Summertime Goodness

 And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees,

just as things grow in fast movies,

I had that familiar conviction that life was

beginning over again with the summer.

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

It's full-fledged summer. In fact, you might almost say that summer is dieing off. I rather wish it would... despite my adoration of river-swimming, sun-bathing, and iced-chai-tea-latte-drinking habits, I can't help but desire my lovely autumn days in October.
However, I have enjoyed this summer a great deal more than past summers. Things have been delightfully laid back. I have enjoyed my Starbucks ice cream, loads of books, swimming, stormy afternoons, and even my schoolwork a great deal. Things have been a lovely shade of sepia with all the heat, but it's quite lovely. I love watching God's artistry throughout the year, and summer is quite beautiful.
I suppose this summer has been more beautiful than past summers, to me, because I have actually engaged myself in doing things that seem summerish. My first act was to go swimming with a few of my buddies and jump off of what seemed like a ridiculously tall tree into a ridiculously terrifying river (of which I have footage, but alas cannot find the cord to my old camera to upload it to my computer). I have gone to the river a couple more times, and honestly I can't say many other things in life make me more happy. Going to a river to swim seems like the epitome of summer activities. Besides, I'm doing it with my favorite people, so why shouldn't I be perfectly, splendidly happy?
I have also spent a great deal of time this summer being productive. In my past summers, I've been completely lazy and spent most of my time on the computer doing unproductive things. But I decided this summer that I would be at least slightly productive some of the time. I have rediscovered my love and adoration of reading. Honestly, the past year I haven't had time or desire to read. After Winston died last summer, I had a hard time taking interest in most things for a long time. When I did, I found myself slapped in the face with the realization that I had to begin studying for APs and the SAT. Really life? But I have begun to read again, and I have decided this is an activity I'm not apt to give up again any time soon.
I've also purposed myself to begin writing a great deal. I have been journaling more than I have in over a year, and have enjoyed it a great deal. I've also begun the rumblings of a story, but we'll see if that ever finishes itself. In any case, I have enjoyed writing a great deal. (and in fact, I would have written more on this blog had my laptop not given up the ghost, causing me to rely nearly solely on an iPad, on which it is nearly impossible to type)
Most of all, I have spent a great deal of time with my family and friends, which is more important to me than anything. Along with river swimming, I've gone to a frozen yogurt place with my mom several times, gotten chai tea lattes from Starbucks nearly every Sunday (and been greeted by the same awesome guy who asks me about Algebra 2 nearly every Sunday), watched fireworks with my friends, spent entire days tramping around in the woods and creek with my boyfriend while discussing deep and intellectual topics, talking about books and fashion with my best friends, talking with my soon-to-be-off-to-college brother until three in the morning, and other such pleasantries. I dearly love doing anything with my friends. And coming to the realization that four of my favorite people are soon to be off to college is indeed a daunting idea, and one that scares me and saddens me a great deal. My brother and cousin will soon be off two hours away doing their college-y things. Thus, watching She's the Man in my cousin's back yard at midnight with just a couple of sleeping bags or cutting up politically correct fruit salad with her is not exactly a strange or rare thing.
As you can see, summer to me means relaxing. It means enjoying God's beauty that He made for His glory to the full extent. It means laughing with my friends and watching my brother's face light up in a ridiculously luminescent way when he talks about The Dark Knight Rises. It means floating in tubes down a river and jumping off fifteen foot high trees into the murky water and mud below. It means pouring over a book while sitting on my bed, listening to the rain slapping and jumping off the leaves outside my window. It means playing on a playground and getting soaked with a hose while jumping on the blazing, colorful apparatus displayed out there. It means taping mustaches to my face with one of my best friends and taking stupid pictures that make us look like female versions of Poirot. It means sitting at my best friends' house with the power out, reading one liners from books in a circle and making everyone crack up.
It means summer.
Summer perfection.

City Places and High-Rise Spaces

I'll admit it wholeheartedly and without shame: I'm a city girl.

Despite my country girl tendencies to want to constantly have dirt under my finger nails from gardening, enjoying growing my own food, loving walking through fields and forests, loving hiking through miles of mountains, and wanting to live in a cottage in the middle of a pine forest, I have far more city tendencies than country tendencies.

I live in a lovely city, however it isn't the kind of city that I so much prefer. I love big cities. Flashing lights and skyscrapers, eclectic people groups and styles, museums and history on every corner; indeed, cities are my favorite and always will be.

I don't get to go to real big cities very often; perhaps two to four times a year. But I will spring at any chance I can possibly get to see the city skyline of some lovely place like Chicago. In April, I got the chance to go to a big city. The big city of the South: Atlanta. I go to Atlanta relatively frequently, but its almost never just to hang out and have fun. However, this time it was. My cousin, Macy, is a senior in high school this year and she wanted to have a senior trip. The destination: Atlanta.

Macy discovered a month or so ago that The Fox Theatre would soon be presenting Les Miserables, so she bought tickets for four, and we planned a trip up to Atlanta.

We arrived in Atlanta late in the afternoon on a day in late April, and went up to our hotel, which was right across the street from the Fox. Macy and I, admittedly, are not exactly used to acting upscale, high class, and rich. Trying to pull it off when walking in and seeing this was difficult:

As neat as I suppose it would be to be truly swanky, I don't think it would be nearly as much fun. When you're rich and often exposed to fancy architecture and cool big city adventures, I suppose things like this wouldn't take your breath away as much. You wouldn't take as much pleasure in it. So although I may want to act swanky, I don't think I ever would want to be that way.

We walked into the hotel, dressed up for our night at the Fox. I always greatly appreciate going into places like this, because I get to see those truly big city people. Somehow I think I've always had a fantasy about being the wife of a big-business, big-city guy and being that woman who walks around in her business skirt and black pumps in fancy hotels. And in this kind of hotel, you see those kinds of women. I've always loved how neat and professional they look, and imagined that I myself might be that schnazzy one day.

These nice, lovely men carried our bags upstairs for us (so nice to not have to drag my hundred pound bag stuffed with half of my belongings up 14 floors), and we got to look around our hotel room a bit before heading out to dinner.

{this was just the living room. we also had a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms!}

After examining our room, we went downstairs to go find a restaurant. Once outside, we walked in a big circle only to come back around to the front of our hotel, when we saw an Italian restaurant diagonally across from our hotel, and decided to head in there since we had almost no time to eat before the show. Once we got in, we had to wait for a while, but once we got our seat, everything was super quick. Our waiter was a nice young man who was very professional and quick to make sure we got our meal and got out the door before the show started. I ordered the best salad I've ever had in my life. Most restaurants? Hello cheap iceberg salad. This restaurant? I got the fanciest salad made entirely of arugula with this awesome lemon dressing on top with cheese and some other fancy toppings. It was delish, and I have to admit, I felt pretty schmancy eating an arugula salad. 

After we finished eating, we walked up half a block at the most to the Fox theatre, and sat down probably 20 seconds after the show had started - we barely made it in time. It was absolutely excellent! Despite the fact that we were sitting in nearly the back of the theatre, it was a wonderful show. The singers were incredibly talented and the props and movement were wonderful. Eponine was definitely my favorite, tho  Jean Valjean can hardly be ignored. Everyone was absolutely wonderful!

However, after a three hour long show, I was quite ready to be headed back to the hotel, which thankfully was right across the street. We headed upstairs and Macy and I got some pictures outside on our three inch wide balcony that we could barely fit on.

The next morning Macy and I had planned on going up to the roof top pool and swimming for a while, but we had gotten to bed so late after the show we just slept late. After we got up we headed downstairs to a restaurant they have in the hotel, whose fruit, I might add, was delicious but ridiculously overpriced. Despite their overpriced fruit, everything was amazing; I had the most delicious french toast I've ever had in my life, and I even tried a raspberry for the first time. (and yes, I hated it. seriously, who eats those things?)

We sat outside for a bit and then we went up to the rooftop pool. It was quite lovely: there was a pool in the lower part, and then you could walk up a few stairs for a spectacular view of midtown Atlanta. We were quite close to the tallest building in Atlanta which excited me profusely. I do love skyscrapers quite a lot. Macy and I proceeded to take several pictures up there as well:

After our adventures up on the rooftop (and as Macy and I will both attest, there were indeed some adventures ;), we went back down to our room to pack up and head out. I must say I'll miss that hotel more than almost any hotel I've had the pleasure of staying in. Especially considering the fact that one of my favorite authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald, had stayed in it once. I do love old, swanky hotels.

After heading out of the hotel, we proceeded over to The World of Coke, where we tried a ridiculous amount of flavors of Coke products from around the world, most of which, I must add, were absolutely repulsive. I think I'll stick with my every day bottle of Coke.

We grabbed lunch (and got to watch a bunch of people learning how to ride a segway.... and as Macy so astutely put it, they looked like rolly pollies) and then went to Dillards to shop a bit. I found a really cute dress in the junior's dress department which I got for eighteen bucks. My thrifty mother has taught me well. I know a deal when I see one, and getting a dance dress for eighteen bucks is most *definitely* a deal.

After our outing at Dillards, we decided it was about time to head back. But before we did, we stopped at a Midtown Starbucks (um. can we say dream work place?) to grab a snack and some coffee. I got my usual iced chai tea latte, and my mom and I split our usual old fashioned doughnut. We sat outside and snagged a few more pictures before heading out:

 {I think at this point I was catching on to the whole swanky thing.

Don't you think?

really?

No?

okay...}

After our adventure to Starbucks and getting wind blown into our face, coffee, and food, we headed back out. We had had a lovely time, and I'm not sorry to admit that I pined away for at least fifteen minutes about wanting to live in a high rise apartment.

In fact, I determined after leaving that once I finish college, I'm going to live in a high rise apartment in Atlanta, get a cat and name it Cashmere, work in a Starbucks, and go to art museums all the time. Good? Good.

As strange as I might sound when I refer to Atlanta and any big city, it really can be explained. I lived the majority of my life in two ugly little towns. However, when I was seven or eight, a love for big cities and travel entered my brain, and ever since it has grown. Going to Chicago when I was eight didn't help anything. I remember that vacation as the best one I ever had. From a young age my love for travel has grown, and my love for travel includes big cities. 

Big cities have some kind of a hold on me. Like I said previously, although I do have some country girl tendencies, the big city has some sort of grasp on me. I can't explain what it is exactly. I've always loved different cultures, ideas, and fashion, so I know that that is part of it. But there seems some kind of mystery of a big city: how everything and everyone fits together in some ridiculous yet artful conglomeration. How history, art, culture, ideas, businesses, celebrities, average Joes, music, and life somehow mix into this great place where skyscrapers abound and there is never a moment when there isn't some movement of life. 

I suppose that is part of why I love a big city so much. Everything and everyone is always on the move. It's in a constant state of change. And although I don't like some change, I do love other kinds. The kinds you see in cities. New ideas, new faces, new opportunities springing up on every corner of the sidewalk. Inspiration galore. It's a lovely place for an aspiring writer, photographer, and art historian to be. 

A big city, to me, is a piece of art in and of itself. Art tends to revolve around a story, history, an idea, a person. A big city revolves around all of those things and then some. It's abounding with all of them, and coming up with new ones every day.

Big cities are lovely places. They will always have a hold on me. They will always catch my eye. They will always make me want to hold on to them a little bit longer, explore them a little bit more, and watch the movement pass by. Those movements pass every moment and if you don't catch them at that exact second, they'll be gone forever. Oh the moments of a big city: they're entrancing and beautiful. Elegant and mysterious. And if no one else misses them, I will. I'll wish I had seen them before they passed. I'll wish I had been there before they were gone. But I'll imagine them. Wish for them. And perhaps one day, I'll create some of those little moments that make up a big city. 

Every city is a living body.
{st. augustine} 

Time to shine - BEDA #12

It's a day that nearly every high schooler looks forward. Most high schools only allow juniors and seniors, but I've been lucky enough to go the past two years, and this will be my third year as my junior prom. (there are perks to being home schooled you know)
The girls get excited and squeal and skip over their dresses and then nearly cry when they can't get their makeup right.
Indeed, it's a stressful and exciting event in one.
It's called prom.
Girls build it up to be some magical event that only happens once a year. And honestly, it is a sort of magical event. Prom gives girls the chance to be able to get dressed up and shine a little bit. As much as I swore I would never be that cheesy girl to say this, it's true: girls of any age like getting dressed up. I got my prom dress back in about September or October of last year, since I have such a hard time finding a modest, pretty dress, which style I like. And ever since I got it I've tried it on a million times. I dance around in it, put makeup on, put all my jewelry on... I can't stop trying it on.
I adore prom. Both of the proms I've gone to have been so fantastic: I had great groups both years, an awesome date, and we have always gone to nice restaurants. I've gotten ready with my cousin the past two years, and there is just something about getting ready with your girlfriends that makes everything so much better.
Actually going to prom is the biggest "party" of the year. And let me tell you, home schoolers know how to party. They know how to live it up. And my group most of all: we bring the party with us. We dance the most at prom, and in my opinion, we have the most fun. The actual event is so much fun: dancing, dim lights, fancy, old ballroom, seeing friends, more dancing, senior lead out... there is so much to it that makes it such a special night.
My prom is tomorrow night.
And I couldn't be more excited.
My group includes a lot of my best friends, and I'm getting ready with all of my best girlfriends. My boyfriend's brother is coming back from college and is taking my best friend. I'm going with my boyfriend, of course. We've planned the perfect night, and it should be amazing, especially since so many of my best friends are graduating this year, and it's the last time they'll go as high schoolers.
I can't wait until tomorrow.

Tho the past two years have been great

I have a feeling that tomorrow will be really awesome. Even better.
It's my junior prom.
And I'm ready to party!

This is the power of Christ in me - BEDA #8

Luke 24:3-7
But when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

Christ is alive.
And because He is alive, we are alive in Him.
That is the power of Christ in me.

 

There in the ground His body lay

Light of the world by darkness slain

Then bursting forth in glorious day

Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me

For I am His and He is mine

Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life no fear in death

This is the power of Christ in me

From life's first cry to final breath

Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

'Til He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand 

Merry Christmas here's to many more

It's almost Christmas day.
As I sit on my bed with my Christmas, knee-toe socks, listening to my favorite Relient K Christmas songs, I can barely believe it's almost here. It feels like the season just began. And now it's almost over.
I've spent the past few days doing typical Christmasy things. Thursday was my baking fest: two batches of cookies, a batch of fudge, and two pecan pies. Three hours in the kitchen. It's not very often that I have the time or inclination to bake for three (or maybe it was four...) hours, but it just seemed like a classic Christmas thing to do. And oh how I do love baking. It fills the air with a scents of Christmas. (aha. Look at what I did there. Isn't that funny? No? Okay...)
Christmas presents galore today. My cousins, my brother, and I all went out mid afternoon today to do last minute Christmas shopping. Shops bursting at the seams with lots of folks and people smiling more than usual. Boots and hats and sweaters if you felt like being Christmasy even though it was in the 60s or 70s. It's so lovely to see everyone with Christmas in their hearts.
Despite the fact that I'm 16, Christmas holds a certain magic to it. I've almost always been one of those starry eyed, head-in-the-clouds kind of girls - reading the whole Anne of Green Gables series didn't help matters much. And so when something that's generally known as magical comes around, I'm all the more starry eyed, head-in-the-clouds. If you had been looking out the window of one of the houses in my neighborhood today, you might have spotted me skipping down the street gleefully looking at the pretty clouds and bright blue skies listening to Christmas Lights on my iPod. Every Christmas, and this year particularly, certain songs, smells, sights remind me of being a little kid. It's so beautiful.
I love how there is one time in the year that everyone wants to spend it doing traditional things, and spend it remembering, loving, cherishing those dear old memories of long ago (or not so long ago). Everyone becomes a child around Christmas. Everyone comes together, and there's a sense of love and that wintry color of blue in the air.

Every day during the Christmas season, I'm more than likely to get the chills thinking about a perfect Christmas scene. I smile as I open my windows in the morning and look at the chilly morning outside, frost on the ground, blue light making its way through the clouds covering any and all sky. If no one is looking, I might twirl around the kitchen for a full minute while humming I Hate Christmas Parties. I still go in the dining room where our Christmas tree is to count presents. I'll sit on my bed drinking chai or hot chocolate staring complacently out into the wintry clouds listening to I Celebrate the Day. And I may or may not dance around my room lip-syncing to All I Want for Christmas is You if I'm in not such a cozy-sweaters-and-chai mood.

Yes, indeed, I believe something fills me around Christmas that no other time of year can do. Oh yes, I'm a generally very happy person. But at Christmas I find a little bit more secret kind of joy. It's not the kind that everyone can see. It's a deep feeling of absolute bliss. A feeling of winter and blue skies and snow and white lights. A simple kind of peace. Peace.... candles flickering. Knitting fingerless gloves and leg warmers. Blankets and good books. Fires. It's that simplicity and complete contentedness that makes my heart so thrilled. And although if you were to look at me at such a moment of contentedness, you might only see a slight smile, as Anne of Green Gables would say, "I'm thrilled to the very depths of my soul."

I don't know if everyone enjoy Christmas in such a childish way as I do, but I believe that most people enjoy some sort of light feeling around the heart at this time of year. Amid all the stress of present wrapping and Christmas cookie baking, I think most people find some time to sit down and appreciate some sort of James Taylor easiness in their soul. (and if they don't, they must have an absolutely rotten month) It's so good to be around people who all feel that kind of joy.
One thing that has changed since when I was kid was that all I ever used to think about were the presents. Sure, I liked looking at lights and watching Christmas movies, but it all led up to the day that you actually opened presents. Now I couldn't care less about the presents. I just love the general mood. The beauty and wonder of the smiling heart. I care about the love that is spread. And I care about the childlike wonder that people are more likely to feel around Christmastime. It's a beautiful thing.

Another beautiful thing is the story about a teenage girl, a carpenter, and a baby born in a stable and placed in an animal trough. The story that continues to a cross. The story that tells of a loving Savior. One that would allow us to receive grace and redemption. The Christmas story gives us the promise stated in Ephesians 2:4-7, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." We have received this grace because of that lovely story that Linus tells in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Tidings of great joy. On earth peace and good will toward men.

Fragile finger sent to heal us

Tender brow prepared for thorn

Tiny heart whose blood will save us

Unto us is born

Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You

Breathe our air and walk our sod

Rob our sin and make us holy

Perfect Son of God

Welcome to our world 

Merry Christmas!
Here's to many more


{and I'm off to enjoy the typical Christmas Eve traditions - crab soup, opening one present, and watching a delightful Christmas classic... most likely It's a Wonderful Life or How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Oh how I love them both. Who doesn't love Dr. Seuss and Jimmy Stewart?}

Blessing Deeper Than We Know

Christmas.
Oh it's been so lovely this year.
Of course, when is Christmas not lovely?
But despite the fact that it has been lovely, I've been reminded of things that are even more lovely. And those are the most important things I've learned this year.

I've learned this year that most things that we make out to be so very important really mean nothing at all and the things that we tend to treat with least respect and value are the things that we need to value the most. We take so many things for granted.  Sometimes I think sometimes it takes loss to realize just how important some things are. That occurred to me this year. And it was jolted into me just how much I need to value things I had been neglecting.
I think a lot of times when we grow up, we begin to devalue the more important things.  And we tend to devalue those things because we've been taught and told and had it hammered into us that material things are more important. And perhaps we've heard the cliched, sappy statements about family and friends too many times. And perhaps the world begins to tell us as we become older that looks, money, possessions, popularity, and other completely worthless objects are the things that we need to value most. This year I've begun to learn that those things are pointless. They hold no lasting value. Sure, feeling popular is nice. Having the latest gadget, fine. Being rich, no problems there. Being gorgeous, that's all good. But when we begin to build our lives around if we're popular enough, if we look rich enough, if we're attractive enough, that's when things become ridiculous. We need to go back and remember those perhaps overly sappy, cheesy statements about friends and family. About making a difference. About loving others. Maybe those cliched statements aren't so far off.

The most valuable lesson I've learned this year is to treasure true friendship.

The value of a truly trustworthy friend.

Having people who you can chill out with. 

Sit around and listen to Weird Al songs with.

People who you can be a little crazy with. 

Who will love you anyway

And join in with your insanity

People who you know love you.

And will not matter what.

Who will listen to you, and who you'll listen to.

Who will

hug you.

Tell you it's alright.

The kinds of people who you can cry on their shoulder

and they can cry on yours.

Who you can laugh with.

Who you'll share your deepest thoughts with

and be frank with.

People who you

trust

care about

love.

Those people are the biggest blessings you'll receive in your life. You can't take them for granted. And you can't thank God enough for giving them to you. These people make you laugh, help you through hard times, challenge you to be a better person, and make your life more beautiful than you could ever ask for.

"The blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weight thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."
-Dinah Craik

Climbing the Summit

For the past two weeks, I've been at a marvelous summer camp called "The Summit." It's for all those nerdy, intelligent people out there who actually like to think (and care about thinking). It's a worldview camp where you sit through 7 hours of lectures per day (and no, it's actually not all that bad, as you'll be able to decipher from the pictures). You have plenty of free time as well. Oh, and guess what - there aren't any nerdy looking people there! Amazing, right?
In any case, instead of going through a boring narrative of what I did the past two weeks, I thought I would prefer to give you a list, and to show you. So here are the amazing things that I did in the past two weeks:

-Was surprised by my roommate from camp from last year, Megan, who decided to show up at Summit without even telling me, and then attacking me as I attempted to drag my luggage up to our room.
-Met a guy at camp who I met on the computer and I've been a good friend with for about three years, Jordan, and guess what! He wasn't a psycho! (okay, maybe a little.... more like a cynic, but whatever)
-Was told by a random guy while I was playing the piano down in the basement that I was the best sounding pianist out of the four or five that were playing around the basement, when I was actually just picking out a cover for "How He Loves."
-Had frizzy hair for three days straight
-Had the best small group ever
-Ate M&Ms, Cheez-Its, and Fudge Rounds with Megan past midnight
-Learned how to draw something besides a stick man and stars
-Had the most lame food fight ever. As in, throwing a potato covered in tomato sauce at Jordan. And just for the record, it was an awesome shot.
-Drank caffeine to stay awake for the first time in my life
-Saw both pain and joy at its core
-While riding in a bus, almost got killed by a 18 wheeler that had lost control of it's brakes, coming down a mountain. Thankfully, it passed our four school buses. Unfortunately, he went off of a drop off, and had a terrible wreck. But, again, thank God, he is alive.
-Ran in the rain
-Sung "Our Song" with a group of people in a bus
-Died laughing, cried, screamed, hurt, danced
-Had several difficult conversations
-Dreamed
-Failed at meeting my hero (Josh Bales - coolest indie singer eevverr), as he came up to me and asked me where the silverware was in the cafeteria, and I stared blankly, said I didn't know, and stood there silently until he walked away, and then hated myself because of it.
-Discussed James and the Giant Peach and Alice in Wonderland
-Wore a hoodie in the middle of summer
-Kissed a lion

-Prayed
-Sang my guts out to David Crowder

-Missed my bestest friend a heck of a lot

{and if you can't tell from this picture that she tagged me in on FB, she missed me too}

-Met someone who had the same dreams, talents, sense of humor, type of family, and mindset as I do
-Learned how to put my hair up in a bun
-Got approximately six hours of sleep a night
-Cried my guts out for an hour and a half over losing Winston
-Ate meat that was questionably either horse meat, dog meat, or spam painted with nail polish made to look like meat.
-Learned about abortion, cosmic humanism, homosexuality, Islam, how to ask questions, evil, how to read the Bible, law and government, economics, entertainment, postmodernism, feminism, marriage and family, evolution, how to be a leader, Marxism, and secular humanism, to name a few things, in two weeks.
-Screamed when a cicada was dropped on my leg
-Got to listen to Josh Bales lead worship every night for two weeks
-Watched a girl play an impressive piece on the piano in the talent show..... playing with her back on the piano bench, so she couldn't see the keys.

-Had the best small group leader ever

{i freakin love her}

-Bought eight books, two Josh Bales CDs, and a Summit T-shirt (and was given a Josh Bales T-shirt and Josh Bales CD from Megan for my birthday. best. birthday. present. ever.)
-Was deprived of nail polish for two weeks (I almost died)
-Was deprived of coffee for two weeks (They took me to the ER I was so bad off.....)
-Made my own Summit T-shirt for people to sign
-Didn't have an iPod for two weeks
-Sang "Hey Soul Sister" for a week with Megan
-Went to a local coffee shop and got a Snickers frapp
-Read Cat in the Hat at said local coffee shop
-Got dressed up....
-Only to proceed to do an "interpretive dance" to "Life is a Highway" and....
-Run through a huge field.
-Caught a cold
-Olive Oyl. Don't ask.

-Got chased around with the nastiest worm on the face of this green earth


-Got poked in the stomach more times than I can ever even begin to count
-Had my shoe stolen, and had to walk around a building in front of a ton of people with just one of my Converse.


-Looked pretty hot with Megan
-Spilled water down my shirt twice in one day
-Screamed, talked, and sang so much that I lost my voice
-Got lots of mail. Including a 9 page letter from my biffle. Which made me laugh incessantly.
-Got lots of awesome hugs
-Doodled on one page with three people
-Ate Lucky Charms for breakfast almost every day
-Got to talk to some of the wisest people I've ever met in my life
-Used eyeshadow just because I felt like it. Hah.
-Embraced my artsy side a lil
-Skipped wearing my retainers.... *sshhh*

-Got told I have an awesome boyfriend. Yeah. I knew that already.

{my new favorite picture of us. ever}

-Got a piggy back ride
-Listened to Weird Al. Party in the CIA and The Saga Begins. yesh.
-Finally got to meet my hero, Josh Bales, even after the embarrassing incident. He was awesome. And I wanted to scream and dance and run around. But I figured that would be kind of. Well. Yeah. That. Anyways, I was kinda super excited. I'm that cheesy fan who has all of his CDs and a T-shirt. Unfortunately not a gray T-shirt. Sorry. You don't get that because you aren't exposed to his awesome music.

-Made friends. Made stronger friendships I already had.

{my buddies from camp: Jordan, me, Daniel, Megan, and Spencer}

-And followed that super cliched, cheesy statement that you can find on pretty much any cross stitched pillow or picture frame.... I "lived, laughed, loved."

Hope you vaguely begin to grasp how incredible the past two weeks have been for me, and maybe even comprehend a tad why I'm so sad I had to leave.
And to show you even more, I'll be doing a YouTube video about it as soon as I get my voice back and no longer sound like Miley Cyrus.

And so goodbye Summit... I miss you. I miss the people I met there. I miss the millions of Winston Churchill and C.S. Lewis quotes I wrote down every day. I miss the deep thoughts. I miss the stupid jokes every morning. I miss the Smeagol/Gollum impressions. I miss screaming and singing with Megan. I miss it all. I wish you hadn't gone, but I'll always treasure these memories.

I'll always remember you from my favorite quotes from the speakers and the wise people who even they look up to....

"If a word is not worth fighting for, what on earth is?"
-G.K. Chesterton

"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."
-Winston Churchill

The comparison of these two quotes:
"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the world. I hope you will join with me as we try to change it."
-Barack Obama
"Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid."
-John Wayne
(thanks for the infinite wisdom, John Wayne)

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but every virtue at the testing point."
-C.S. Lewis

"Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love of goodness or joy worth having."
-C.S. Lewis

"It does not matter what the verse means to you, it matters what the verse means!"
-John Stonestreet

"If you don't have an attention span, grow one."
-John Stonestreet

"The problem isn't that we love pleasure, the problem is that we're easily pleased."
-C.S. Lewis

"When people stop believing in God, the problem is not that they believe in nothing, but that they believe in everything."
-G.K. Chesterton

"Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."
-Charles Dickens

"The most dangerous ideas in society are not the ones being argued, but the ones being assumed."
-C.S. Lewis

"Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may Your kingdom come in all the earth as it is in heaven, may Your will be done. In all the world, in all our hearts, Jesus You are King. We wait, we hope, we trust, we know, Your face we soon shall see."
-Josh Bales, A Hymn For All the World

"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."
-C.S. Lewis

Miss you Summit.

(P.S. to those of you who are reading this: I will be posting a YouTube video soon all about Summit. Watch for it. Wait for it. Anticipate it.)