being different

     Today in American Lit we studied Emily Dickinson. We discussed her life and how she lived her life. We talked about how she didn't get married and didn't conform to organized religion. And also about how everyone thought she was so weird. She's one of the most highly acclaimed American poets. and everyone thought she was a freak. When you think about it, every significant figure in history was viewed this way. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Galileo, Da Vinci, Columbus, Einstein, Poe, Dickinson, Darwin, Paul, King David, Jesus (and every other respected person from the bible). That's only naming a few. All of these people were criticized and ostracized for being different. But they all continued to do what they saw fit, or what God saw fit. Now when we look back into history we study these people that society hated. We admire them and try to understand them. We strive to be like them. But not really.
       You see,in present day we believe in and understand what Einstein studied and what Dickinson wrote and what every other significant person did, so we try to achieve their level of expertise. That is what society values. But when they were studying and writing they were not trying to achieve someone else's goals or study someone else's work, like we study theirs. They were not trying to  conform to societies approved goals. They were watching, and studying, and observing, and researching, and testing, and painting, and writing, and thinking, and learning. All for themselves, all about their own interests. And they didn't care about what anyone thought about it. So when we study what society believes what are we really gaining?  Shouldn't we 'march to the beat of our own drum' so to speak. To get ahead in society, shouldn't we really be renouncing society? Just like every other significant person?
       This concept is even more significant for christians. Romans 12:2 says "do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world..." and throughout the bible everything our society believes in is discouraged. "you cannot serve both God and money" (matt 6:24). "but many who are last will be first and many who are first will be last" (matt 19:30). "when I am weak then I am strong" (2 cor 12:19). "... better to be poor than a liar"(proverbs 19:22). "love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (matt 5:44).  All of these are against societies views. All of these things Jesus commanded for us. But we're afraid to do these things because we're afraid to be criticized. But in matt 5:10 it says "blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." So even if by some chance we are persecuted, or simply criticized, for believing in Jesus and doing what he commands then we will be blessed for it. Jesus was one of the most hated men of his time, and probably still holds that status, and we're supposed to be just like him. So why are we still conforming to what the world wants?
      Biblically we should not conform to the world even if we get criticized. We will be blessed for it. And in society and history we shouldn't conform to society's goals because not a single person recognized in history was remembered for blending in well. So why are we trying so hard to fit in? Why do women starve themselves, and men injure themselves? Why do business people steal and cheat? Why to politicians lie? Why do people go into debt? Why do people do a millions awful things that they are not comfortable with all to conform to the world? Conforming will never bring a single person glory and more importantly it will never bring glory to God. We need  to renounce everything society tells us in order to do anything of value. Do you think Paul wrote half of the new testament by conforming? He went to Jail!  Do you think Columbus discovered America because he was a conformer? It took his whole life to get there. And Dickinson, she never had a husband or friends, and she was never even published in her lifetime. But just look at her poetry. When King David defeated Goliath, was he conforming? All of his brothers were terrified of the giant, along with the rest of the army who told David not to fight goliath. And David even won by casting off all the army's suggested armor and weapons and using a sling shot. And Jesus? How about him? He was brutally beaten and murdered and crucified because he was not a conformer. and in that process he saved us from our sins. His persecution was the biggest victory in the entire world. And we are afraid to be criticized for being different?
     I think thats the greatest downfall of people. We are afraid. We are afraid of criticism. We are afraid of persecution. We are afraid to deviate. We are afraid to change. We are afraid to think. We are afraid to believe.

blog fail

Seeing as how I've been playing with the idea of writing as a profession and declaring english and journalism as my majors I've decided to be a much better blogger. Ive been a blog failure lately. and so I'm to post at least 2 blogs a week... baby steps, baby steps. and you can hold me to that! haha. but don't be brutal. so, with out further ado, let the blogger commence!

Big Boy Pants

So Amanda and I are writing a movie. It's a typical boy meets girl story, only it's animated and the people are turtles. And the boy turtle, Stan, was deeply in love with his best friend turtle, Michelle. Michelle loved her best friend turtle, Stan. Everyone knew that Stan loved Michelle except for Michelle. And everyone knew that Michelle loved Stan except for Stan. They flirted and texted and hung out and had adventures. They could talk about nothing all night long, and often did. People began asking turtle Michelle why she and Stan weren't dating. She did not know the answer. She wanted to be with Stan but She knew it was his responsibility to ask her, cause that's the turtle way. So she waited, and waited. They still texted and talked and had adventures. Then one day he stoped texting Michelle back. Poor Michelle didn't know what she had done wrong. He acted normal on there adventures but he would not talk back. So she decided to stop texting him at all. He went away on vacation for a while. And while he was gone she decided she was done waiting. He missed her very much on his trip. He realized the maybe he should ask her out because no one understood him like Michelle did. And when he returned he finally called her and asked her to dinner and a movie. She said yes. At dinner Stan asked Michelle to be his girlfriend. But Michelle had moved on and she told him that she got tired of waiting. He was heartbroken for she was his perfect turtle match. But he waited to long.

Moral of the story? Put on your big boy pants and go for it.

The end

iPhone

So I have a nifty new iPhone in my hands. I'm currently blogging on it and it is already changing me. I'm already facebooking more and getting online more and playing more games and getting new apps. I swore I would never get twitter but that will soon change I can already tell. This nifty new phone is a social networking phone just like it says. No complaints though, I love this thing. It spell checks everything by the way, which is awesome. Or maybe it keeps me from learning how to spell. Who knows. But I just thought I should tell everyone that I am now a social networker and you will be hearing more from me very soon. You can decide if that good or not though.

study room

      I would like to complain about the lack of understand of the term STUDY room. At my school I have a study room I can use whenever I like. This is a room for a select group of people to use a computer and get school work done in quiet. Today I went to my nifty little room to get some history studying done. I had a wonderful productive 10 minutes. AND THEN this girl walks in with every type of rock known to man so she can scratch them together and complete a lab. AWESOME. and not only did she scratch rocks together she was making small talk with someone at a volume only used in the superbowl crowd. I wanted to die. A STUDY room is for STUDYING!! you can not STUDY with rocks scratching and people practically screaming. go to the room to STUDY not scratch rocks and talk. my goodness people.

truth

        In this one book series I read a few years ago a boy altered his brain so that he didn't have the abitlity to lie. Not only could he not lie he had to tell the whole truth. He couldn't control it. I sometimes wish that we all had that brain alteration and we all had to be honest. I have a huge circle of friend I hang out with and we all try to act like we are all best friends and there is no drama. In reality theres more drama in my group than in a soap opera. The whole reason for the drama is the fact that NO ONE in honest. There are crushes that everyone knows about that everyone ignores. There's pain that people know about and everyone ignores. There are awkward break ups, and scandals, and hookups, and fights and everyone (including myself) ignores it. I feel like if people were just honest about all of it we could all function as friends better.
           Now don't get me wrong; in the right setting with the right dynamic we actually are the best friends ever. But that's the hardest part because to achieve that dynamic is like chess. For example "if we invite her to the party than he will come because he likes her but that means he'll bring them and they don't like me but I want her to go but he said that she said that we don't like whats her name and blah freaking blah." And when that happens and the perfect dynamics can't be achieved then people get hurt. People feel isolated, aliened, ignored, and disliked. And then by the end of what ever the hang out is half of the group posts on facebook how great the night was and half of the group sits in a car together venting about how hated they feel.
         Don't worry though this blog's purpose is not to make anyone feel bad or persuade people to treat their friends better. It's purpose is to emphasize the importance of honesty. If people were honest in my group of friends then yes things would change but people would know the truth and we could stop the "he said she said", and the guessing, and all the crap. We could stop ignoring the epic elephants in the room. We could learn to actually love and accept each other for who we are. If we could be honest like we should we would actually be that great loving circle of friends we pretend we are.

this was the song of the day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AEoUa0Hlso