50th. Hmm.

Happy 50th post. Wow. I'm thinking I need to post more. Something like that.
But I'm the type of person that needs inspiration.

What can a 3 day 8th grade trip show you? WOW. A lot, as you guessed. More than you could imagine. It was weird, it was fun, it was annoying.
It brings out the worst in people, and sometimes the most spectacular things in others.

Our 8th grade class took our official class trip from Wednesday 12:30PM till Friday 3:15PM. Went to Lake Retreat, on a lake(obviously), complete with a lodge, and a camp that spreads half way around the lake. Running space. Crying space. Hiding space.

It's crazy...the feelings that come to you when you see a girl hitting on your best friend since kindergarten, when you're losing your friend, when you finally fix things with another. When you kayak in a lake while it's raining. Talk 3 hours with someone you haven't talked to for 3 months. Take a chance and zip line down a hill that looks GINORMOUS from the top.

Again, what can a three day 8th grade trip show you?

1.) It's never too late to forgive someone.
Long story short, I seem to run into people that either a.) hate my guts, or b.) are jealous and tell people interesting things that just happen to not be true about me. Lovely. So for the past couple months, I've been clashing with a certain someone, and it's been tense. We try to ignore each other, but when we're with each other, we fake that there's nothing going on. That every thing's OK. That we're not hurting(sound familiar? you have no idea...).
It's bad. So frankly, I was sick of it. I really wanted to know what I had done to this chick, why in the world she hated me, talked smack behind my back, y'know, the whole drill. Our class has been pretty close to drama free this whole 8th grade year, of course there's been some, but this was the first thing that I'd really been sucked into. And I hate conflict. So I wanted to end it. But honestly, if someone lies about me, hurts me, I don't go down easily. I won't just let them walk all over me. More on that later...
Anyways, we hadn't really been getting along, and I was sick of it. But we were at the same time. It's complicated.
(I'm starting to see this isn't going to be a "long story short" type of thing...)
So we had devotions this morning and we had to have a partner, and I was sitting by her. "What the heck." I thought. Maybe it'll help.
So we all moved around the lodge, we went into a separate room, did the devotional, and then prayed out loud as the devotional said to, so...so we started praying.

Previously, the beginning of the devotional had us write out a prayer to God.
Mine looked something like this:
"God, I love you. I know you're here with me. And I know I've messed up. I know that me and this other girl have messed up, and that we're rude to each other, and neither one of us wants to be the one to talk to each other. But...but I know I need to."

***The night before, 2 of the teachers read a readers theater about forgiveness. Wow.***

"I know I need to, because I want to please you. And going around and pretending it's all ok between me and her doesn't do anything to help this situation. Lord...give me the words. Please help her not to get even more mad at me."

So...we prayed. She prayed first, so I could gain courage and whatnot. After she was done, I prayed and pretty much confessed out loud how I'd been really lame towards this girl and not appreciated her as a friend and yada yada yada...
The weird part? She did the same. She totally said how she had hurt me too, been rude, etc. I was sitting there with my mouth hanging open. Wow.
We both laughed, close to tears, and asked God for the strength and ability and help to erase everything that had happened.
You see...I didn't think that that would ever happen. Ever.
I always pictured myself apologizing to her somehow, but not before my Father.
I always pictured myself saying that, but I always imagined her getting mad and storming off for some reason.
Now, I'm not saying it's all perfect. We're both working on things, and hopefully it gets better. But it'll never be perfect. I'm just thankful. Extremely. Wow.

2.) Things change. People change. You have to go with it. You don't really have a choice.
So...drama sort of came back this week in our class. Wow. Like, the last week of school. Ridiculous, yes? Anyways...it did. Aside from what I talked about previous to this, what I was involved in, there was more. Mostly flirting. Annoying talking. People sitting outside our rooms, in the hallways, talking for like 3 hours straight. It's probably too bad for them that we could hear every word.
In the midst of 3 days, I pretty much saw one of my best friends being ripped away from me. He turned on me. Ignored me. The whole deal. Boys will be boys, I suppose.
And girls will be girls.
There's not much else to say.
Things will change. I guess God only wanted us to be friends from the first day of school we met(kinder garden)till these past few days when SHE showed up?
I guess so.
....
Gah. If you're wondering any further, you'll have to talk to me. I hate thinking about it.
Moving on...

3.) God's love and peace is UNSTOPPABLE.
Throughout these 3 days, SOMEHOW, God brought me back to that place of unexplainable peace. Lead me beside still waters, you could say.
I'm freaked. I'll just be honest, because I know that whoever reads this won't make fun of me for being freaked(hopefully..). But I am. I'm freaked for this Sunday night, I'm freaked for high school, I'm freaked for exams, for presentations Tuesday, for graduation...the whole shabang.
I'm scared.
And after weeks, months, a year at the most of keeping those feelings in, it's not good. It's pretty much like a bomb ready to go off. The last straw. Boom.
God gave me peace.
And He still is. And I pray that He continues to throughout this next week.

Goodness.
There's much, MUCH more I could blog about. I've told some of you that, not even a minute ago. But I can't seem to find the words.

Maui: 12 days.
Graduation/Last Day: 6 days.

Stay beautiful.
Loves,
Remey.