My Goals for Winter Camp

I really dislike our youth group, and I could rant for a long time on that. The only thing that keeps me coming back is small group, and even that bond strains from time to time when we don’t really talk about God.

But, Winter Camp. I leave in seven minutes. Since I’m a senior this year, I go up early with all the other seniors (I seriously don’t get why seniors think they’re so great or why we get special treatment). I’m not looking forward to the bus drive because the seniors are seriously so immature.

I thought maybe that’s how all high schoolers are (thus lowering my expectations for all my peers), but a bunch of the high school students at my community college have been doing a Bible Study together and they go deep and can be mature.

Anywho.

I have low expectations for the content of the retreat.

I’m more looking forward to any time I can snatch to have with God. I’m trying to figure out how often I can wander off without being too rude. 🙂

So here are my goals as I seek God this weekend:

To seek God’s will in my college decision. I read Just Do Something recently, which was really helpful, but I do want to pursue God in every aspect of my life.

To pray and prepare for the middle school retreat next week.

To work on praising God and developing intimacy with him to carry on the rest of the year and the rest of my life.

And now I need to go! Technically I’m supposed to be at church in one minute. Oops.

Senior Ditch Day

One downside to attending the community college full time while in high school is that all those senior year traditions can’t really exist.

BUT college classes provide a ton of flexibility. So my sister and I went to the school performance of Colorado Ballet’s Alice in Wonderland.

And man, the light rail provides pretty darn gorgeous views.

Downtown Denver is bae. Even if I didn’t love the Broncos Parade last week, at least I got to experience how cool downtown is! 🙂

Trying to be artsy…and perhaps failing!

Look at this random view of school kids at the theater! And a sculpture! Gee wiz, I’m a great photographer. #sarcasm

Ellie Caulkin’s Opera House is beautiful. Seriously, the architecture is so cool.

And look at all the school kids!

The performance was pretty good, although 2.5 hours long. By the time we got back to my school, my first class, Microbiology, was already forty-five minutes in. I decided to skip completely and just go to lab.

This marked the first time I’ve EVER missed an entire class (even for sickness). I like to think of it as my own little Senior Ditch Day. 😉

A Quick Reversal

Bleh. Feelings can change so quickly.

I was so content this afternoon, and then tonight happened and I just feel tense inside.

First, at the middle school youth group I volunteer at, we talked about suicide and depression. I felt helpless to really talk to my sixth grade girls about it. I didn’t really know what to say.

In the end, I think it went really well, but then my co-leader (we split into two small groups today) said one of the girls in her group had been suicidal last year and was cutting.

I don’t know how to properly handle emotions. Or maybe I just don’t recognize them. I’m sad, I suppose, but really I just have a knot in my stomach.

After that, I found out I accidentally double-scheduled for tomorrow and won’t be able to attend a meeting (for which I’m Vice President). I feel bad because I haven’t been able to really help this club at all this semester.

Then, a boy from school texted to invite me to a folk music concert. And I was like, IDK. I really don’t want to go on dates, but my mom says it’s okay to do things one on one with boys without it being considered a “date”. And this guy is super outgoing. He does stuff with everyone (boys and girls) one on one all the time.

I just feel uncomfortable though.

So we’ll see how that goes. 😛 (does the tongue smilie face come out as sad? Because I want it to come out as sad!)

Sigh.

xoxo

Joy

Learning to Appreciate

Right now my life feels a little bit like Manarola (pictured above). A bunch of different paths and actions all piled and sort of slipping down.

I cannot handle everything on my plate this semester.

Not a complain. Just a fact.

I’m involved in so much, I cannot plan ahead on assignments like I used to. I’ve missed a ton of scholarship opportunities because of procrastination.

I do sometimes feel like I’m failing. Because for a long time I wasn’t on top of my life. I let Christmas break slip by and binge-watched The Flash.

But today, as I rode the light rail home, I realized this semester is changing.

I’m changing.

Because I’m not stressed out about life right now (if you don’t count scholarship applications, now that I’m thinking about those!)

I have too much, but I also I’m grateful for what I have.

We had our first Student Bible Study and Prayer Group meeting today and it was far more successful than I expected. Seven of us were there, and man, they were on fire.

Such a group of likeminded peers.

I’m learning to be grateful, and I don’t think about it a lot, but you know. It’s little glimpses of a life of gratitude, and it makes me want to continue living this way.

Wishing all of you thankfulness (be thankful in your lives, even if you feel like a failure!)

xoxo

Joy

Light Rail Record

I made it from our front door to the Phi Theta Kappa office at school in nineteen minutes. Boom. New Record. 🙂

Exploring Denver

Ever since I started taking the light rail to school, I decided I would make it a regular event to head downtown and explore.

Which I’ve done a grand total of zero times.

In fact, when I came downtown for the Broncos parade, I realized I didn’t know a thing about my city.

I needed five books from the Denver Public Library, so today, I decided to pick them up at the Central Branch instead of driving to the closer satellite branch I usually go to.

I always forget Denver is a real city. For some reason it seems small when I picture it in my head. It is more laid back than a lot of cities, but it’s very big-city-ish.

Also, it was crazy warm today. Like, 60 degrees.

CSU Visit

My friend is getting married in July, so we combined a bridesmaid-dress shopping trip with a CSU Engineering Day and the result was forty five pictures. Have fun! 😉

Broncos Parade

I have so much to catch up on! This week has been crazy, and yet in the crazy I’m to get more organized. I have a lot of terrifying things coming up (I’m such an introvert!), the first of which is a meeting with my college’s president on Monday. Yikes! I’ll try to remember to let you know how that goes. 🙂

Meanwhile, the first of three posts I want to make today: the Broncos Parade.

So if you’re reading this in 2016, you probably know the Broncos won the Super Bowl. If you’re reading this any time after 2016, you totally have no idea who won and you don’t care. But yes, they won. People say this was Peyton Manning’s last hurrah, but he hasn’t announced he’s quitting football yet. Anyway.

I went to school at 7:30 to cram in some Microbiology. This was the lovely sidewalk. Joy. Ice. Bleh.

The light rail was eerily empty. I took a picture because I knew there would be more people later. 

These guys were the only ones on the platform. Found out later…they were stinking smart!

Because when I came back to our home station to meet my Mamma and my siblings, I was greeted by this sight. 

I’d bought a day pass for myself in the morning, but I hadn’t gotten tickets for the rest. We had to wait for an hour to get their tickets. 

When we finally got on the light rail, we at least got seats. That was a bonus. It was this packed after the very first station. The rest of the people on the way downtown weren’t able to fit in. 

I’ve never really walked around downtown. We take the light rail to the theater a lot, but that’s less than a block. I had no idea where anything was. More on that issue in my third planned post. 🙂

Selfie.

Some banks had decorated with blue Christmas lights. Those photographers are all trying to get a picture…

Of this crane with a flag. Whoop whoop.

I mainly took videos of the parade (I made a video on YouTube, but I’m still pretending you all don’t know my real name, so I can’t link to it). But here’s a picture of the back of Peyton Manning’s head and Pat Bowlin’s wife with the trophy. 

This poor camera guy. Running after the fire trucks. 

There’s the kicker. 

By the time the truck with the cheerleaders came by, I left. It was 12:36 and I had Microbiology at 1:00. Look at the light rail going the other way! Two hours later, my mamma and siblings had to wait for forty-five minutes to get on a light rail. I feel lucky to have left early. 

 

I was only fifteen minutes late to Microbiology, which I thought was pretty good overall. I’m not a football fanatic, but it was interesting to see how large the crowd was and how excitable people are over a sport that leads to lifelong brain damage.

On that happy note,

xoxo

Joy

Fridiary

You know Grace Helbig? That’s what she calls her vlogs on her YouTube Channel: Fridiary. Posts on Friday, covers anything that happened during the week. So here’s my Fridiary. 🙂

(note: I was too lazy to edit all of these to my  1280×720 size, so boom. You get awkward rectangles.)

I saved up my money all last week so I could go to Chipotle. In fact, I had enough money I was able to splurge on a drink. Beauty. Technically, Chipotle’s having a problem with E. coli right now, but I love their stuff so much I don’t care. Wanna know my order? Chicken burrito on flour tortilla with white rice, no beans, tomato and corn salsa, extra sour cream, and cheese. It’s delightful!

Look! I put down an enrollment deposit at the University of Alabama! I’m not 100% sure I’ll go there, but I have to wait until the end of March to hear back from MIT, Columbia, and Princeton. Meanwhile, all the good dorms at Alabama are being eaten up. Couldn’t let that happen. 🙂

115

That’s how many days until I squirm into a cap and gown and graduate high school. (Incidentally, I think the cap and gown thing is really cool…a throw back to Grecian education and the quest for knowledge.)

These last days are a gift. My Bible Study skills have deteriorated over the past year(s), so I think having a goal will help. And here it is: to dive into the Bible every single day, all 115, until graduation.

xoxo

Joy