Highlights of Kentucky and Florida
GUYS I AM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LIKE BACK BACK! LIKE BACK FOR GOOD BACK! LIKE NO MORE VACATIONS UNTIL SUMMER BACK! It feels really good. I mean, I had absolutely wonderful times in both Kentucky and Florida, but man oh man, I missed home! Both trips really made me realize just how much I love my own little place. That being said, I'm sure you have no interest in hearing me talk about how much I love home. You want to hear about Kentucky and Florida! Well guess what? I haven't even written in my journal about either of them! I'm so behind! I need to catch up so bad! But I know it will take me FOREVER to finally write all about both trips in my journal, so I'll tell you some stuff anyway. This will be my Highlights of Kentucky and Florida post:
So I mentioned briefly above about doing drama performances, because the group that MF and I traveled on the trip with is a local home school drama team called YROC. I've been familiar with the group my whole life because my friend GC's mother is one of the directors, but even though I vaguely knew most of the people on the trip, I would never have considered any of them my friends except GC (and of course MF). At the beginning of the trip, I was definitely apprehensive about how the experience would be because I had some serious prejudices against home-schoolers. You know all the stereotypes-- they're weird, and socially awkward, they've been sheltered from the world so they don't know anything, they think public schoolers are bad people, etc. etc. Well, I am here to testify that THEY ARE ALL AMAZING and I consider every single person in YROC a very good friend now. It only took one week to realize how absolutely loving and friendly and genuine they all are, and I love them all to death. And yes, they are weird, BUT SO AM I, and yes, they are a bit socially awkward, BUT SO AM I, and yes, some of them have been a bit sheltered from the world, but in many ways that's a very good thing, because that means they're still innocent to a lot of very bad things that I wish I could still say I was innocent about. I guess what I'm trying to say is that once again, my first impressions of people were so incredibly wrong that it was very humbling. I seriously just need to stop forming preconceived notions about people, because they are literally always dead wrong. Anyway, making friends with all the amazing people in YROC might be one of the biggest highlights of the entire week, and it was so heartbreaking to have to say goodbye to them at the end. I hope very much I'll get to see them all in the future very often.
So, because God is awesome and He loves to make little miracles happen every day, there just HAPPENED to be a concert happening literally a three minute walk from our hotel in the local technical college. Now, I don't know if you know this, but the town of Jackson, Kentucky, which is where we were, has 29 citizens per square mile (if my memory serves me). So like, it's not exactly the place where concerts just happen willy nilly, because no one would go to them. But miraculously, three big Christian stars, JJ Heller, Josh Wilson and Jason Grey were performing in this rinky dink little town on this rinky dink little college auditorium the exact week that we were there for a missions trip. I mean come on, stuff like that doesn't just happen. It must have been orchestrated by the man upstairs, because honestly, it was such an amazing experience. I know to everyone else I talk to, it sounds like just a concert, you sit in a chair, sometimes stand, and clap along to songs which you only know a couple of words to. But seriously, I don't remember the last time I cried so hard in my life (well that's not true. The whole trip was just one huge cry fest). Just the words that all the singers were singing felt like they were talking to only me, like they knew everything about me and exactly what I was going through and it was just incredible. There's absolutely no way for me to make you understand the experience without you having been there, but I have to say that of the whole trip, the moment when I was holding MF's hand up into the sky while Josh Wilson was singing and tears of joy and relief and I-don't-even-know-what were streaming down my face-- that was the moment when I truly felt like my heart changed. Like my heart broke open, and all the doubt and regret and guilt and shame and pain and all these things I didn't know existed inside of me poured out and dissolved like snow, and then light and love and peace and happiness came rushing back into my little broken heart and then it sewed itself back up and I felt so amazing, just like I was on a mountain top, like the opening scene of The Sound of Music. And I know that sounds crazy and you're probably like "Woah DL, what are you smoking? What are you even TALKING about?" but seriously, I felt renewed and changed and different, and I still feel that way, and I want to feel that way for the rest of my life. Like in that exact moment I understood that I am not perfect, and I will never be perfect, because it's impossible, and I don't have to try to be perfect anymore and everything is okay and will be okay and I just need to chill out and let Jesus be in charge. Anyway, yeah. The concert was iridescent.
The first full day that we were in Florida, we basically spent the whole day at The Ringling, which is this place where they have all kinds of stuff, like a Circus Museum, which was super cool, and a rose garden, and the mansion that John and Mable Ringling (one of the Ringling Bros and his wife) lived in, and this replica of some lady's guest house which was so totally retro and amazing, and an art museum. So we toured all of that which was very interesting and beautiful, and then in the evening, there was this members only food and dancing event, and since MF's grandparents are members, we got to stay for that. Even though we were basically the only people there under the age of like 50 (except for this one GORGEOUS GUY and this cool lady who we talked to and hung out with on the dance floor) it was really fun and super upper crust. We said it felt like an episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory goes to one of the parties at her grandparents' house and there's like one attractive guy who's somebody's grandson or something. Anyway. It was fun and I like dancing even though I'm so bad and awkward at it.
Okay, I had a really bad idea in my head about what Florida would be like because in most movies I've seen about Florida show the really swampy kind of gross parts of Florida (think Hoot, The Waterboy). But Sarasota and the surrounding areas are actually so beautiful. I'm still not a HUGE fan of palm trees, but after spending a week with them and learning more about the vast and many species, I have a better appreciation for them. Especially Bismark palms! They're pretty. Honestly though, Florida feels like a whole different planet. There's all these weird looking birds that seem like something out of a SciFi book or the prehistoric times and all these tropical plants that I thought only grew in rainforests in remote places no one actually lives, Like literally, you look outside and see palm trees and mangroves and mango trees and avocado trees and lizards and alligators and pelicans (pelicans! Those are some weird lookin' creatures) and you're like "That seems fake but okay..." It was weird, but beautiful in an exotic way. ALSO Florida has SO MANY THRIFT STORES I was basically salivating the whole time. We didn't actually go to any of them, but you can bet your bottom dollar that someday I'm gonna go back and take my Mama and we're gonna buy so much stuff we're gonna go broke.
The Happy Church
So The Happy Church is the name of the church that we partnered with for the missions trip, so we spent almost every day there doing different manual labor projects and working with kids, which was great, and was the whole purpose of the missions trip. My favorite project at the church that I participated in was the making of a stone wall around the front of the church because it took FOREVER and was really painstaking and took a lot of engineering and math skills that I don't usually exercise, and I'm sure that all sounds awful, but when we finally finished the wall and stepped back to look at it, it looked amazing and I was super proud of the time and energy and teamwork that we put into it. It was pretty awesome. As for working with the kids, the first time we saw the kids, we helped them with their Bible quizzing, which was honestly so amazing to watch because these kids,-- who, I'm being honest here, have next to nothing, they're so poor, most of the meals they get come from The Happy Church-- are SO good at memorizing things! They were all so incredibly talented, I felt extremely under-qualified to be helping them memorize stuff. We also did a drama performance for their kids night one of the days, and played games with them and then got to work with the teen drama/sign language team they have at the church on Sunday, so we got to meet a lot of really great kids and be a part of this amazing church that is making such a huge difference in peoples' lives.
Making Friends
So I mentioned briefly above about doing drama performances, because the group that MF and I traveled on the trip with is a local home school drama team called YROC. I've been familiar with the group my whole life because my friend GC's mother is one of the directors, but even though I vaguely knew most of the people on the trip, I would never have considered any of them my friends except GC (and of course MF). At the beginning of the trip, I was definitely apprehensive about how the experience would be because I had some serious prejudices against home-schoolers. You know all the stereotypes-- they're weird, and socially awkward, they've been sheltered from the world so they don't know anything, they think public schoolers are bad people, etc. etc. Well, I am here to testify that THEY ARE ALL AMAZING and I consider every single person in YROC a very good friend now. It only took one week to realize how absolutely loving and friendly and genuine they all are, and I love them all to death. And yes, they are weird, BUT SO AM I, and yes, they are a bit socially awkward, BUT SO AM I, and yes, some of them have been a bit sheltered from the world, but in many ways that's a very good thing, because that means they're still innocent to a lot of very bad things that I wish I could still say I was innocent about. I guess what I'm trying to say is that once again, my first impressions of people were so incredibly wrong that it was very humbling. I seriously just need to stop forming preconceived notions about people, because they are literally always dead wrong. Anyway, making friends with all the amazing people in YROC might be one of the biggest highlights of the entire week, and it was so heartbreaking to have to say goodbye to them at the end. I hope very much I'll get to see them all in the future very often.
The Concert
So, because God is awesome and He loves to make little miracles happen every day, there just HAPPENED to be a concert happening literally a three minute walk from our hotel in the local technical college. Now, I don't know if you know this, but the town of Jackson, Kentucky, which is where we were, has 29 citizens per square mile (if my memory serves me). So like, it's not exactly the place where concerts just happen willy nilly, because no one would go to them. But miraculously, three big Christian stars, JJ Heller, Josh Wilson and Jason Grey were performing in this rinky dink little town on this rinky dink little college auditorium the exact week that we were there for a missions trip. I mean come on, stuff like that doesn't just happen. It must have been orchestrated by the man upstairs, because honestly, it was such an amazing experience. I know to everyone else I talk to, it sounds like just a concert, you sit in a chair, sometimes stand, and clap along to songs which you only know a couple of words to. But seriously, I don't remember the last time I cried so hard in my life (well that's not true. The whole trip was just one huge cry fest). Just the words that all the singers were singing felt like they were talking to only me, like they knew everything about me and exactly what I was going through and it was just incredible. There's absolutely no way for me to make you understand the experience without you having been there, but I have to say that of the whole trip, the moment when I was holding MF's hand up into the sky while Josh Wilson was singing and tears of joy and relief and I-don't-even-know-what were streaming down my face-- that was the moment when I truly felt like my heart changed. Like my heart broke open, and all the doubt and regret and guilt and shame and pain and all these things I didn't know existed inside of me poured out and dissolved like snow, and then light and love and peace and happiness came rushing back into my little broken heart and then it sewed itself back up and I felt so amazing, just like I was on a mountain top, like the opening scene of The Sound of Music. And I know that sounds crazy and you're probably like "Woah DL, what are you smoking? What are you even TALKING about?" but seriously, I felt renewed and changed and different, and I still feel that way, and I want to feel that way for the rest of my life. Like in that exact moment I understood that I am not perfect, and I will never be perfect, because it's impossible, and I don't have to try to be perfect anymore and everything is okay and will be okay and I just need to chill out and let Jesus be in charge. Anyway, yeah. The concert was iridescent.
Red River Gorge/ Wild Horses
I love nature, don't get me wrong. I think the world is such a beautiful place, and it astounds me that so many amazing plants and animals and landscapes exist. But I do not like hiking. I get sweaty when it's like fifteen degrees outside, I am super out of shape, and walking uphill is just so pointless. But sometimes you have to just suck it up and do stuff you hate. So I hiked the Red River Gorge with my fellow YROCers, and it was very beautiful, and also kind of bittersweet because it was nearing the end of the missions trip and everyone was like at the peak of their awesomeness, helping each other up and down the mountains, lending hands to anyone who needed help, carrying water and snacks in case anyone got hungry, just being their great selves. So I survived hiking and actually had a decent time. Then the next day, some of us drove out to the middle of nowhere-- all the while singing songs from Veggie Tales or The Sound of Music, or Disney movies, or church songs-- to see wild Kentucky horses (which I mentioned vaguely in one of my poems that I shared last week). It was seriously so cool because the horses and the land were beautiful and the horses were so calm and let you pet them and feed them even though they were totally wild! I got some really great pictures, and I set one of them as my phone background, so every time I turn my phone on, I am reminded of the wonderful experiences I had in Kentucky.
Life Changing
I don't think a single person on the whole trip came back home without feeling a significant change in their life. I know that MF can 100% attest to that. So many tears were shed on the trip, so many things were let go of (in a good sense), so many bonds were formed, and Jesus was just revealed to everyone in so many ways. At the beginning of the trip, when everyone was telling me "Oh it's gonna be life changing" I was my usual cynical self, thinking "I mean I'm sure I'll have a good time and make a lot of memories or whatever, but life changing? That's probably a stretch." Pssshhhhhh. Sometimes I can be so block headed. It was absolutely the most life changing experience I've ever had thus far in my short life. And for that I am so grateful.
The Performances
Even though MF and I aren't technically part of YROC, they lovingly allowed us to participate in their drama performances. They gave us just some bit parts and then put us in one of their major skits, which was pretty nerve-wracking, but once it was over, I kinda wished we'd been in more stuff because it was really fun. We performed at The Happy Church a few times and at two different local Christian schools. Both performances were very well received: everyone laughed at the funny skits, and plenty of people got teary eyed at the emotional skits. I think people were actually really touched, which was totally crazy to see people be so moved by what a bunch of wacky teenagers were saying. It made me realize that no matter how old you are, or how talented you may be at something, if you have something to say, especially something about Jesus and how wonderful He is, people will listen, and people will care and be moved by it. After the performances we got to mingle with the teens we were performing for, and that was so cool. All these kids, even though they're living in such a desolate place and most of them have so little-- their dreams are incredibly huge and they're so talented. One girl we met could do amazing accents and impressions, many of the kids we met were incredible singers and actors, and one of the girls that came up to MF and then me wants to go into criminal justice, which is so commendable. I absolutely want to go back some day and meet up with some of the same people just to see where they end up and if their dreams are coming true. I sure hope so.
The Roadtrips
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| Yeah, the vehicle wasn't this cool, but still. The views WERE just as beautiful. |
Okay guys, I LOVE roadtrips. I so do. I love America, I love looking out the window and seeing America and looking at houses and wondering about the people who live in them, and watching trees rush past and reading signs and listening to roadtrippy music. But 13 hours up and back on a cramped school bus with twenty kids who have WAY more energy than me did end up getting to me a little bit, especially on the ride home. Mostly though, the trips were so awesome, and I retain my love for roadtrips, but I'll be okay if I don't go on another one for a couple more months.
All in all, it was the most spectacular week of my life, and I'm still thinking about it longingly, wishing, partially, that I could go back and stay forever. But I do love my home too, and I know there's so much I can do to help here that I'm just going to focus on that for the time being.
Okay, so I got home from Kentucky, had four days to recuperate (by this I mean I had four days to catch up on sleep, except that I didn't because SCHOOL AGH.) Then I hopped on a plane FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE and spent a week with MF and her grandparents.
)
Ringling
The first full day that we were in Florida, we basically spent the whole day at The Ringling, which is this place where they have all kinds of stuff, like a Circus Museum, which was super cool, and a rose garden, and the mansion that John and Mable Ringling (one of the Ringling Bros and his wife) lived in, and this replica of some lady's guest house which was so totally retro and amazing, and an art museum. So we toured all of that which was very interesting and beautiful, and then in the evening, there was this members only food and dancing event, and since MF's grandparents are members, we got to stay for that. Even though we were basically the only people there under the age of like 50 (except for this one GORGEOUS GUY and this cool lady who we talked to and hung out with on the dance floor) it was really fun and super upper crust. We said it felt like an episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory goes to one of the parties at her grandparents' house and there's like one attractive guy who's somebody's grandson or something. Anyway. It was fun and I like dancing even though I'm so bad and awkward at it.
Solomon's Castle
We went to this place called Solomon's Castle, which was like my perfect level of weird and quirky. What it basically is is this gigantic castle built by this tiny man completely out of recycled materials, namely refuse aluminum. Inside the big recycled castle are rooms and rooms full of more completely recycled art,all made by this tiny man (except for a few things), along with actual living quarters! It's pretty incredible. He also built a full sized pirate ship out of old wood, and made it into a restaurant. He also built a recycled light house. There's also a nature walk which we went through and it was super beautiful, and involved no rigorous uphill hiking, so it was my kind of nature walk. We also had the unique privilege of finding the tiny old man working in his personal work shop, and he was nice enough to stop what he was doing and talk to us and even take pictures with us! He was so cute and tiny and old and shy and awkward, like he wanted to show you all his quirky weird pun-filled art, but was also terrified of strangers at the same time, which was just adorable. I really liked that place, even though it was very weird.
Selby Gardens
Oh my goodness, this is a botanical garden, and if you've never been to one of those, I highly recommend it, specifically Selby because IT WAS SO BEAUTIFULLLLLLL. I really don't know what else to say about it except FLOWERS AND TREES AND PLANTS OH MY. So many colors and shapes and agh. Like an explosion of beauty. Like a chunk of heaven fell off and landed in Sarasota Florida and people can pay to get a glimpse of it. It was so awesome and sooo pwetty. I promise I will show pictures, but that's for a different post (actually I'm just too lazy to upload the photos right now).
The Beach
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| We were just to the left of that exact yellow stand! |
Okay, you can't go to Florida without going to the beach, am I right? We went to this beach called Siesta Key, which we were told before we went there that they apparently have the #1 Best Sand in all of America, but of course I had my doubts like always. I was all "Psh, sand is sand." Honey. This sand was not just sand. This sand was the creme de la creme of sediment. The epitome of granuled seashells. The meilleur absolu of sand. It was like walking on corn starch or flour or powdered sugar or nothing at all. And it brushed off your skin so easily and ran through your fingers like little clouds. It was truly amazing. We kind of swam for a bit, but it was a little chilly, so we mostly just patrolled the beach in our sunglasses, talking about life and pointing out all the attractive men and then we ate cookies under our umbrella. We did get the cutest photo on the planet though, so that was awesome.
Myakko
Okay, I would have enjoyed this a lot more had I not been half asleep the whole time. The park was beautiful and it was awesome to get to see a whole bunch of alligators, but dude. I was so sleepy. We all were though. Anyway, I need to go back when I'm not about to fall asleep. It was still a highlight though because ALLIGATORS! They're so cute! I want to hug their round tummies and pet their nubby scales. Don't judge me. Alligators are cute.
The State/ The Atmosphere
Okay, I had a really bad idea in my head about what Florida would be like because in most movies I've seen about Florida show the really swampy kind of gross parts of Florida (think Hoot, The Waterboy). But Sarasota and the surrounding areas are actually so beautiful. I'm still not a HUGE fan of palm trees, but after spending a week with them and learning more about the vast and many species, I have a better appreciation for them. Especially Bismark palms! They're pretty. Honestly though, Florida feels like a whole different planet. There's all these weird looking birds that seem like something out of a SciFi book or the prehistoric times and all these tropical plants that I thought only grew in rainforests in remote places no one actually lives, Like literally, you look outside and see palm trees and mangroves and mango trees and avocado trees and lizards and alligators and pelicans (pelicans! Those are some weird lookin' creatures) and you're like "That seems fake but okay..." It was weird, but beautiful in an exotic way. ALSO Florida has SO MANY THRIFT STORES I was basically salivating the whole time. We didn't actually go to any of them, but you can bet your bottom dollar that someday I'm gonna go back and take my Mama and we're gonna buy so much stuff we're gonna go broke.
Flying! and The Airports
So like I mentioned, it was my first time flying and I had a cold, so I was freaking out that I would go deaf or something, so I overprepared and bought special earplugs and meds and cough drops and gum and then like, nothing at all happened except I got a small headache. So I was being paranoid for no reason. And like most things, flying seemed way more exciting in my head than it actually was in reality. I wrote a whole thing about the experience that will become part of my Lang assignment probably, but I'll also probably post it on here, so I won't belabor this by telling you all about flying. Anyway, the consensus is that it's cool, I liked looking out the windows and people watching and telling myself "DL! You're in an airplane! You're in the SKY! You're like literally above birds and stuff!" but overall it as eh. It was uneventful and not that exciting. Oh well. It was still a cool new experience. As for airports???? They're the greatest places on the planet!!!!!!! SO MANY PEOPLE TO WATCH. So many ATTRACTIVE people to watch. So many languages and skin colors and social classes and destinations and stories! It's like my dream come true. I love them. I wish I could just like, sit in an airport every day and people watch and jot down ideas and write stories. Maybe I'll do that some day when I really need to be inspired.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's what I've been doing these past several weeks! And now I'm back and I have lots to say and I'm excited and energized and ready to be home and OMG life is happening so much and so fast and it's all so exciting!!!!!!!!! Love you! Happy Easter!!!!
-VaughnDL
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