enough

i have so many things running through my head right now that i wish i could write down, but somehow i think the point of all those thoughts would get lost in the words...

basically i've had enough...

i've had enough of mediocrity.

i've had enough of living selfishly.

i've had enough of living without passion.

i've had enough of being stagnant.

i've had enough of being impenetrable.

i've had enough of living in fear.

i want life to be amazing. i want to wake up every day and be able to say, "i'm so excited for life!" i want to be filled with life and energy and passion. and i want those things to overflow so that others will see how awesome our God is, has been, and always will be.
and i will be filled. because i have found something worth living for. and that is Jesus Christ.

so i love fall

i'm really sorry if i offend anyone, but i'm pretty much really happy summer is over...cause i LOVE fall. it's most definitely my favorite season of all time. yessssss.

so i'm listening to collide by howie day right now. wow. this song brings back memories. way back in the day. aww i made this acoustic mix and it is the one of the greatest things ever created. i will be listening to it for the next 4 months...LOVE!!!!

k besides that random comment...it's so sweet though, the colors changes, maple leaves falling...reminds me of when i was little. and the cooler days help me remember that all my favorite holidays are coming up. well. first is my birthday...in like 10 days! and then halloween and thanksgiving and christmas and new years!! and then all my friends come back from school and i get to see them and that's awesome!

just for all of you...here's a recap of my summer.

high school ski camp
indonesia
saw carly and people up north who i love very much!
went surfing!!
decided to not play soccer at clark.
got a nannying job.
went to the beach with lauren
family camp
went camping with kylie, jordan, and ryan.
went to tom's house and went boating
collaged...
went to seattle to see renee
played tennis with brant
played my little pony memory
went to powells and bought a sweet coloring book.
went to the zoo
ate frog, calamari, and ethiopian food
fell in love with thai iced tea
had to say goodbye to all my friends that went back to school! =(
stayed the night on a sailboat with carly
decided that i want to be a teacher
emily turned 16 and now i don't ever see her...sad...
nathan turned 18 and i missed his birthday cause i was camping.
went to bali and boogy boarded.
went to a lot of coffee shops.
started playing indoor soccer again! yay! i love soccer.
and college group started up again...well now REVolutionalIVE.

books i read this summer:
praise habit by david crowder
in the meantime by rob brendle
a long way gone by ishmael beah
blue like jazz by donald miller
kite runner by khaled hosseini
pride and prejudice by jane austen
authentic faith by gary l. thomas
and stories from fairy tales by hans christian andersen.

so i start classes the 24th:
u.s. history
french
world lit
speech

yesss.

i'm excited about going out to my favorite spot. and watching life. i've decided that i want to get some stuff accomplished this fall. like play guitar. and start painting. but well see how much i'll get done.

um i guess that's about it.

besides the fact that i want to dance through the rest of my life. k sweet.

bye.

cult of americanism

"American culture is no longer created by the people...A free, authentic life is no longer possible in America today. We are being manipulated in the most insidious way. Our emotions, personalities, and core values are under siege from media and cultural forces too complex to decode. A continuous product message has woven itself into the very fabric of our existence. Most North Americans now live designer lives- sleep, eat, sit in a car, work, shop, watch TV, sleep again. I doubt there's more than a handful of free, spontaneous minutes anywhere in that cycle. We ourselves have been branded."

Lasn likens life in what he calls America to life in a cult in which 'we have been recruited into roles and behavior patterns we did not consciously choose.' Does the child who sits in front of a television set for three to four hours a day, shops at the mall with her parents, goes to school and recites the Pledge of Allegiance, plays computer games, listens to her president encouraging everyone to go out shopping in order to defeat terrorism, wears clothes from the Gap, and plays with the toys created out of the imagination of Disney and Hollywood, ever actually choose the American way of life? Did she go through a ritual of initiation beyond getting her first Barbie? Was there a moment of conversion in her life when the American dream became her dream? No. She imbided this monoculture consumerist dream in the fast food she ate, the polluted air she breathed, and the visual culture she inhabited. And so she was converted, made into a cult member, before she ever knew what was happening. Lasn points out that 'dreams, by definition, are suppose to be unique and imaginative. Yet the bulk of the population is dreaming the same dream. It's a dream of wealth, power, fame, plenty of sex, and exciting recreational opportunities.' When a whole poplulation dreams the same dream, empire is triumphant.

Colossians Remixed 170-171.