Amy is asleep in my bed. I’m studying (which is why I’m on tumblr) for my Spanish test that’s in 20 minutes. I really just want to watch Doctor Who.
There is a special kind of power in words. I don’t know why, or how, or why this is important to me, but it is. There is something about words in the right context, in the right place, in the right order, which can take my breath away. The way that they can be so filled with emotion that it literally makes me ache. The way that they can bring me to tears. How they can express laughter and delight and make me joyful. Music can do it, too, but words and stories are special. I can finish a story and be so happy that I cannot stop smiling. I can be filled with so much energy that I need to jump up and down just to do something with it. I can find myself with tears pouring down my face and I can be covered with goosebumps that were not brought on by cold. Here is the thing about words. They can be filled with such emotion. If done properly, there will be a story, and that story will have so much emotion in its words that I am filled with something that I cannot describe. Sometimes, if fills me up so I feel like I will burst. I think what it is, is emotion. Words and stories can bring up emotions in me that are so very deep. Sometimes it is sadness and grief and it makes my heart hurt. Sometimes it is awe and wonder and beauty and humor and happiness that makes me rejoice. Sometimes it is confusion and dilemma and complexity that require me to think and analyze. This might sound a little odd. But when I read, this is what I feel. This is what I look for and this is what I cherish about stories and words. There is so much meaning and thought and emotion that they encompass. It is powerful and it is beautiful and I love it.
This is a list of goals that Amy and I have for this semester. In no particular order:
1. Maximum of one package of Pop-Tarts OR one ice cream per week.
2. Exercise at least three times a week.
3. Visit UnApps at least once a week, and visit the park occasionally. Swings!!
4. Clean room every week.
5. Do laundry every two weeks.
6. Don’t Procrastinate!!!
7. Get a job.
8. Be all in.
9. Have daily quiet times and talk about them with each other.
10. Have adventures and be spontaneous!!
11. Drink more water and eat more fruit.
12. Enjoy dressing nicely.
13. Get to know peope (in CRU and in class).
14. Don’t skip class.
15. Have better posture.
16. Introduce each other to Dr. Who and Star Trek.
17. Laugh all the time.
18. Let our hair down and be hippie children.
19. Do not live out of fear.
20. Love Jesus and have lots and lots of fun!
So, in case people haven’t noticed, I’m a quiet person. Not always, and not with everyone, but just in general. And usually I don’t mind. I’m okay with being a quiet person. But sometimes I wish I wasn’t. And really, it’s just when I look back and realize that I wish I knew people better. Especially in CRU. Because the people in CRU are worth knowing, and most of them I really don’t know at all. Which is sad. I have a whole group of brothers and sisters right in front of me that are full of Jesus and love and awesomeness that I haven’t really gotten to know that well. But it’s something I can work on, and I know that Jesus will help me out and bring the right people into my life because He’s so good at doing just what is right for me. So…new year’s resolution? Even if it is a little early…Try and reach out a little and get to know people more.
This made me laugh so hard i almost cried.
Funny metaphors used in high school essays
Just in case you need some writing inspiration. Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year’s winners:
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was room temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another
city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
So it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. A long while, actually. But since I’m just sitting here watching cartoons, what better time? I’ve been thinking lately about hindsight. The thing about hindsight is that it kind of sucks, but at the same time can be dangerously beautiful. It’s hard to look back and see where you messed up and could have done better. And it’s hard to see how things could have been different if you had made another choice. But those what if’s are enticing. They are things you wish for, things you hope for, other possibilities, and in that way, they are beautiful. But those things are done now. They are opportunities gone by and it is best to let them go. It’s the future that matters now. So I’ve been thinking lately about hindsight, but I think it’s time to stop now and look at what’s ahead.
