One of my least favorite questions in the context of interviews or getting to know you groups is "What is one of the things you're most proud of?"
What? Dumb. I don't really like the word, pride. It seems silly and weird and unnecessary. I'm not really doing anything to be proud of, I'm just living my life. That's why I've given the same answer to this question since senior year of high school.
Until now.
Yes, that's right. I have a new answer. Finally.
Here it goes...
A mother. A daughter. Twenty hours. Forty five t-shirts. A sewing machine, an iron, and a whole lotta cutting.
All of that creates this.
It's so perfect, I could cry. It's the perfect weight on my bed layered with other blankets. It's the perfect size to wrap up in or lay out on the grass. It's the perfect combination of beautiful colors and meaningful memories. And it's one of those things that I never thought I would be able to do. I sewed a whole quilt. WHAT!?
This upcoming summer, I'm going to be headed on a backpacking trip through the Colorado mountains with Young Life. A group of girls and I will hike, camp, and experience the wilderness together. For most of them, this is a first in their life. They've been stuck in flat land Indiana.
Now, Indiana is beautiful and wonderful, but it's no mountain top view. So, when one of the girls texted me the other day about how she is getting herself pumped up for the trip, she reminded me that where you are and where you spend your time can directly affect how you experience God.
"Every particle of rock or water or air has God by its side leading it the way it should go; The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness; In God's wildness is the hope of the world."
Gosh, that's so true for me. And I can't wait to experience that with my friends and to be in the Colorado mountains together.
Just a little photo update from your budding, struggling artist here. Over the past few weeks, my photo class has done projects on exposure, depth of field, light, shadow, and color. And, I have frolicked through creepy woods at night, taken pictures of other people's houses, made my friends model for me, carried three lamps around campus, thrown things, broken things, and gotten plenty of weird looks.
It's all this weird stuff that we've been doing that makes my photo friend, Olivia and I say...
"It's for the ah-rt!" (in a weird sort of French/English/Indian accent)
It's our motto for the semester. Neither of us take the best pictures in our class. There are others who are more artistic and have more experience. But, we're the ones who don't really care if we try something new and it messes up. I can't figure out what I love to photograph and what ways I can creatively do that.
If there's one thing that I learn from being a part of Young Life, it's that having people who love you and accept you is one of the most important parts of life. It's having a family where you belong to them and they belong to you. It's living life together. This community teaches me that being part of something like that is important every time I show up and sit together and listen and laugh. I've found myself tearing up and feeling a deep sense of something recently about this. There's nothing more beautiful.
Some highlights from the past few weeks of the North Central #ylfam community:
1. The Great Banquet
Every YL camp does a giant banquet toward the end of the kids' week at camp. Our group of seniors decided to have the dream, the whimsy, and the heart to put a banquet on for the other students at North Central. They brought salad, pasta, bread, and desserts to feed a small army of high school kids. They decorated the room with lights and tablecloths. And because of their hard work and willingness to actually live a life that showed God's love for others, over 70 kids sat at those tables and ate and talked and broke bread together. To quote my area director, Jon: "It was a holy moment; an experience where God was vividly present & the light of Jesus was more powerful than the darkness of this world; a reminder that our faith should inspire us to dream, to create, and to act, just as these Seniors did and are doing everyday."
2. Our YL Harlem Shake video
It's all the rage everywhere. Google it. It's crazy. Obviously we jumped on the band wagon. The making of one of these videos is hilarious. Every just watches as one weird person dances and then everyone goes crazy. Who doesn't want to have a dance party with all of your closet friends?
3. All City Club at the Indiana Pacers Game
A lot of times I forget that other people do Young Life around the city, the country, and the world. Until we all come together and I see my other college friends doing the same thing: sitting with a kid in the crowd at club or awkwardly being on stage trying to make kids laugh. And high schoolers are the same everywhere too. It's a reminder that this is something bigger than just me and the girls I know. Big picture, people, big picture.
4. The Breakfast Club
I think if there's any sort of theme from the last few weeks, it has been food. I believe in food. I believe in meal questions. I believe in eating together. Hence, Saturday Morning cartoons club, the perfect combination of cereal, pajamas, and Rugrats.
120 middle schoolers. 12 hours in the middle of the night. 50 boxes of pizza. 2 buses. $400 spent on fro-yo.
Sounds ridiculous. Who wants to spend that much time with that many middle school kids? Not me.
But, I still went to the annual Wyldlife Lock-out. Because I had to be there. By the end of the night, I realized that middle schoolers aren't that bad. Yes, they may be awkward. Yes, they may be kind of annoying at times.
But, they also have some pretty great personality traits. They are willing to try anything and do anything. They are willing to go hard because they have the energy to do it. They are willing to talk about what's going on in their lives because they desperately want someone to know them, the real them. Those are my kind of people.
A big bonus of the night was the chance to see the junior girls be "leaders." These are the girls who I have become friends with over the past few years, the ones who I know, the girls who I have sacrificed my time, my energy, my sanity for. And, if I ever need a reminder that being a part of Young Life is worth it, then this lock-out was that moment for me. All of the juniors had a group of middle school girls that they hung out with for the night. They followed them around and awkwardly tried to have conversations with them. They sat in a circle trying to have real conversations about life and Jesus and were faced with blank looks and silence and some tears. They did with the middle school girls what I have been trying to do for the past few years.
I can't guarantee that they will have any sort of life-changing revelation after this, but I do know that this was a beautiful night. A 17-year old girl talking to a 12-year old girl about her family problems and just listening. Another girl playing three games of laser tag in a row with her group at 3am just because that's what they want to do.
Not all high school kids are willing to do that and be that for younger kids. That's a beautiful thing that they are willing to be there.
