I love country trains....

Feeling really good today after hanging out with Keira, Jayden and Michal. Gosh I missed them! We had a swell time down in Woy Woy, playing Scattergories and wandering along the beach and through the mangroves. Definitely an awesome way to spend a Saturday. A holiday was just what I needed, even if it was just for the day. I was having such a good time that I didn't take any photos, even though I brought my camera. Sorry about that. But don't worry, Keira took some :) So I shall upload some later, perhaps. For now, to bed I go.

My heart and flesh cry out, for you the Living God, your Spirit's water to my soul

I love the Psalms. There is a psalm for every emotion one can ever experience. And if for some reason there doesn't seem like there is one for the way I feel, I read many and then piece together my own from multiple verses.

Hear my cry, O God;

 listen to my prayer.

Turn to me and be gracious to me, 

 For I am lonely and afflicted; 

The troubles of my heart have multiplied; 

 free me from my anguish. 

On my bed I remember you;

 I think of you through the watches of the night.

Because you are my help, 

 I sing in the shadow of your wings. 

My soul clings to you; 

Your right hand upholds me. 

My soul finds rest in God alone; 

 my salvation comes from him. 

He alone is my rock and my salvation; 

 He is my fortress; I will never be shaken. 

I will lie down and sleep in peace,

 For you alone, O Lord, 

make me dwell in safety. 

- Verses from Psalm 61, 25, 63, 62, and 4.

My song is love

So, as I've said, I'm now seventeen. My birthday was completely wonderful, thanks to all my lovely friends, and my family.

What I haven't really said is that being sixteen was perhaps the best year of my life. So I thought I'd write a little list here to show you why. Not to mention that I just like lists :)

1. A new house.
In January of 2009 our family relocated a few suburbs closer to the city. One can hardly call where we now live a 'suburb', as there is nothing very burbish about it. We live about as close to the city as you can get without actually being in it. But I love that. I love the busyness of my life, the vibrant streets of newtown and enmore. I love that TAFE is walkable from my house. I can also walk to the movie theatre, cafes, many-a-take-away-food-shop, the grocery store, the library, the newsagent, and most of all 7-11. Yeah it's pretty awesome. And the best part was that I was old enough to start wandering about a bit on my own.

2. NIDA
Some of my best and worst memories of being sixteen come from NIDA. I will name a few of each. 

The best:
- Meeting some fantastic young actors
- Having the privilege of being taught by Paul Caesar
- Learning to be comfortable performing a group dance
- Perfoming on a full stage with music, lighting and set design
- Absolutely LOVING what I was doing
- Having a great time with some people completely different to me
- Learning how to share my faith in small bites with non-christians

The worst:
- Missing out on being in the SALT band, and having to leave church early
- Feeling afraid that I wasn't doing the best I could for God

Definitely more good than bad there.  :)

3. Open Uni
Just a small thing here, but sixteen was the year that I sort of finished home schooling. A neato accomplishment. I took the next step forward in my education :)

4. Coldplay.
Oh my gosh. I need to find a picture to accompany this later. AMAZING. I can't believe this was a year ago. I would see them again right now if I could. And again and again again.

5. Commedia dell'arte
The highlight of homeschool drama that year. I had been dreading it for a very long time, but now it's up there with my best acting moments. Whaddya know. I'd do that again for sure.

6. My friends
Yes, this means you! This includes my family too. I don't know where I'd be without any of you guys. You all mean so much to me, more than I can say. I am so happy to know that you are always there for me, and I love every minute we spend together and I only wish I had more time to spend and more love to give to each and every one of you, because you deserve more than I could ever give you for being such amazingly wonderful friends. I am excited when I know I'm going to see you, I am joyful when we are together, and I miss you when you are gone. If I had room for you all I'd just bring you back to live in my house so I could see you all the time; because I can never get sick of any of you! I love love love love love you all! And this message barely even touched the tip of the iceberg in how much you all mean to me. Don't ever go away. Please stay in my life forever? I just want to keep on writing about how much I love you, but it's starting to get a bit repetitive and hard to read now so I'll stop. xoxoxox I rate you all 5 stars for being top friends. Other people should be jealous of your awesomeness, and I know they wish they had friends like you!!

7. SOC
Not all of this was good. But, seeing as this is a list about the best moments of being sixteen, I will most definitely be focusing on the amazingly good moments/things God gave me at SOC. So here they are:

- God showing me that he always works for the good of those who love him.
- A fantastic speaker who gave us excellent talks from Luke. Dave Miers, you are awesome. You can visit his site here.
- Taking 2,000+ photos on my SLR camera over three days. No joke. That was awesome.
- Having a fun time hanging with all my SALT peeps, and doing ninja secret stuff for people. Plus this epic banner I made for Jono :D
- And most of all, I gained a beautifully strong friendship with Katherine. We've been friends for a long time, but God did something incredible to us over that weekend. Katherine, you bring such joy to me and I love seeing your light for Jesus shine brightly. You are such an encouragement to me and I feel so blessed to have you in my life. You spur me on and excite me about the day that Christ will return, and I am so, so glad to know that you will be by my side for the rest of my life, and into the eternity that we will spend with our beautiful savior Jesus.

8. Baptism
I confessed my faith the year I turned sixteen. I know that I grew far more in Jesus that year than ever had in the rest of my life. Lord, you are my Rock, and my Redeemer. You fulfill all my heart's desires, and I know that with you in my life I will never need anything else. I cannot wait for heaven! The joy I have in knowing you while I am in the world can only be greater when you return. I eagerly await the day, and pray that I can love you and serve you with all that I have in this world, and that this year I can grow even more to know and love you.

So yeah, those were some of the highlights of my sixteenth year. There were many more, but 'tis a tad late and I am rather tired and the little light in my brain is beginning to fade from lack of energy. So I shall say farewell for now. xxx

Well, I'm seventeen now. And I think my days with Peter Pan are well and truly over.

All children, except one, grow up.

They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day, when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs Darling put her hand to her heart and cried 'Oh, why can't you remain like this forever!' This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

We're all mad here....

I have the most wonderfully beautiful friends. :)

Dedication

This is so beautiful. Listen to it. It was arranged by a father for his young daughter, who loves both the original songs. I am in love with it. And so is Keira :)

Thought you ought to know.

Hello :) Has been a busy few weeks, what with starting TAFE and all that. I'm enjoying it. Just read Jessie's awesome blog of a uni glossary, which you can read here (but please come back when you're done!), so I thought I'd write my own glossary for TAFE Design Center Enmore....


General 

A, B, C, D, E: The 5 sections into which the campus is divided. Referred to in the classroom numbers, ie, D208, E109, and A12. General knowledge of where each of these sections are located is necessary for getting to class on time. New students are advised to turn up 5 to 10 minutes early to ensure punctual arrival.

Campus Map: See, "Lost and Found" 

Early, The: What one calls a class that starts before their preferred wake-up time. Students are frequently late to said classes.
 
I'm-Just-Not-a-Morning-Person: The student who attempts to trade timetables with someone else without a reasonable excuse; it's just, they don't like arriving at 8am.

Lost and Found: All the stuff that you just can't find. The bathrooms, the classroom, the library, the student association room, the loose lunch money somewhere in your bag, your timetable, the website your teacher recommended.... Students are advised to look on the campus map to find some of these things. But where is the campus map?

Student Share: The large file accessible from every computer on campus. Useful for storing your work and getting briefs from teachers. Not so useful when a kindly student decides to delete your work, or a teacher decides to clear the share. See "USB" for better advise.

USB: Refers to a portable flash drive necessary for ensuring your work is safe. Useful for taking work to a from class. Students are advised to bring one to classes.

15-minute break, The: 15 minutes is a terrible between-class break length. Sure, it's enough time to heat up your leftovers in the student room's microwave and look around at the event posters in said room while you eat, but what do you do with the remaining 5 minutes? The student is often left wandering up and down staircases waiting for class to begin and looking awkward, lost, and/or suspicious, not having enough time to go up to the library and print things or check out books. An ideal break would be 10 or 30 minutes.


Teachers

And-That's-It-See-You-Next-Week: The teacher who explains what class will be about in the first 15 minutes, then gives you the next 2 hours to complete the task. Pros - class tasks are simple, so the student should not have excessive homework. Cons: The class is completely silent for those 2 hours, and the student may feel discomfort due to being unable to move in their chair for fear it will squeak too loud.

Cleverly Clueless, The: This teacher can often be found starting class precisely on time, or even possibly early. Knowingly teaching the most boring class of the week, this teacher attempts to liven things up by avoiding the whiteboard/chalkboard and using a Powerpoint instead. They may think their methods are clever, and they may give you good study tips, but it can become difficult to trust all a teacher says when he cannot set up his own Powerpoint. Worse still when he leaves the room to use the photocopiers, and a kindly student plugs his laptop into the projector for him so it will work. Upon his arrival back, stating that the photocopiers aren't working, you can't help but wonder if he had the same problem with the copiers as he did with the projector. Proceeded by a 2 and half hour Powerpoint presentation accompanied by said teacher's droning voice.

Have-a-Good-Weekend: The teacher who is well aware this is your very last class of the week and you're just dying to get home as soon as the two hours in his room are up. He won't let you get away with slacking off. You'll leave class with the twice the amount of homework you came in with.

Mr. First Name: The teacher who is generally friendly and willing to help you out with anything you can't quite get your head around. Too bad it's not your favorite subject.

Mr. Lozenge: The teacher who clears his throat between every sentence. "As you can see, *hmmm*, when I click this, the rulers come up around your page. *humm hmmmm* And when you drag from here you can get guidelines to help you create a perfect square." This becomes incredibly irritating after the first class.

Warden, The: Named after the most dangerous character in Holes, the Head Teacher's real name is omitted from this glossary because either a) the glossary writer does not know it, or b) the Head Teacher's name is rarely uttered among other teachers and hence is taboo. And she is rarely seen on campus. Students are to beware the day they must book an appointment to see the Head Teacher about a class problem. No one ever speaks about what goes on in her office. And sometimes, students don't come out....

You-Can-Call-Me-Simon: This teacher is the one who tries to pretend he's 25, not 35. He writes a list of class rules called the Ten Commandments, and if you break one, you owe him a beer. He'll crack the occasional joke, most frequently about something to do with the class subject, so new students will smile and nod and pretend they know exactly what he's talking about. He riddles his speech with keyboard shortcuts and if you don't take notes on what he writes on the board, you're a goner. Luckily, this teacher is not opposed to repeating something he's already said. As long as you're not afraid to ask questions, and you can understand when he's kidding and when he's not, you'll fit right in. For those who are afraid to ask questions, or those who missed a joke, you have 24 hours to learn all the keyboard shortcuts before the next class....

All that is gold does not glitter....

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

- J. R. R. Tolkien


I want this ring so bad. It says, 'not all those who wander are lost' from the poem above. Wishful thinking.