| Well I didn't please Lauren or give her "entertainment" by my brief little entry. C'mon, my AP Bio teacher reading my xanga isn't riotous? It's not like I post incriminating stuff, but that whole I-hate-people phase at the end of last year wouldn't reflect too well on my personality :)
So fine then, I'll update of everything that has happened in my life since my last update that is now a private entry, along with most of 'em now.
Uhm, yeah. Only a few things really come to mind:
Getting really really sick over Feb. break and missing Roman's birthday
Going out to dinner @ Outback w/ my boys
Being accepted to Case-Western
Receiving a $10,000 scholarship that I didn't even apply for
Getting my license (love driving)
Doing really well on midterms/second quarter grades (with the exception of bio...the absolute death of me)
Ski trip w/ Outdoor Adventure
Manadnock Bible Conference w/ my church's and Long Ridge's youth groups
That last one deserves some explanation, but if you know me you already know all about it. It wasn't a "Bible conference," rather, it was more like a congregation of youth groups from all over New England to hear a series of sermons and have a lot of fun. I came back with a life-changing experience that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Here's how it went down:
We left from GHS at 5 or so with both youth groups (probably 15+ kids and four leaders). We hit a ton of traffic on what should have been a 3.5 hour drive, so we stopped in Hartford at 7:30 (2.5 hours for what should have been 1.5 or so) for food. I didn't mention, but I was riding up at this point with this kinda weird guy who didn't stop talking. He had awesome intentions and was more than likely a kindhearted person, but some of the things he said were really kinda odd. Anyhow, in McDonalds I was sitting w/ Amber and Jackie (sophomore and senior girls - I hung out w/ them for most of the trip because the two kids I was supposed to go with backed out at the last miunte) eating my burger when WHAM, I bit my tongue. This was no ordinary tongue bite, nay, I murdered my tongue. I maimed my tongue. It was a GASH going 3/4 of an inch across the side that spewed out blood for the next 3 hours (I shoved napkins in my mouth). It sucked so bad and STILL hurts today because the cut brushes against my teeth when I eat. Regardless, I then got into Amber and Jackie's car with the 2 girl leaders, so it was me riding up to NH with 4 girls...rather interesting. They talked about some weird things^^ Anyway, I went to sleep for awhile, and to make a long story short, we arrived at 11:30...2 hours after our projected arrival time.
The next morning we went to breakfast, had devotional (essentially a guided reading/prayer session), and went to "Session", a worship service followed by a sermon. Now, I always love praise songs, but these were some exceptionally good ones. The sermon, however, was absolutely amazing. It was the usual "don't have sex before you're married or you'll go to hell" kind of thing that has been engrained in me since age 3, but something about it mesmerized me. He, for the first time, added in a certain aspect that brought Jesus and some other interesting concepts into it that actually caught my attention for once. That and I got called to the front of the room to be the guy who nailed 3 girls in high school and on my wedding night my fiance finds out. Hehe. It illustrated a good point though.
After that we had some free time, which I spent swimming in the indoor heated pool playing basketball w/ my youth group and some other kids that we had met there. Then it was lunch time! Lunch was good, blah blah. After lunch I went with the girls to play air hockey and ping pong. The best part of the afternoon, however, came after that, when we went to a "bungee run." The concept is that you attach a bungee cord to your waist and run was far as possible to stick a velcro thing to a distance marker. The furthest mark was at 30 feet, which is absolutely nuts. I got to 28'4", which was higher than most people, but wow, that thing could WHIP you back. I did it 10 times total against Gavvin, the LRC youth group leader and tied him 7 times, beat him once, lost once, and then in the final one lost by an inch, hehe. He's built like a linebacker though, so it's straight. Next we headed to the pool again for more basketball and other screwing around. Dinner was at 5:30, and after dinner we had another session. This session was absolutely crazy. The pastor gave us the most rivetting sermon I've ever heard in my entire life.
People were getting on their knees and crying - this girl a row from me was bawling her eyes out. Anyway, over the course of this service, eight or so kids gave their life to Christ, which was an amazing thing to witness, let me tell you. That sermon though...I couldn't even tell you what he said right now, but I can tell you that it changed my whole way of thinking about religion and how I conduct myself. I loved it. After that we separated into our group and had a big discussion about everything.
Sunday morning we had another devotion/session, and during this session he told us about their mission trips to Haiti. That was also quite moving, and he somehow convinced me, because when I left I had no money in my wallet save lunch money, hehe. Anyhow, yeah, then we came home. It was an awesome trip, and it kinda put a spell over me.
I saw The Passion Monday night with DJ and Roman who are both totally not religious, but upon leaving Roman said, "I can't say Jesus Christ anymore when I stub my toe because now it actually has meaning to me", so I invited them both to church. To make a long story short, they're coming with me this Sunday along with a bunch of other people including a physics teacher, hah.
So yeah, coolie, there's my past experiences in recent memory. Well, the good ones anyway. We'll leave out the part about a certain girl leaving me high and dry, but whatever, it's cool, it happens.
My music tastes have even been changing - I still love Sublime, but I'm getting into Switchfoot, Other Guy Drive (Mr. Larsen's friend's band...crazy good lyrics), and some other Christian bands. I was just about to type "Man...I'm such a dork," and then I remembered another part of a sermon! He said, and I thought this was awesome that he could spell this out for us, "If you are a Christian and you live in your walk with Jesus and try to save your friends, you will be persecuted, you will be ridiculed, and you will be ostracized." So screw you guys, I don't even care.
But most of you wouldn't say anything anyhow, because you're not ignorant like that.
What's coming up?
CAPT week, April break in 4 and 6 weeks, respectively. I so can't wait for April break - it kinda of signifies the end of serious stuff for this school year aside from studying for APs. Getting my wisdom teeth pulled, that'll be an experience to remember for sure. Then APs, prom, graduation, mission trips, fun, Hawaii, fun, and college. Whew, I can't wait.
Odd - Ms. Handrinos just called my house and asked me to give a 5-10 minute lecture about Jesus' life before he was baptized, hahahaha. I have to get on that now, pc1love kids.
-Jeffy |
