Creative Writing for Non-Creative Writers

So with the first couple of weeks of class having passed, and being in the middle of first semester, I am already knee deep in homework, but as you can imagine, there are times (such as now) when I am able to pull away and do something for myself. This would be one of those things.

In Creative Writing class we are talking a lot about being true to ourselves, and how sometimes we have to let life interrupt our writing. Sometimes we have to put more life into our writing, such as having a character use the bathroom, or sneeze... I can send you the reflection essay if you want to read it to better understand what I am talking about. I got an A on it... so it must have made sense.

Mostly when we are discussing the idea of "self" in relation to our writing and the reader, we use the word "I," a lot and then in turn use the word, "you" to call someone out, or engage the reader. However, most of this is used in poetry... not twenty page long stories.

Which brings me to my thought process for writing this.

As a Creative Writing major, and someone who has known that they wanted to write since eighth grade I know personally, that many times writers stick to what they know. From there we will deviate, we will make up some events here and there, we will imagine the "what if's" and we have even had an assignment where we had to write a truth, and write about it until it becomes a lie. Then we had to do the same for a lie, write about it until it becomes a truth. As you may have concluded, we write the truth a lot, but we also know how to lie on paper. We know how to give good plots, and we know how to develop the characters we need. Whether we develop them over twenty pages or two sentences, we can do it.

That being said, I started to write a story back in February. It was for my Creative Writing: Fiction Workshop. Through a series of "no's" from my professor, she finally took me aside and said, "simply tell the story..." So I took out all of the big parts to it, and left it simple.

Where it left me was characters who would essentially mimic my friends, my team, and people who I considered family. I knew how I wanted the story to end, so I sent in the ending to my professor for my final, but I never posted part three to the blog.

Something wasn't right about the ending, and I wasn't going to post it until I was happy with it.

Upon re-reading I started re-writing, I started to add even more, and from the revision processes to finally ending the story in a satisfying manor I realized a couple of things.

1.) I was extremely attached to these characters - so much so that I knew I couldn't stick to what had happened in reality as the end, but I could not leave them all happy and cheerful at the end, because it would not have been realistic with their set of circumstances.

2.) I thought that these characters were the real people - It had seemed as though I had captured them so well that it was a reflection of the actual people, or maybe I had been so consumed in the story that it felt that way. It felt like if someone called me by the main characters name, I would answer. I started calling my friends by the wrong name, so essentially I felt like everything that happened to the main characters had always been, if it had not already happened in real life, could have happened between them in real life, had the human versions made different choices.

It wasn't until this morning when a conversation from last night really triggered this train of thought.

In the conversation last night, Mason referred to my story, and in that referred to the character as himself. Mistakingly thinking that him and the character were the same person, from there we continued our conversation, and a similar conversation had happened in the story, but in a completely different way.

So when I woke up this morning, I couldn't shake any of the conversation and how it related to the story, and the story to our lives, and our lives to the characters lives. Something wasn't right with the way that we were thinking about the characters and the story.

And here is where we were mistaken.

I will never be Callie, she is a little bit high strung, she tells people how she feels straight up, and from what it appears, her love language is completely different from mine. She responds to physical touch well, I don't, unless I'm completely comfortable with the person... if that's the case, bring it on. When she got frustrated with Daniel in the hallway at Nationals she blew off steam, she yelled at him, and at the same time talked herself in circles right in front of him. That didn't happen, when we repeated the real-life version of that conversation. There was no yelling, or talking myself in circles. We asked questions and gave honest, and calm, answers. Granted, we were in a less intense environment than the characters were at the time... but still, completely different reactions. Completely different people.

In those situations that Callie was put in, I would not have responded to the physical touch well, and when I was having that conversation last night, I nodded, and rationally listened to everything Mason had to say, trying to defend my stance on things before he interrupted.

Which leads me to my second conclusion.

Mason will never be Daniel, or vise versa. Mason said it himself, he's more hard headed, he knows who he is, and nothing will change that, whereas the character who is based off of him, Daniel is not. Daniel is hard headed, but not as much as Mason.

Daniel listened to Callie, and I'm not saying that Mason does not, but Daniel listened, and asked his questions without interrupting, whereas Mason was constantly interrupting. I'm not really sure if we ever finished a whole subject of our conversation... or in fact I don't think I ever got around to fully answering one of his questions because he would interrupt me with a thought or another question. Which is fine, but that is not who Daniel is in the story.

That and Daniel and Mason's love languages are completely different, and it's obvious there too.

Clearly the characters are based off of us, but they will never be us, and we will never be them. I am aware that it is hard to comprehend, and that is where as Creative Writing Majors, our homework and our jobs get difficult. It's not hard in the sense that we can't do it, it is hard in the sense that sometimes our writing is too real to us. Sometimes it gets confusing between what happened in our poem or in our story and what happened in real life.

And the biggest thing I learned is that the characters... sometimes they accidentally become their own people. Maybe a better version of ourselves, or an alternate version, but we are not them, and we will never be.

I think that is all I wanted to say...

So back to homework and bones....

Summer and Junior Year!

We are about twenty-one days into being back at school, and actually having a normal, somewhat free life. No traveling the world, no adventurous foods.

We are no longer standing on benches at breakfast lunch and dinner, stomping away to morning songs, tribal songs, the announcements song or our cabin songs. We aren't singing to the princess of Merri-Mac, or the Queen any longer. There are no evening actives besides homework, no nightly devotions or morning chapel, and I am no longer reading to any of my girls as soon as taps goes off. There is no reveille to wake us up in the morning, there is only the shock at the fact that I didn't set my alarm and I probably missed class (which didn't happen yet). 

We are no longer waking up in our beds, brushing our teeth with bottles of water, ordering breakfast to someone who doesn't speak our language. As I mentioned before, we are no longer trying adventurous foods, and we aren't worshiping in the bus on the way to the Malagasy camp. There is no street evangelism here... unless you want to end up in a really awkward or terrible situation. I am no longer seeing people come to christ everyday, nor am I spending more than an hour in worship with my ministry team, or listening to Cornell everyday. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm still growing. I have my own worship times here at the apartment now, getting into the word, practicing my guitar and worshiping are always on my "to-do" list... but it's nothing like camp, and it's nothing like Madagascar. 

To be honest... I just can't put this summer into words. 

It was magical and exhilarating. 

I got to fall in love - give or take - about sixty times this summer. I got to watch God work in my life, in my relationships with people. He even taught me a few things about what it means to truly love, and care for someone. He taught me about community and leadership, and what it meant to stand up for myself or for my girls. He taught me about time... how I don't have enough of it because at camp there was no time for things that people back home were enjoying on a daily basis, such as television. There was barely any time to make the videos everyone was demanding. There was no time to read, write, sleep, do your own laundry, have your free time, hang out with your girls, get into your own devotional, study your bible, and at the same time, take care of ALL twenty-two of their needs. There wasn't enough time.

So to be able to put this summer into words... 

Is physically impossible. 

You'll see stories that I'll post from creative writing class where I talk about Madagascar or Camp, you'll probably hear me burst out into the announcements song - as my teammates have noticed - if you say something as simple as "goodness gracious!" and I will continue with "great balls of fire, Hi! My name is Peter and I have come to read your meter. Dan Stan the man. Can you say Adobe? Control the pet population, have your pet spade or neutered..." you get the idea. 

The point is, you'll hear about it, you'll see it through videos and photos... and I know that seeing that stuff and hearing small stories will never be enough compared to maybe getting to read about it, but it's the best I can do besides saying "go on a missions trip yourself" or "go be a camp counselor for a summer..."

When it's all said and done. I am speechless by this summer because it was utterly indescribable.

However, on the way back from Madagascar, the last three hours of the plane ride, I spent swaying back and forth, trying not to think about the fact that we were moving. Eventually I got up, and threw up in the sink. To this day, we still don't know what was wrong with me, but as soon as the plane landed they let me into the bathroom, and on the drive home I sat in the front seat with my head down and on a pillow. 

As many people know when we were on our way back from Mananjary, I got the message that Grandpa might not make it through the day. My team had prayed at that point, and I knew Grandpa was going to pass, I just wanted him to stay alive long enough to say goodbye. The last time I had got to see him in person was in April. However, on the day of the lemur park and shopping, I came back to the text message that Grandpa had passed, and I didn't get to say goodbye. 

He knew that I was in Madagascar, and he knew what I was doing here. He also told my Dad that if I had to miss him, he would rather me miss him while serving the Lord. I made him proud. 

That side story was because I spent the day that we got back from Madagascar, sick on the couch. I wasn't supposed to sleep so that my body could get used to the time change, but I wasn't feeling well. So I fell asleep at four in the afternoon and woke up at four in the morning, the morning of the funeral.  

I knew that going from camp to Madagascar was going to be a challenge, but I had no clue that going from Madagascar and the transition back to school would be so challenging as well. We braved the funeral, and many people showed up. He was always scared that people wouldn't come to his funeral, but the room was packed, and Uncle Andy did a great job with the eulogy. What really got me was that Uncle Andy said he would always steal a soda from Gramps fridge, and then he held up one of Grandpa's soda's and said, "this is the last one I'll be able to steal from you pops..."

Right then a part of me longed for those Christmas Eve's at Grandma and Grandpa's old house, you know the blue one with the gravel driveway and Pookie in the backyard. I longed for the Easter egg hunts, and to go chive hunting, and those days where Grandma punished us by making us cut the grass with scissors, which I didn't really mind. I longed for the morning glories and the feel of that weird carpet in their living room, and the smell of Grandma and Grandpa's room in the back on the far right. Along with the bathroom that was themed like a lighthouse, and those cow towels that Grandma always had. How about that big tub that Grandpa always kept his used soda cans in? I missed that, dearly. 

The funeral was tough, especially still battling occasional dizziness along with extreme sadness, and telling myself that I was not allowed to regret going to camp, or Madagascar, or wishing that I had come to visit him more often. It was mentally and physically tough. 

Then to top it off, I didn't want to have to deal with moving in, and having Fajita fest the next day, so after getting myself a new phone, we packed up the car at Aunt Vicki's and then at ten o'clock at night, we moved me into my new apartment. 

That was a struggle. The funeral, feeling sick, sadness with feelings of regret, and being jet lagged.

ROUGH but it needed to be done, and I told myself, "you'll get a break." 

Boy was I wrong because just like that Fajita Fest came, and then so did classes, and then so did homework and gymnastics practice, and learning new freshman's names...

To sum up the last three weeks...

Today is the first day I have not been sore since the 10th of September, my body has been physically exhausted to the point where I walk to class and my legs threaten to give out on me. My professor asked if I was okay on Wednesday... No I am tired... 

I am reading three books right now. All for class, and soon we will start Frankenstein... my fourth novel at one time. Literature is taking up all my reading life. Along with other homework, we are writing everyday for Creative Writing. We have given ourselves a prompt for each day of the week, so on that day we write from that prompt, and on Sunday we take pieces from each of our free writes, and compose our piece. It's a lot. On top of that, each week we are handed two sheets, each having three or four prompts. He hopes that we try all of them out, but we are required to turn in one piece a week, along with a reflection of the reading. 

So basically my homework is reading and writing... and that is all I do. Although, in my Graphic Communications class, we did start learning about drafting fliers and billboards and stuff like that, so I did get to draw as my homework this morning. That was great.

So if you ask me how this semester is going I have a couple things to say. 

1.) It is COMPLETELY kicking my butt. I'm always doing homework... and I'm never getting enough sleep. 

2.) I miss camp. 

3.) I miss Madagascar. 

4.) Despite the homework, and my cravings for summer to return, I know I am supposed to be right here... and I know that because this whole stressfulness, tiredness, and craziness could be terrible, but so far it has been a blast. 

AKA: This year is going really well despite the homework. 

Sophomore Year Recap: Part Two

Continued...

Miami continued to fall apart, but it was one of those moments where it didn't feel like the meet was a total mess while you were in it. Maybe that is just because I typically roll with the punches 99% of the time, or maybe because it was a mess encased in a lot of laughs, hugs, crazy videos and just a big load of TEAM. Honestly, it didn't seem or feel like a total mess until it was over and I started to think about how everything actually planned out, but we will continue with after bars at Miami.

So I started bugging the personal trainer, because hey, she's there, might as well use her. She strapped ice to my bag, and if the saran wrap was better at staying in one spot, I would have competed beam with it strapped to my back. But when I tried to stick it down my leotard, it just got my whole backside wet and started to leak.

Right before beam, Chloe came over and prayed for my back, and honestly, there was no pain until I did my dismount. I am sure that I left a wet spot on the beam though from the ice. I went back over to the trainer, bugged her again and she took me off to the side, pulled my leotard down and massaged biofreeze into my lower back, and then took me back over to her table and wrapped more ice around my body. From there we waited for floor, which was being used by both the men and the women, so it was going to be a while.

As I laid on the floor, I recalled last year. I was in a similar position. I had just sprained both of my ankles, I wasn't about to scratch on floor, which was our last event and Rachel let me use her leg as a head rest, and Shannon had brought over a mat to raise my feet up on. Now I was lying on the same gym floor, in the same spot with my head resting on Rachel's leg again, but this time it was because of my back.

Many of my teammates said that the floor routine that I did at Miami was one of the best floor routines that they have ever seen me do. Which was awesome, but I was in a lot of pain at that point. I probably should not have done my routine. Once the meet was over, I went back to the trainer one last time, my pee filled leotard off, finally somewhat comfortable, Mason with me, and we wrapped our backs one last time with ice. Chloe said goodbye, as she asked Mason to keep an eye on me, and make sure that I am making good decisions. I smiled, I am glad that I have someone like her to keep me in line, and remind me who I am sometimes.

Chloe gave me a hug, and left, leaving her backpack sitting by the wall... So to sum it up, I used Katie's grips, Sammi's wrist pads, I got about six bags of ice strapped to my bag, I used my teammates body parts as pillows for the second year in a row, my leotard was soaked from ice and urine (Katie and I have become very open about this problem... sorry if it's an awkward position for you) two times biofreeze was rubbed on my back, and Deshawn ripped, I don't know how many times. HELLO NEW SKIN! I'm pretty sure Deshawn was crying in that video.

Afterwards we went to lunch, where I was squirming so much, and it even got to the point where I went "to the bathroom" and tried to call my Mom, crying, but we were in some underground pub so there was no service there. I just let myself cry at the pain in my back for a little bit before I went back to the table and reclaimed my seat next to Michaela. When we got back to the hotel, I made another effort to call my Mom, Katie slapped ice on my back as I cried into the phone while lying in bed. I felt bad for Shannon and Paige because they really didn't know what to do about me crying. Katie had been there through it before, but not anyone else in the room. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe, my back just hurt, and when I bent over Katie exclaimed and told me to stay bending over as she looked at the bulge in my lower back. Paige looked at it, and said that it might be a bulging disc. At that I just lost it. I spend my whole life hoping, praying, trying not to be my parents, and I go off to college and of course, the thing that would stop my Dad from doing what he loved would be the same thing that would stop me from doing what I love. I tried to explain this to Shannon, who was trying to comfort me, and it took a little bit, but she finally understood. "you're not your Dad." She would tell me, and of course, I know that, but it felt so typical that this would happen at the time.

So we went swimming, I figured it would take the pressure off of my back for a while. I took off my new Miami shirt, and that was the last time I ever saw it. Despite my missing shirt, swimming was a lot of fun with the team. Danny and his shenanigans, took my phone and literally blew it up with pictures of random stuff, which actually killed my storage for the rest of the meet. Later that night we got ready for the party, but everyone decided that they wanted to walk to the party since it was "just down the street." I was all ready to go to the party until my back started hurting again and I was away from ice. I asked that we would drive but Katie said, "Becca's not going to be the D.D. again because she is drinking tonight! I want her to drink tonight" and that was that. I didn't recall ever saying that I would drink that night... Mason had peaced out shortly after swimming and the DIY hot tub, so my sober buddy was not really around, and I just laid in bed trying not to move for a while.

Katie, again, pushed drinking... and dating... especially since Danny was there and Danny and I are friends, and we are both single. That's when I turned around and I just flat out told her what I wanted out of life, "Someone that fits my standards okay, I'm not dating them unless they fit at least five from each category. I'm sorry."

"Okay, and who have you met that actually has a chance in the world at meeting five from each of those categories!?"I shook my head and laughed, she already knew the answer to that.

"Well that didn't work out,"

"And you think that I am not aware of that? I am perfectly aware of that, but it doesn't change the fact that I have those standards there, and I'm not shaking on this." I said to her, "Now, can we please go see if Danny wants to come to the party or not?"

Shortly after our walk to the party, I took a seat on the couch. I didn't want to be standing, walking or moving for that matter. Every time my body moved there was a new pain in my back. So I fell asleep on the couch, and when I woke up there was a circle of guys staring at me. Probably thinking I am passed out drunk... Nope. Just in pain.

Eventually I got a hold of Stephanie, my cousin who goes to Miami, and Mike walked with me to meet up with Steph. We got to catch up, she gave me advice about what is going on in my life, and she said, "my friends asked me about you. They are like, 'what does Becca do? Does she drink, does she party?' and I honestly couldn't answer that. I just looked at them and said, 'she does her.'" I laughed, it's true though. If I am in the mood to let loose for a couple of hours, I will do so, if I am in the mood to sit down and play cards at Danny's apartment (as he serves me salad and steak... :)) , I typically would rather do that. Once I was with Stephanie I actually started having fun.

The next morning, I awoke to a call from Chloe saying that she had left her backpack in the gym at Miami. So Katie and I went back over, and picked up the bag that I would later ship to Chloe. Remember when I said all that could go wrong did? Yeah... I believe that was the last of it. Until Shannon found Chloe's pants in her couch a couple of weeks later and we spent days trying to figure out whose pants they were. On the car ride home though... we stopped three times just for vomiting on the side of the road.

So that was MIAMI 2K15. A hot mess from start to finish.

I bet you are wondering what this has to do at all with what God has done this year? Hold on, because for a while, this is what it felt like. It felt like God wasn't anywhere, he wasn't doing anything, and this seems to happen when you are in college. Especially when the competition season starts because you are missing Sunday morning church for drives back with the team, there is excessive partying and you're in the third quarter of the year. This is where your school work seems like it is all for nothing, your team has bonded, you go home less and less, and you are more carefree despite the amounts of tests, and your friendships on top of that are really getting tested, because this is where you get sick of each other.

So I'm getting to what God was doing.

ITALY came, and it was the day that we were leaving. Danny dropped us off at the airport, we said our goodbyes, gave hugs and left for Venice. It was an amazing trip, but by the end of Venice, I was just tired of being lost all the time. Venice is very confusing, and I suggest a GPS. But it was beautiful, and a very interesting way of life. Katie and I arrived in Rome, and it was nice to actually be around someone who knew where they were going. The three of us explored, got some gelato and so on.

It had been discussed between Katie and I, that Tyler would not want her living with other men next year, even if it was for half the year, and even if she was sharing a room with me. However, nothing had really been decided... until one morning in Rome when I woke up to a message in our group page on Facebook saying that she was completely backing out.

She didn't even talk to me about her final decision. CRACK. She gave me nor any of our other roommates no warning. CRACK. There were so many things that were just eating away at our friendship, and we could feel it. It was like when you know that you are getting sick and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Or like those vines where they stop the video right before a big fall and they say, "It was at this moment Tommy knew, he messed up." We were the ones in the vine, and boy did we know that we were messing up. That's what it felt like our friendship was doing, and it sucked. It really sucked.

But Italy was GREAT! Not going to lie, I had a blast, and it was really cool because that is when God actually started to show me how big he really is and how small I am. There was this massive shrinking feeling over me, and when that happened, I feel like God just grabbed my attention and was like, "I GOT THIS!" and I was like, "Yeah, I know you do."

When Italy was over, one of my teammates and I came back with a stronger relationship, and I feel like we got past that awkward, "oh we are living together next year, even though you aren't my best friend yet," stage.

Then LUCAS GOT MARRIED! WHAT? Yeah that happened.

Dad and I joked about my little cousin, Alissa getting married before me, and I told him that was not allowed to happen. Especially under the circumstances I am in now. Alissa is my NINE year old cousin, who is surprisingly more awkward than myself.

After Italy, there was a week and then we were back in competition season with our home meet! Here is the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUYnxcwjoQo

The set up for the gym took hours of our time the night before. We started about half way through practice Friday night and didn't get out of there until around twelve in the morning, but I always think that setting up a gym together is always a team building thing. Besides, it was fun to throw those mats over the balcony... The tear down though went pretty fast because then we had a lot of parents and other teams helping us, the hardest part was getting the big mats back into Gym C all the way from Bowen, but it got done.

The party that night was Barbie and Ken themed, and I had a lot of fun. It was a small party, with the team at some frat house that I don't remember the name of, but it was literally the frat boys, us, and Austin and his friend from GVSU. One thing about this year is that I started off hating being the DD because I am just getting directions from a ton of drunk people, but I have come to love it. I cannot tell you how much fun I had at that party. Everyone made it back to my apartment safely, and the walk to Jimmy Johns was cold but nice. The next morning I awoke to Will and Austin sleeping on my floor in my apartment. Oh. It was nice chatting with them though, and soon enough they left, and I got ready for church.

At this point, the talk of moving out had started, and it was really weird to start thinking about what I was going to do over the summer. In all honesty I didn't want the year to be over, I didn't want to move out, I didn't want to go home. So when I got an e-mail from a camp for the summer, one that was a Christian camp, and had gymnastics... I applied.

As you all know by now I ended up getting the job.

We had a couple more meets, fun ones, and then came the big Nationals... A lot happened at Nationals, and if you want a creative writing version of the story, just read:

http://becca-definesweet.blogspot.com/2015_05_01_archive.html

It will give you a good idea of some of what happened. Not as dramatic, I didn't have a melt down, but some similar events took place. Too much to explain. Indeed, we made more videos, we had fun... and you can once again watch it on youtube.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo3d4fRKGlM

It's actually a pretty funny video if you ask me...

After Nationals, I had already accepted the job at Camp Merri-Mac as a camp counselor, and started packing for camp, and Madagascar. Katie moved out shortly after that, and so did Becca. Then I was left by myself.

That was pretty much Sophomore year.

A lot happened, but as Katie and I were looking back on it today at practice... she just nodded and said, "it was good."

It had its flaws, and there are some things that I would do differently, but I nodded as well. It was a VERY VERY good year.

Little Over Half Way

I found this draft of a post as I was going through my files. Here were some thoughts of how camp was going… half way through.

I am well aware that I have not posted anything for a while, and I mean, it has been a while. It actually seems like it’s been years since I have had the time to post anything, or the will to actually write about what has gone on at camp, but God has been working in many ways.

We have successfully made it through two whole sessions and are in the middle of our third and final. There are some of us that are counting down the days until we go home because we desperately miss our family. Sometimes it just feels like there was never any life outside of Merri-Mac and Timberlake because the days last long, but go by quickly, and it has just been an eventful summer.

At the end of the first session, I came back from the airport to no campers, girls that I had spent four weeks with, were suddenly gone and unless I came back for their CIT year, I would never see them again. I didn’t get to say goodbye. This hurt, but there was more that was going on as well.

As I was trying to tell my Mom everything that was going on with coming home to no campers, she told me about things going on at home. Knowing that I had to keep my grandmother in my prayers, along with my uncle and his wife. Then there were things that would be easier if I wasn’t at camp, Madagascar, my car getting fixed and the fact that I would get updates from my team who were always in the gym, practicing, and getting time to themselves and to have team bonding.

Quickly in many conversations with my Mom, I have learned a big lesson this summer. This lesson, I have always known, but never really experienced. God can have plans, but man has free will. Despite this… God still has a plan.

Because of that, I took time to myself on my days and night off. Mostly to calm down my panicking for Madagascar, and settle my emotions down, although with this I decided to start getting in the word more than I already was. I had already learned that it was CRUCIAL that we stay in the word as camp counselors, if not for our campers, and our own relationship with God, but just to keep our energy up. I started figuring out how important it was to pray with my girls, and reading to them every night when they go to bed, and once again praying for them. Prayer and getting into the word is the most important part of the job.

However, the further we get into summer, the more I just want to go home. I love camp, but I miss home. It’s simple, not complicated at all. The calls to my parents have been getting more frequent, and often times I try to avoid this by hanging out with my girls, who are amazing.

One thing that God taught me in this time by myself that I took to myself, is what God has called me into. The goal since I was in eighth grade, was always to write books and be published before I graduate, that has always been the dream. Along with that, this last school year, I developed a real love for editing videos and putting them together, so much so that I decided to turn that into my minor. That is the goal, on my own, and I hope that God uses that, but there has been something he has always been calling me to, since a very young age.

Ministry, and here we are, finally in it.

 

Despite the lack of sleep, how sore my legs are, how terrible the camp food is starting to taste because it’s the same thing over and over again. It is good, I can’t wait to continue with the next session, and then continue ministry in Madagascar.

Sunny Side Day/The Raid

For those of you who don't know about Merri-Mac, which is most of the people back home, the oldest girls at camp are the SunnySide girls. They get all the special privileges of being the oldest. Not only do the Tweedles, and the rest of camp look up to them, they get to be tribal leaders, they get a day all to themselves, that their counselors plan, they get to raid trapo most nights, and get a later bed time.

But many times those privileges come with a price, and they figured that out last night.

However... The Sunny Side DAY took place first!

The girls had been trying their hardest to listen in on conversations, read posters, be smart and think about when they had planned the trip. So they figured that it would be Monday. So Sunday night, all the counselors for SunnySide and Cloud Nine sat on the SunnySide porch and conversed while the girls were hanging out in the cabin. Blythe brought up the fact that we could not reverse the fact that they already knew it was the next day. So what if we threw them for a loop?

The original plan was to let the girls sleep in, stick an alarm clock in the middle of the room and when one of them would have to get up, they would see a poster telling them to brush their teeth, do their chores and meet us at The Mark by nine thirty. But they anticipated instead of participated... so we decided to change things up.

It was Hannah who came up with the idea, but the girls still needed devotional time and entertainment... So we divided. Becca, Hannah and I went back up to the cabin and started putting things together, and met up with the group later. The following morning, everything was in place. The girls woke up, clearly disappointed that it was early, they were up, and it was not the day of the SunnySide Trip.

Hehe.

We had them do their chores, and when it was getting close to the breakfast bell ringing we told them that we would finish up the chores, "just make it to breakfast on time!" We said, and finished sweeping. From there, Becca and I placed the last clue in the TeePee, and went up to meet the other girls at The Mark.

As we sat looking at the beautiful scene in front of us, with the sun still rising over the mountains, the fog lifting, we laughed, and we talked about all of their reactions, and Becca, Hannah and I explained the clues that we gave.

When the girls arrived for breakfast, they sang the prayer song, and Hannah split. They prayed, and instead of counselors being there to bring them their breakfast, we were all gone. So the Counselors In Training brought out three separate cards in little envelopes. The first one reading, "Where metal clashes (and Lindsey Lohan fought herself)."

Off to fencing. From Fencing they got a clue that said, "Where's Katniss at?"

From Archery, there was a clue about "post" and "don't wake the Tweedles though."

From Trapo, they got a note that said, "cabin inspector gives you minus .5 for the wrong Toilet Paper. With lines connecting the T and P (and forming a TeePee). But by the time the girls got there, the note was gone.

The next note was supposed to lead them to the counselors ring by saying, "one drum, three chiefs this is it." And at the council ring they were supposed to find a note that said, "Meet me at the Mark, Meet Me at the Mark, Meet me at the Mark."

(It's clever because whenever someone says "meet me outside," the whole lunch room says, "meet me outside, meet me outside, meet me outside," So it makes sense.)

But they never made it to the tee pee because they didn't find the note there, and apparently it was not obvious enough to know for sure that the tee pee was where they were supposed to find the next note. So thanks to my coco, Becca, and her little notes on the back, they figured out that we might be at the Mark, so they made a trip up there and when we heard one of our girls obnoxious voices echoing through the woods, we hid behind the mark. We heard them climb up onto the stage, and they screamed for us, to see if we were there, that is when we ran out and surprised them!

We had Chick-fil-a for breakfast, and keeping everything a secret, we told them to go back to the cabins and get their bathing suit on.

From there we decided to surprise them for a tubing trip, which even though we all put on sunscreen, most of us got a pretty good burn. We then came back to the cabin, showered, and went out to take pictures with the girls, with each other and the girls took cabin pictures, Tweedle pictures, best friend pictures, tribe pictures and so on. It was a good time! We then got a nice break from camp food and went out to a restaurant.

When we came back, we knew that Dream's cabins would have spent the day raiding us, we just were not aware of how bad we had been raided until we walked into Tucker Inn (the dining hall). When we walked into Tucker Inn, we found the girls mattresses stacked on a table, and wrapped in saran wrap to the table. On top of the saran wrapped mattresses, was peanut butter, jelly, honey and who knows what else. Between the wooden bars that hold up the roof, the sheets were tied to each pole, and each other, hanging in the dining hall. It was pretty funny, until the girls had to carry them up to the top of the hill. (We are the last cabin at the top).

I walked into the SunnySide cabin to see how badly they had been raided, mattresses were missing, of course, there was string and saran wrap everywhere. The porch was covered in weird notes written out and chalk. One of the girls ran up to me, "Cloud Nine is worse!" So I booked it up the mountain and when I got to the top, I saw the whole porch covered chalked in notes. When I opened up the door, the girls had already started cleaning up, but there were still little notes from the dreams in girls.  I walked into the bathroom to see a trash bag taped to the floor and walls, with sand from the volleyball courts, and sitting in the sand was a beach chair and a kayak...

Thankfully the counselors sections were not touched, but that didn't mean that we didn't have to help clean up. So we started taking the sand out of the cabin, and the kayak. In the meantime, one of my coco's had to use the bathroom, and while we are carrying the kayak we hear a scream come from one of the stalls. "There's saran wrap on the toilet!" She yells, "It's all over my dress!" The coco that was helping me move the kayak drop it, rush to the stall, and start laughing as we see our friend starring at the toilet. So we clean that up, and when she sits down again we hear, "there's vaseline on the seat as well!" We once again drop the kayak in a fit of laughter.

After we cleaned up the bathroom one of our Cloud Nine girls came in, "where are all of my shoes?" The girl behind her answered, "the fire dock." If you don't know what the fire dock is, it is a cement block in the middle of lake Doris. And I mean right in the middle of the lake. So we had to wake up a life guard, which we found out we would have to do in the morning.

We told the girls that we would respond with grace, and maturity, "don't worry about cabin checks, get your beds back together, we will get your shoes in the morning, for now lets clean up as much as possible and lets try to be in bed before midnight."

And that was the raid... and SunnySide trip. Altogether it was a really good day.

Aside from that, I have been at camp 22 days, and each day is going faster than the other. Although we have almost the same schedule every day, there is something different about every day. Whether it is losing at "What are the odds," or getting to talk to an old friend and getting to pray with him on the phone.

God keeps working, and my coco's and I are all listening for his voice everyday, and when we are not sure about what God is telling us to do, we pray about it together. We are leading each other daily, and building each other up. Many times it feels like we are failing, like when a camper goes home early, or you just can't seem to keep up on another day. However, every now and then (at least once a day) the coco's and I gather in a meeting and we all tell each other how we are doing, and be honest about everything that is going on. There have been some really tender moments with my coco's and the girls that I work with. It has been inspiring, and although i am putting deodorant on at least three times a day, and I still smell bad at the end of the day... Camp is great and it is going by so quickly!

One thing that we did realize together, was the first week we were really into getting to sit down during free time and get into the word. However, last week we just kind of started passing out during free time. We would get more and more exhausted no matter how much or how little sleep we got, but this week we started off together in prayer, praying for one another, and leading each other with little encouraging bible verses. Getting into the word has been a crucial part of staying energized and focused as a part of this job. I'm just glad we learned that this last week and not by week eight.

Until Next Time!
-Becca

10 Days of Camp

So I have a couple of posts pending, and waiting for me to continue writing them... but in all honesty, I want to talk about camp right now, and what God is doing RIGHT NOW and then I can talk later about what GOD DID my sophomore year.

So here it goes...

I am not sure if it is the non-stop cheering for our tribes during evening activities, trying to keep up with the sunny side-ers as they sing their cabin song at the speed of lightning, or the magic that is behind watching a Pale-Face, get called, covered in paint and be initiated into their tribe, that makes being at camp incredible.  We are currently in our first week of having campers, and already the girls are such a joy, and God is doing so much in me already.

BUT... The week before camp.

I packed up my bags, moved out, with the help of Danny, Justine, my family and Dave. Thanks guys! I moved home, and didn't cry. I helped Bethany put her new dresser together, spent time with my dogs, made a video, wrote a story, said goodbye to people, put some final things in place, and No Tears. I didn't think that I could really be okay with just leaving everything behind for a summer to go to a place that I really didn't know if I wanted to be at. I knew I would be having fun, but I had already spent four days away from Dave, and life just felt weird. I am used to seeing him every day... and I wasn't. I already craved our Taco Bell runs, or the nights when I would fall asleep on his couch, the days when he would pick me up, and save me from my apartment and my hours of video making to show me what he loved about Ypsilanti so much. We would talk about our futures, and the future of the club, plans, dreams, hopes and even every now and then... I would bring up one of my biggest secrets that most people don't believe and he would talk me through it.

I already missed that. I even broke down to my Mom, sister and brother about the pressure, the calls that I was getting, the things I had to do still... and in the end, I just said, "I feel better," they looked at me and laughed. Nothing about this was going to be easy. So Sunday came around, it was my last Sunday and as Mom dragged me over to Cornell to get prayed for, I felt the tears coming. How was I about to spend a whole summer away from my church, away from my club, away from my family and friends? How could this really be what God wanted? I wanted to be in the ministry... but would it really mean that I had to sacrifice everything for a whole summer?

YES.

I left Tuesday June 2 at 5:30 in the morning and made my 8 hour and 53 minute drive to Camp Merri-Mac for girls. Typically I love driving, but it was pretty torturous after a decent amount of time. It got to a point where I just put on instrumental music because I was tired of hearing my own voice overpower the baring Taylor Swift, High School Musical, Pitch Perfect, and Hannah Montana music (bringing back the oldies for long car rides). I only got lost once.

When I arrived at camp, I spent the first two days wondering and asking God what I was doing at camp, and my biggest question. "Did I just make a huge mistake?" but after a decent day of free swim, getting a nice bruise from the blob, and getting a little color, the North Carolina afternoon thunderstorms hit and we made our way up the hill. Once we were at the top, and ready for initiation, my rain jacket was pointless. My hair was soaked, I was out of breath and I was about to be covered in paint anyway. What color paint? No clue. I had a couple tribes in mind, but honestly I would cheer for whatever tribe I was put with because the banner would be won either way.

It was magical, and I am not sure if it was from the falling rain, the voice of the great spirit laughing in the trees far off, or the fact that I knew these girls already, and they were being weird, and covered in paint, and the fact that not many women at the age of 20 would be so into getting painted up, wearing feathers, dancing around a fire, singing tiring camp songs in the pouring rain, and trying to win a banner every session.

Eventually my name is called, and the secrecy of the cerimony will remain a secret... but I was placed in Choctaw, and the paint was placed on my body. Since it would pouring, I would be spitting paint out of my mouth a couple times every minute. But there is no other way to describe initiation other than...

"MAGICAL"

So...

Afterwards we made a small hike up to the mark, where it was slightly more dry, and that is when they would tell us who our Co-co's are (co-counselors) and what age group we had. Names would be called off, girls would stand up, and if I had befriended them, I would cross my fingers and hope that I was with them, others I had not connected with very well, and had trivial conversations with, I hoped that if I was put with them, that I would get to know them better.

One girl from my current cabin was called, Becca Morris. I like her, I wouldn't mind living with her. Hannah Wardell. I like her too, this wouldn't be a bad cabin to be with.

BECCA Garber!

Hey!

I stood up, found my place on the table, and we waited silently as we waited for E.P. to call off our cabin name.

CLOUD NINE! (16 Year Olds, but we didn't know that). We looked at each other confused, and someone told us our age group and we jumped with excitement! We moved into our cabins, asked the basic questions, where we are from, go to school, relationship status's and I even got a chance to tell Hannah my story that night, which was amazing.

Now onto what God has been doing. Shortly after we moved into our cabin, I found a book that I was supposed to return to Lauren Motsinger before I left for camp, but it clearly got lost in my packing. I pulled it out as I recalled the many Sunday's I would sit in the church cafe and try to focus on reading it. However, a lot was going on last summer, God was really teaching me to hear his voice, he was working in my life and in the meantime, my mind was focused on something else.

Reading about being single and becoming the woman God wanted me to be last summer was something I knew that I HAD to do, but my heart wasn't in it. I wanted it for the wrong reasons. So in the middle of asking God, "okay, I know now why you want me here, but what do you want me to learn?" I opened up the book and gave it a second shot. This time there were no distractions, that would hinder me... I mean... I am MILES away from everyone and everything that I truly love. I could really listen this time.

So... the first chapter in the book, Lady In Waiting was about reckless abandonment. It talked about how this time of waiting isn't a time to just sit back and wait, it is a time to take advantage of the time that we have with God. I remembered that from reading it last summer, but in the middle of me asking, "why?" he answered me.

He told me through the book, "I wanted to get you to a point where I would tell you where to go, and what to do, and without thinking about all that you would give up, without letting those hinder you from listening, you would go." Had he asked me to do so last summer... I probably wouldn't have. Also, I really didn't know his voice early on in the summer... I was still doubting things he would tell me, but he cleverly maneuvered it so that I would learn his voice last summer, and this summer he would lead me here. Recklessly leaving everything that makes me happy without knowing why.

So my next question that I asked God was, "okay, so you told me to come here out of reckless abandonment, but surely you didn't just want to see if I would listen, teach me that lesson and let me go and have fun after that. What else do you want to do with me?"

He quickly answered that one too in the book, being a lady of diligence. Not just wasting this time that I have, but really ministering to these girls. One thing God really spoke to me and said was, "you hesitated to pray out loud last year. BUT NOT THIS SUMMER. You hesitated to speak up last summer, BUT NOT THIS SUMMER." I took that charge, and God has just given me a courage and a confidence that I can lead a gymnastics class, I can lead a devo, I can pray out loud for these ladies, I can be their spiritual leader, and emotional guide.

I have already given my first devotion, which I will admit that I was nervous for, and I am getting comfortable with something that is uncomfortable to me (praying out loud).

In the meantime, I know that this is going to prepare me for Madagascar, and I cannot wait to continue to minister to these girls! I already love them so much!

And that is Camp...

With the non-stop singing after meals, the stomping on the benches that we sit on for lunch. There are those moments like last night, when you are in the middle of the Mike, and you are dancing to the song, Shut Up and Dance with EP, Mary Helen, Sydney and Olvey between Volleyball sets. In those moments you throw your head back and think to yourself, "Remember this, remember this moment for a long time Becca." There is watching the youngest girls, the Tweedles, run to lunch chanting "tweedles are the best!" The magic of initiation, watching these girls grow, and having coco's that keep your rule-breaking self in check most of the time. Camp is just one big adventure so far, and God is completely in control of it!

More to come later!

Go Choctaw!

-Bec

Sophomore Year Recap: Part One

Sophomore year is over, and I was going to try to write about everything that has happened, but between all the things that could (and did) go wrong with the team and private family matters that went down, there was just too much I couldn't share, and too much to share.

So then I moved on to what God has done this year... and there has been a lot in that area alone that has completely intertwined with events of the school year, so that is hard to explain. Along with that, many people don't see when God is working, they just see the results. I was one of those people. I sat back through the whole school year and watched relationships take some pretty tough hits, other relationships crumble, and people tried to walk out of my life when I know it isn't time for them to leave. It wasn't until I was sitting in church the Sunday morning after Mason's birthday party that I realized all that God had done this year.

So basically I am going to attempt a re-cap of everything that happened this year, and God's fingerprints on it. Here it goes.

Days before I move in, I realize that I am still the only one moving myself in, unless we do it later and then Mom can help, but I didn't think that was such a great idea. Because when things get heavy and we are tired that could turn into a very unenjoyable day for my mother and I because I can easily get frustrated with her so I either sound annoyed, or stop talking, and then she gets frustrated with me. So my Dad pushed me to ask for help, so I did, and literally at twelve in the morning the day I was supposed to move in, God PROVIDED. It also ended up being a really good day. The apartment was prayed over, and there were some pretty decent conversations on the way up.

Shortly after that, I was sitting in my room putting my drawer set together with Mason, and God SPOKE. I knew what he said, he said Mason's name, but beyond that I didn't know what it meant or why. I figured God wanted to do something through Mason this year, and I wasn't sure what.

Then September came, at this point I have had time to talk to Katie, tell her what happened over the summer, catch up with her, and she now knows everything. So I was sitting in my apparel textiles class, sewing a bag when I get a call from Katie. I ignore the call, so it goes straight to my lock screen, which has a message from Katie. I open it up and start reading. "Hi, My name is Katie Harris, we met briefly when you were helping Becca move in..." I read the whole message, and I was furious I set my phone to the side, and as soon as class was over I called her. What had happened was Katie knew me very well and knew I was not going to do anything about a situation, and she hoped to speed things up a bit and share it with some other people. Except she accidentally sent the message to me. She went into my room, tried to get on my computer to delete the message to me on Facebook before I got on my phone and saw it. So when that didn't work, I came barging through the door asking her "what in the world!?" We argued, she gave her case, and I disagreed. I said that it wasn't her decision to make, that I wanted to handle it, but she continued to fight me. I looked at the clock and realized I had to get to the YMCA to sub for someone. When I left I told her to send it. I figured I would rather know about it than tell her "no" again and have her try one more time to go behind my back.

CRACK in our friendship.

From there it took a couple of weeks for me to finally sit down with Katie and talk about what had happened, that she hurt me by sneaking around behind my back. She hurt me by not asking my permission and above all else what happened weakened my faith and hurt my relationship with God. It made me doubt him for a little bit, and that is never a good thing.

BUT Fall Retreat came. The day that we were supposed to leave I had a serious conversation with my Dad, and realized that something that I thought was recent knowledge, I have known my whole life. My Dad told me that I have known since I was five years old. I just sat there shocked, "if that's the case darlin, and you accept that this is where your life is heading, you are going to have to trust God 110%." Is what my Dad told me. There was more, but I can't really share it, but I nodded, if this was how the weekend was going to start, I was curious to see how it would end.

I realized that I had a decision to make. God had made it clear on some of his plans for my life, and it was my job to accept them, and to trust him with these plans. So one of the days during our free time, everyone was working out and I just felt God pressing in saying, "read Esther, READ Esther." So I did, I sat on the playground and read, and when I was finished I suddenly knew everything about my future!

Just kidding... I was even more confused. In fact, I didn't know why God had me read all of Esther. Thought maybe I was wrong, that I didn't hear God speak... But I told Annelise about this, and later that night during service, the pastor told us to turn to Esther so we can talk about courage to accept God's plans or calls on our lives.

BINGO.

So I went up to the front, got prayed for, and the woman who was praying for me stopped, and looked at me. God had spoken to her, and she told me things about myself that only people I trusted knew, and even fewer believed... and on top of that. She told me what to do... Or not do... about it. I walked away with my mouth dropped. I had literally spent my entire summer thinking that I was nuts, asking for confirmation after confirmation when God spoke, and then a stranger just tells me everything. She stops me and tells me. I had to tell someone! So I told Annelise, and I told Gela, and through that Gela told me her testimony and pieces came together and it was great! Suddenly that doubt in my relationship with God that Katie had planted was gone. GOD CONFIRMED, SPOKE, and MENDED.

Not only that, God had used what happened with Katie to break myself of emotional attachments to people so that I could be focused on what God wanted to do through them, and my relationship with God. It was kind of cool the way that God used Katie's mistakes in our relationship.

But some more cracks came in our relationship. Minor things... but there were still some things. Like the push to drink, the push to find a boyfriend (when I really don't want one), Katie yelling to the whole club how terrible of a friend and roommate I am... taking care of her every time she drinks too much. CRACK, CRACK, CRACK, CRACK, CRACK.

But November and December came and I swear Katie, Becca and I were in a giant chess game. Constantly trying to figure out the boys in their lives, figure out school, and team decisions... it was rough, very rough. Basically the break down went as such: Katie and Tyler "Broke up" but they were still together. (Tyler just wanted to go out and have fun without Katie calling him and questioning his every move, because if they aren't together, she doesn't have that kind of power over him). Not Cool. In the meantime, Ethan Knopp was messaging Katie and I saying that he wanted to end it with Becca. He then continued to tell us that he liked Katie more. So when Tyler actually ended the relationship saying, "I can't do this!" Ethan Knopp jumped on the opportunity and asked Katie out. Katie said yes, and did not tell Becca. Tyler tried to fix his relationship with Katie, and Katie told him about Ethan, so Tyler got mad and texted Becca telling her about Katie and Ethan. Thus the beginning of the end of Katie and Becca's friendship, and to top it all off, we decided that we were going to get a club house and not invite Becca to live with us seeing as though she isn't a part of the club. Bye Bye Becca...

PHEW that was a lot. That was just December, and that wasn't all that had happened. Lets just say that it is easy to get caught up in the college life, and the whole "I want a boyfriend," and "I want to be comfortable with intimacy," and "I wish I could trust people." I talked in so many circles with Dave and Danny that I am sure that they were sick of me after a month. Even Mason came to my rescue a couple of times because I would start to get pulled into the college life, but realize I didn't want it and so Mason and I would talk about Katie's influence over me.

After all of that, Christmas break came, and my Mom and I got into a huge fight when I was in need of my birth certificate. She started hounding me for the "partying" Which there had only been three, in the four months that I had been at school. They were on Friday nights, after practice, and I still got up for work the next morning... I was still responsible... and I was completely sober... So... yeah it wasn't that big of a deal, but Mom was flipping out. It was just some games, and really loud music on a Friday night after practice. Anyway, the argument starts, and the birth certificate was still no where to be found. Also within that week, I dropped one major and decided that I wanted to minor in communications. What communications? NO CLUE, I just like my communications classes and I like making videos.

So I get back to school with one day until my birthday, and Katie is literally helping me plan out my life. I finally decided on Graphic Communications, as a minor, and tried to sign up for more Creative Writing classes since my prerequisite english class got cancelled. However, the only two options were 1.) FULL and 2.) Tuesday Nights at Five... AKA During work. I would only be taking one Creative Writing class for Winter Semester of 2015

The semester was off to an interesting start, but for a couple of weeks, I finally felt like I might have my life together a little bit... for the first time since October.

But who am I kidding? It's January of my sophomore year in college. I don't have my life together. AT ALL. I have been in school for five months now, I have been home approximately six times. Two of those were holiday breaks, and one was so that I could leave to go to Fall Retreat. I'm used to the college life, I'm used to the freedom, my own room, having a school schedule, work schedule and goals for gymnastics. I am used to having a party once a month with my club, even though I hate partying, I find that I enjoy hosting them (because then if I get tired after about an hour I can retreat to my room and nap). I don't know what I want out of life, heck I just got done dropping a major and picking up a minor three weeks after I declared that Major. I don't know who I like, how to pursue relationships with people, and quite frankly, I don't know what I want or who I am.

My life was not together.

So the middle of January, Mason shows up for a practice. Katie leaves to set up for my birthday party, which leaves Mason and I to lock up the gym, and for the first time in months we have an intimate conversation. He tells me that he is really trying to leave Eastern, and get onto a varsity team. A million things ran through my head at that time. One, "can't you see how much this team cares about you?" No. Two, "can't you see that this team is a family. You are family." No. Three, "Katie's leaving, you're leaving... and you two are like... my best friends." Okay... Four, "God is not finished with you here yet..." and the list continued, but I didn't say anything. I listened to him talk, I asked my questions, trying to understand. We left the gym and shut off the lights as I continued to ask questions. One that was really pressing in on me, and I felt like God just wanted me to ask him was "where does your self worth come from?" He said he didn't know who he was anymore, and needed to get out of Michigan... it seemed as though gymnastics was giving him his self worth. To me, that seemed like a pretty easy thing to lose, and if you are placing all your self worth in it... If I were him and not a Christian, I would at least want to find my self worth in my relationships, and so I started praying for him more, because we care about him, we love him and we want him to stick around. We went to my apartment, and got ready for my birthday party. If God was going to do something, it wasn't going to be anything that I could say that would change Mason's mind. Mason would have to see what I see in the club for him to realize how special it is.

That night I fully realized the damage that (my) Tyler had done to me when it comes to relationships. I know I am awkward, but screaming in someones face when they try to kiss me... Yeah. Umm... That was an interesting night and it just reinforced that I knew that I didn't know what I wanted and that I really just needed to let God work. Poor Danny, Dave, Chloe, Stephanie and Katie had to listen to me talk myself in circles about everything that was going on. In the meantime, I was pretty sure that my friendship with Mason was ruined, and I was torn between not caring at all and being completely hurt by it. Throughout the next week, Katie and I had a conversation about the friendships that I have let fall behind. She joked that we started off with two Ethan's in our lives and now we didn't have any. I was taken aback by this, and realized that I still wanted/needed a couple of those decent friendships that I formed last summer, besides I had questions for Ethan so I texted him and asked him if we could get a coffee and catch up sometime soon. He said yes.

The following weekend though was... too much. I ended up landing my double salto pass wrong, and my back really hurt. So Friday night at the team potluck, Danny rubbed my back for a good hour and I chilled most of the night. The Saturday night Katie wanted to go out to the Delt party. No Thanks.

But she got Dave and Justine in on it, so we played True American (me drinking soda) in our living room and then went to the party. All I really remember from that night is being so tired of drunk Katie, that I literally ran away from her, and went upstairs with Dave. I talked it out with Dave, and we also talked about everything else. Things going on at home, my failing friendship with Mason, my awkwardness... we literally talked about everything. Eventually Tyler called Katie (as they were "back-together") and when he found out that she was at a party, he flipped. So we went back home (thank God) I helped Katie go to bed and the next morning we cleaned up the apartment because there were pillows, chairs and dishes all over the apartment from the game.

The Ohio State Meet came, and there was just a lack of communication. I was completely frustrated by it, I was frustrated by the fact that the team didn't even want to be together most of the time, and most of the team stayed back and slept instead of going out and dancing. I hate partying, especially in public, but I had fun. So if I can be tired, and in pain and having fun... so could the rest of the team. But it was a lot of fun finally getting to know some of the freshman more, and playing those weird games together in the hotel room. I tried to get Mason to stay for the party, but he went back with his Mom.

This frustrated me a little bit, and for the same reasons that Katie hating Eastern frustrates me. I have wanted this school since my sophomore year of high school. I counted down the days until I would finally be here, and when I finally arrived, I was embraced by these two awesome best friends and a whole family, a team. Neither of them saw it though, and Mason would refuse to spend time with the team beyond dinners together. So when you consider someone a part of your family, and they aided in being a part of a place that was your escape, but they don't care... it gets frustrating.

The fourth weekend in a row of going to some sort of party, came and it was the Miami meet, but EVERYTHING went wrong, and it was right from the beginning too.

We had all the plans for room assignments and car assignments figured out. We had the cars figured out, what time we would leave, and what time we would arrive. Where we would meet and so on, but something happened, and our biggest car suddenly couldn't go. So we hurried up, grabbed two other cars, figured out those arrangements, and finally left an hour after we had planned to leave. An hour into the drive and I really had to use the bathroom, so I call and ask the front car if we can pull over. They say sure, but ten minutes later they called back and asked if we just wanted to stop and get something to eat. Okay.

So then starts the discussion of what everyone wants for dinner. I still have to pee. Then we have to find an exit with those restaurants nearby. I still have to pee. Construction starts, mom calls "what's your address?" Really Mom? I'm driving, there is construction, I'm following someone and I have to pee and watch for any exits that has Subway so that we can satisfy Mason.

We eat... so on so forth.

We get to our hotel, and right away Dave Mooses me. I tell him that there is snow on the ground, and so we make a deal that if I roll in the snow, he will get it on video. So that happens. As we are unpacking, I pull my gym bag out of the trunk, and pull the tipped over cooler off of it. When I feel my gym bag, it is SOAKED.

Okay... Anyway, we unpack, get ready to go swimming, go to the pool, Katie and I are just about to jump in together and the front desk lady asks if we can switch rooms because we were, "being too loud and there are older couples on the floor we are on." We thought that was ridiculous because us being loud is partying... not unpacking our stuff after a four hour car ride?

But we throw on towels, flip flops and slippers, grab all of our things, get new keys and find our new rooms, which don't have microwaves or refrigerators. So on our second trip we run into Danny, Dave and Mike who are taking the microwaves and refrigerators out of our old rooms so that we could have some in our new rooms... About 45 minutes later we were finally able to jump into the pool.

Chloe arrived later that night, and we had a heart to heart. She talked me through some things, and the fact that my friendship with Mason had hit the highest level of awkward. We caught up on our lives and the next morning we awoke bright and early. As I was putting my gym bag together, I feel it, and it is still wet. That is when I pulled out my grips. MY GRIPS! They were drenched. The wrist pads were cold and wet, and the leather was cold and wet.

I was about to go flying off the bars when I compete.

So we get to the meet, and I buy a t-shirt. The last medium left. We start on vault, and I am having a hard time going over once again, so Katie stands there. With every landing my back started to hurt more and more. Then we go to bars. My grips still aren't dry, so I am asking around for someone who has extra grip pads. Thank God for Sammi! But I start warming up, and there gets a point where your grips are just too wet where chalk is just sliding off your hands, I probably would have been better off with butter on my grips. That was that point. I was doing my release and Katie, instead of pulling my board, ran up behind me and literally caught me in mid air. So Katie and I started switching grips back and forth. While that was going on, it hurt my back to even start to hold up my legs, so to speed up the process and get my legs though my hands hurt even more.

I survived the bar routine, but the look on my face afterwards, was not a pretty one.

Yeah, my back hurt a little bit. HAHA

To Be Continued...

Here are some photos from throughout the school year...

My Birthday Party With Mason and Katie

Umm... My Birthday Party Again

"We're Gonna GLOW GLOW GLOW GLOW!" GLOW PARTY

Waiting for the Ohio State Meet to Start

Katie and I were Conditioning and the mat fell on us. 

Throwback! To FAJITA FEST!

FAJITA FEST AGAIN!

OSU 2K15

First Practice of the YEAR!

MSU Vs. EMU

Fall Break Away 2K14

Fall Break Away 2K14

Fall Break Away 2K14

Halloween Party

Halloween Party

Halloween Party

Umm... this is our friendship

Going up in the rafters.

Glow Party

Mason Pushing me to the ground... Real Gentleman.

Mase

Before the tree was moved.

After..

Birthday Party

Team Potluck

OSU 2K15 "I work out!"

Mason and I match

MIAMI 2K15

Before we found out we had to switch rooms...

Before March In 

My Best Friend <3

This is the meet where we became friends with GVSU! The start of a beautiful Friendship. <3