Senior Skip Day

So, today is senior skip day and it has definitely been a nice change of pace for my life. :) Last night we had a track meet...in the pouring rain and when I got home I was soaked and freezing! But afterward I went out to a friend's house for "senior campout" which wasn't really a campout because we all hung out in her garage due to the weather and then everybody went home around 1a.m. because we all so tired! ...pretty lame, i know... but I got to sleep in until 10 this morning! And the only reason I woke up is because I got a phone call...but it was amazing to finally get some sleep! Today has been pretty chill...Drew came over for a few hours and we just hung out and I went through pictures for boards at my open house and he was cool with it...thanks Drew! :)

Now, I really should be finishing my boards and cleaning the house and getting all my other stuff ready for Saturday...but instead I'm writing a blog...awesome...

Time to go be productive again!

Busy, Crazy Life of a High School Senior

Wow! Life has been BUSY! And I don't think it's going to slow down at all for at least another month...which is okay because I am usually a lot more productive when I'm busy because it forces me to manage my time well and I get a lot more done but there are definitely some days that all I want to do is relax and catch up with friends over coffee or something. But it's been a fun busy and there are so many wonderful things that are going to happen in my life in the near future that I'm excited to be preparing for it all! Here's a quick, brief look at what I've been up to...

Two weekends ago was my senior prom. I had tons of fun and really enjoyed spending the night with all of my close friends and getting dressed up. It was an absolutely stress free day for me which was really nice. I'm not the type of girl who fusses over her makeup or hair...the way I see it is it's one night and who really is going to remember what my hair looked like anyway? So, my hair took a total of 25 minutes, I did my own makeup and I called it good! I had lots of fun and I think that's the most important part!

Preparation for the open house is in full swing at the Clancy household! Dad just finished painting tonight so he is very happy to have that done and now we have moved into cleaning mode! I have also been put in charge of anything and everything picture related so I am hard at work on picture boards and a slideshow and all that fun stuff. The big day is Saturday so I'm sure things will be busy around here for everyone over the next few days!

Two weekends ago we had Gauntlet (lock-in) at church and it was AMAZING! We played laser tag at a place in Pleasant Hill which was lots of fun and I got to ride with Julia so we had some wonderful bonding time! :) Once we got back to the church from that we had some witness talks and such and it was a really good time for me to reflect on my relationship with God and what I need to work on most but at the same time we managed to have a lot of fun and hopefully all who attended enjoyed the night because I know I did!

This past weekend I went to what was possibly the last Vow of Silence show I will get to see until sometime next year if I'm lucky enough to be home on a weekend when they're playing in Ames! It was an awesome show and it was really great to see Thoughts of Crossing as well! Saturday I worked at a Junior High Boys' State Track Meet for six and a half hours which was a little bit ridiculous...especially because I got sunburnt! My nose is BLISTERING and it's quite disgusting and it's really embarrassing because I stood in the same spot all afternoon while I was working high jump so only half of my face got burnt and then since I was holding a clipboard, only half of my hands got burnt...and did I mention that I was wearing a WINTER COAT the whole day?! Yeah...pretty awesome if I must say so myself. Saturday was the Relay for Life which was good. It is always a fun event and it's really touching to see how many people have been affected by cancer and how terrible of a disease it is. But we are doing all we can to fight back and hopefully one day we will live in a world that doesn't have to face the horrors of cancer.

Looking to the future...the next few weeks are going to be just as jampacked as the last few weeks have been. This week on Wednesday we have senior skip day (which I will probably spend at home working on things for the open house...cool, right?!) and then we also have Baccalaureate on Wednesday night which should be a nice, relaxing change of pace. Next weekend, I only have a million open houses to go to including my own so that will keep me busy and I will most likely gain at least ten pounds over the course of the weekend but that's what is supposed to happen... :) Next week is awards night on Monday and academic excellence awards on Wednesday. Our last day of school is next Thursday and commencement is on Sunday the 24th!! I'm so excited but defintely wouldn't say I'm necessarily ready for graduation...I still have yet to write my speech. :/ So any pointers on that would be greatly appreciated!!

I think that's about it from me for now...hope you didn't die of boredom during this post! I'll try to make the next one more exciting! :)

My Second Favorite Thing

So, I haven't shared this tidbit about myself with you yet but those people in that picture are some of the most amazing people in the entire world. After my faith, FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America) is my passion. I had the opportunity to serve as the 2008-2009 Iowa FCCLA President and I absolutely loved every single minute of it. In the picture are my other 6 officers along with our state officer coordinator at our state leadership conference held in March. During my term I learned so much about myself and about life in general and I owe all of those lessons to my fellow officers. They are all wonderful, amazing people with so much dedication for the things they involve themselves in and that is something I truly admire. People always said that we were a great team and I honestly believe that, we all worked so well together and got along perfectly that I couldn't have asked for six other people to work with for a year. We had way too much fun together but at the same time we knew when to buckle down and be productive so we could get home after a long weekend of work and planning.

Since our term ended at the end of March, I have been trying to forget about it and push it aside so I can focus on the things I have coming up in my life (for example, graduation) but it has been so hard! And it should be...it's impossible to forget about something or someone who made a great impact on your life and these people most definitely impacted the person I am. Honestly, it's not easy being done...and that sounds so greedy and selfish but I miss all of them more than anything. We are spread out all across the state and before I could always count on seeing them at our monthly meetings but now we're done and I haven't seen them for a month and it's proving to be quite trying. They are people who kept my life in check over the course of the year and they were always there to listen when I needed to vent and they are still there for me, they will always be there for me, but distance just makes things so much more difficult.

Just for you to get an idea of how much we all loved Iowa FCCLA...Rebeka (third from the right in the picture) texted me last week and said she hadn't unpacked her suitcase yet because she thought that if she didn't unpack then it wouldn't seem like she was really done yet. I laughed at her...because that's how our relationship works...and told her she was a little bit ridiculous but then I went upstairs later that night only to discover that my suitcase is still sitting in the middle of my floor and it's mostly unpacked but there are definitely still several items of clothing and other random supplies in my bag that I haven't even thought of unpacking yet. So apparently I am suffering from the same despression as Rebeka...and I really don't think it's completely hit me yet that it really is over and maybe I really haven't unpacked yet because I don't want to face the fact that I'm done.

I really don't know how to explain my emotions because I really am excited to see what the 2009-2010 officer team can do and all the great places they are going to take the association but at the same time, it sucks to have everything one day and then the next day have it all taken away. It comes with lots of shock, tears, hugs, sadness, joy, and relief...how's that for a mixture of emotions?! It's pretty much impossible to deal with all those emotions at the same time...and that's what I have been trying to do and it's not working because I am still living in denial and I really don't want to admit to the fact that I'm finished serving as president.

But, let's look on the bright side! In just a few short months, 6 of the 7 from our team are going to the National Leadership Conference in Nashville, TN and I am pretty much counting down the days until July 10th! It's going to be one of the best reunions ever and we are going to have a fun-filled, relaxing week with each other and with all the officers from around the country that we met over the course of our year. When I get down thinking about the fact that it's over, I just think about the fact that we are going to be together again soon and it's going to be amazing! It usually helps me get through the sadness and brings a smile to my face :)

Scholarships = Hard Core Thinking

So, Anna (youth minister) found this scholarship for me that's worth a ton of money and it's an awesome scholarship to the college that I'm going to. When I first got it, I looked over it and thought it would be a piece of cake but today while Anna and I were talking about it I realized that I don't think it's going to be as easy as I first suspected. There is no essay part to it and it's all just short answer questions...sounds pretty painless, right? Not so much...there are some pretty deep questions on this application that I don't know if I'm going to be able to give a complete answer in less that 300 words.

For example, one question asks for two ways in which I have brought others closer to Christ. I truly hope that I am bringing people around me to Christ every single day but I don't know that...they do, so this question is making me think quite a bit.I am most definitely going to say something about Theology of the Body because it is my passion and I really think that it is an amazing way for one to become closer to God and realize why He made you just the way you are. I am planning on talking about how we have evangelized with it and taken it to different youth groups and such. So, that's my easy answer but they asked for two...and I really don't know what I'm going to say for the other one because I don't feel like I actually bring anyone closer to Christ. I think that I expose them to His greatness and then they decide for themselves if they want to accept Christ or not. I think the whole process is between that person and Christ and not so much me but I guess I will have to change my style of thinking and come up with another way I have led someone to our Savior.

Another question asks about the depth of my commitment and how I practice my faith. I'm going to kind of approach this like a testimony...but how am I supposed to do that in under 300 words?! I will definitely talk about my Confirmation year which is when I truly took Catholicism as my own and made the decision that I wanted to pursue my faith and I wasn't going to just sit back and watch it happen, I wanted to be a part of it and since then I have been growing in my faith every single day and I learn more about God and how much He loves me constantly. But Theology, and our mission trip to Harlan, Kentucky, and my family, and youth group have all played vital roles in my spiritual journey and to try to put that into words is going to be somewhat difficult I have a feeling. I love to share my story with others and tell people how great of an impact God has had on my life but I've never written about it before so we will see how this all turns out.

So, along with all these questions, my brain has kind of been going crazy just really thinking about God's role in my life and how I can let Him play an even greater role. We can all let God take more control in our lives. And life would be so much easier if we truly gave every part of our life up to Him and didn't worry about controlling anything at all. But we can't actually do that...we are human and we live in society that's all about independence so we all strive to be in control of our lives and have a handle on everything that's going on but I think if we just let it all go and became a society that was dependent on God our lives would be dramatically different! We would be worry-free and careless and God would take perfect care of us...if only we lived in a perfect world...

Rookie

So, I've never done this before and to be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing. I mean, I was planning on starting a blog eventually just in case anyone back home in Iowa wanted to hear about my life in Kansas next year but I guess I just decided to do it now instead. So, if I begin to ramble on about things that make no sense...I apologize.

So, for those of you who don't know...here's a quick snapshot into my life at the moment. I just gave up my red jacket and I wouldn't say I'm handling it all too well. But each day is better and maybe one of these days I will finish unpacking and put my suitcase away. :) Luckily, my focus has began to shift to graduation. I absolutely cannot wait and I am so excited to start the next chapter in my life. Along with graduation comes scholarships, open houses, scholarships, baccalaureate, scholarships, awards night, scholarships, painting the house, and oh right, scholarships. Yeah, seems like it would fill my time pretty well, right? Wrong...I don't actually do any of those things and, more often then not, find myself bored, sitting in front of my TV most of the time...awesome use of your time, Katlin.

Other than graduation, I am currently sick, which is loads of fun, and I am keeping busy managing the girls' track team and hanging out with friends while I still can.

Sorry for the not so exciting blog post...hopefully they will improve over time! :)