Put A Smile On Your Face

When we first got this assignment, I didn’t really understand it at all.  As i read through the packet before ms. haffley described what we were doing, I didn’t understand the scavanger hunt part, and I thought we would have to run around the school and find different things off the floor or out of classrooms that represented each medicine for us.  However, once she described it, i got so excited, and I kind of forgot what the real point of the assignment was. Two other classmates and I tried to get as many of the medicines as possible, and we totally forgot the meaning of the scavenger hunt.  That night when I got home, I looked through my goody bag and re-read the packet ms haffley gave us. I realized that I had missed the whole point.

The next day on my way to school, I decided that I would re-do the activity, because I’m kind of lost on the whole hero journey, but I actually understand the meaning of the SA. I decided on my medicines, and during my break I walked through the schools and at each of the teacher’s classrooms that had held the medicine i needed, i took out the medicine they gave me the day before and reflected. it ended up being an incredibly enlightening experience for me.

I am a partial person. Kairos helped me realize this, and the activity brought me to the realization even more. I don’t know everything about who i am or who I want to be, but growing older and going through different things will teach me about myself.  This semester, I’ve been struggling in school, and missing three days then being sick for a fwe more didn’t help at all. Because of this, the five qualities I chose that would best serve me were: courage, faith, patience, perseverance, and strength.   I chose to find five qualities because i need to get out of my comfortable, lazy mode and I’ve been living in. I work hard in school, yet in the classes i dislike I don’t try very hard at all, which is why my grades aren’t doing to well in those classes.  

With courage, I will be able to try harder to understand, even after three hours of reading one chapter. I’ll be brave enough to keep trying, even though it is so frustrating and is pretty upsetting.  I chose patience as another medicine because I need to start learning patience within myself. I’ve become a very patient person- i recently discovered that I can wait for two hours in a parkinglt for a friend and not get overly bored or angry. I can just peacefully sit and wait. However, I am not patient at all when it comes to not understanding concepts or ideas. I give up immediately if I don’t get it thefirst or second time because I can’t stand not understanding. I want to have the patience with myself to pace my learning and if I dont understand one night, maybe I will the next. Perseverence was somewhat like patience, because after I have learned patience, I need to be able to persevere through the night when I study or when I’m havng a bad day. I need to deal with it, and deal with the consequences of my actions. with this quality, Il’l be able to make my life in academics as well as outside of school better than it is.  Strength goes alone with the other three qualities i have mentioned.  I’ve felt like an incredibly weak person in the past, and I need the quality of strenght to be with me at all times. I get angry or upset easily, and I want the strength to get past the things that make me mad and focus on what needs to get done. Finally, I chose faith. Without faith in God, none of these other qualities could ever make it past step one. I have bcome increasingly faithful, but I’m sure that treasuring the medicine of faith coudn’t hurt.

After re-doing this activity, I honestly felt a lot more at peace, and a small part of me felt the new qualities i had recieved inside. As I’ve been studying for Bio today, i remember the goody bag next to my bed, and I think about the five qualities I chose to aid me on my hero journey. As I fight with my parents, I remember to have patience and strength to not yell or say something I don’t mean.  Although this activity was just a representation of the super natural aid, i think it was so symbolic to me that I took it to heart. I loved doing this scavanger hunt, and doing it twice was great.

i decided today that school is just worthless. taking AP classes is a waste of time, and it just stresses students out. the only schools that offer good scholarship money are the schools that aren’t top tier, so there’s no reason to even take AP classes in the first place since the only schools that kids can afford to go to are not awesome schools anyway. homework sucks and most of the time its busy work that just takes up a ton of time and is boring. a few teachers, but not most because brebeuf teachers are really good, but some teachers at brebeuf just don’t really know how to teach and all class is everyday is the teacher reading off powerpoints that they probobly didn’t even make, then giving us the hardest tests ever that are all multiple choice but everyone still fails becuase theyre impossible. and the week before spring break is just so awesome with 2384 tests every single day so you can’t study for all of them.  

then when a nice junior decides to go on kairos and miss three days of school they fall three weeks behind becuase every single teacher wants to teach new material those three days and give a test when youre gone, so by the time you get back theyre already two lessons ahead and you have to learn those two lessons and the one thats going on now. so a month after reatreat youre still behind and grounded becuase of grades. why do kids eeven try

This weekend, and Thursday and Friday, I did a lifeguarding class so that I can be a life guard this summer. On thursday and friday it went from 5-9, and saturday it went from 9-5 and today from 9-5. It was so exhausting. On thursday and friday, we had to swim an 800 both days just of laps, then we practiced rescues and did some more swimming. Saturday and today were fun, becuase we got an hour long break for lunch and we all went to McAllisters and Panera. Today we took the final written test… it was pretty hard but i think everybody passed! 

I bet that everyone who went on Kairos is writing about it on their blogs, but I’ll write about it to. Really fast though my tiger pet makes a tiger noise if you turn your sound on! But Kairos was so much fun! I think every single person that went got something out of it, and everybody bonded so well. we busted a rhyme, do run rapped, and played charades and big booty the whole time. It was just awesome is the only word to describe it. I’m so glad I went, and seriously everybody go on kairos!   G-1!!!!

I was really looking forward to this weekend, because it was four days. Looking back on it, it was fun, but it wasn’t as good as I expected. On thursday I went with hallie and scott schmelzer to get his ears pierced. They look pretty good, but he was scared to get them done. Then, we went over to one of scott’s friends house and just hung out for a while. Friday, I had work, and saturday morning I had work again.  Since I didn’t have a valentine on valentines day, I wentt o go see a movie with my friend chloe. We were the only non-couple in the whole theater ,so it was great. Sunday, me chloe and lindsay went for a bike ride. We went from my house (131st and towne) to puccinis (86th and ditch), then to nora plaza and finally back to hallies (116th and springmill). it was so hard! we are all so sore now, but it was really good exercise. 

tomorrow, we’re leaving for kairos! I’m really excited, and I hope its as fun as everybody says it is!

Today is my birthday, and I am so excited! This weekend was a great birthday weekend. On Friday, I had to work, but I worked with two of my favorite co-workers, and we had a really great time. We ate McDonalds and cookies.  On Saturday, I took the ACT. It was kind of hard, but I definitely liked it more than the SAT. Saturday night rolled around really fast, and before I knew it we were driving around just loving the good weather and loving life.  Today was a pretty good birthday. I got Britney Spear’s Blackout and Circus cds, the new Fray cd, and some lotion and perfume. We went to Ambrosia for dinner, and the food was so delicious! I’m not excited to go back to school though.

I’m starting to really like widgets.  At first, I wasn’t really that into them, because I wasn’t sure how to use them and I didn’t know where to find them. But, yesterday, Ms. Haffley taught me how and showed me widgetbox, and I just love using widgets. So far I have one widget. Her name is Stardust and shes a pet tiger.  She’s a great widget and everyone should get a pet widget.  I hope that soon I’ll find another widget that I like just as much, maybe a game or something.

Working at Mike’s Carwash is great.  Really good pay, nice people, tips once in a while from nice people in cars. It sucks when it’s cold out, and I’ve gotten wet a few times when spraying cars.  But mostly I really love working there.  It’s just seemed like recently it’s taking over my life.  I usually do my homework like projects and studying for tests on the weekends, and lately I’ve had to work every single day of the weekend.  It’s nice not to work on school nights, but working so much on the weekends is starting to get to me.  Without that much free time, it’s hard to relax and get a full night’s sleep.  I think I’m going to talk to my boss about it soon, but I’m a little nervous.  I hope every thing goes well.  and whoever reads this- come get your car washed at mikes on 106th and michigan!!

So I wasn’t here on the day we did this in class, but over the weekend I did this activity at home.  It made me think a lot, and I think that being at home really helped me in taking my time and considering each step with more thought than I would have at school.

While I was filling up my balloon, i  realized that I don’t feel “called” to a greater adventure at all.  I thought of all of the examples we talked about in class of what a call might be, yet I couldn’t find one person, moment, or significant thing that has happened to me that I could even consider a call.  Right now in my life, I think that I have gone through a bunch of things and if my call were going to come, then it would have come already.  I almost wish I could be the ‘hero’ we discuss in class, but I also know myself well enough to understand that being that hero causes so much sacrifice and the decisions to be made are huge.  I don’t know if I’m strong enough to take on being a hero, which is why I don’t think I want to be called.  To be called to something greater would be emotionally strenuous, most likely physically challenging in someway, and in my mind I see a “hero” always hurting someone they love, or they end up in a worse position than they were before they went on their journey.  I think I can do great things in my life without getting called to something greater.

I eventually decided after a little while that I would not burst my balloon.  I’m extremely uncertain about my life and the paths i’ll take, and I don’t think that i’m ready to open myself up to the call and break the balloon.  Looking at my life right now, I think that maybe one day in 5, 10 or 20 years I’ll be ready to burst open the balloon and accept my call.  However, right now, I’m very content with just living my life and not making it more confusing with a call.

I love 2009 already.  School started so that’s kind of the downside but this weekend was great.  Friday was the perfect start to the weekend.  Lindsay had some people over, and at first it was just some girls and Aron, but we had a great time and played a fun card game.  Soon, we started dancing and singing and just having a wonderful time.  A few other people came later, and it ended up being a night to remember because of all the games we played and food we ate.  Saturday came around, and we were all hoping for another great night, and it was!   We went to a friend’s house and some people left and got ice cream but we mostly watched the football game and ate some snacks.  

Here’s a picture from one of the nights.  It’s nice to take pictures of the nights  that you want to remember, because each picture captures so much.  Some people even say a picture is worth a thousand words; i agree. This picture is worth a thousand words.