New book!

Most of you who know me know that I absolutely love a good book. Reading has always been a favorite past time of mine, and I'm sure it always will be. I'm a very fast reader - for instance, I read three books in the last four days. This seems awesome, but it means that I run out of books fast.

Until recently, I haven't been able to read recreationally because of school. Thankfully, though, I'm in the middle a three-or-so week break between my spring classes and my summer classes. So I've been reading up a storm!

Since I've just finished the 50 Shades series, I decided that I should do some more serious reading. Recently, I've let my journey with God slip a little bit. I still think about Him and pray every day, but my overeager search has dwindled a bit. So, I decided to start this book today:

I'm not sure what to expect from this book. Matthew has read it and says that it's really good. I'll definitely let y'all know how it goes. Maybe I'll have some good quotes again. That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

In other news, I put my two weeks in at 5 Spice. I've come to terms with leaving, but I'm thankful that I had the opportunity. Matthew has started his new job at O'Reilly. He really likes it. It's tough - he's lifting about 50 pounds continuously for 4-6 hours. I just tell him to think of it as a really long workout ;)

Last night, I had a good friend of mine bring up this blog in our casual converstation. IT MADE MY DAY. I know I get page views, but it really sinks in that people read what I have write when they mention it to me. I just love it. Especially since half the time that I write, I feel as if it doesn't even matter. So when I know that people are legitimately reading this, it makes me so happy!

Lessons learned.

Recently, I started working at 5 Spice here in Springfield. It's a chinese restaurant. I was so excited to start because my big boss was awesome and I was actually excited to get back into the food business. Granted, it was way different than Culver's, I really liked the work itself.

Then, a week after I started, they switched up the management. Which wasn't a huge deal at first... I was going to miss my original boss, but I thought since I had just started it'd all be okay. But then, I had a mishap with the other manager of the store. It seemed pretty obvious to me that for some reason she didn't like me. She said some things that weren't very kind, and she purposely singled me out. I know that's put in sort of childish terms, but that's the nicest, vaguest way I can put it. 

As a result, I put in my two weeks in last night. I haven't even worked there a full month. When I was talking this over with Matthew before last night, I was really struggling with the decision to quit. I hate quitting things, and after this last school year where I quit a lot of organizations, I felt angry at myself. I started to tell myself to just deal and put up with it. It was money I should be thankful for, and that's that. But then after talking to Matt and my mom about it, I came to realize that leaving the job didn't make me a quitter.

Sometimes, things just don't work out. They don't fit. This situation was one of those times. I thought that 5 Spice would be a good fit, but it just wasn't. And I do believe this is a blessing in disguise. My summer classes start in  a couple weeks, and this gives me a chance to focus more on my school work. My goal is a 4.0 GPA this summer. And now I have no excuse to not reach that goal! 

Just had to share this.

Good luck to all those who just graduated high school!

Making History

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. Life got really busy with the end of the semester. Plus, I got a second job (which I no longer have - more on that later).  But since I'm up way before I need to be, I figured I could get some thoughts out. My heart has been heavy the last few days.

A couple days ago, Moore, Oklahoma was hit with a massive tornado. Winds of 200 miles ripped through the city, flattening about 36 square miles. As of now, there have been 24 confirmed deaths, and I know that several of those were children. I watched live news feeds shortly after the tornado happened, and it left me in tears at work. I prayed probably more in one sitting than I ever have before. 

The tornado got me thinking about history. When someone says the word "history" I think of the past, usually the far off past. As in, before I was born. But this made me realize - history is TODAY. We are making history every single day. Holy moly! That's kind of a lot of responsibility. Not only are we making history, but we are shaping the future. 

What's interesting about this, is that society doesn't really focus on those who will be shaping the future. The youth of today is ignored a lot of the time. For my religion class we had to read this book: 

It was such an amazing book! Patel focuses on the fact that we need to focus on the youth and help to shape them in the right way. He gives several examples of how things could have been different if young people had been given the right influence. He talks about the London Bombers, Osama Bin Laden, and many others. Just reading it made me want to go out and make a change. The same ideals can be shown in a different way in this movie:

For those who haven't seen this movie - FIND IT AND WATCH IT. I watched the first half of this originally in my Corrections class, but finished it with Matt. It's raw, it's real, and it's relevant. The ending of this movie could have been totally different had the influences been different. The story revolves around Danny and his older brother Derek. Derek ends up in prison for killing a couple men, and the movie shows how that has influenced Danny. It's really an amazing movie. It may be from 1998, but it's so good.

Basically, what I'm saying is that we need to watch how we are shaping our future and how we are making our history. One of my favorite things I've seen lately is a quote about the debate on same sex marriage. I can't remember who said it originally, but I know they were on the supportive side and they were talking to those who are against it. They said, "You're going to find yourself on the wrong side of history."

Don't find yourself on the wrong side of history. It doesn't matter if it's about same sex marriage or otherwise, but make sure that you're doing your best to make the world a better place than how you found it.