The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. — Albert Einstein
Tuesday, October 25
Monday, October 17
Before today becomes our yesterday.
Tomorrow, my friend Paul and I turn 18. It's a golden birthday! Wheee!! We've always had fun having the same birthday.
But only just now, we were mourning our last hours as children. It was rather pitiful. (I, being the girl, was far more pitiful...)
It just sort of occurred to me that the rest of my life is lived in adulthood.
Call me naive and childish, but yes, I did just realise that.
And it makes me think -- there really is no going back.
10 years from now, I will still be me - not some magically transformed person who changed ages. The things I do now will become who I am later.
People say, "treasure every day, because it could be the last you've got."
And while I'm still young and have my whole life ahead of me, it sort of makes me realise how much each day really is a treasure. Because -- really, this is...IT. Pretty soon I have to go to college. I have to move out. I have to live on my own....for the rest of my life.
I'm starting to realise more and more what people mean when they say that the teen years are a launching pad for the rest of your life.
Because really, the "rest of your life" is the majority of your life. Childhood is such a very, very small part of your life.
As some random song that's played on the radio station goes,
"This is the first day of the rest of your life."
It's weird, but it's actually kinda true.
Isn't growing up weird? It never stops happening. I keep thinking I'll hit some happy medium and be the same for a long time. But clearly this is not the case.
I have two more years left before I go to college. That's two more years of my family as I know it now. Am I treasuring it while it lasts?
Do I push my little brother off when he wants to hang out with me? Am I listening to my music when my older little brother wants to talk to me? Do I ignore my dad when he wants to tell me something, or my mom when she wants help in the kitchen?
Even now, I look back at my days of being 8 years old and thing "those were the days."
But what's to stop me from making these days "those days?" Will I look back on these years with joy? I want to.
I want to remember the way my brothers laugh when I tickle them, the way my mom smiles when I surprise her, the way my dad goofs off and teases me. I want to treasure every moment while it's here.
Teach me to number my days
And count every moment before it slips away
Take in all the colors before they fade to gray
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this
When it's all said and done
No one remembers how far we have run
The only thing that matters is how we have loved
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this
Slow down, slow down
Before today becomes our yesterday
Slow down, slow down
Before you turn around and it's too late
It happens in a blink
It happens in a flash
It happens in the time it takes to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink.
But only just now, we were mourning our last hours as children. It was rather pitiful. (I, being the girl, was far more pitiful...)
It just sort of occurred to me that the rest of my life is lived in adulthood.
Call me naive and childish, but yes, I did just realise that.
And it makes me think -- there really is no going back.
10 years from now, I will still be me - not some magically transformed person who changed ages. The things I do now will become who I am later.
People say, "treasure every day, because it could be the last you've got."
And while I'm still young and have my whole life ahead of me, it sort of makes me realise how much each day really is a treasure. Because -- really, this is...IT. Pretty soon I have to go to college. I have to move out. I have to live on my own....for the rest of my life.
I'm starting to realise more and more what people mean when they say that the teen years are a launching pad for the rest of your life.
Because really, the "rest of your life" is the majority of your life. Childhood is such a very, very small part of your life.
As some random song that's played on the radio station goes,
"This is the first day of the rest of your life."
It's weird, but it's actually kinda true.
Isn't growing up weird? It never stops happening. I keep thinking I'll hit some happy medium and be the same for a long time. But clearly this is not the case.
I have two more years left before I go to college. That's two more years of my family as I know it now. Am I treasuring it while it lasts?
Do I push my little brother off when he wants to hang out with me? Am I listening to my music when my older little brother wants to talk to me? Do I ignore my dad when he wants to tell me something, or my mom when she wants help in the kitchen?
Even now, I look back at my days of being 8 years old and thing "those were the days."
But what's to stop me from making these days "those days?" Will I look back on these years with joy? I want to.
I want to remember the way my brothers laugh when I tickle them, the way my mom smiles when I surprise her, the way my dad goofs off and teases me. I want to treasure every moment while it's here.
Teach me to number my days
And count every moment before it slips away
Take in all the colors before they fade to gray
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this
When it's all said and done
No one remembers how far we have run
The only thing that matters is how we have loved
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this
Slow down, slow down
Before today becomes our yesterday
Slow down, slow down
Before you turn around and it's too late
It happens in a blink
It happens in a flash
It happens in the time it takes to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink.
Sunday, October 16
And so it begins.
Last weekend marked the first official tournament of the speech and debate season.
Not only that, it was the first official tournament that anybody in our league has had.
Like, nobody else in the country had a tournament yet.
Isn't that special?
There were no speech events - just debate. So that was 2 very long days of debate -- with my psychotic, half-insane debate club. :D
We spent 5 hours in the car (yes, our entire club.) (Granted, there's only 4 in our club) driving down to Eugene, Oregon - listening to Veggie Tales, Revive, Irish Pub music, and creating debate examples based off of things we saw outside the window.
Because we all had school-ish such things going on that day, we didn't leave till 4:30pm. This means that with a 5 hour car ride, we didn't get there till like 10 pm.
And, at 5am the next morning, tournament insanity began!
Because it was just debate, there were extra rounds. My friend Paul and I were also crazy (or perhaps ignorant...you never know) enough to try a new form of debate which we've never done before called "parliamentary debate." Styled after, of course, the British Parliament.
So combined with that and the usual amount of debate, I debated a total of 11 rounds, which is roundabouts of 11 hours of debate.
11 hours.
That's 11 hours of having your ideas beat to a pulp, and then having to muster up the brainpower to attempt to beat their ideas to a similar pulp.
With no speech to balance it out.
So at this present moment, I am thoroughly out of my mind, and fear I shall remain so for quite awhile.
Not only that, it was the first official tournament that anybody in our league has had.
Like, nobody else in the country had a tournament yet.
Isn't that special?
There were no speech events - just debate. So that was 2 very long days of debate -- with my psychotic, half-insane debate club. :D
We spent 5 hours in the car (yes, our entire club.) (Granted, there's only 4 in our club) driving down to Eugene, Oregon - listening to Veggie Tales, Revive, Irish Pub music, and creating debate examples based off of things we saw outside the window.
Because we all had school-ish such things going on that day, we didn't leave till 4:30pm. This means that with a 5 hour car ride, we didn't get there till like 10 pm.
And, at 5am the next morning, tournament insanity began!
Because it was just debate, there were extra rounds. My friend Paul and I were also crazy (or perhaps ignorant...you never know) enough to try a new form of debate which we've never done before called "parliamentary debate." Styled after, of course, the British Parliament.
So combined with that and the usual amount of debate, I debated a total of 11 rounds, which is roundabouts of 11 hours of debate.
11 hours.
That's 11 hours of having your ideas beat to a pulp, and then having to muster up the brainpower to attempt to beat their ideas to a similar pulp.
With no speech to balance it out.
So at this present moment, I am thoroughly out of my mind, and fear I shall remain so for quite awhile.
Thursday, October 13
学 中 文 。
These are the kind of things going through my head right now. It's like a song you only know part of the words for.
您好！
我是美国人。
我喜欢喝咖啡。
你喜欢茶吗？
我的中文不好。
I can read, write, and pronounce all of that. Without Google Translate. What I'm really proud of, however, is that I have sort of started thinking in Chinese. Little itty bitty phrases, like please, thank you, goodbye, and my name is.....
It's cool.
再见！
您好！
我是美国人。
中国是很美。
我喜欢喝咖啡。
我的中文不好。
I can read, write, and pronounce all of that. Without Google Translate. What I'm really proud of, however, is that I have sort of started thinking in Chinese. Little itty bitty phrases, like please, thank you, goodbye, and my name is.....
It's cool.
再见！
Sunday, September 25
Sea of Faces
Have you ever looked out the window as you drive down the freeway and thought about all those cars? There's hundreds....thousands.Then you get to a big school like my community college. Forget the "school" experience in my 5-kid classroom. That's a lot of people.
Each one of them is unique. Each one of them has a life, a family, friends. They have sorrows, joys, excitements, pet peeves. They have various classes, events, and places they go. They all probably have something different they're going through, they all have different goals.
Does it ever leave you in awe that God meets each of us where we are? What care is this - that He made us all? What love is this - that He loves us all?
And Seattle isn't even the biggest city in the Northwest, let alone the whole country....let alone the world.
How do you make an impact? How do you make a difference?
Books I've been reading lately.
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains
by Nicholas Carr
The Reason for God
by Timothy Keller
by Timothy Keller
Just Do Something
by Kevin DeYoung
by Kevin DeYoung
Uncompromising
by Hannah Farver
My Utmost for His Highest
by Oswald Chambers
by Oswald Chambers
Mere Christianity
by C.S. Lewis
Thriving at College
by Alex Chediak
Humility: True Greatness
by C.J. Mahaney
by C.S. Lewis
Thriving at College
by Alex Chediak
Humility: True Greatness
by C.J. Mahaney
Saturday, September 17
Notice.
Starting Monday, I shall begin school.Like, actual, real life, take-your-books-in-a-backpack-school.
Like, you get homework.
And teachers.
And classrooms.
And you have to drive there.
...
Homeschooled much? =P
Anyhow, I'm super stoked, and hopefully you'll hear of my adventurings later on. But it might be awhile till I post, just...to, you know, notify you of that.
Sunday, September 11
Live What I am Dreaming of
Yeah, I'm posting another Trading Yesterday song.
Yes, I just posted about them last time. But I had to share with you another awesome song.
See, a lot of my life recently has been along the lines of:
School planning
Debate about economic security vs. personal freedom
School planning
Debate about economic security vs. personal freedom
Wonder what in the world God is doing with my life
School planning vs. personal freedom
Wonder what God's will is for my life
Debate about economic security
School planning
Wonder about what God is doing with my life
School planning
....you get the idea. It's rigid, kind of intense, and full of all the kind of structure and organisation that I kind of enjoy. (not the stress, the organisation)
But even us non-free-spirited people who love organisation feel a little stuffy at times, and especially after having a deep conversation with your father and brother about personal freedom vs. economic security, long conversations with your mother about school schedules, and long conversations with God about what is going on in your life.....yeah never mind.
(your brain quits working, that's what)
Also what happens after you read books like "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung. (more about that later, I think)
It's like that excitement you get when you start to feel that all that rigidity and organisation and stuff might be paying off, but it hasn't actually happened yet so you aren't sure.
It sparks something. I'm not sure what, because it's too late in the night. But it's in this song. So if you want to know, listen to it. That is, if the above even made sense to you. Which it quite possibly didn't. I'll never know unless you comment.
I'm taking my chances as I go // Life is more than just survival // Love will be the thing that sets me free // Just a little faith is all I need // To live what I am dreaming of.
Yes, I just posted about them last time. But I had to share with you another awesome song.
See, a lot of my life recently has been along the lines of:
School planning
Debate about economic security vs. personal freedom
School planning
Debate about economic security vs. personal freedom
Wonder what in the world God is doing with my life
School planning vs. personal freedom
Wonder what God's will is for my life
Debate about economic security
School planning
Wonder about what God is doing with my life
School planning
....you get the idea. It's rigid, kind of intense, and full of all the kind of structure and organisation that I kind of enjoy. (not the stress, the organisation)
But even us non-free-spirited people who love organisation feel a little stuffy at times, and especially after having a deep conversation with your father and brother about personal freedom vs. economic security, long conversations with your mother about school schedules, and long conversations with God about what is going on in your life.....yeah never mind.
(your brain quits working, that's what)
Also what happens after you read books like "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung. (more about that later, I think)
It's like that excitement you get when you start to feel that all that rigidity and organisation and stuff might be paying off, but it hasn't actually happened yet so you aren't sure.
It sparks something. I'm not sure what, because it's too late in the night. But it's in this song. So if you want to know, listen to it. That is, if the above even made sense to you. Which it quite possibly didn't. I'll never know unless you comment.
I'm taking my chances as I go // Life is more than just survival // Love will be the thing that sets me free // Just a little faith is all I need // To live what I am dreaming of.
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