Refreshing Start to the HS Swim Season

5:00 --> Alarm supposed to go off
5:05 --> I wake up realizing the alarm didn't go off (pure luck there!)
5:06 --> Contacts
5:10 --> Finish packing breakfast/morning snack/lunch/7th period snack
5:15 --> Did I forget anything? NOPE! (Well.. not that I knew of)
5:25 --> Out the door!
5:30 --> Arrive at Cy-Falls
5:40 --> Finally walk across the school to get to the pool
5:42 --> Unload everything in my 2 lockers (Yes... TWO :D)
5:45 --> Walk over to the track (RIGHT by where I park. On the OTHER side of the school. Sigh)
5:50 --> Run a mile. Blech. Hate running. Think to self "wow. I'd just be waking up"
6:00 --> Head back over to the pool
6:05 --> Change into swim suit
6:10 --> Swim
6:30 --> Get out and shower because I don't have first period swimming!
6:40 --> "Wow, today was actually semi-fun. I can definitely handle this swim year!"

Who knew what a difference an hour less of practice, a new team, and some fun could make in a swim practice at way early hours of the morning?

Service Projects in the RAIN!

I had SO much fun with my youth group tonight working on service projects. I've always loved doing service projects and getting to serve others, and so giving back to the church was rewarding :)

We cut down a bagazillion bushes on the hill in front of our church, and the loaded them all into the back of my truck. Then my truck would drive around the church to the dumpster, we'd unload, and by the time we were back, there was another truck load waiting! It was a lot of fun, even when it started pouring! Kole and his friend Jacob were really sweet and even unloaded for me once the rain started picking up so I wouldn't get too too soaked. So, in return I drove Jacob home so he wouldn't have to ride his bike in the pouring rain.

Well. He lives a good 2 streets away from church. AKA, he practically lives next to church. BUT... let me tell you! Those 30 seconds from church to his house... CRAZY! The music was loud, and it was definitely fun to hear their rendition of Run To You by Lady Antebellum. HILARIOUS!

All in all, it was a fun night full of service and friends! Now I'm ready to tackle on this next week and all that it entails! (How's that for some positive attitude?)

Survival!!

PHEW! Survived the first week of SENIOR year!!!

After making it through Monday, the rest of this week has gone a lot smoother. My teachers are all pretty good (as of right now), classes aren't too hard (yet), haven't had to terribly much homework (yet), and don't have to do anything except study anatomy and government and read for English this weekend! (luckily, i'll just get it all done while driving up to Austin tomorrow)

Ready Set Teach is SO much fun, and I'm loving it! Right now it is like we are in a lower-elementary class (K-2nd) and we get to be the kids! Everyday we are having stories read to us, it's SO much fun! I can't wait to get to go into the elementaries and teach ;)

Tonight we are going out to dinner and running errands, and tomorrow we go up to Austin (don't worry, maroon will be worn :D) for a family friend's son's first birthday!

Sunday, church!

Monday... early morning swim practice... then do it all over again!

But to think... the last "first" morning practice of the season... possibly forever!!! wahh!!

The suit isn't being hung up quite yet!

After Monday (1st day of school Monday), people thought I was hanging up my swim suit for good. I was fed up with my high school coach, had NO desire to swim for her, or swim for my school in general. If I wasn't swimming high school, was it worth swimming 8 hours a week for Team YES? I didn't know.

If there is one thing I'm not though, it's a quitter. I've been swimming since I was three. THREE. I'm now seventeen. Do the math... that's fourteen YEARS. 14 years of loving swimming just for what it was to me; FUN.

When I was little, I loved swimming. Honestly LOVED it. I would chose swimming over my friends. I was crazy, I know. But I can honestly say I loved it.

For the past three years, I haven't loved swimming. I've loved my team, and my club coaches. I loved the friends I made through high school swimming. But swimming itself? More of a chore.

Through Wortham this summer, I thought I fell back in love with swimming. But now I'm dreading having to get back in the water. There is so much else that I could be doing that I think would be more productive, or more fun.

So I've decided that I'm just going to make these next 5 months of swimming plain FUN. I'm going to fall back in love with the swimming, I'm going to love swimming again because I'm going to make it fun. I'm not stressing about whether or not I'm the fastest I've ever been, or if I drop time EVERY time I compete. On January 29th, I'll be done swimming more than likely. On January 30th, am I going to remember that I swam my fastest times this season? Probably not. Am I going to remember all the memories made, fun had, pictures snapped, and opportunities seized? YES.

Is that saying I'm going to completely slack off? No. I'm just going to make the best of the season I have, without completely stressing myself out about it. Swimming's gonna be fun again :)

Better Days

These past 2 days have definitely been better. I'm thinkin' I'm going to stick it out in regards to swimming, so yeah. That'll be a different post for a different day. I gotta go make a lunch and load up my "suitcase" (aka, my overlarge purse that holds EVERYTHING that I love, but that the familia has nicknamed "suitcase") with snacks. So yeah! Tomorrow's Friday :))

Halfway done with Gov't.

^ That's blogworthy, considering it's THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!!! Who gives out three hours of reading/ notetaking the first day of class? Hmph.

Woke up early.
Got ready.
Ate breakfast.
Went to school.
Fave song played as I parked.
So of course, sat in truck to listen to rest of song.
Sounds like a good day so far right?
WRONG.
Get schedule.
Hallmark didn't retire! YES!
I'm in JV Swimming! NO!
Talk to counselor.
Counselor no help.
Talk to coach.
Coach.
Less help.
Go to first period.
Haven't had a non-pool first period since freshman year.
My brain isn't trained to think in first period.
Especially not on the first day of school.
Take notes. Government is blech.
Ready Set Teach.
AMAZING! Will love!
Calc BC.
I don't remember Pre-cal.
Uh-oh.
Lunch. YAY!
Wait. Only know 2 people in ENTIRE lunch.
Awesome.
Spend lunch standing in line to talk to my counselor who isn't there.
Awesome.
Try to fix schedule.
Supposedly I'm stuck in JV Swimming?
AWESOME.
Not.
Anatomy.
Easy class.
Yay for the only core that's not AP.
Required to buy a coloring book?
Hmm.
English.
Sub that detested me sophmore year because I was loud.
Is my English sub.
Tells me to "sit in a corner, because if [she] remembers [me] at all, [I] like to talk".
Wow. Thanks Carter!
JV Swimming.
Mad at coach.
Coach says must swim JV AND VARSITY.
And that club swimming won't help me as much as a JV practice will.
Really mad at coach.
Coach says I have to teach JV how to do flipturns.
Really really mad at coach.
Coach says no polo this semester.
Really Really Really mad at coach.
Coach says no polo next semester.
That went down well.
Find enough girls to make polo team.
Tell coach we can have a team, we can play.
Coach says she won't coach it.
REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY mad at coach.
Luckily, 2:30 bell rings.

How about that for an awesome back-to-school day?

Now for the next chapter/section of Government! WAHOOO!!!!

Worst 1st Day EVER.

^ The title says it all. Definitely the worst first day back to school EVER.

Will blog later. Going on hour three of government homework.

This year better go up. Like, now would be good, thanks.

College Essay --> Topic B

This one was written about a cause that is important to you, your family, your community, or your generation.

"Slumber parties and swing sets, malls and movie theaters. That is what comes to mind when you think of childhood friendships. But when your best friend has cancer that is not how it works. You spend summer afternoons in his hospital room or in the play area at Texas Children’s, because he is going through chemo. The nurses know you as “Warren’s girlfriend” because you are up at the hospital so often. When movies come out in the theaters, you wait six months knowing that they will be out on VHS soon enough, and then you can bring them up to the hospital and watch them together. You are only four years old, so you do not fully comprehend what cancer is, but you grasp enough to know that your best friend is very sick, and there is nothing that you can do to help him.

That is when you are four years old. When you become a teenager though, there is something you can do. You are now able to make a difference, to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. To make an impact and do what you can to help rid the world of cancer. No longer do you have to sit in the hospital feeling helpless because all you can do is be a friend to your buddy who has cancer. Now you can make a difference, and when you grow up in a world full of cancer and sorrow, you are determined that you will make a difference.

There is a wonderful program called Relay for Life that strives to create a world that will one day be cancer free. They organize “relays” which in essence are local events where people are able to come out and help raise money to donate to the American Cancer Society. This year, two friends of mine and I decided that we were going to get our school involved in this event. We gave up our lunch periods for three months prior to the Relay in order to raise awareness, and help get our peers involved. When the Relay finally rolled around, we had over one hundred and twenty students and staff from our high school sign up. That night our team, Team Cy-Falls, was able to help volunteer throughout the evening and actually get into the Relay. We worked the Children’s Carnival games, we sold food and fundraiser items, we helped out the honorary Survivors there. We ran a “Fight Back Ceremony” in which over one thousand people who attended pledged to fight against cancer, even after that year’s Relay for Life was over with. Our school raised over a thousand dollars to donate to the American Cancer Society, and after the event we all felt as if we had done something to fight back against this enemy named cancer. All of my peers left Relay for Life feeling accomplished, and knowing that I was one of the people who got them involved in this made me feel like I was finally doing something to make a difference after passively sitting back and watching cancer take over my friends life.

I vividly remember the days I would spend up at the hospital with Warren. I know we had fun there, even though we were stuck in certain areas of Texas Children’s. I remember wondering why it was Warren who had to get cancer and get sick, who had to lose his vibrant red hair, who had to endure all of the needles and medicine and treatment that goes along with being a cancer patient. I remember wanting to do something more than just make him smile, and knowing that I was only a child, there was nothing I could do to make this world cancer-free. Cancer was so much bigger than me, I was just four years old when he was diagnosed. After Relay for Life, I felt a kind of peace pass over me, a triumphant feeling that now I am finally doing something that will make a difference. Warren may be cancer-free now, but we all still live in a world that is stricken with cancer daily. Cancer is still so much bigger than I, but now I have the ability to do what I can to change that. To one day live in a world without cancer."

College Essay --> Topic A

Now that I have OFFICIALLY applied to Texas A&M University, and the application has been submitted... I decided to share two of my essays.

"The people who know us the best, who know our commendable traits as well as our weaknesses, are often the people who make the most impact on our lives. They are the people who push you to your limits, only to make you better. Who understand how you function, and know how to work with you. They are the people who know when something is wrong, just by how you walk in the door. They are the people who are there for you when you are at the top of the roller-coaster called life, and they are also the people who are there for you when that roller-coaster is nearing the ground. Throughout the years they are slowly impacting our lives, and helping to shape and mold us into the people who we are today. For me, that person is my eight-year swim coach, Coach Dennis Gagne.

Throughout the past eight years with Coach Dennis as my coach, I have grown exceptionally close to him and am even accustomed to calling him "Daddy Dennis". We tease each other like family, and he sure does love to make fun of me, but I know when it counts he will always be there for me. He guides out of love, and is always willing to be an ear to listen when the times are tough.

I started swimming under Coach Dennis when I was nine years old. I remember the first months of practice being brutal, not because the work-out was exceptionally hard, but because I was a quiet and shy little girl who did not fit in with the rest of the team who all seemed very loud and self confident. I was new to the club-swimming idea, and I knew that I was the new-girl. I let all of my teammates believe that of me too, and took a subordinate role to them, which lead to feeling left out and awkward during practices. Coach Dennis would tell me every day that all I had to do was be who I was and let my personality show, and that is all it would take to fit in with the rest of the team. It took quite a while for what he was telling me to sink in. After swimming for Coach Dennis for a few years, it finally made sense to me. I did not have to put on a face or a different personality for my teammates, or my friends for that matter. If I was just myself, the bubbly, fun-loving girl who I always had been, that is all I needed to be to fit in. Just be myself. And wow, once I figured that out it seemed as if everything fell into place. I went into middle school with a new attitude, and fit-in with my teammates for the first time since I joined club-swimming. Even now, eight years after this started, I can honestly say that Coach Dennis imposed that aspect into me that I now live my life by. Just be who you really are, and people will love you for that.

In the summer before my freshman year of high school, I was debating quitting swimming for good. I had been swimming for ten years at that point, and was pretty tired of the sport. I was not sure that I wanted to spend six hours a day at the pool during high school, and did not see what there was for me to gain by sticking with the sport. Numerous times I recall Coach Dennis sitting me down and explaining to me the pros and cons of swimming in high school, and after taking a couple weeks off I realized that I would not be the same person if I quit the sport. Coach Dennis helped me to realize that even though swimming itself may become time-consuming and mundane, the relationships made and experiences gained with my teammates and swimming family outweigh the possible benefits of quitting swimming. That decision that Coach Dennis was a part of decided how I would spend the next four years of high school, who would become my friends, how I would spend my weekends and ultimately who I would evolve into. Since I now spend up to thirty-five hours a week at the pool, I am not involved in partying, or the stereotypical high school scene because I know what will happen if I take my focus away from what I work so hard for: being the best swimmer that I can possibly be. I am not sure who I would have become if I had quit swimming before freshman year, but I unambiguously would not be the same person I am today.

This past semester I had a friend of mine pass away after an accident. I was emotionally a mess, and was having a challenging time getting through each day. I would show up to practice and Coach Dennis would know that I was upset just by how I would walk through the entrance to the pool. He was the only one who would momentarily stop the tears and the teenage emotions for the few hours I spent at the pool. I would pull myself out of the water after two hours of working out, and he would wrap me in a hug, promising me that it would get easier and that life would start to look up again soon. I would always leave practice feeling better than when I arrived, knowing that it was Coach Dennis' caring nature and genuine love that made all the difference.

A coach is someone who helps bring out the best athlete in you during those few hours that you spend together. Coach Dennis is more than a coach to me though. Not only has he coached me through the swim practices, he has coached me through life, making an impact on me every chance he gets. He has been there for me when everything is smooth-sailing, and he has been there when my life seems to be crumbling apart in my hands. I can think back to the nine year old girl I was when I met him and compare that girl to who I am now, and know that I am who I am in part because of the daily impact that Coach Dennis has made in my life over the past eight years."

I love you Coach Denny!!!

College Stuff & Summer Reading has been driving me CRAZY!

Well... if the title of this blog didn't give you a hint... College Stuff and Summer Reading has been driving me CRAZY

Did you get it that time?

All week I have been trying to finish up my summer reading book, The Book Thief, before school starts on Monday. Of course, I had to pick THE LONGEST book there was available this summer.. Humph.

Luckily, last night the book got semi-interesting and with 130 pages left till the epilogue (which was another 20 pages), the end was in sight. So, I sat down and finished it. PHEW! The last summer reading book EVER is done with!! Can you sense a little bit of excitement there?

This week I have also been trying to finish these essays so that once my parents help me with the last portion of the app, I can submit it all to Texas A&M! This afternoon, I finished the rough draft for the last essay! I'll probably revise/edit it tonight (I don't like this essay as much as the other ones. Maybe because my the time I wrote it I was feeling pretty done with this essay business) and then I'll be officially d-o-n-e.

I also started looking for other scholarships today too. Did you know you can get a scholarship for being TALL?? Why did I not get those genes?? Sigh. I did not realize how many different scholarships there were out there though, so I guess that is a good thing?

Tonight while I was watching the news with Daddy, they were talking about this website called Sponsor My Degree, where you have the ability to advertise yourself, what you want to do in college, why you need scholarship money, etc on this webpage, and then companies can search and donate money. It's called Microsponsorships, most of the time $5 or $10, but still!! Every dollar adds up! So I got online and started doing that tonight. Geesh!

One of my best friends, Megan, leaves tomorrow for college. So tonight I have to go over and say "see you later" (we aren't saying bye. Neither of us can handle that again after she moved to Canada for a year). Sigh.

Been so busy this week! And school starts up again Monday. BOO! Summer is officially over.

Today hasn't been my day

Today HASN'T been my day...

I woke up at 7, and realized that in exactly a week I'd be sitting in first period with Coach Hawkins.

Which means summer would be officially over.

I spent an hour reading my summer reading book.

It's a waste of time.

I think I left one of my favorite Cho-Yeh shirts at camp somehow.

I cleaned my closet, only to have my entire box of camp stuff somehow fall off the highest shelf and knock off a lot of the stuff that I had just cleaned and put away.

In said closet disaster I realized that my favorite 3 pair of jeans are like high-waters.

I went to the ortho, in the hopes of getting my braces off considering in MAY they told me I'd get them off by August. I hate the ortho.

They decided to beat up my mouth.

It feels like they've punched me in the face.

And I'm not getting my braces off now until December. Maybe.

I have a strong desire to go swim because that's what I do when I have a bad day.

But team YES is still on break.

And it's thundering so the neighborhood pool is closed.

AGH!!!!

HMPH.

Maybe tomorrow'll be better?

Figurin' Out the Essays

Figured out what I'm writing about for all my essays!! I think I've figured out a way to spin all of them so that I can write about something I know well/am passionate about.

TOPIC A... I'm writing about my swim coach and how he has impacted my life. CHECK!
TOPIC B... I'm writing about Relay For Life. CHECK!
TOPIC C... I'm writing about camp. CHECK!

SUH-WEET! These essay's are looking a lot less scary now that I have found ways to write about what I love! YAHOOO!

Senior Pictures, Senior Orientation, Class Ranks, College Apps... What a week!

I got home from camp on Sunday, and have been thrown right back into the mouth of this world called reality. Sigh.

Monday I started my application to Texas A&M. I was banking on being in Top 10%, and therefore knew in the back of my mind I was already going to be accepted. Still doesn't make it any less stressful though! I knew I was in the top 5% at the end of my sophmore year, but didn't really know where I would stand after Junior Year considering I had taken art, BCIS, and swimming which would all be considered on-level and therefore would drop my GPA. I started filling out the application, and got so flustered realizing just how close and real college is now.

Tuesday I was up at school taking Senior Pictures for the yearbook. Wearing the graduation gown (well... the top of the gown anyways), and the cap was like "woah... I'm not ready for this yet! I don't graduate till June 5th (I think), isn't this kinda early to be thinking about cap and gowns??

Wednesday I went up to school to try to get my transcript. Um. Yeah. That didn't work out as planned. Long story short, I left very irritated at the administration/registrars, and left without a transcript.

Thursday I worked on my college app and finished most of it, minus the scholarship part and the essays.

This morning I was up at school for Senior Orientation. We got our parking spaces for this year (yahoo being closer to the school!), class ranks, yearbooks, mock-schedules, and were able to sign up for lockers. Since when do you SIGN UP for lockers?? WEIRD! After my JR year I'm ranked number 32 in my class out of 775, which places me in the top 4% of my class with a GPS of 6.6something. I was STOKED! I knew this meant that once I get everything turned into A&M I'll be accepted :). I got my yearbook from JR year, and was really happy with the Water Polo page (that's still the only page I've actually read out of the entire thing). It brought back so many memories of state and made me even more stoked for this next season. My mock-schedule was messed up: it had me in JV swimming and didn't have me taking government or economics... which are both required in order for me to graduate. Somehow my counselor just SKIPPED OVER that fact when signing me up for classes. And she wasn't even there for me to talk to and get it fixed. Luckily with a call to Coach Hawkins and another counselor I was able to get them fixed. Sigh of relief. I was even able to sign up for a locker near the pool! HOORAY! That'll make next year easy :) I then went to the Registrars office and got the information for my transcript, which they are sending directly to A&M for me! Yippee!

Now I'm planning on starting one of the three essays that I need to write. Somehow blogging is just SO much easier than writing essays!! I'm so out of school-practice that sitting down and writing a formal paper just doesn't come easily anymore. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.

Still can't go to bed without singing TAPS

After the evening programs at camp, we would sing "Taps". It's the perfect prayer before bed, and thought I'd share. Even now that I am home, I still sing it before turning out the lights!!

"Day is done,
Gone the sun,
From the lakes,
From the hills,
From the skies.
All is well,
Safely rest.
God is nigh.

Thanks and praise,
For our days,
Neath the sun,
Neath the stars,
Neath the sky.
As we go,
This we know.
God is nigh"

Perfect, right??

The Best 3 Weeks: Where do I begin?

I don't even know where to begin to describe/explain these past 3 weeks. It was simply AMAZING.

The first 2 weeks was full of WC tasks. We lumped ALL the campers luggage every Sunday afternoon and Friday nights. We raked off mud 2 inches thick on a pedal karts course. We made a trail from the New Meeting Hall to the Chodome. We cleaned the SHO. We did low-ropes in the rain. We went through the entire Staff Training Manual. We had an AWESOME Bible Study. We worked activities for campers. We facilitated Alpha/Omega games. We shadowed cabins. We served breakfast every morning. We signed up all the campers for 8 activities. We facilitated H2Chomania, and evening programs. We were up by 6:40 every morning, and oftentimes wouldn't get back to our A-frames till 11:00. Then we'd have to run to the bath-house (no, it wasn't adjoined to the A-frame, and yes, I'm pretty sure it was built in 1947 when camp opened and hasn't been remolded or updated since) to all shower. Then one WC'er would share a testimony, and THEN we'd go to bed. If we were asleep by midnight, it was worth celebrating.

This past week we were actually in a cabin as a counselor. I was with the baby cabin, consisting of nine 6 & 7 year olds. At the start of the week I didn't know how I was going to make it to Saturday. They were crazy children, and were all WAY hyper. It was A LOT of work, because it was like being a mother to 9 kids, all at once. They all needed you to make a sandwich for them, fill up their water bottles since they couldn't reach the button, comfort them when they trip and fall (even though they are PERFECTLY fine), braid their hair in the mornings, find their socks when they misplace them and you're already running late, answer all of their questions, and love them all the time. But as much work as it was, the hugs and love that were given in return made it ALL worth it. The times when the girls would ask serious questions about God, when you got to answer those questions, and the looks on their faces when they realized just how much God loves them... ALL worth it, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

The wonderful thing about camp is even though it's centered around the campers, staff gets a lot out of it too. WC's Bible Study was entitled "Becoming Satisfied In God", and was AMAZING! We learned about how to give up everything and to turn to God for satisfaction, because only He can satisfy us completely. I know I often turn to swimming or my friends for satisfaction, and so hearing that as much as I try to find satisfaction in Earthly things it won't ever fully satisfy me was amazing. I know this past semester when things got rough I swam in the hope that I would feel satisfied leaving. And most of the time I did get some satisfaction that I was able to finish that hard practice, but it wasn't enough. I know this next semester when the going gets tough, all I have to do is turn to God and He will satisfy my everything. How awesome is that? It brought me a lot of peace and assurance.

I learned a lot about love too, and how to selflessly love. It's so easy to love those who are good to us, those who are easy to love. But loving the one child in the cabin who is never listening? The one girl who tries to throw herself off a porch 20 feet high on the arts and crafts building? The girl who dances on the top of her bunk when it's time to go to sleep, who refuses to put on shoes, who won't walk any faster than a snail, who runs and hides in the forest instead of going to lunch, who hits and kicks and throws tantrums when she doesn't get her way. How do you love that camper?

You just do. God loves us all, and we are just like that camper. We don't always listen, we don't always like the answer we get. We don't stop and listen to God's whispers. Heck, sometimes we don't hear it when he speaks very loudly to us. Sometimes we grudgingly walk towards God, when all He wants is for us to run to Him with open arms. We are JUST like that camper. But yet, God loves us all as if we are perfect, and we are as far from perfect as you can get! But God loves us all regardless, so what can we do but love everyone else the same way?

So after every tantrum thrown, every long walk that took way longer than necessary, every instance that she kicked and screamed and wouldn't listen, once she was disciplined and we moved on... we gave her a hug, and we loved on her. We filled her up the way she probably had never been before. When all I wanted to do was scream and bang my head against the bunk/tree/wall/gaga-ball-pit/whatever was closest, I remembered that God doesn't get frustrated when we don't listen, He doesn't leave us when we try to leave Him, He loves us ALWAYS, and that's what we need to do for everybody.

I can't even describe the feeling camp brought me. Once again I feel like it has changed my life, given me the opportunity to realize who I was and what I stood for. I made some amazing friends that I know I can always turn to when times get tough and they will be able to lift me up. I realized that I was doing what God wanted me to do (I often wonder if swimming is what God really wants me doing 7 hours a day..., but these past 3 weeks I KNEW God wanted me at camp and impacting the lives of those campers), and I think ministry is what God wants me to pursue. Now whether that means getting a degree in Education, and working towards being a youth minister, I don't know. But I know one thing for sure, God has a plan for me, as does He for all of us, and if we just take the time to listen to the whispers, if we take the time to pause and reflect, He'll always help us through.

It's been the best 3 weeks of my life. Without a doubt. I'm so blessed to be able to go to camp, and to be able to be surrounded by such a great group of people. It was simply amazing.