fun(ny) facts I learned today while hiking

Today I learned a few new things about hiking.  I've been hiking many times before, but today was quite the experience.

• If you think you can't walk a hill because your knees are giving out, do it anyway. Chances are, your parents will forget to hand you their keys and you'll be forced to RUN up that hill a few moments later (panicking because you don't know what they'll do at the other end when you don't show up with their car to pick them up) to try and catch up with them.

• Don't try and run up a hill trying to catch your parents unless you want to not be able to walk, burst in to tears, and almost pass out on the trail because you're hyperventilating so hard.

• Prayers do work.  As you're praying to God that your parents heard your frantic bird-call (as a last ditch resort because they didn't hear their names being called) and they'll find you before you literally pass out, remember that He will hear.  And so will your parents.  

• When your dad finds you, he'll then force you to drink tons of Gatorade in between your sobs of relief.

• Those sounds you hear traveling from one side of the hill to the other? That's not a flock of geese, they fly.  Those were coyote pups coming closer...probably due to your hyperventilating and distressed yelling from trying to find your parents. (This is not one of my favorite moments of the day).

• If you look at a hill as you're going down and think to yourself "I should just sit down and go down" you probably should because you'll just end up on your butt anyway only you'll get hurt as you start that descent because you fell.

• Make sure your phone isn't locked in the car before you separate from your group because chances are, you just turned it off and stuck it in your backpack. (This would have made life a lot easier- I could have prevented all of the above).

• If your dad says that the point to pick them up at is programmed in to the GPS, just get the directions because it's probably not in the GPS.

• The pancakes at the Maple Tree Inn in Angelica were totally worth all of that pain.

None of these were funny as they were happening, but now that I'm safely at home, full of pancakes and other yummy goodness, I can finally write all of this and laugh.

Some random thoughts

Just some random thoughts for the night.

• You'll do things to your hair that you regret, and some you don't

• Sometimes you have to not care what people think about your decisions if you know they're right

• Long drives are fun...until they're too long

• A man should always tell his girlfriend she's beautiful, even if she's wearing sweatpants and a hoodie

• The above doesn't mean that you shouldn't look nice ever

• Procrastination is okay, until it's not.

• Some ministry classes do just what it sounds like- they can minister really well.  Others...well, if you get one of those classes you'll understand.

• I like my room clean, can't study if it's not. But five minutes after I'm done with homework/studying it stops being clean

• I've had to learn (sometimes the hard way) which fights to fight and which ones to walk away from

• Your parents still love you, even if they don't know how to show it all the time (okay, ever).

• The future can be a scary thing.  I will always be thankful however, that I do not know what is coming.

• Career (and major) changes can be scary, but oftentimes totally worth it

• Some people come in to your life for a season, but then they leave.  That doesn't mean that you can't trust people.

• In college you'll have some awesome professors and some that will make you want to rip your hair out.

• As a college student, it is acceptable to eat a meal at midnight and stay up until all hours of the night.  Not so much when on break or as you enter the real world.

• Just because a college associates with a Christian culture does not mean that the administration will make their decisions based on Biblical principles or that the students are Christians.

• As one person recently put it as someone was describing my "Christian school"  'Your school just needs Jesus'

• Sometimes Christians are the worst at making people feel left out and judged.

• Sometimes your friends will help you out when you refuse just because they love you.

• A sister will always be there- even when you sound ridiculous and are in a bad mood

Last but not least:

• Your family may not be biological, but if you call them family, it's probably because they act like family with you.  They can be brutally honest or exceptionally loving and you stick together through everything.

what long drives do to me

Now that I drive back and forth where I am to Horseheads a lot more than I did, I have come to love the trip.

I used to see that drive as a scary one. Not sure how the weekend would turn out, who would start yelling first, or how quickly I could leave without seeming rude to my family.  The whole trip there my heart would sink with each mile, as I left my new home for an old one.

Now, I look forward to the trip.  Ever since the events of the week before my senior year happened, my mom and I have been closer than ever before (we actually get along!) and I love going back for visits.  But here's where I struggle.  I went from a tiny town where more kids get in to trouble because the town holds nothing for them, to this city where I have finally found who I am, and I never run out of things to do (the opportunities for ministry are endless too).  And as of right now, I have to leave this place when I graduate to move back to hhds.  I'm excited because getting to my sister's college will be a lot easier from hhds, I'll be closer to my family which means we can continue working on our relationship, and Nick will be there.  On the other hand, I dread going back to the town where I had so many struggles growing up, where there are less opportunities, where it is a struggle to find something to do.

I feel like I could be leaving something unfinished by moving back.  I don't know what that is yet, but I know that there is still something I have to accomplish here (other than my degree). There will be no more impromptu dinners or movie nights with friends, no more bashes in the city.  I now know how my sister felt when she had to move away from the place she called home and I have more time to prepare than she did.  I feel like I've outgrown Horseheads, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just weird knowing I will be there for the next few years, starting over knowing I'll be leaving again soon.

I just ended this drive back from hhds, and these thoughts are still swirling in my head.  The thing that keeps popping back up in my head though is this verse from the Bible:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important that food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable then they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"           -Matthew 6:25-27

It's a good reminder than no matter how worried or stressed out I get about my future and where I will end up and why, that my Father loves me and still has plans for me that will be carried out.