Majesty

Even then.

I love when I get insights into people,

Even if they are merely acquaintances.

I love realizing what people are thinking, 

How their minds work, 

And finding a way to relate to them.

I like people, generally,

Even when they disagree with me.

Even people vastly different from me

Are still alike me in some way.

I like revisiting the past,

Even the not-so-distant past.

I miss my friends,

Even the ones with whom I've lost touch.

I liked yesterday,

Spending time with great people,

Distracting me from things that make me cry.

Thoughts that won't leave my head 

And shame my heart.

Even when I am mostly loved,

I still feel ostracized.

I don't like judgmental people,

And I don't like getting labeled and scorned.

But even then-

I'm still willing to accept forgiveness

And offer my own.

(If only they would open up.)

How dare you.

Shame, shame, shame. I rarely get angry with people...

I write nice thank-you notes... 

Another one of my good qualities is that I respect others. I respect different opinions, beliefs, and faiths. I believe that each person's morality is different. I typically try to live my life to be a good person. Okay, I'm not going to be canonized any time soon, but my moral foundation is fairly strong. However, according to certain people, that isn't the case. I don't force my judgment on other people. I'm opinionated, but I don't tell others how to live their lives. Therefore, I don't expect others to tell me either. I want my privacy to be respected. I want to make my own decisions, and that hardly affects others, especially if they could mind their own business. Maybe I'm asking for too much. Maybe I can't expect that from people I considered to be my friends and family. I dreaded this and now it's happened. It's even worse of a reaction that I expected.

Adopt.

Adopt a word!

It saddens me that the average English vocabulary seems to be shrinking. (I'm included in this generational plague.) I just think that an expansive vernacular is an important asset. 

So...go to http://www.savethewords.org and choose a word to adopt!

I just adopted: 

quaeritate

It's really very cool. Go.

Something

Something happy. Something new.

I've borrowed a lot of feelings from you.

When I'm lazy, I'm bored.

When bored, I get sad.

But when I'm busy, I feel accomplished.

And when I get things done, I have meaning.

When I have meaning in my life, I am happy again.

Yet...when I'm busy, I become stressed.

When I'm overly stressed, I turn to laziness once more.

Fix?

Reconnaissance

I've been thinking about it, and I've had a lot of fun this summer. I no longer feel like I belong in high school. Hopefully, I will feel at ease come September 20. The deadline is drawing closer and closer; days are ticking by. 

Summer Adventures:

• Celebrating Virginia's birthday in Avila Beach
  
• Leading the cadet unit with Rachel at Toro
  
• Everything else Toro related, such as avoiding wild boars
  
• Staying at Rachel's house for a week, and working at Henry Cowell
  
• Santa Cruz
  
• Checking off items from our summer to-do list with Sean
  
• Trying to learn how to surf
• Taking lots of photographs
• Artemis! The grand adventure of 2010
• Bonfires and beach time
• Going to the Boardwalk with the Culliwoods
• Exploring Yosemite with Zoe and surviving it
• Attending summer orientation, running around the UCLA campus in the middle of the night
• To be continued...

The saddest thing I've witnessed.

The sisters were sitting in the back.

Side by side, together.

As her body was lowered down,

Down where we couldn't see, 

They wept and wailed.

I heard their sobs over the silence.

It was a slow moment,

Yet an abrupt end.

I'm back.

Camp was...a wonderful experience.

August is turning out to be a busy month.

I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to be a part of the Artemis program. Not only was I a part of it, I helped begin it. It's a great source of pride in my life. I just feel it is an accomplishment that is beyond anything else I've ever done. Especially as a teenager, this was a rare chance. I did it. For five years, it was a increasingly significant part of my life. Without ALTA and Camp Artemis I know I would be a very different person. Naturally, I was sad about this all ending. I knew all my friendships would continue and I would always remain loyal to the program and return, but I cried because it was another marker signifying the end of something for me. It was intensely personal, but overall I'm just very happy. I didn't really cry at graduation or the end of senior year, but I did at our tri-phase campfire and at the staff campfire on the very last night. I'm so grateful. This was special. I'm forever in love with camp.