I went on a church fellowship camping/retreat thing that was a blessing in the midst of two-a- day football practice which is soreness, hard work, blood and sweat. Less blood, more sweat.
It was amazing. There's just some kind of natural intimacy from living, breathing, singing, praying, worshiping, living, cooking, huddling.
Were were sending off New Life seniors, [high school fellowship] and the head of New Life [Tung Do] was stepping down.
Everyone was laughing, reminicing about old times, then crying after peple began spontaneously stepping up to encourage the Seniors with life, how much they meant, and the future college, walk with God. Everone was blaming it on the smoke~
It was... a beautiful night.
Fire crackling, smores, hugs. . .
That moment, for me, defines fellowship. For a moment there, we weren't just a bunch of kids brought together by church, love for God, openness and worship... we were family. Communtity.
This could be, but isn't a shout out. y'know... come to Church! Go with me to Friday night fellowship!
But it's about something I learned in that moment.

Tung gave us a short but sweet lesson the morning after. He said that all of us yearn for something eternal. The soul yearns for eternal things. And when you start substituting non eternal things... whether it be intelligence, friends, relationships and intimacy; whether it be power or riches or grades...all eventually disappoint. Life becomes lacking. Can tell that something's missing.
And the yearning is unfufilled.

All except religion. God.

Everyone is chasing something. Worshiping something.
And the revelation hit me. It was so simple, but...
All I need is fellowship. a communitity. A family to rely on. I didn't need the approval of my sports coaches, ddin't need so many friends, didn't need relationships and girls to make me happy, secure.
Fellowship. Which I believe is something deeper than simple freindship... like where you can say 'I love ya, dawg' to another guy and he'll either laugh or right back atcha. It's where everyone's a brother or sister in Christ and everyone is open, caring, listening, joking.
Sure we argue, but the next day, it's fine. A 'lil cussing, but y'know...^^" We'd prolly get sick of each other after the first week.

But I realised that God is all I need. Where God is, there will be fellowship. Love, mercy, forgiveness... so dang abstract but... I can live without Anita. Secure, strong, caring... I don't need a girl, I've realized. Because ultimately, honestly, she only goes so far into my life. But God is everywhere, everything. . . He's so real...
I feel freer, somehow.
Of course, I'm still in love with Anita pretty badly. She's sweet, compassionate, caring. Loveable, hugable... one of those girls that are one of a kind amazing. Faults, but I'm okay with that.
But I've just realized that I've been letting her dictate my life. I'd be doing things for her, in her name, looking towards her for inspiration.... not that it's such a bad thing. In the name of love? There are plenty worse.
But now I know, well, I answer to something higher.
And that I'm under grace. Freedom. I've figured out what I want to leave behind, a 'legacy' of sorts, I've figured out for what I wanna live my life, how I want to.

Liberation, I think.

LalalaPomPom

Name:
Yes. I have one.

Age:
Two years and three months from legal adulthood.

Grade:
Sophomore

School Attending This Fall:
IL

School Starting Date:
August 31

Favorite Month:
December

What You've Done This Summer:
Road trip to Oregon, Road trip to Lake Chelan, Eat ice cream, Wasted time, Read 1/2 of the summer reading book, Caught a cold, Slept, Watch HP6 (which was mediocre), Surfed the internets, Volunteered.

What You Should've Done This Summer:
Finish the summer reading book and packet, Review Spanish, Learn calculus, Do the art homework, Exercise more.

What You're Going To Do The Rest Of This Summer:
Finish the summer reading book and packet, Do the art homework, Attempt to go through calculus textbook in two weeks, Review Spanish, Eat ice cream, More volunteering, Sleep.

The horrors of procrastination. Revamped.

august....

Name: Amanders.
Age: 14.
Grade: Freshie. that sounds so weird when.
School Attending This Fall: newport.
School Starting Date: august 31 -.-
Favorite Month: june.
What You've Done This Summer: went to taiwan. eat. watch tonight show and late night.
What You Should've Done This Summer: do homework. finish reading pride and prejudice. read more books. run more.
What You're Going To Do The Rest Of This Summer: ..... watch more tonight show and late night and do my homework and take a few runs to starbucks. there happens to be a starbucks pretty close to my house, but the problem is that getting there is all steeply downhill. coming back is basically hellish.

August Soundoff~!

FUCK.
It deleted my awesomesauce post.
Gah.
I quit.



--
Okay, okay.
-breathes slowly-
That pissed the crap out of me.
I'm really mad.
But after yelling a lot, hurting my foot and throwing something out of sight, I think I'll rewrite what I tried to post, okay?
Okay.

I'm starting the soundoff because the blog is dying. Not that I've been visiting XD

Name:
Age:
Grade:
School Attending This Fall:
School Starting Date:
Favorite Month:
What You've Done This Summer:
What You Should've Done This Summer:
What You're Going To Do The Rest Of This Summer:

Okayyy! I think I left out one. Uh...Anyways.

The control paste isn't working...

Name: Theresa
Age: 14
Grade: Sophomore
School Attending This Fall: Mercer Island High
School Starting Date: 2 Sep
Favorite Month: October
What I've Done This Summer: Wasted a lot of time on the computer, went to music camp (where I lost 5 pounds!), did a teeny tiny itty bitty bit of my summer homework.
What I Should've Done This Summer: All of my summer homework (hahah), SAT prep (I lost my SAT prep book...I don't even know how that happened, given that it's telephone book sized.), lots of piano-ish stuff, volunteering, a job shadow, art...
What I'm Going To Try To Do The Rest Of This Summer: Well, the rest of my summer homework, obviously. It depresses me. And SAT prep. If I can, ya know, find the book-thing. There's a piano recital-duet-thing on the 30th. I'm so screwed. For life. I'm watching Ivy's mom do an experiment thingy tomorrow. Lots of volunteering crap. D: