Farwell to All -- Prompt36

Well, I have made it! Finals are over and a bright new future of higher education looms ahead, but before I march off into the unknown, I would like to stop and thank some of the amazing people who have made my high school years special.

It is hard to decide where to begin my thanks, so I will start with the staff. Over the last two years I have grown to love the staff of Weimar Academy. They have guided me in tough decisions, disciplined my when I needed it, cheered me when I was down and taught me despite my attempts to remain untouched by academics. I have learned from them the lessons of patience, courtesy, diligence and the power of prayer. There are so many memories and snippets of advice that I am taking with me from my teachers and I am infinitely grateful for their willingness to teach. There really is very little more to say than, "thank you, you have helped shape who I am!"

Two years ago I came from a charter school environment into the chaos of a dorm. I don't believe I ever would have adjusted to living with so many girls had it not been for the awesome people who took the time to be my friends. Despite my spoiled behavior, they still put up with me and even pretended to enjoy my company. Now I am so honored to have retained and even made a few more friends that I will hopefully keep for ever. My friends have done a far amount of teaching as well, and I am grateful that they cared enough to correct me and to educate me when I needed it. In the years to come I will not forget those who I have grown to love and I hope that I won't be forgotten either. I love you all and you are what made high school and experience worth going through.

As my days of academy have come to a close I want to share a few words of wisdom with those who will follow behind. I am no genius and I do not have a lot of past experience, but I have learned a little worth sharing.

Don't waste your time being angry or superior, eventually you have to make friends (or make up with friends) or else high school life is very boring. Another thing to keep in mind is, high school is fun to mess around in, but you are really here to learn and get ready for college, so prioritize accordingly. My final words of wisdom are: always, always, always seek to put God first and He will bless all your efforts.

Ancient, Like A Tree -- Prompt 35

In five years I am going to be old!! There will probably be a myriad of worry wrinkles and a few gray hairs popping out of my head as a result of college stress. Or perhaps I will have begun dyeing my hair so that no one will notice how I'm aging. I can see it now, all alone (because I'm not going to have gotten in these next five years), working everyday to pay off my thousands of dollars in loans (student loans to pay for college which I will have just graduated from) worrying over my budget and my latest diet.

It is going to be pretty rough being twenty-two.

Who knows, maybe I will have been a missionary in a far distant land (I do want serve as a student missionary) and be a seasoned story teller. I most definitely want to be done with college... no career is worth more that four years of university schooling (or so I say now). I hope to be surrounded by friends whom I love and to have a decent job. I would be nice to have a boyfriend, but that is a bonus at that age. Most importantly I want to be a christian in all I do and to have obtained the ultimate: an amazing, sincere, growing relationship with my Maker.

Your Life, Your Responsibility -- Prompt 35

According to the article Arelia Taveras' fate is totally her fault. She was the one to originally put her self in the situation where she could become addicted to gambling. She chose to go into the casinos and played the games, no one made her, and she is responsible for the results of her actions.

I don't think that there is a basis for a lawsuit in Ms. Taveras' story. The casino was not responsible for her choice of pass time or her bad gambling skills. Ms. Taveras' suing the casinos is rejecting her personal responsibility. The casino could have/should have noticed and attempted to stop her, but it was not their responsibility to keep her from gambling.

In a situation like this, personal responsibility ends when she is unconscious. She chose her way and put the time and effort into her hobby. Someone would not sue if the became addicted to making model airplanes and spent millions of dollars "compulsively" (or at least I hope not). Also another example is: a doctor required to gain consent from his patient before he is allowed to treat her, unless she is unconscious. Similar in this case, Ms. Taveras is responsible for her actions until she totally looses consciousness and is unable to control herself.


If I were asked to give Ms. Taveras advice on rebuilding her life I would first and foremost tell her to not start anything that might be addictive (drinking, smoking, or gambling). She needs to get in control of her life and find something (preferably God) to fill the void that is causing her to seek after crazy amusements like gambling. Finally she needs to take responsibility for her actions and live with the results of what she has done.

Differences -- Prompt 34

Why did mission trip change my life? Was it the fun field trips? How about the miracles and answers to prayer. Was it the amazing sights or the loving people. The change that has since enveloped my life was not caused by anything or anyone in Nicaragua, but rather my God's amazing grace.

Everyday I travelled with Joel to our site and one of us would preach the Word of God. Everyday I would speak a few words of broken Spanish and sit down until the sermon began.
Everyday I would pray an empty prayer to bless the people and bring them to decisions.
Everyday God would tap me on the shoulder and show me my emptiness.

There were miracles everywhere around me. One day our car was stopped by the police, another time I had not even read my sermon before I preached and God still used my stumbling words. There was a threat of rain during one of our outdoor meetings. God changed my heart before my baptism sermon and eased the way for my failure, but in my failure God came through with a victory of six souls.

Even though the God's working was so amazing and visible, I was to absorbed in myself to realize the amazing opportunity that was passing me by, but my God is greater than that. He revealed to me my pride and deficiencies and He is slowly changing me. Ask me why mission trip changed my life and I will tell you it is because God finally got the chance to reach me.

Needed: A New Laptop -- Prompt 33

Wow, looking back I am amazed! We went through so much together. I can't say that I will miss you because you were not my most faithful companion or helper. I do believe that there were days when you did your best, but other then those rare occasions it is my belief that you were ill tempered and lazy. My, I still can't believe you ate so many hours of my time on games and internet! You were the instigator of a thousand ills, and the cause of much grief! There were those times when I would stay up all night long writing papers and when I awoke the next morning you had mysteriously hid them. Sometimes you coughed them back up after hours of searching, but more often than not you kept them buried and out of my reach. Argh! Nasty thing that you were, you found it amusing to contract an untimely illness whenever I was in the most rush and need of help. On other occasion you would function just enough to keep my hopes up, but at a rate much slower than any slug. Yes, we had a few good times, such as you sitting on my lap and playing soft music while I looked through your pictures or browsed the web, but those times were rare. I guess you taught my a lot... mostly what not to get when buying and laptop. May you rest forever, whether in peace or not I do not care!

Final Generation -- Prompt 32

Our generation is going to be remember for many things, most of which are not good. For example: our generation will be know for being disrepectful and irresponsible. My generation has made many advances both technological and other, and we have weathered some of the most tremendous wars and natural disasters. Laws have been passed that have legalized abortion and gay marriage, and we may have the first black, or lady president. More then all this I want to be remembered as the last generation... the generation that got their act together and took the gospel to the whole world so Christ could return. If that's the case, who would look back on my generation anyway?

Planning of the Best -- Prompt 30

I would a have to say the best year of my life has been this last school year. I have learned sooooo much and found so many new friendships, most importantly the one with my heavenly Father, that it hard to look back and not have good memories. Especially since I made the decision to graduate this year instead of next, I have seen how much I need to work on making good memories, because I have to jam a year and a half worth of memories in-between now and graduation. Yikes, there is so much to do and store in my memory bank. Asides from the fact that I believe this coming year will be the best of my life so far, the part of the school year that has already passed my by has been amazing. I have seen God work in my life so many times. Every time I thought I had made a random decision or there was some coincidence, later on I would look back and see God writing my future in the past. It has been awesome, and of course this year would not have been my best without all the friends who laughed, cried, went crazy, talked, and grew with me. My final thought for this year is, the best was to have a good time is to plan on it!