IB musical investigation

If you have never listened to Bosnian Ganga music..... well, I don't recommend it. It mostly sounds like a bunch of people shouting and wailing. There are no instruments. There's no way to distinguish a rhythm. And it isn't particularly entertaining or rewarding. HOWEVER I am learning quite a bit. I absolutely love music and everything about it. It's so complex and detailed and fragile. . . yet still so powerful and moving. Music is one thing that can always bring a smile to my face, an intriguing thought to my mind, and joy to my heart. I have learned a lot about ganga music and it has been very interesting to compare it to Bruno Mars' 'Just the Way You Are' under the topic of 'How different cultures express love through music'. I'm currently about 900 words short of the requirement. . . but I'm not too bothered by that. I'm mostly proud of the knowledge I've gained so far. I wish I could learn everything with this kind of hunger and intrigue. I wish pre-calculus and physics were this easy to be drawn in by! Sadly, I will have to create the intrigue for myself and make a conscious effort to learn for knowledge and growth rather than for the minimum requirement of getting by. I'm done with barely getting by and making excuses. I'm done with allowing myself to be bored by school just because the things we're learning may not effect my life in the long run. Whether I like it or not-- the things we are learning are effecting my life right now. It is for that reason that I want to learn just for learning's sake; for the joy of knowledge.

With that I'll be getting back to my paper. It's going to be a very long night.

grace kelly

On Saturday night I attended a hockey game in honor of Grace Kelly Leon. Grace is in 7th grade and has been diagnosed with Lymphoma Cancer. She is the younger sister of a friend of mine. My community is being hit hard with cancer right now. A teammate's dad has a brain tumor. A senior has bone cancer in his pelvis. A sophomore has Leukemia. A graduate's mom has breast cancer. And now Grace Kelly is suffering too. All of this has brought so much pain and sadness to the people around me each day and it is so hard to accept that cancer is this present in my life. But what keeps me going is the spirit I see in all the supporters of these sick people. Watching Grace skate out to the middle of the rink supported by two hockey players to drop the puck before the game on Saturday warmed my heart. There is a bright spot in the darkness-- it is possible to find joy among all the sadness. Please pray for Grace Kelly, Luke Hacherl, Stuart Shultz, Mark Payne, and Mrs. Langsenkamp. Help them find joy.

friendship

I believe that our society misdefines friendship. In my opinion, friendship is so much more than 'the state of being friends'. It means trust and support, sure. But still, it means more. It means honesty. It means fun. It means being silly and ridiculous every once in a while, just because you want to. Friendship means listening when that person is feeling down, and knowing you can count on them to listen too. Friendship is a loving relationship. It means being third-- putting others before yourself, and God above all. There are so many indescribable components of a friendship.

It is because of these many reasons that I love friendship bracelets! These marvelous masterpieces say it all. Not only do they show that your friends care enough to spend time on something special just for you, they posses an unspoken meaning-- You are loved. You are appreciated. You are my friend.

This is why I was so filled with joy when I got my FBC (Friendship Bracelet Club) sweatshirt from Sarah Wright this past week. I was also filled with joy as i read her blog post on Overlap about National Friendship Bracelet Day (January 13th). 

In the words of young Jessica, I like my friends, I like my friendship bracelets, I like my sweatshirts, I like my stuff, I like my Harry Potter, I like my whole life! 
Jessica's Daily Affirmations

hunger games

So my aunt and I have a very similar taste in reading material. We both love Harry Potter and many other books. Recently she has been insisting that I read the series titled 'The Hunger Games'. For  a long time I put it off insisting it would be odd and boring and not worth it. Finally, she got tired of waiting for me to come around so she bought me the first book for Christmas. It. Was. AMAZING. This series has been an incredible adventure so far. The books are so entertaining and they really draw you in. I sincerely care about the characters. When they feel conflicted, I do too. When they feel relieved, so do I! The novels are fantastic and I would recommend them to everyone. Good books always give me a wonderful feeling of joy and this one definitely left me impressed.

turning point

Today was not one of the best. It started out in a fight with my sister and a silent car ride to school. I was tired and cranky all day. Little things irritated me and upset me. I had just decided that I wouldn't be posting today because I was sure I wouldn't be able to center it around joy when my mom walked into my room. She was holding the telephone and excitedly handed it to me, practically jumping up and down. The news I received made everything better. All the earlier disagreements and negativities were no longer important, because I finally found out about working at Camp Tecumseh this summer-- I got the job! Nothing has filled me with such joy in a very long time. I'm so excited that I'll get to spend my summer being productive, faithful, and helpful. I can't wait to spread joy to the kids at Camp. That phone call turned my day around and reminded me that no matter how bad things may seem, there is usually at least one good thing we can pick out of the day.

new years day

I started today off by un-decorating the christmas tree. Needless to say, it was a pretty boring morning. However, after I finished up with that, I got to go to Charleston's for lunch with some of my most favorite people ever! 

Lauren, Katie, Katie, and Brea are all in college, but Angela still goes to school with me. It's always so fun when I get to see them and catch up on what's been going on in everyone's lives. I especially enjoyed the crazy college roommate stories and nostalgic talk of old times.


Right after lunch, I went to Best Buy and got a super awesome Wii game called 'just dance'. It's the best. I'm horrible at it-- my little brother beat me three times in a row. That's okay though because the game is still a blast and I had fun spending time with him.


My favorite part of today was dinner. I got to see THE BEST people EVER. Now, Camp Tecumseh is a place that brings me so much joy. I love it there so much and wish I could spend more time there than I get to. However, what brings even more joy  than camp itself are the people I meet and spend time with. The people at camp are so amazing and loving and awesome. So naturally seeing many of them today was my favorite part! We had dinner at Noodles.

I got Diet Coke, as usual.

Emily Chase didn't blink for an entire 4 minutes!!!

I got to see Maggie, who lives out of state. . . 

And Maddie, who lives in state but far away. . .

And my new best friend Molly, who I love a TON!

Plus lots of other awesome people who make me super happy and joyful. And the whole restaurant was fortunate enough to see Emily and Avery bust a move at the end of dinner.

 

Oh and Molly got her wisdom teeth out....

 After dinner I went to see The Tourist with TJ. We ran into some other friends, too and all of us got the absolute worst seats in the theater. Thankfully, the movie was worth the bad seats. It was great with a killer surprise ending that no one saw coming.


2011 has started off pretty strong-- here's to hoping I can continue to find joy throughout the rest of this fantastic new year.