I have a physics exam tomorrow.
I distinctly do not like physics.
Therefore I am currently the unhappy version of Jessie.
The end.
Jr-Sr May 9, 2008
So the Jr/Sr Banquet is today, which is awesome. My boyfriend (eeee!!!) is driving here from Taylor, also awesome. Perhaps awesomer? I really really love my dress this year. It’s green with black straps and a black sash….it looks really refined and stuff.
It’s hard waiting. The banquet doesn’t start until 6. Josh will be here at 4 at the absolute earliest, and it’s 3 at the moment…I’ll probably start putting dress on when he gets here, b/c right now I’m just wearing pyjamas, which is highly awesome and relaxing. And just think! My sister is still at school. My hairdresser also did my makeup after she was done with my hair. It turned out really well — I basically never do makeup and it was seriously cool to have someone else do it for me, altho I think my hair is already starting to come out.
Visit March 30, 2008
So my boyfriend came to visit and left about an hour and a half ago. I feel almost like he was never actually here…I hadn’t seen him in about four months and he was here for a bit more than 24 hours and I don’t know when I’ll see him next. It’s really hard, actually. I know we’re both just teens or whatever, but it still hurts and it still makes me mad. Gah. Well, now he has his truck with him, that should help things a bit. Maybe. He doesn’t have a lot of free time…
I feel like I should write more about what the visit was but I’m too sad, I think. Maybe later.
Reaching New Heights February 17, 2008
If you’re reading this blog and go to my school, go away. This is classified information.
I’ve been asked to write the opening essay for my school’s yearbook. The theme is Reaching New Heights. And…..I have no idea what to write about. I’ve tried a couple of things — you know, the verse that’s all like “He will raise them up like eagles, they will walk and not grow weary, they will run and not grow faint”…I thought about doing something with that. I thought about talking about how I was on the walking track above the gym in our brand-new community center. I actually tried writing that one. It sounded stupid. I’m currently thinking about writing about the recent flood, and how the water reached new heights…I may end up putting that in there.
I really don’t know. It’s exasperating me.
Ideas, anyone?
Music and Sr. Pics February 10, 2008
Okay, so I’m going to write about stuff in the order of the title, because I don’t really have any other ideas…DISCLAIMER: I’m sick. Stuff I say might not make sense, cause it’s so weird to be this sick because I hardly ever am. (Sore throat [I just tried to spell that "throught" twice....heh], cough, runny nose…I had a fever yesterday…I don’t actually even remember the last time I was actually sick, not just faking to get out of school. Which happens maybe once a year, people, I am responsible!!)
Hmm. Music? Okay. My mom is a music professor, so I naturally grew up with a lot of music. However, after getting out of the kiddie music stage, all my music was classical…yes, nerdship for the win. (I actually remember being in 6th grade and yelling at the bus driver to turn on the classical station…on a high school bus. Yeah that didn’t go over so well.) Then I started branching out. Moody Blues were my favorite for about two years (there was one super trippy song on the CD I had of them that went around your head in circles when you had earphones on…Beyond, I believe. I always skipped it.) and then I moved on to bigger and better (ahem) things. Starting with 38th parallel, because the blog of my friend Michael had one of their songs on it. And then I was like “oh what the heck” and bought Relient K “two lefts don’t make a right…but three do” and Audio Adrenaline (not remembering the album title, I didn’t like that one very much) and MxPx “Panic”…and things just kind of went from there. (Wow I reallllly feel congested right now. It’s gotten to that state where you just have to wave your hands around to help…? Altho this logical leap makes about no sense. Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this…) From there, my fascination went Petra –> Third Day –> Relient K (again, I Sanctus Real –> whatever I heard on the amazing Christian radio station that has 0!! commercials for REAL and plays the best music EVER –> now, Wavorly, Starfield, Rush of Fools (saw them in concert, best band EVAR, lead singer = very cute!!), Poor Baker’s Dozen (don’t go looking for their stuff, you won’t find it, I’ve looked everywhere…they’re gone. My mom had one CD.), Britt Nicole. Pretty exclusively Christian. But now I’ve decided that I like music that I term….artistic. In other words…music that isn’t explicitly Christian *gasp*. Examples: Sleeping at Last, Eisley (reeeally weird sound, check them out), Holidays on Ice. (These would probably be termed Indie. I’m not sure. But I think I do like that Indie sound…) Plus the non-Christian-and-non-artistic-but-just-plain-fun songs that I happen to have: London Calling (the Clash), How Far We’ve Come (Matchbox 20), I Like To Move It Move It (Madagascar soundtrack).
I think it’s really fascinating to see how my music tastes have changed over the years. I love the iTunes store — I got a free download today and can’t wait to download other free ones. I love music. There’s no way I could live without it. And it’s been really fun exploring the different genres over the years. (I think I might even have an industrial metal song…err…instrumental…thing in my iTunes somewhere, thanks to a guy in CO that I know over internets. Not my favorite thing in the world, lol…never will I be a metal fan. [Haha the illness again...as I typed that, I was like "wait a second...I can't become a fan!" thinking you know of like a ceiling fan...? Yeah I'm having issues.])
This is easily one of the most rambley things I’ve written for a while, it’s fun. (AHH sinus painnnn!!!)
Pictures. I need to get senior pictures taken soon. After all, I am a senior in high school and that makes me 1. awesome; 2. senioritis-prone; and 3. in need of my picture taken professionally-ish. However, due to a remodeling project my family is doing, we don’t have near enough money to pay for an actual professional. This is very sad. 
BUT!!!!! The amazing boyfriend, who is, in a word, amazing, and fabulouth, and all that cool stuff, is going to buy himself a very very nice and shiny DSLR camera. So he’s going to take my picture for sr. pictures. He’s way cool like that.
ok I’m done. I’m tired and very sick (CONGESTION!!!) and need to sleep…and it’s almost 1AM. Gah.
Essay January 14, 2008
So I wrote an essay. I don’t like it, and I want to know how I can improve it. Please, if anyone ever reads this, please tell me what to do better on it!!!! I’m supposed to write about my goals and how I plan to achieve them. Fun.
Is it possible for an editor to change the world? Looking at the question superficially, the answer appears to be obviously “no.” Editors aren’t particularly famous, influential, or even visible to the general public — all things that are usually required to affect the world as a whole. Nevertheless, my goal is to become a world-changing editor.
Of course, a good education is necessary for editorial work. Therefore, my first step in achieving my goal is to attend Taylor University. I expect to be challenged academically at Taylor, perfecting my understanding of the English language so that I can be a more effective editor. However, I’ll be able to not only hone my editorial skills but also receive training in how to live different — living for Christ and His Kingdom rather than for this world and all its hypocrisy. To me this is the most important part of college. College isn’t just about academics and getting knowledge and all that kind of thing, although that is of course essential to one’s college experience. It’s also “boot camp,” so to speak, for the outside world. I believe that Taylor University not only has the academic excellence necessary for me to succeed as an editor, but also the lifestyle training necessary for me to become a person who can change the world.
However, I don’t believe that education is the only necessary experience for changing the world — or to be a good editor, for that matter. I therefore plan to spend a year in Romania after graduating from Taylor. This year in Romania will not only be enjoyable for me but will also be a way to serve others by stretching myself. I’m not entirely positive what kind of work I will be doing, but I know that it will take discipline and a complete servant attitude, which together will develop into an excellent work ethic. Just as Taylor will provide the education and the lifestyle, Romania will supply the real-world training, as I interact with people and enter situations that are completely outside my comfort zone – things I will indubitably experience as an editor. I expect to learn things in Romania that will help me in the rest of my life.
Finally, after attending Taylor University and serving in Romania, I will enter the editorial field. I plan to work for Zondervan, a Christian publisher, although I may yet decide to work at a major company such as Penguin & Putnam or HarperTrophy. By exhibiting excellence in both knowledge – the actual editing of books – and diligence – applying myself to whatever is put before me with all my heart, soul, mind and strength – I will be an example to not only my fellow editors but also my employers, my clients, and whoever else I happen to meet.
And changing the world? Not every world-changing person has been famous. In fact, some of the most influential people throughout history would have been considered nobodies in their own time. For me, changing the world means changing people, one at a time. Education, service, and editorial work are merely the steps by which I will meet my goal. As Paul says in his Epistle to the Philippians, “I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Problem with Computers… December 26, 2007
Well, I just bought a MacBook and I’m looking for a Photoshop-level program that would allow me to do design-y stuff. However, my Mac happens to be an Intel Mac, and according to the Adobe website, Elements for Mac only works on PowerPC Macs…this is a problem. And when they do end up coming out with a Photoshop Elements program that would work on my computer, it’s going to be far too expensive. I mean, I’m an unemployed high school student…I seriously am going to need some image editor or other, I’m majoring in Visual Arts-New Media (computer graphics), and computer graphics are hard without an image program. I actually called Adobe today to see if they have an Elements program that will work on Intel Macs, and got told yes (which is contrary to both what their website says and what the salesperson told me last time I called, but whatever), so I asked if there was possibly any previous version I could buy and they were all like “No, there’s no way you can do that, ma’am.” It was unbelievably frustrating. Grr. Software companies.
Joy December 17, 2007
I have an interesting and unique life philosophy (at least, I think it’s pretty unique). It can be summed up by “Life goes much better if you’re excited about everything”. In other words, joy is necessary for life.
I started thinking about the whole joy thing as a result of a conversation with my boyfriend’s roommate (does it make me creepy that I talk to my boyfriend’s roommate? I hope not) and he was talking about how he sometimes finds life lame, which I thought was pretty sad. I think life is just about the best thing ever (for a ton of reasons, more on that later) so he really surprised me. So, I started thinking more about joy and I actually ended up learning quite a lot about it, which was pretty sweet.
After looking up a couple of definitions and being annoyed at them (“an unsatisfied desire which is in itself more desirable than its satisfaction” and “cheerfulness or calm delight” — definitely not a fan of that second one, one needs only behold a toddler on a beach to realize that that is completely wack) I settled on a quote — “Happiness is feeling good because of what happens to you, joy is delight coming from within you.” You know, Paul talks about in Romans how he’s found the secret of being content/joyful in every situation…it doesn’t matter what’s around you as long as you have God’s joy in your life.
Going along with that, there’s also the verse in Romans that says “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Like I said before, it doesn’t matter what your outside circumstances are, it just matters that you have joy in God. And you have to make sure it IS in God — Psalm 35:9 says “And my soul shall rejoice in the LORD; it shall exult in His salvation.” This verse doesn’t say that “my soul shall rejoice in my significant other” or “in the things I do” or “in my athletic abilities” or “in my grades” or anything like that. It says “in the LORD” — that’s the important part. And one last verse, before I move on to my next roman numeral (this was originally my speech final…whee): Nehemiah 8:10 — “Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” I have to say that I love this verse. It’s definitely one of the more encouraging verses out there. My small point under that verse says that the joy that comes from God gives us strength to face every day in our lives. That is so true! Without the joy that God gives me, I would totally die. I’m having some hard times with my boyfriend at the moment — long-distance relationships are never ideal — and it’s the joy of the LORD that gets me through every day. I’m also reallllly leaning on Him to get through this senior year — I know that I’ve mentioned several times before that I’m just hanging on until I can go off to college. But with His joy, I can have the strength to hang on until that happens.
I decided that I really wanted that kind of joy into my life…so I did a bit of thinking, and a bit of experimenting, and came up with a couple of things that seem to be working so far. Umm…yeah. (It’s hard to take a speech outline and turn it into a journal entry!!) But the hardest thing I ran up against was trying to get it into my head that I am small and God is big. It still hasn’t quite gotten in there correctly, I still act like I’m the biggest thing there is most of the time (which really is a bit of a problem), but at least I’m kind of aware of it. The coolest thing about God being so big is that despite His hugeness, He came and died for us. That’s just cool. Well, not cool…amazing and awesome and unbelievable and………yeah. Speechlessness. It’s pretty amazing.And then my favorite part: be randomly excited about EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. My favorite thing to be excited about is blue sky, it’s so gorgeous especially in the summer…
So, in conclusion, BE JOYFUL!
A Number of Things December 16, 2007
First of all, I’m starting a vlog (video blog); here’s the first of my efforts:
It’s lovely, isn’t it? I’ll be keeping working on that…hopefully one or two blogs a day.
Actually that’s about it.
