Fun Times!

I think it's about time for another blog post...
Ok, so as all of you who read my blog should know, I am now at Ambrose University College. And I'm having a blast!

My classes are: effective writing (which most people hate, but i acutally quite enjoy), New Testament, Public Speaking (sooooo much fun), choir (we're touring in March and we get to go to Regina!!!!!!), and guitar ensemble (this class managed to make me start learning everything guitar-related that I have been avoiding in a time span of 1.5 hours...btw, i love this class!!!!). I have very little homework and I have an average of 1 class a day, except for Mondays...but it's all fun classes anyways :P Yes...the academic part of school is pretty much awesome and I'm loving it.

Oh, oh, oh! And I have a new guitar!!!!!!!! I finally own my dream guitar AKA Jade, Swarley's old guitar. w00t! I couldn't be happier =D

Awesomeness/Randomness/Epic-ness:

-living in a three person room with only two people in it (i have a bunk bed all to myself!!!!!!)
-going on an epic 4 hour journey to superstore/petland and getting to hold a corn snake and a baby python! (Sonia got to hold the 5 foot boa!)...and then the bird that almost ate heidi's earing and bit my nose while trying to climb onto my face...lol :P
-watching Avatar!!!!!!!! best movie ever! (i cried...)
-epic snow walks...finding out what i had thought to be the big dipper (for my whole life!) was actually orien...go figure!...the skating rink we found (that was actualy a plastic sign)...the snow fights! yep, they're intense :P
-the tobboganing trip! suicide hill (as i like to call it)...think really really steep hill, followed by two huge snow jumps, followed by a concrete parking lot...i did it and landed mine, most of the others were not so fortunate (but we had no serious injuries, yay!)...we later moved on to another hill and managed to fit 11 people on a wooden toboggan! we also attempted a smaller jump onto a snowy field...but i kept going of the side of the jump (did i mention it was small?) and bailing both times...i had bruises for a week...lol, sooooooo much fun!
-the christmas concert! it was beautiful!
-the story game...sooooooo much fun!
-birthdays! and a whole lot of 'em!
-painting signs for lyc!
-getting nicola (josh's gf) to call him swarley! (w00t!...i'm counting on the fact that he never follows through on his threats :P...haha)
-waling outside in a t-shirt, shorts, and barefoot...while it's snowing! yep...
-nerf sword fights!!!!!!!
-losing my voice...not so cool, it's been gone for 4 days now...how sad is that :P

All in all, Ambrose pretty much rocks. The people out here are amazing and I've made some great friends. I'm also learning a lot (not just academic stuff either). Perhaps I'll write a more serious post after this one...but for now you know what I've been up to out here in Calgary!

Lessons From 2009

Some of the things I learned this year...
Slap bets are dangerous...proceed with caution :P
When you get dehydrated, do not drink water for 5 MINUTES STRAIGHT!!!!! yeah...it'll make you puke (lyc...fun times!)
Math is possible if you ask for help (and even fun once you understand it)
Being "girly" isn't so bad after all...but I still refuse to wear make-up
Don't teach 8 year old boys how to make paper hornets(ouch...)
Silence/being alone with God is something we all need
I am not perfect and I never will be (nor will anyone else), but God is still working on me
Being different can be a good thing
If you're gonna prank people on the first night of a 2 night retreat be aware that you are gonna either be pranked back or paranoid for the rest of the trip (sooooo worth it though, proximity retreat! w00t!)
Swarley loves twilight...and he's on team jacob
Dancing is actually really fun
Spam tastes disgusting, and it has a funny texture

I may add more later...we'll see, lol.

Different

I am different in so many ways...Why do I have to be so different? Why do I so often feel like an outcast? Like I don't belong, even though other people seem to accept me? Why am I a Pastor's kid AND homeschooled? Not that I really object...but still...Why are my values and opinions often so different than the majority? Why can't I just be like everybody else and go with the flow? Do I want to be like that? Am I willing to change just so I can feel like I fit in with everyone? How much am I willing to change? What parts of me NEED change? What values/opinions should I keep? Is changing certain things a part of growing up? Or is it giving in to peer pressure? Am I happy with who I am? What will it take to become happy with who I am? God, why did you make me so different? God, thank you that I am different, thank you for who you made me to be. Help me to do my best to honour You with who I am and what I do. I love you.

Happiness is a Choice...Laughter is Involuntary

I recently got facebook...that has nothing to do with this post...except that my youth pastor, Mike, recently asked for the best advice that people have. My best advice is one that I've had for a few years now, it says that happiness is a choice. I have found this to be very true. If you don't choose to be happy, it generally won't happen. Regardless of your situation, if you decide to be happy, it's possible.

My second point, in this post, is more of a personal statement about me...happiness may be a choice, but laughter is involuntary. If laughter qualifies as a spiritual gift, then I definitely have it. Laughter is an interesting thing, I might write an essay on it one day...but for school, it's not like I just write random essays =P

There are several things that make me laugh: jokes, anything I find funny, nervousness/awkwardness, when I embarrass myself, other people laughing, and silence. I never really understood that one, but when I'm in a group of people, and there's silence...I'm usually trying not to laugh. The one I find hilarious is that I laugh when I embarrass myself. This is because of my sometimes random bursts of laughter (if i find something funny), which will in turn embarrass me (like when it happened in sundayschool), which causes me to laugh more, which makes other people laugh, which makes me laugh more... This has become the source of at least one inside joke for my class on sunday mornings...am I really this hopeless?

One of my missions in life is to make people smile, and laughter is a bonus. When I was 11 I wanted to be a stand-up comedian...now it's just a hobby =P When I'm with other people that laugh a lot...well, it's a ton of fun =P Last night, I and some of my friends hung out, and one of them in particular likes to joke around a lot. I kid you not, there were numerous times when I was essentially in tears from laughing so hard...but so was the other guy so it's all cool =P

So what makes you laugh?

Fine Arts and My Pet Cat

As some of you reading this blog will know, I'm insane, and such I decided to finish high-school early (reasons: because I could, and so I could go to Ambrose sooner =P ). So yeah, I've been working at school like crazy for the past year. The first 7-8 weeks of this school year were intense, in that amount of time I completed Geopraphy 12, Principles of Math 12, and portfolio...and passed all of them! Meanwhile last Tuesday my grad teacher phone's me up and says, "were you aware that you need a fine arts or applied skill credit to graduate?" This is where I started to go into a state of panick...You see, apparently I am very uncultured, as I had neither of these credits in any of my high school years...but there was one thing that could save me...my guitar. Wow, it's hailing outside...(completely unrelated, i know). Needless to say, the last couple of days have been pretty hectic, but I'll spare you the boring details and let you know that things finally worked out. At last, I finally meet graduation requirements, and I managed to get an 86% in Guitar 10, w00t!

As for my pet cat...his name is Seamus (Shay-mus), and he lives in our backyard. Well kinda, he keeps coming to our sliding glass door, he doesn't have a collar or anything, and he's always hungry. We fed him a couple of times (he eats dogfood!) and he's sooooo cute. Unfortunately my Dad is allergic to cat's (well any animal that sheds), so he can't come inside. Haha, when I was really young a cat that did the same thing (but in the middle of winter), and my Dad caved and we had a cat for a few years. I don't think it'll happen again. I just wish I could keep a cat at Ambrose...maybe I could disguise him as a fish...

Blogging about Life

Haha, so I finally decided to get my own blog. My first blog post, this could be epic...or not...lol. I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually pretty stoked about this =P Ok, so about the name, I was hanging out with one of my friends last night and we actually got talking about some pretty deep stuff. We were musing about how crazy and confusing life can be...about the myriad of thing you can choose to do with it...about how badly you can mess up your life with just one decision...It's fun, confusing, frustrating, crazy, depressing, amazing, happy, sad, and so much more...all at the same time. So this blog is me...working my way through this thing called life. I should also mention that although life can be crazy and confusing, I love it with a passion, and enjoy it with all that I have. Haha, and to steal a quote from one of my youth leaders "life's not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain". So start dancing!