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."