Why Upperclassmen Shouldn't Cut

Soooo, this is an essay that I wrote for my English class. I dunno if anyone actually wants to read it, but I'm putting it up anyway. hahaha.

Upperclassmen have a lot going for them, so they really do not need another perk, like getting to cut in front of younger people in the lunch line.

People try to say that this is the “structure of society,” which is true. In sports, and in businesses, people start at the bottom of the ladder and work their way up. However, in the lunch line, we are not trying to get anywhere. We are just waiting for food, so why should we have to “earn our keep?” There is not much to “earn.” And in sports and businesses, you choose to be there, to be the rookie, to take on rookie jobs. It is hardly fair when we don’t have a choice in the matter. We have to go to lunch.

I also believe it is breeding arrogance in our upperclassmen. They already throw their weight around in sports, making younger kids do the dirty jobs. However, this is not really true to life because they are not going to be on the top when they get out in the world, but they think they should be, and suddenly they don’t know how to handle the bottom. They also tend to abuse the privilege and take things too far.

And if they do manage to make through the ladder without blowing a top, they continue in their arrogance. They believe everyone should bow to them. In a school, we should be teaching our students about life, not breeding arrogance.

These are just a few of the reason upperclassmen shouldn’t be allowed to cut.

Frustrations.

So. Basically. I'm really frustrated right now. I'm the sort of person who's really supportive and likes to be there for her friends, so it really kills me when things get in my way and I can't be supportive. I think it probably frustrates me and kills me inside more than anything else that ever happens in my life, like, seriously.

I can stand to hurt. I can deal with whatever life throws at me. *shrug* I'm tough, I can take it. But I CANNOT stand to see my friends hurt, and lately there have been days when I wish that I could do something drastic just to help them out, because I'm sick and tired of seeing them hurt.

And then to not know how they're doing is even WORSE. Because. Well, we all know my imagination, and in the absence of fact, the imagination goes wild. So of course, I tend to imagine my friends as a million times worse than they probably actually are. But that's just me.

So basically. Life sucks about a million times worse than usual because I hate seeing friends do badly. I hate watching them get set up for failure and then getting their butts chewed when, SURPRISE, they fail. It breeds anger and resentment and it kills me to watch them fail. And then I can't even be there to help them back up when they fall.

Life sucks. The End.

Horse-Play

Well, today, I played with my horsies. Always great fun of course. Haha. Viva did really well considering I haven't worked her in quite a while. She moved her hip really REALLY well, although that's one of our strong points so I'm not surprised. She moves her shoulder away from the pressure, but she doesn't pivot on her back end when she does it, yet. I'm not quite sure how to fix that. Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually. The world wasn't created in a day, right? She was also joined up right off the bat, which is always really super-de-duperty terrific. Hahaha.

And of course, I rode Vegas. I actually got to move a couple cows on her, one with a calf, so she was really "snorty," as Dad puts it. I thought Veg was gonna get me run over a couple times. The cow would stop and give us that nasty eye and Vegas wouldn't stop! I was like, if we keep crowding her she's gonna charge us. But other than that it was pretty okay. Hehe. And then. I played with her, On the ground, obviously. She did really well. She alwasy wants to trot when I send her out on the circle, though, instead of just, like, you know, walking and being all chill and taking on my energy. Not that I'm very good at giving her my energy yet. I need to work on that. Sarah was really amazing at that. Ugh. I can't believe she's gone...Sorry! Little bit distracted. Anyway.

And then. I got to ride Resistol. DeeDee and I went trail riding. It was pretty great. Zist is actually really fun when you get him going. I'm learning to get along with him. He's really light and sensitive to everything, which is hard, because I tend to be a bit heavy handed. But we got along famously today. It probably helped that he was in the side-pull hackamore instead of a bit, so it wasn't quite so hard on him.

DeeDee was riding Sunrise, and when we hit this section line, a jack rabbit popped up, like, RIGHT underneath the horses' noses. It was awful. Zist did one of those spin moves and I thought he was going to take us through the barbed wire fence. But he didn't. Which is always a good thing. And I didn't fall off! Didn't even lose my stirrups! Hehe. Sunrise, though. We looked at his tracks, and you could see where he spun, and then he jumped and the tracks where he landed. He must have jumped, like, eight feet. It was crazy. Then again, maybe not, since he's a BIG boy. Hehe.

Half way through the ride DeeDee and I switched and I got to ride Sunrise. He is such an awesome horse. I wish I were going to be able to do shows this summer, but I'm not. I'm probably going to be in Washington for the Wibaux show, probably over in the Valley for the Baker show, which just leaves the Glendive show. Which I hate. And so it would just be a waste. I haven't gone to Broadus or Miles City in years past, so I doubt that's going to change. One of these days, though, I'd love to show him. He has the smooooooothest gaits. It's lovely. =D He was really tired by the time we were done, though. Haha. He's young and out of shape after the winter break. Bahahaha. Poor boy. He's a nice kid, though. Love him.

Haha. That totally made me think of Sarah and our whole, "I like the rough and rugged look. Can you imagine if someone heard us talking like this?! They'd think we were talking about boys!" Aw. Sad day. She left this morning and I already miss her. Gah. Oh well. Life goes on. =)

I also had to work at the Tastee Hut today. We got hit with a HUGE crowd of people at like, quarter to eight. (We're supposed to close at 8) and it was insane. I ran my legs off, and my feet are really sore. Like, they feel like they have blisters. They don't. But it sort of feels that way. Haha. Not that I'm complaining. It wasn't that awful.

But I am really tired. So now..I am off to bed. =D Good night all.

True Love

We humans are amazing things. Our abilities to feel, to love, to do, to simply be, is unprecedented in the world. We feel emotions passionately (whether we show them or not) be it joy, pain, anger, or fear, the ability of the human body to feel and to cope with emotion is amazing if one takes the time to think about it.

For instance, our ability to love others. In loving others, we give them a power over us, we allow them to take a piece of ourselves. We give them the ability to hurt us, to jade us, to make our life miserable, simply by saying something negative, or ignoring a phone call, or the simple things one doesn’t even notice. And yet, even in anger, we continue to love them.

What is it in us that aches to be loved? What is it in us that cleaves to others, both of kindred spirit and polar opposite? Why do we allow others, time and time again, to wound us, and jade us, and give them power over us?

I believe that love is something deeper than we humans can even begin to fathom. We feel it, yes. We love other people, sometimes, be it rarely, with everything we have. There are those that we would give our lives for, or at least that we say we would, feel that we feel we would, though no one can ever truly know until circumstance puts you in that position.

However, we humans do not feel love in its truest, deepest form, no matter how truly, deeply, and passionately we may love someone. Our love, even in the truest form we can possibly give it, is still shot through with anger, and pain, and fear. (For I think that to some degree, we all fear loving another. It is a great power to give someone.) In our sinful world, we cannot possibly love someone truly, try though we may.

We throw the word “true love” around without much thought. It’s a fairytale, picturesque thing. The prince comes galloping in on his white horse and saves the day, they ride away into the sunset, maybe share a really romantic kiss, and “bam” it's true love. But it’s not true love.
True love is beyond that. It’s beyond human toil, and suffering, and our pitiful ability to “love” someone.

True Love is a gift of God. Only God can love truly, but I believe occasionally He gives us our own “true love,” to the best of our abilities to truly love someone. It happens when we open our hearts and allow God to work in our lives. It happens when God puts two people in the exact place, at the exact moment. And it doesn’t just happen when the prince comes swooping in and saves the princess. To truly love someone takes time. It takes time to grow a relationship of any kind, even one of hatred, let alone one of love. It involves getting to know someone, inside and out, almost as well as you know yourself. It means learning to trust someone, even to the point of your life, and earning their trust in return. It means you have to respect one another to the utmost.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (NIV Translation) This is true love, laid out in a simple, easy-to-follow format. All we have to do is live it. Ha. Not so easy. I don’t know about you, but patience is not one of my virtues. And I’m not always kind, either. Heck, I’m a sinner! It’s impossible for me, or anyone else, for that matter, to always be kind.
The thing that gets me most is that love keeps no record of wrongs. How often do we throw that in someone’s face. “Well, you did this and this,” or “You told so and so such and such a thing that you weren’t supposed to tell.” Love doesn’t work like that. How crazy is that? Whoa.
But then my favorite part of the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. “Love Never Fails.” This is definitely the whopper verse of the chapter. Love NEVER fails. There is no doubt about it. It doesn’t.

So why do we feel that so often that love has failed? We break up with the boyfriend (the one you really TRULY thought you were gonna marry this time!) or your friend moves away and you feel like it’s the final call. Why does love fail?

Love fails because we don’t love truly. Only God loves truly. And God’s love for us NEVER, EVER fails. Whoa.

Can you imagine loving someone the way that God loves us? Without expectation, without condition, without those tinges of greed and malice and jealousy and pride that are simply a part of us, a part of our nature, the sinful one.

To love another the way that God loves us would basically be the greatest fairytale ever, right? And it is! We have a true-life fairytale, and it’s in the Bible. God is our true love, and we already know that, for us Christians, it ends in happily ever after.

So what’s my point in all this? I’ve basically been telling you it’s impossible for us to truly love someone. Which it is. So the best that we can do is to love God. First and foremost. More than we love anything else. I believe that only in loving God can we learn to love others, because only God can teach us to truly love one another. And then we practice it in our daily lives. We simply love, to the best of our abilities, and with all we have. It’s okay to wear your heart on your sleeve. I think we miss a lot of opportunities for great relationships because we’re too scared to love, we’re too scared to let go. We’re too afraid of that instinctual part of us that isn’t rational, we’re too afraid of our heart to allow ourselves to truly love.

So we learn. We love others in our day to day lives (even those people who are hard to love.) We do it in the simple things, the things that no one notices, like smiling at someone (believe me, it can make someone’s day) by holding the door open, by helping the crazy old cat lady down the street carry in her thousands of pounds of canned cat food. And we love our friends and our family with everything we have. We trust them with our lives, we respect every part of their being (even their opinions or oddities that we dislike or disagree with) and we learn to open our heart to love, and to allow God’s pure, perfect, untainted love to flow through us. We learn to be a vessel for God.

When we allow God to work in our hearts, to direct our lives, to show Himself in the day to day things, that is when we learn the art of True Love.