, where you going?
Adult Simba: I'm going back!
Rafiki: Good! Go on! Get out of here!
[Rafiki begins laughing and screeching loudly]

As so many life lessons are...Walt Disney has taught us well :) !!!

I wish I had some piece of wisdom to share, but alas, I am not wise...I wish I could impart some knowledge, but still, I know nothing...I wish I could give you joy, but it is you're job to find that...I wish my words could form wings to lift you up...will you allow me to?

Aliens of London

2009-04-29T13:09:00.003-04:00

"No; it is not possible you should love the enemy of France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love the friend of France; for I love France so well that I will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours is France and you are mine."

- King Henry to Princess Katharine of France (5.2)

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a quote from Shakespeare about aliens??? So then I searched London...no luck. Town...nothing. Finally, village...AHA!!! Victory!!! The above quote...

So much has been going on!!! The reason I haven't posted in a while is because of AP exams coming up...BLAH!!! I will be so glad when they're over!!! Last night was Friday and I felt like I needed to be over at the Sextons for movie night, but alas...no movie night...maybe I'll bring my own movie this Friday...hmmm

I'm going over to hang out with some lifeguard friends tonight, in a few minutes in fact...and we're going to have a breakfast party...YAY!!! I am totally about to check out of school...I have senioritis SO BAD!!! I'm not as motivated to do my homework...but i know I have to...a month and a week until graduation...HA!!! look out world...or at least Knoxville...here it come!!! Armed with a high school deploma!!!

Not very long, I know, and quite boring if I do say so myself, but I'll post longer after May 12th (last day of AP Exams)

The Unquiet Dead

2009-04-20T12:10:00.002-04:00

"A walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more."

~William Shakespeare

I know that quote isn't exactly like the title, but whatever.

This weekend was interesting to say the least. It started off by going over to the Sexton's house for a movie night and we watched the Lion King which was cool. Especially because this coming weekend we're watching Narnia!!! Then Lori and I went around flocking people's houses. For those of you who don't know, flocking is when you take some yard flamingoes and put it in someone's yard and they have to pay you to get it removed. I am raising money for a missions trip that i'm going on this summer. I've been doing pretty good so far...but I still have a long way to go.

For lunch, I went to Target and the guy who usually get's us our food wasn't there...sadness...so I asked where he was and she said he was on break. Then there got to be a really long line behind us because the girl who was running the food court area was really slow and so we waited and then...wonder of wonders...Jim came back to help and the line was gone in no time!!! YAY!!!

Also...one of my friends texted me last night at like midnight saying something about some essay that she had to write and so we ended up texting back and forth for a while and it ended in laughter and quoting Fezzik in Princess Bride!!! (One of my Favorite Movies!!!)

~*Serious Note*~

I also found out this morning that the Girl that was killed Sunday and lived in my old neighborhood is the girl that I used to play with when I was little. I knew that I played with a Gabby, and that the Girl's name was Gabby, but I didn't want to believe that it was the same girl. Alicia and I shared the gospel with Gabby when we were little and she prayed to recieve Christ in front of my house one day, I can only hope that she meant it. Please pray for her family and friends through this hard time!!!

The End of the World

2009-04-16T13:27:00.000-04:00

"From now until the end of the world, we and it shall be remembered. We few, we Band of Brothers. For he who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."

- William Shakespeare ("King Henry V")

So yesterday we had a lock down drill at school and I was on my way back to my class and got sent to the main office when I was like 5 steps from my class. It scared me to death!!! But I had a good laugh about it afterwords... :)

Shakespeare is pretty much amazing and so it Doctor Who. I've decided to combine the two and name my blogs after Doctor Who episodes and start everything with a Shakespeare quote that is related to the title. How cool it that??? Anyhoo...

~*Serious Note*~
Today at McDonald's, a girl with Downs Syndrome was in line with her mom in front of me. I think she must have been maybe 4 or 5, she was so cute! She waved at me and so I smiled and waved back, and then I asked her how she was and she said good and then gave me a hug. I couldn't stop smiling! She was so precious! I hope that we all find that joy and happiness so that we can give perfect strangers hug (not the dangerous stranger, of which there are sadly so many in our society, but the ones that need a hug).
~*End of Serious Note*~

To understand me you must understand one very important thing...I have at least 10 things going on in my head at any given time and none of them have any particular relationship to another. Like right now, I'm thinking about Homegroup volleyball tonight, flocking people's yards, my missions trip, college, Earth Science, Calculus, prom, a gansta video that my friend made of me for her AP Bio class and tons of facts about Doctor Who and how GREAT it is...like I said, comepletely random.

I love reading, I'm reading Princess Bride right now for AP English and I love it!!! I love C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and lots of other books. I made a new years resolution to read 2 books every month, but unless you include books of the Bible I haven't really kept to that. But, if you count that I have finished at least two books a month, I guess that would work...I read a lot of books at one time and never really understood why until my mom read an excerpt from a book about Ruth Graham...something like comparing books to pickles, if you read (or eat) just one book (or jar) at one time than you loose your taste for it, she read many books for a variety of moods...I like that idea.

I can't think of anything else to say...hmm...oh welll Peace out!!!

Rose

2009-04-15T12:23:00.000-04:00

"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet" ~"Romeo and Juliet", Shakespeare

This is my first post, so I'm just trying it out and seeing what will work out.

A day in my life is usually the same every day. Wake up, go to school, go to lunch, go home, do homework, take shower, go to bed, start over.

As I look toward college and see that graduation is less than two months, I realize how far I've come. 13 years of school [I included kindergarten, no I did not fail a grade ;) ] seems like forever, but at the same time feels like no time at all. All the memories that I have going around in my head; my different experiences, lessons learned, and friends made and lost. I think about all the friends I will make over the next four years and wonder how close we will become. Will we stay in touch or will we never talk again? What about my high school friends? Will we hang out when we all come back to visit?

I want to break the norm. Do something different with my life every day. I want to be a history maker. I want to make a difference in our world.

This blog will be random, fun and most likely stupid. Now that you know what I want to do. The rest of my blogs will break the mold!!!

Until next time...