Sharing is Caring

‘Best friend'. I’ve always hated that term. Why? You might ask. Because. Using the term ‘best friend’ requires picking a favorite. And I hate picking favorites. From the time I was little, I’ve been taught that picking favorites is bad. Being a church kid, I think the main reason for this comes from learning the story of Jacob and Esau. Their parents picked favorites and it did not end up well for them. I hate picking favorites. This hatred has carried through all areas of my life. From picking a favorite color to a favorite movie, to a favorite artist, I hate choosing at all. So, the idea of picking a ‘best friend’ has always seemed so exclusive and undesirable to me. “How can I pick one best friend? If I pick one, I’m leaving out everyone else!” (A statement from a people pleaser at its finest.) But as I grow older and experience life more, words and phrases tend to take on new meanings. I realized this summer the fault in the definition that our society give...

 I was walking with Kristin. We were walking faithfully behind the rest of our group (Denae, Emily, McKenna, and Dillon) when we stopped to look at Venus de Milo . I had seen replicas of this sculpture, but never the real thing. She was stunning. I had to get a picture. So Kristin and I walked a little closer to get a few shots. Being the perfectionist that I am, I wanted a better one, so I moved around to her other side to get a better angle. After getting in the perfect position and stretching and navigating over people’s heads, I finally captured a shot that I thought justified the amazing sculpture. Then I proceeded to turn around only to find that Kristin was nowhere to be seen. “Oh, boy.” *Looked around nonchalantly* “Hmm…” *Walked around casually* “Ehh…” I stayed calm, but in the back of my mind I was starting to panic. No international cell service. No wifi. No Kristin. No Denae. No Emily. No McKenna. No Dillon. Living in a generation dependant u...

(From 8-30-14) Today we went into city centre. I'll spare you all the boring details of the day and just skip to the part I actually care to remember. Denae had bought a pizza and had 3 pieces left. She was being chased by bees because of it, so she gave me her leftovers. I opened it up and got a piece out to eat as we walked toward city centre.  Not long after I had started eating, I saw a man and he asked us for spare change. Without really even thinking, I said, "Do you want some pizza?"to which his reply was, "Sure, I'll have a little bit." So I gave him the box, a simple gesture on my part. The pizza wasn't even mine to begin with. It was given to me and if I wouldn't have eaten it, it would have been thrown in the litter (that's what they call trash here). We continued along and Denae and Kristin were complimenting me saying, "Wow, you're such a good person." I replied in a joking manner saying, "Jesus died for me. I ...

My mind is weird. It wanders. A lot. I will be talking and in mid-sentence and then hear someone else's conversation and then I will remember something I was going to tell someone and then it's a maze to get back to I was from there. I don't really know if that has anything to do with what I am talking about, but that being said, I sometimes come to realizations about life in the strangest places. The other day, I had one of these in the bathroom of a German airplane while flying over the Atlantic Ocean. There's a song that my mom and dad used to sing to me at night when I was little and they were putting me to sleep. I remember the words and tune verbatim, but I never really thought about the lyrics the way I have today. The worls of this song came to me and I saw them in a way I never have before. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere he leads me in this world below. Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade. Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid. Any...

Where do people throughout the world want to be? Where do people aspire to go in life? Everything that I think of when I think of people's futures is in America. If you want to make it big, you come to America. Everyone in America has this mindset that we are the best and we are the center of the world. Going to Ukraine made me realize that this is not the case. While in Ukraine, we went into town to go get some things and eat lunch. On our way to lunch, we were privileged to witness a funeral procession. This was a very interesting experience for us Americans. We were driving on the road when a parade of people came walking down the street. These people looked very sad as they walked somberly in a line with flowers and even a 3 instrument band playing. The first thing I noticed is that everyone is so respectful of this event. Every car on the road stopped to pay their respects to the deceased as the procession passed. As we stopped our car became silent as we realized what was...

Everyone has those times in their lives when they're not really sure why they're living. For some people, this may only last a day, but for others, it could last weeks, months, or years. You know what I'm talking about, right? That feeling of, "I don't even know why God bothered with making all of these stupid people anyway." Well for me, I had one of these stages just a few months ago.  It was the end of my first semester of college and I was struggling. I felt hopeless, like my life had no purpose. We went to Florida for Christmas, but during that week (especially the first part), I was a little depressed. Not like I was physically going to close myself off in a room and sit in darkness, but mentally that is how I felt. Nothing really made me excited about life. I was looking forward to going to Ukraine for a week after Christmas, but after than, then what? I was searching for the meaning of life and not getting far. I was desiring something more than j...