1. I had a best friend in first grade that moved away part way through the year. It was deeply upsetting to me...I'm not sure if I didn't have many other friends, likely, or if I was just overly sensitive---but I distinctly remember praying that she would move back as well as having reoccurring dreams about her returning for some years following then. I even still remember her name...isn't that odd? I feel like I had like PTSD. Consequently, I did run into her when I was in 4th or 5th grade again---and she remembered me first.
2. Sometimes I think my job is a lot of hogwash. Not that what I do with my kids and parents doesn't work....but the fact that I get paid to play games with kids...teaching them social skills---yes, very important. But also, completely within the abilities of any parent. And I feel like every kid would benefit from day treatment....as well as summer camp (day treatment during the summer ;0)) So I guess "hogwash" isn't the correct term---but I feel like working with people has been made into a career because people weren't being good friends/neighbors---it shouldn't have to be someone's job to help others. I should be a mailman or farmer.
3. I am a relatively organized person---efficiency is important to me. Things that make life harder, more inefficient tend to make me agitated. When I was young this translated into organization, not just of my personal affects but of any of my parents/siblings that I could control. There were at least 3 times in my childhood in which I spent afternoons organizing my mother's pantry cupboard to look nicer/more efficient and she or my Dad would yell at me b/c then she couldn't find anything.
4. I went through a "Touched by an Angel" phase. Like, serious listened to the CD over and over...watched every episode.
5. I truly knew jack popular music up until I went to college. Not even necessarily because I listened to all Christian music....because I hardly listened to what I even had....I've just never been one to take much interest in things that don't directly effect me. If I like it, I know it...if I don't, couldn't tell you who sang that or who is popular right now, etc. I would often just not acknowledge how little I did know due to embarrassment.
6. My parents don't have a working dryer (I use the clothesline outback when I come home), a car, a shower (we've always had a bathtub), cable, internet, cell phones (outside of the 2lb pre pay ones they break out for trips/emergencies), or a dishwasher. For most of my life we had a dryer and car, and at various short term points we had cable/internet. Many of our kitchen things were my parents wedding gifts from 24 years ago--including our refrigerator. But they don't get any government assistance and don't particularly want any. My parents and sister bus/bike to work. My mom walks to church (1.5-2miles each way). I love my parents and amv very proud/grateful for their influence on my life, including my value of living simply. Nevertheless, I am insecure about having other people at my house, have been and probably always will be.
7. Sometimes I get sad because I switched from Elementary Education to Social Work. When I walk through Elementary schools and see all the fun classrooms and learning and adorable kids, I wish for a minute that I could take it back. I think that I could learn to be content as a teacher.
8. Despite the fact that I've had more than ample opportunities/interactions with people different from me---having a best friend who was deaf when I was 8 or 9, working with the Special Ed kids in middle school for 2 years everyday, living in the inner city and going to school/youth group/camp with mostly poor, minority kids...I still get afraid/nervous about interacting with people different from me.
9. I think that far too many people don't ever consider how the "Western culture of Christianity" is NOT something that even if stretched miles and miles has a legitimate label of being applicable to the "masses"---"life as it should be" or "the only way" or "the best way" or even "how God would want it." We are a minority, a very serious one, here in America. And Christianity in America---we're talking miniscule in terms of frame of mind people have ever been able to experience---how dare we think this is "how it should be" or even necessarily "how God intended it to be" for everyone. I thank God that I have the experiences I have but I find myself having moved away from so much of that culture....this thought being brought here is mostly inspired by a conversation I had about the ridiculous sham that Children's Church has been made to be.
10. I could eat green bean casserole every meal for the rest of my life.
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