Shocked.

So a friend lent me a book that she got at a convention a few weeks ago. The book is called "Mission Possible" and it's about a woman who makes a decision to go to Papua New Guinea and try to communicate God's word to some of the people there. Well I only started reading the book in 6th period today and already, I am shocked and inspired.

I'm only on chapter 3 and I've already discovered how painfully uneducated people in different cultures are.

Okay so this woman, Marilyn, goes to Hauna, Papua New Guinea with another Bible translator named Judy. Among the first few days there, they wake to some sort of ceremony going on across the river. They get in a canoe and paddle across the river to see what was going on. When they get over there they realize that it's some type of funeral like thing and a man's young boy had died and was being buried. Everyone was sobbing loudly. Marilyn inched towards the hole where his body was lying to take a look. The people didn't seem to mind much so she went ahead and looked. The boy's hand moved up and he touched himself on the chin. THE BOY WAS BREATHING! Suddenly the Hauna's paramount leader stepped forward and Marilyn stepped back in defense. She didn't know what to do but whenever the first shovel of dirt was thrown into the hole Marilyn had to say something. She sprang forward and shouted that they couldn't bury the boy and that he was alive but just in a coma. The leader finally said something to her in a language she couldn't understand but his tone, facial expressions, and gestures conveyed a "You shut up! You don't know anything!" type of attitude. She didn't know what to do. She kept asking her partner Judy why they were burying him and telling her that they had to do something to help the boy. But they could do nothing. See these people believed that the throat was all of what life or death meant. They thought that if you stopped talking or responding to life around you, you were to be pronounced dead.

Can you believe this. I mean not just the fact that these people are so ignorant that they don't understand what life and death are, but can you imagine watching a boy being buried alive and not being able to do anything about it?! And I'm sure it happens a lot more than we know! It's crazy how people think and how the mind works.

So I was sitting in my sixth period horrified as I read this and the bell rings. I got to a good stopping point and put my bookmark in the book closed it and began to walk down the hall. Before I read this I didn't realize how awful people's circumstances are sometimes. I thought about how things like this probably happened all the time and I was just so unaware of it. As I walked down the hall I looked at all of the people. Some were enjoying themselves, talking to their friends, and all in all just being American kids. I wanted to scream "DON'T YOU ALL UNDERSTAND?! WHY ISN'T ANYONE DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?!" but I knew that if I did that, everyone would probably just think I was insane, if they already don't think that. But it's just hard to think that these people are ignorant too. They just don't know and it's not something I think that you can just tell people and they understand. I think that a lot of how you respond to things depends on what you've been through and how connected you are with God. So despite the fact that I can usually relate to most people and try to have an open mind about things, not everyone is like that and I've got to remember that everyone thinks differently and has been through different things.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week.

Hope.

I've been reading this book called "Faith that Breathes." It's a sort of devotional\book\journal type of thing given to me from a friend. I've really enjoyed it thus far. It's very thought provoking. It quotes scripture at the beginning of each daily devotion.

"As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him."

-Matthew 4:18-20

Now, I've heard this a lot before. But today when I read this it was just one of those things that kind hits you in the face all of the sudden.

Lately I've been kind of struggling with what God has planned for me. Cause I mean I know what God wants for my life, at least I'm pretty sure. But I keep asking myself the same question. How? How is all of this going to happen?

Mr. Williamson was yelling a lot today in band and It really bothers us new band office girls. I think it's fair to say that he frightens us a bit, but all of this is besides the point. Anyway, I guess the band wasn't doing what they were supposed to be doing but he stopped to give a brief sort of inspirational speech, at least I thought it was inspirational. He said he had been listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about hope. Some guy called in and said that hope had gotten him through his whole life. Mr. Williamson seemed to both agree and disagree with this guy. Williamson went on to say that hope was always good, but if it's all you have it doesn't get you very far. You can't just hope for things to happen, you've got to make them happen.

Now usually Mr. Williamson doesn't say much to me besides "twirl harder", but as odd as it seems I feel like all of that was meant to happen. I think God wanted me to hear this. I had been talking to someone about this just last night and was praying about it as well. It seems like it almost happened too soon. But I guess I had to realize this soon and the verse I quoted earlier just kind of pulled everything together.

I've realized that I do hope for things to work out, for things to be right, and for them to go well. I hope all the time for the best in most situations. Up until now that has seemed to work every time, but I think it's gotten to the point where I have to not only hope but do what is necessary. I mean Jesus just walked up to these guys and says come and follow me for the rest of your lives. Stop everything you're doing and come with me. Where? I'm not so sure they knew, but it says at once they left their nets and followed him.

It hit me that I've been asking too many questions and not putting enough faith in God. Which is strange for me because usually having faith is my strong spot. But it's not as easy to just have faith that everything will be okay. I'm trying hard because this doubtfulness is derived from the world and from statistical reality. It's hard to just let go of all of it though. I am trying. It is getting better. :]

I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend.

I need to finish knitting my scarf.

Okay so I really love stuffed animals, for those of you who don't know. I collect them. This one is my favorite right now. It's the Christmas version of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. haha thats such an awful name for a show. But anyways, He's been washed twice which is weird cause I hardly ever let my stuffed animals get dirty. So yeah I thought I'd give some explanation for the picture.


Okay so I'm really excited about the next few months.

I mean the 30 hour famine is next weekend :D :D I'm so so so so excited about it. Plus they will have more info up about the trip by then. Which will be cool.

Also the band banquet is coming up...I need to pay for that soon.

AND Kara's birthday is in like 3 weeks :D
She'll be 16! and My 16th birthday is not far off from hers! :D
We'll both be 16!
gah. :]

AND the Band Trip is also in about 3 weeks, and the first place we're going is UTC for a concert festival. So I might get to see my sister for the first time since Christmas. :D

Spring break is in like a month too.

I'm excited for the next few months but dreading summer. But maybe it won't be all that bad.

So today I was standing in a big cold garage, alone, and painting. A single space heater was the loudest thing I could hear. I accidentally got paint on my shoe. So when I'm all by myself doing something like this I begin to think. About anything and everything. For some unknown reason, I thought of how whenever me and Kara would go to a store whether it be in Turkey Creek or Food City, we would just be walking along and she would point to some old man and say, "Hey Hannah, there's your boyfriend."

When I thought of this it made me laugh a lot. So I thought I'd share a happy memory. :p

Anyway.
I've been reading a lot lately. Well most people might not consider it a lot, but for me it is...it's kind of weird though.


Anyways :D
I hope everyone has a good week.
Sorry that this wasn't much of a blog. :p

Maybe, this time

I've been sick all weekend. :p
Kleenexes are amazing. And even though I've been sick all weekend, I've still had a really good weekend. :]

Okay so I'm going to go ahead and start you off with the basics. RCHS has a new principal this year (Mr.Dill) and in my opinion, he's done a lot to help our school. Also, he hates band...okay hate is kind of a strong word but once I explain this I think you'll understand.

Our school this yeah has been doing a lot of this to improve academically. For instance, we're in the process of upgrading our curriculum and all grades took tests at the beginning of the year to help with the ACTs. Also, there is Freshman academy, which has been in affect since last year. I was in freshman academy, and have yet to find the purpose for it. but that's besides my point.

This problem that I'm talking about really starts with the "No Child Left Behind Act". Through this our school has been required to set a goal for the percent they're going to graduate each year. Okay so this is a good cause but the way they've gone about trying to solve it, in my opinion, is completely stupid. Sorry if I'm offending anyone. Anyway, the graduation percentage, well the school failed to meet requirements by 0.2%. POINT TWO PERCENT. Okay our goal was around 80 something percent. If we miss our requirement for another year the school goes on some list which means the government can come in and fire all of the staff and rehire an all new staff. (although I wish they would just go ahead and do that now)

So Mr.Dill decides to take action. We have this new "retake" policy. Students who make below a 75 on a test can has the opportunity to retake the test. The teachers have to get the students to fill our all the dumb forms that say whether or not they're going to retake the test. THEN they have to fill out a bunch of forms themselves, get another test and take all the forms to the office and the office send them to Mr. Dill. They they have to go get the forms back after Mr.Dill has looked at them or whatever he does. Then the student has to retake the test before the following Wednesday of when the test was handed out. They have about 3 opportunities to do this, Tuesdays during study session, Thursdays after study sessions, or after school, which some teachers aren't staying for. Then after the test has been retaken the teacher has to grade it. The highest grad that the policy allows the student to make is a 75. Thus making the whole policy practically pointless. Then the teacher has to average all the grades of that particular student with the new test grade.

So to sum it all up our school's new policy is a pointless inconvenience for everybody, teachers, students, and staff, and encourages passing with a D. Therefore making a high school diploma way less significant. Not to mention how much this takes away from the students, like me, who actually try and whose grades matter at least a little bit to them. Since the teachers have to take so much time out of their schedule to do this, many of them are no longer trying as hard to teach because they're so busy with this stupid new policy. A lot of them are making classes way easier and now making zeros gets you detention. Which is really annoying to me because I can afford a zero in a lot of my classes because I put effort into most of my work. But now I have to do every assignment even if I do a really bad job on it. Which I guess is good in a way, but it's also very unfair to me.

All this because some one had the idea of having 100% of students graduate high school (which is mathematically impossible). So this begs the question, Why can students do what they want. This is a problem that is impossible to solve so why can we come to school and make the grades that we want?

Oh.
Sorry for all of the complaining.
I hope everyone has a good weekend!

I sat in the cupboard and wrote it down real neat.

Today was a beautiful day. Which really helped me a lot. It's been really hard for me to look on the positive side of things lately. Really hard.

I know that when I say this everyone will think I'm dumb and I'm just wishing my life away, but hear me out.

I wish it was next school year. I honestly wouldn't mind much if I skipped this summer.
Honestly the ONLY thing I will be doing all summer is working. I'm earning enough money in this summer alone to pay my dad half the money that he should sell his car for. However, if I worked 11 hours EVERYDAY this summer, which I won't, I STILL wouldn't have enough money to buy the car from him. Plus I owe him about $300 right now. bleh. I WILL DO THIS. haha I think I'm going to start applying for jobs soon. Maybe I can get my dad to take me job hunting on Friday or sometime net week or something.

Oh well though. Maybe things will work out better than I can hope. :D
(that's me trying to be positive.)

Haha. So I'm making some changes. I'm going to start waking up early and exercising. I'm also going to start eating healthier and only 3 times a day. No eating after dinner. And I'm going to cut down on soft drinks big time. So I'm setting a lot of new goal kind of things. Anyway.

I feel like I've been really busy lately, but I really haven't. I've been worried about a lot of things lately too. Which I shouldn't be. I just need to calm down and breathe.

so I hope everyone has a great week. :D

It's all in your head.

I think I have a minor case of OCD. But I guess that can be good sometimes. Anyway. Kara and I got mail from World vision a few days ago. We wrote our first letter to Sandra. We are going to send them sometime before Tuesday. We also sent her some stickers and a little handmade bracelet. I'm very anxious to hear from her. However it will probably be around 2-4 months until we get anything back. :\ Oh well though.


So I don't really have much that I want to blog about today, but I do have a cute little story with a bit of a lesson thingy. :]

Okay so I was sitting at the table this morning (it was actually around noon) and I was eating breakfast. Seth was sitting across the table drawing a picture of "the family." So he looked up at Billy and said, "Dad I can't draw your glasses, there's not enough space." So I was over analyzing this and started thinking about the thinks I am capable of and the things I accomplish every day. I wish I could do more than I do in a day or a lifetime, but there's not always enough time. And a lot of things take time. So I just need to go one goal at a time. Things seem to turn out a lot better if they are focused on more. I know that doesn't seem to make much sense, most things that I say probably don't, but I just think that if I focus on one thing and mainly on that goal, it's a lot likelier to happen. Plus the more things I have to do the less likely I am to forget about things.

So tonight I'm going to the teacher appreciation banquet to help babysit. Hopefully it will better my skills with kids. :]

So I hope everyone has a good day! :D