i promised lutsen pictures... but i'll just put the lutsen video up on youtube and link it once i'm finished with it... with that said...
i look back at 2006 and say to myself "wow.. it's already been a year" but on the other hand... i'm thinking.. a lot has happened in just that one year. In the beginning of the year... i.. didn't really do anything because i was so caught up with studying for acts and doing my pseo application and trying to keep up in school. i can easily say that in the earlier part of the year, i got lazyyyy... had my first c+ in school... and very frankly could care less. then that only went worse when i got accepted to do pseo. summer rolled around and jenna and i made the bet that i would lose 30 lbs by the end of summer... i thought i had it in the bag cuz i lost 15 in two weeks.. but... event after event after event messed me up and i lost the bet.. hahaha but s'all good... the first event that we had was valleyfair... myself.. being terrified of heights.. never really went on roller coasters for fun.. it'd always be from peer pressure.. and i wouldn't have that same rush that other kids would get... all of that changed for some reason and i surprisingly had a good time... then.. before i knew it.. it was time for camp crosswoods, i really wasn't sure about it in the beginning, i've heard stories and stuff but was still skeptical because i never did stuff like that.. (repelling, canoeing, rock climbing, mountain biking.. etc..) so my main reason in the beginning was to get rid of my NASTY farmers tan.. which was pretty legit i thought... went and did stuff that i never thought i'd ever do in my life.. had one of the best times of my life and was really encouraged to see the youth really encouraging each other and pushing each other to do well. i still believe that that one event was responsible for the beginning of a better relationship between all the youth kids. then 2 weeks later was pine ridge. this was my first missions trip and my patience was definitely tested. South dakota decided to be 100 degrees all week and kill us while we did outside work, and some of the kids got on my nerves early, but i grew a lot and learned a lot about myself and how lucky i was to have the things i had. st. olaf was fun as always, learned a lot and had a lot of fun just bonding with the youth kids. Then i started school in september and can say that my experience with pseo helped me out tremendously. my study habits got much better.. (a little too late) and understand what it feels to be in college. i still don't know where i'm gonna be next year but i wouldn't be disappointed if i ended up going to the U after all.... i made a lot of new friends, renewed old ones, and grew up a lot. i'm also saving my parents and myself around $13,000... so it was a good decision... and a lot of good luck getting into the program... haha
youth rally this year was definitely something else. pastor louis was amazing and the praise was phenomenal. hopefully our praise will sound like that someday, until then, i'm still very pleased at the progress of our praise team. but youth rally weekend was also the weekend that my friend with cancer had his fundraiser, so i skipped part of youth rally to go to that and see some friends, and tried looking for him. i ended up getting to see him and pushed him around in his wheelchair for about an hour just catching up with him. it was encouraging to see all the people (around 3,000 people showed up, with donations totalling over $100,000 almost)... that night, i was reminded of how blessed i was to have good health, a healthy family, and just life in general. i went to the youth rally with that attitude and the night was just taht much more special.
on december 1st, ryan, my friend with cancer passed away and i got a call the next morning about the news. looking back on it, it was probably the hardest week of my life, with 2 huge papers, a funeral for my best friend from middle school, stress from school, tough time with my parents... i attended the funeral and had the chance to see him in his casket, i didn't cry when i saw him lying there because i knew how much pain he was in, and his face looked peaceful, but i went to the family and i was talking to his sister who i was close with, and they'd been through so much and i lost it there and broke down and started crying.. and this wasn't just one of the weak cries.. it was the good cry where you cry for like 15 minutes and you want it to stop but you don't at the same time. ever since his funeral, i ask myself.. how am i living my life.. because i want to live life where where i had made a difference on people and when i die, people would know that my life wasn't meaningless.
school ended and i've been pretty lazy for a while... but it was definitely nice getting the break especially after finals. lutsen was amazingly fun although the snow wasn't as great as i hoped, it was still great getting to hang out with my favorite youth group... the youtube link is coming soon. until then
bring it on 2007
Friday, 22 December 2006
winter break... thank you for arriving... as for my next post... it will be filled with pictures of lutsen and my reflection on 2006... =D stay on the edge of your seats guys..
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