Journal #29

When was a time that nature was in control?  I need to think about this...oh!  I know!  Right now!  It is awfully rainy outside right now.  I don't think it is actually raining, but it is very cloudy and very close to raining.  It's been close to raining all day and depending on if it does, that will dictate whether I have practice or not for track today.  I really really want to have track practice, though, because it is so beautiful outside and I wouldn't have to wear sweats and ear muffs and such.  I do not like wearing sweats when I run, or being cold.  Yesterday we ran five miles and it was so beautiful and wonderful I never wanted to stop running again.  Today it is going to be even greater of weather and I shall never want to stop running.  We are doing six eight-hundreds today, I believe.  They are to be timed so it is going to not be fun, but the weather is so great I will not even care.  This journal is becoming quite difficult for me to write.  I am running out of things to say.  I love track.  I want to run, but mother nature might dictate whether or not I am able to run today because it might rain on my parade.  I need about eighty more words before I can post this and call it done.  I love rain so much.  I love it more than I love noodles.  That might not be true.  It is my favorite weather though, it makes me very happy.  If the rain was to prohibit me from running today I would be sad.  I need more words.  Please let words come to me.  I need a banana.  I love noodles, but not more than rain.  Almost there! I'm so close.  Rain, mother nature, might stop me from running today and that would make me very very sad indeed!

Journal #28

Where do I feel out of my element?  In all honesty, I pretty much always feel out of my element whenever I am not at church.  I loveeeeee church.  I cannot get enough of being involved in my high school youth group at West Side Christian Church, and within the adult ministry, too.  If I could some how graduate right now and begin working in a church and learning about God and the bible that would be sooooo great.  Sooooo great.  Back to the actual topic: whenever I am at school, the majority of my peers are not Christians.  At least they have not completely turned their life over and do everything for God.  It's high school, obviously kids are not going to do everything like me, but it's still very weird for me.  I'll just be sitting in class and hear snippets of conversation and feel quite awkward when I hear what people talk about and what they plan on doing with their time.  It is a lot of the time quite different from me.  People also know that I am very religious and like to put me in awkward situations just for fun.  In middle school, some of my sports teammates would always try to get me to say cuss words.  I never did, but for whatever reason, they thought it was quite hilarious to make me say things I did not want to say.  I was very very out of my element.  During the summer I generally spend all of my time with my church friends and people who love Jesus as much as me and whenever I come back to school it is always very hard to re-acclimate myself to the people and their unchristian ways.  I am always very out of my element whenever I come back to school.  I am pretty good at acclimating myself, however it's still not my favorite.  School makes me feel very out of my element because of the students.

Journal #27 (the actual one)

I do not even want to fathom being in the army.  My second brother Taylor enlisted right out of high school into the army reserves.  He went through basic training and eventually only had to go in once a month.  Then, when I was in eighth grade, Taylor was told he was going to be deployed to Iraq for a year.  Obviously this is not a preferable thing to happen in any family or person.  I was not even very close to Taylor at this time, but it still hit hard.  He was going to leave from Washington DC around Thanksgiving.  Myself, my twin, my mom and Taylor's girlfriend all flew out to Washington DC to spend time with him before he left.  We went sigh seeing and ate Thanksgiving at starbucks.  It was great.  Then came the time for us leave him for the last time.  It sucked.  He was my brother and he was leaving to go fight a whole bunch of people with guns.  Even though it did suck, I couldn't help but feel prideful about it, too.  He had committed himself to fighting for our country across an ocean.  He was only nineteen at the time and he was willing to be hundreds of miles away from home fighting for our safety.  I was one proud sister.  So I do not know how it feels to personally be hundreds of miles away fighting for your country, but I do know how it feels to be under the impression that one of your family members is going to do that.  My family was fortunate enough that Taylor had a lot of health problems during that time and was not allowed to be deployed.  It sucked because he had really gotten himself in the mindset and was ready, but at the same time when he came home and surprised my mom well that was pretty much the best thing in the entire world. 

Journal #26, though I think it should be 27..

There are many times when things have not turned out as I thought they would, but that does not always mean they turned out bad. Of course sometimes they did, but there are some some situations where it turned out way better than I thought it would!  A specific example of this would be track.  I began running track in sixth grade.  In middle school, I was a very good high jumper and ran sprints.  I didn't care much for the actual track part.  I focused on high jump and was very successful.  Then, towards the end of seventh grade I some how got roped into running the 1600 meter race.  That's a mile for anyone who does not know.  I could not remember ever running more than an 800 in warm ups.  So pretty much I was not looking forward to it.  The unexpected part:  I was good at it, and I liked it! I ended up beating one of the top two distance runner's mile time by over a minute.  Since then I have embraced distance running and continue to do it today. Since then, my high jump abilities have dropped dramatically.  In middle school I made it to state twice and even placed fourth one year.  I easily won almost every meet in the high jump event and I loved it.  I missed freshman year track because I had to have surgery on my feet, and then my sophomore year I just was not what I used to be.  I am unsure what happened but I have come to terms with it!  Not I focus on distance.  I'm no star, that's for sure.  I really love it and the thing about running is you can do it anytime and anywhere!  I really love being able to just go run a few miles and just think about life.  I don't listen to music any more when I run because I like just thinking instead.  Track and Field definitely didn't turn out how I though it would in high school, but it still turned out pretty well!

Journal #26

Something that America has that is particular to our region is our title.  We are generally referred to as "The Melting Pot." How did we gain this name you ask?  During the 20th century, people from other countries became curious about America.  A lot of people could not live comfortably in their homeland.  An example of this discomfort would be Ireland!  During the 20th century, Ireland was faced with a potato famine.  The primary source of food, trade, and profit for the people of Ireland was the potato, therefore when they were unable to produce their valued potatoes, they began to search for new places to go to and start a new life.  Once of the popular places to immigrate to was America!  The people of Ireland were not the only people to begin to do this, many other cultures also began to immigrate to America to find a new start for themselves and their family.  How does this relate to our unique title you ask?  America gained a very new appearance one people began to immigrate to our wonderful country.  Over the years, different cultures began to intermingle among each other and mix.  This created a completely new environment and culture, unlike any other in the world.  America was just a large pot of different peoples and their cultures that simply had mixed together.  Back in the 20th century, there was no other country that accepted others so openly.  Because of our friendly-ness back then, we gained a very unique and lasting appearance.  To this day we still are a giant mixing pot of cultures that upholds that appearance.  The only difference is now other countries have began to take in other cultures as well.  Back then we were the only ones with this appearance and wide variety of cultures.  Now you can go almost anywhere and encounter many different heritages among the people.  America is unique because we were the first to begin this giant melting pot of cultures.  

Journal #25

Currently, I'm reading a book that my brother Walker gave me to read.  The title of it is currently evading me. It's about student leadership in the church.  I'm not very far through it yet, but so far the biggest message that it is giving me is that leadership is not about power, popularity, charisma, etc. (not that I had these notions prior to reading the book) it's about serving.  Leaders need to be able to pick up the loose ends and extra responsibility in the environment they are leading in.  They need to be able to serve before they can assert their power over those below them.  Leaders have to give their time and attention more so than most people do.  Giving is probably one of the most important things about leadership.  Anyone can be a typical leader, the leader who everyone likes and is able to direct people and take control of situations.  How good of a leader can you really be if you are not willing to give your time and energy before you start yelling at people what to do?  This book is showing me that there are much more important characteristics to a leader than the stereotypical ones.  Sure those characteristics are good to have, like being well-liked and respected, but how much does it really matter?  If you are only giving and serving because of the reward of friends and praise, it's pretty empty is not it?  Giving to me has become much more important over the last few days due to this book which is making it pretty easy to write this journal.  I was already pretty avid to serve this summer in a foreign country and give my time, but this book has intensified my desire to give.  Once you realize it, it's pretty suck-y when you only give yourself your time.  You realize that it can mean so much more when you give it to someone else.