Feel the winds of change blow...

So, 2009 is here! I can't believe it! This year has definately been one for the record books! My life has been taking twists and turns non stop! Some expected, some surprising. This year started off with me in eighth grade. WOAH! Seems like forever ago! I remember having some trouble with friends, algebra being a killer subject, and really just trying to tread water. Now I flash back to the present-- freshman at a new school, geometry trying to kill me, not so much drama. Life has changed so much for me just in the past year. I feel like I have matured so much. Not only physically and mentally, but spiritually as well.

Let's just go ahead and outline the whole year(important parts only, of course!)

January-May: Eighth grade, wow eighth grade. Taking exams, feeling pressure, the whole nine yards! Then I hear about Talonettes(High School Drill/Dance team). I'm thinking, should I try something new, or stick to Tae Kwon Do, which I had been doing for about 6 years. So, I tried out for Talonettes(no dance experience in my life) and made it! I was so happy. I ended up quitting Tae Kwon Do(with a few tears) and embarking on a new adventure in dancing.

June-August: Bored out of my mind in June, I decided to head up to Alabama to spend time with some family. While I was there, I realized how much I love Texas! Don't get me wrong, I love my family too, but I missed home. July was church month--Camp,Camp, and CAMP. Camp is a huge thing at my church(Reece Prairie Baptist Church) and it's definately something that you have to pray about and start preparing for months in advance. This years camp was, to say the least, AMAZING. My group,that you shared everything and more with, really touched me this year. There were so many stories of bad home lives, things done in the past, etc. That I was so thankful that I have followed God in such a way, that I haven't been led to those sort of things! I was taking all of these stories in, and one that especially broke my heart of one of my friends going through troubles, that one night, I broke down. I have never been so emotional in my life. I believe it was Wednesday night and I was thinking of my group and it all just hit me, after this week at camp, this "sanctuary" persay, these people are going to go home and face the same situations that they were talking about. I wanted to fix it so bad; I wanted to take matters into my own hands because I felt like God wasn't doing enough. I realized that there was absolutely nothing I could do to change their situations besides pray. So that's what I did. But, it didn't make me feel any better. I was hurting so much for others that I couldn't worship the way I was supposed to. All I could think about was my group, my friend, their struggles and hurts. All I wanted to do was fix it. But of course, I couldn't. No one can, I've come to realize. Only God can change those people and the situations they face. It still brings tears to my eyes to think about friends that choose to go down the wrong path in life and have to face the consequences. But sure enough, we did come back and they did have to face reality and I know for a fact some went right back to doing the same horrible things. The same horrible things that brought them to their knees at camp, now don't matter to them anymore, and it breaks my heart.

September-December: September through October was a very busy time. It consisted of TALONETTES, TALONETTES, and TALONETTES. When you are on a drill team, that team is your life. And it's taken me a while to get used to that. Every Friday night was consumed with a football game, then every Saturday was consumed with sleeping because you were so tired from the game! It was so hard to come to the fact that this was my LIFE. I like to have my days the way I want them, and that is not how it works with drill team. The whole year you wake up at 5:45 and if your late to practice, well let's just say, your in deep water. There's so much to remember and so much to do. I know all of this sounds like a negative, and that's because at first, that's all it was to me. I didn't see any positive outcomes from this. Then, we had the Christmas party a few weeks ago, and I realize why I do this. . . These girls are my family now. I wake up with them, and we're all in horrible moods, but you start to love the people that your with all the time, and that's exactly what's happened. I have my closest friends in Talonettes, the people that I've just met a few months ago are the people I can trust the most. At that party we had such a good time! We were all laughing and sharing about a million inside jokes and what not! And then at the end of the night we all were in a circle, and we had to say something nice about the person to our right, but that was just it, it wasn't an obligation at all. It wasn't like we were struggling for words. We all love eachother and we all had something to say. The person to my left, who I have gotten the closest to this year, said something very sweet that it brought tears to my eyes and I realized that this is why we all do what we do.

And now, this year is over, and it's time to start a new one. There are many new things to come this year, and I know that it will be one of the best, if I let it. You see, I've realized that life is what you make it. I know it sounds cliche but I reallly believe it's true. If for everything you can only see the negative, if you want to see the positive, you will. Your mind is capable of great things, believe it or not, and one of those things is that it's good at decieving you. Decieving you to make you think your not good enough, to think you can't do better than this, to think that what your doing is not worth your time. But this year, don't give in to those emotions, that frame of mind, because this life is so short in comparison to eternity, so why waste this blink of time being anything but happy?