A-T-L-A-N-T-A

Ok, time for a lighter post :)

Since moving to Athens, I've really enjoyed traveling into Atlanta (only about an hour or so away from Athens) and doing the tourist thing! To end off my summer, Joe and I went to Atlanta for a touristy day on Thursday.

To start off the day, we went to the World of Coca-Cola! SO MUCH FUN! We learned all about the history of Coke, watched commericals from all over the world, saw a 4-D movie (3-D video plus wind, water, and seat effects!) and even taste different coke products from a bunch of different countries. My favorite was a Melon Fanta from Africa, and my least favorite was definitely one called Beverly from Italy! Yuck! They had a machine where you could customize a Coke drink, and I mixed Vanilla Coke with Grape Fanta...it tasted pretty good! Joe mix Cherry Vanilla Coke with Orange Coke and it tasted like a fruity-smelling marker, which was actually very accurate!

Variety of Coke products from around the world

After the World of Coca-Cola, we got dinner at The Varsity. It's an Atlanta landmark and the world's largest drive-in. If you ever visit Atlanta, you MUST eat there! The food is your typical cookout food, but the history and set-up of the place makes it all worth it. It's very reasonably priced, too!

The Varsity

Our final stop on our Atlanta adventure was Turner Field for the Braves vs. Pittsburgh baseball game. That night, they were giving away Chipper Jones bobbleheads, so we made sure to get into the stadium early! We caught batting practice, and as usual when Joe and I go to a Braves game, there was a rain delay. Luckily, our seats were under a pavilion, so we waited it out and watched the rest of the game. Sadly, the Braves lost but we did get to see Chipper Jones bat on his bobblehead night.

Chipper up to bat

After our trip on Thursday, the last major Atlanta hotspot I need to hit is the Georgia Aquarium (Other places I've been to: Stone Mountain, the state capitol, and Six Flags Over Georgia)! I'll hopefully be making many more fun trips to Atlanta in the future, so if anyone is ever visiting the area, let me know and I'll try to be a tour guide for you :)

PUSH: pray until something happens

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, aka my second year of teaching! While it is just pre-planning week this week, I can't decide if I'm excited or ready or what, but it's here! It's making me nervous all over again, just like last year when I started my first year. I even woke up this morning having a bad dream about my first class going wrong!

I know that God works through everything and every one, but this morning I saw that happen once again. We sang the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (definitely a classic), and one set of the lyrics stood out:

Oh, what peace we often forfeit,

Oh, what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer

I'm not sure a truer statement could have been said to me at the this time. Why am I sitting here worrying about how the school year is going to go when I can just give it to God? God answers prayers, and lifting up this school year is the best way to save myself from forfeiting peace and causing "needless pain."

When I was in middle school, the PUSH rings/necklaces/etc. were "in." PUSH stood for Pray Until Something Happens. Maybe I need to pull my old PUSH ring out and wear it as an everyday reminder.

I pray that I will show God's love to my new group of student everyday and that I will teach all of them at least one thing throughout the year. I also pray that I will show God's love to my coworkers and work with them as a team. I pray that I will follow His will for the year and do what He is calling me to do through my teaching and other activities in my life.

If you get a second, I'd appreciate a prayer or two :)

1 is the loneliest number

Last week, I went to Emerald Isle, NC with my family for a week of sun, reading, games, and relaxation. I always love going to the beach for multiple reasons, but one of them is just watching the waves roll in while I think about many different topics. On the last day, I got to thinking about being alone.

It all started in the morning when we saw a man (probably in his 60s) sitting on the beach by himself. When I saw him I thought, "Aww, he's on the beach all alone." He had a book, but he really just seemed to enjoy sitting there looking out at the ocean. In the afternoon, I saw another younger guy sitting on the beach by himself. He didn't seem to have anything with him to do, since I just saw him sitting there looking out at the water. Again, I was thinking about why he was there all alone and wondering if he had anyone in town to go to the beach with. It made em think of Sex and the City episode where Samantha is supposed to meet the salsa club owner out at a restaurant and he stands her up. Carrie has some quote in the voiceover about Samantha not having any of her "dining alone armor" with her.

I got to thinking, though...WHY did I feel bad for these two guys sitting on the beach by themselves? Why do I feel bad for people that are at a restaurant by themselves? Or talking a walk by themselves? What is my problem with people doing things by themselves?

It could stem from my fear of ending up alone, but then I started to think, are we really ever truly alone? God is always with us, so even when another human being isn't there, I don't think we are ever alone. In fact, spending time alone on the beach would be the PERFECT way to spend time with God. It's hard to spend time with God truly alone with all the distracts at home (friends, TV, things to do at home, etc.), so maybe these "lonely" guys are on to something!

I've decided I'm going to challenge myself to do something by myself at least twice a month with no other distractions. Whether it be dining alone without a book or going to park and sitting on a bench for a while, I want to spend time by myself to help me better focus on God. I'm also not going to feel bad for people that are alone out and about. I'll never know their reasons for being alone, but it could be something that is beneficial to them.

Time to Vent..

Let's be honest...I love reading posts on the TSM section of totalfratmove.com. It's a website for sorority girls to post "total sorority moves" that basically just prove the stereotypes. I read for entertainment and usually get a good laugh out of it, until today when I decided to post a response to one of the posts I saw. Here is the post:

Being a child development major not because of any MRS degree, but because I love children and want to change the world. TSM.

I was so happy to see this post because this is EXACTLY the type of people that we need in the teaching field! So, I decided to post a reply to this post:

Love this! I teach middle school math, and while I could have gotten a job in any other math-related field, I chose teaching because I wanted to make a difference in the next generation. Snaps to you!

Naturally, I went back to see if anyone had posted on my reply, since it was my first post and all. Much to my dismay, here are the two replies on my post:

1) No you couldn’t…if you could have a job in any math-related field, you should have picked something that will actually make a difference. You could have worked in an engineering firm to develop more fuel efficient engines, or used theoretical concepts to validate hypotheses about the universe. Teachers are a dime a dozen, progression is forever.

2) Nobody “chooses” teaching. It’s a place where career aspirations go to die.

Now, I took the usernames off of these posts, but they were both posted by guys (their names had stuff to do with their fraternities). Since my post was on the TSM wall, my first thought was, "Why are these guys even LOOKING on the TSM wall, much less posting?" Then, I thought more about their responses and realized they are probably more of fraternity boys than fraternity men.

Two reasons these comments frustrate me:

-I was going to respond to the first post about my stellar school record, and then I realized that this person is just a cyber bully! Who in the world needs to get on the internet and just insult people they don't even know? The internet is one of the easiest places to follow the "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" rule. So, to go on the internet and constantly try to bring other people down just really says a lot about that person's character. They need to grow up and get a life.

-I hope these two guys never even consider going in to teaching because these comments are the complete OPPOSITE of what a teacher should think. First off, I will agree with the first poster that "teachers are a dime a dozen," but I will add that GOOD teachers are not. I personally believe that there are many teachers in the field that should not be teachers based on their credentials, attitude, etc. about the field. Anyone can go in to teaching, but not everyone in the field is actually good at their job. Good teachers are hard to find, and that's one reason I decided to be a teacher: I know my stuff, I'm passionate about learning, and I think that my personality is one that can help students achieve things in my class. The second poster just really has no idea what they're talking about. No one "chooses" teaching? I am one example that that is false--I have wanted to be a teacher all my life and did choose to teach. Being a teacher WAS my career aspiration, so this person just does not know what they are talking about. And yes, maybe some people go in to teaching because nothing else worked out, but honestly, those are people that shouldn't be teaching. Teachers should WANT to be there, as well as be knowledgeable about what they're teaching. That's one of the problems with our education system today, and until we weed out all the teachers that don't really care about what they're doing, we are going to continue to have struggling students and lag behind the rest of the world in academics.

Ok, I feel better now after typing out all my frustrations over those comments. If you read all of this, kudos to you! And needless to say, I just may refrain from posting on the TSM wall now if all I'm going to get out of it is negativity. Thanks :)

Wedding Bliss

This weekend, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in my friend Krista's wedding. Let me tell you, this wedding was a lot of fun! From the bridesmaid bonding all weekend, to getting ready and the wedding itself, to the pictures on the beach, the reception, and the party bus afterward...we really celebrated!

Any time I go to a wedding, it always makes me think about my wedding. Not that that's any time soon, but I always think about what I want to do for it. It also makes me think about what makes a marriage successful. With our society being so accepting of divorce, I think it's easier to give up on a marriage when things get tough than it used to be. But, I think there are plenty of ways to prepare for that BEFORE getting married, and here are some of those thoughts:

-Base your relationship around similar values and beliefs: To me, a healthy and successful marriage can begin by building that relationship with someone who has similar values and beliefs as you do. That should be one of the first things that is established in a new relationship rather than waiting until later on and discovering huge differences. Also, particularly where religion is concerned, sharing similar beliefs will help each of you grow in your faith while growing in your relationship. It's a way to continue to build each other up, which is one reason I think it's so important!

-Communication: So cliche, I know, but if you can't talk with your significant other about issues you may be having, how in the world are you going to have a healthy and successful marriage? You should feel comfortable talking about anything and everything with someone you want to marry. I've heard it said when people are getting married that they are "marrying their best friend," which I think is a great way to feel. You really should be in a relationship with someone who is your best friend, meaning someone you are yourself around and can talk about anything with. Communication is key to a good marriage.

-Have joint-yet-separate lives: That sounds weird, but I think any healthy relationship/marriage needs this! What I mean is that you have your life together, but that you also have things that you do individually. This provides you with an "escape" per se when things aren't going perfectly. Sometimes, you need that individual space/activity/time to cool off, collect yourself, and realize that things can be worked/talked out. It's also good to have friends that are just your friends so that if you need some advice or just someone to talk to that doesn't know your significant other, you can do so and know that they are really talking just for you.

-Always have a date night/"just the two of you" time: This is really for later on in a marriage (i.e. when the babies start to arrive), but I think it's really important to set aside time each week to just have couple time. Enjoy each other's company, do an activity you both like to do, share a good meal and conversation, simply just be together! It seems like it'd be easy to forget about what you mean to each other when there's a child that needs your full attention most of the time, but I think it's really important to keep the love in-tact by spending some time together fairly often.

I started thinking half-way through this, "why in the world am I giving marriage advice? I'm not getting married!" But I think these are good things to remind myself of as I think about the future, as well as share my thoughts with everyone else. Who knows, maybe I got the urge to write these things down for some reason unknown to me!

Chicago, part 2

Another highlight of the trip to Chicago was our "anchor" site. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning, we had the privilege of working with By the Hand--Engelwood. By The Hand is a club for kids to come after school/during the summer to work on academics and build their relationship with Christ.

The organization is based on the Bible verse John 10:10--"I came so that they may have life and have it to the full (abundantly in some translations)." Boy, do the people working there really live this out! They take the lowest students from 5 different neighborhood schools and just build them up in every way possible. There are high expectations for the kids, and they know exactly what they should and shouldn't be doing at By the Hand. While we were there, we played games with the kids for a little bit, worked with them on their reading for 30 minutes, played some more, and ate lunch.

I can't even begin to explain the impact working with this organization had on me. Each and every staff member there was so on fire for God and so in love with each kid that came to the club. You could tell they would do just about anything for each one of them. In return, the kids really enjoyed coming to By the Hand and felt safe and secure in doing so. Mr. Al, the director of the Engelwood site, kept thanking us for "pouring in to our kids' lives," but he really poured in to our lives with his uplifting devotions, willingness to help us, and his genuine love for what he does.

If you want to look up this organization and learn more about them, here is their website: http://www.bythehand.org If you're looking for a worthy cause to donate money to, this is it! It costs $5700 for each student to participate in this club, and BTH had 700 students participating in their 4 locations around Chicago! Thanks to donations, each student's "tuition" was completely paid for them. What a blessing!

I was so touched by what By the Hand does that I feel led to try to start a summer program like that in Athens. It may be a challenge, but I really feel that God sent me to BTH to place this upon my heart. It's amazing how God works, and I'm excited for what may be in store for me and the city of Athens in the upcoming year!

There aren't many songs with "Chicago" in the lyrics...

I just got back in town yesterday after helping lead a group of 10 high school youth on a mission trip to Chicago. We worked with Center for Student Missions, and the trip was incredible! I learned so much about myself, the city of Chicago, the youth, and serving God. I wanted to share some experiences on here, but if I wrote about everything in post, it may turn in to a short story! So, throughout today/the next few days, I'll be posting about my experiences on this trip.

First, I'll tell you a little bit about Center for Student Missions (CSM). This is an inner-city mission organization with 10 locations around the country. I've worked with CSM in DC, Philadelphia, and Chicago as a youth at Trinity UMC. It is such an amazing organization that provides groups an opportunity to serve God and others in the city, as well as learn about the problems of the city and see it from a lot of different perspectives.

On our first day of service, we went to a shelter for homeless men. Our only job was to talk to the men and get to know them. The man who ran the shelter, Vince, told us at the beginning of our time there and our job was to learn and the homelessness could happen to any one of us. At the end of our time there, he got us together and had us ask any questions we had. While we were talking, he asked us why we were there, and one of the youth said it was part of his faith journey. I think this struck a chord with Vince (who is not a Christian), because after that he asked the youth if he thought he had made an impact. The youth didn't know how to answer, and after a little bit Vince said "No, you didn't."

This didn't sit well with any of us there, and we talked about it on the way home. We were a little taken aback because as Christians, we are called to serve others because that's what Jesus did. Yeah, a conversation on one night of someone's life doesn't necessarily mean they are going to change their life the next day, but maybe the person I talked to just needed to listen to someone that night. We discussed the definition of "impact" and how our presence at the shelter that night wasn't a waste of time because of the short-term effects we may have had on the men we met.

The next day, our city hosts Rachelle and Lauren read us some scripture and a poem that helped us deal with this.

Anyway

by Mother Teresa

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Be good anyway.

Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People need help but will attack you if you help them.

Help them anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

"Work hard and cheefully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Rember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ"

Colossians 3: 23-24

God doesn't call us to serve others to receive appreciation or praise from those people. He doesn't call us to serve others at all, really. He is calling us to serve HIM. It's not about what other people think about our service to God, only what He thinks! This poem and scripture verse really made me see what I was doing in Chicago and my purpose there. I was to be serving God by serving others, not just serving the people of the city. This experience and the discussions that followed really helped me learn what it means to be a servant of God.