The Weirdest Revelation

Tonight, while I was longboarding with a dear friend, something hit me. A weird revelation. If you aren’t one of the people who goes on longboarding sessions with me, let me just set the scene. We have strict rules for when we go longboarding. It has to be late at night, and in Admas parking lot when it’s empty. As I was going downhill, I was thinking about the reasons why we go at this specific time and place. One thing: it’s any easy path to go down. I know that when I go to this specific place, at this specific time, I will most likely not fall on my face. The road is smooth, unoccupied, and no one is around to watch the embarrassment that is me riding a longboard. It’s comfortable.

So then I got to thinking. Does this only apply to longboarding, or do I find myself doing this in other areas of my life? Obviously it was the latter. It is comforting to know what will be at the beginning, middle, and end. I found myself thinking about this and seeing that it actually applied to many aspects of life. The biggest one though: faith. I think it is for this reason that people struggle so much with religoin or faith. We want to know what’s next, or what’s up ahead on the road so we don’t fall off the longboard, but the truth is, there are a lot of things we just don’t know when it comes to God. At first, this thought terrified me, but then I got to thinking. If I knew everything there was to know about my life and faith, it would be so easy to skate through life…literally, like on a longboard. That would be so boring.

So here’s to not knowing what’s around the corner, and instead eagerly awaiting the unknown.

I Hate Them

You wanna know what I hate? New Year’s resolutions. I think they are really stupid. The concept of people setting goals for themselves at the start of a new year that are often unattainable, and really impractical is a joke to me. I don’t like them for a couple reasons. First of all, why do we have to set these goals for ourselves just because it’s a new year? That never made sense to me. A new year doesn’t always mean a fresh start. In fact, a lot of times we are simply continuing endeavors we have already begun. Then there’s the other reason I don’t like them; they are usually impractical and tend to make us bite off more than we can chew.

So this year, instead of dwelling on unrealistic goals I would like to achieve, I am going to simply do. What a concept right? DO I mean how hard is that. When I say doing, what I mean is instead of saying: “Oh, I have always wanted to go to a Laker game,” go out and get your butt to a Laker game. Now some of these things may take longer to do, but we don’t have to do them within the year, because as I have already stated, our lives don’t revolve around the new year.

I have been trying to put this into action recently. There have been a couple things I have wanted to do for a while, and the opportunity recently presented itself to do them. The first was shoot at an indoor shooting range. I have wanted to do this forever, and secretly, wanted to do it for those cool pictures from behind while you’re shooting (which I will post below). The next thing I wanted to do was go to the world famous Roscoes House of Chicken and Waffles. Both are simple things, that I just never made the time for. But today, I got to do both. It just so happened that it worked this way, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I got to DO the things I wanted, instead of standing around and making a “New Years Resolution List” that will probably never be completed. I have a mental list of these “Do Things” that I hope to accomplish at some point. So yeah, I hate new years resolutions.

Friggin’ sharp shooter.

The delicious chicken and waffles!

Santa, Presents, and Family

Well, unless you live in a hole, you are most likely aware that it is Christmas. Sidenote: I am currently writing this blog at 4:30am sitting in my hallway on Christmas morning. You see, my sister and I decided to see who could wake up first, and I won, but until she wakes up I have to sit silently in the hallway. Alright, moving on. In the last couple days, I have really been stricken with something. Something blog worthy. I like to reflect. So the other day I was thinking about how I felt about Christmas when I was a kid, teen, and now young adult. It went in three stages: Santa, Presents, and Family.

The first of my phases began as a young kid and Santa. Being the imaginative person that I am, I made it my personal mission for the first years of my life to somehow capture Santa. This was all I cared about at Christmastime. Literally, ALL I cared about. I made different traps, tried to videotape Santa putting presents under the tree, and even wrote secret letters to elves to get insight in the man in red.

Then, as I grew older, I focused my attention on a different aspect of Christmas: presents. I would make my list months in advance, flip out when the Toys R Us big toy book came in the mail, and I would circle all of the things I want in ads from the newspaper. Although most would say this is a normal phase for an older kid, and almost teen to be in, I’m pretty sure I went overboard.

Then I come to now. Christmas 2011. My first Christmas as an adult, my first Christmas where I wasn’t at home, and my first Christmas when Santa and presents became truly irrelevant. This year, my mom’s side of the family was celebrating on Christmas Eve. I found myself so restless on the 23rd that I couldn’t even sleep. This is usually what happens to me on Christmas morning. I couldn’t figure out why though. Then it came to me, I was so flippin’ excited to see my family! It’s always funny when people ask you, “What are you most looking forward to at Christmas?” and then you kindly answer, “Being with family.” I know that’s how I answered every year before this year. But who was I kidding I only cared about Santa and presents.

I think me being away at college this year has sparked this sudden realization in my life. Family is the dang best. Seriously. I can honestly say that hanging out with them, hearing the Italian aunts bicker, and listening to everyone’s issues and drama over the past year, was the greatest thing ever. Well that is all, I’m glad I have come to this realization and that it’s definitely better than Santa and presents.

Merry Christmas and Go Family!

Just to wrap up, here is a really great, yet completely irrelevant to this post, verse that they mentioned in Midnight Service last night:
“No one has ever seen or heard or even imagined the wonderful things God has prepared and arranged for those who love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9

The Box, Christmas Cards, and Annual Letters

Today, as I was sitting typing out a letter for our family’s Christmas card, I got to thinking about “The Box.” You know, the box that we tend to force ourselves into, in order to fit into the norms of society? That one. How I got to thinking about this, was the whole Christmas card thing.

Whenever the holidays roll around, I always love seeing how cheesy people can get with their Christmas card. It’s always the same: matching white or red shirts, jeans and the whole family is sitting perfectly placed in front of a Christmas tree. Why though? I took it upon myself a few years ago, to ensure that we would never fall into this category. Thus began my annual project: organizing how we would pose/ what we would do in each Christmas card. To me, it’s a fun way to be creative, think OUTSIDE “THE BOX” and to show our family a bit of our personalities in each one. I think this is a much better way of expressing our family’s style and sense of humor. Since I began doing this three years ago, our family has welcomed this outlandish Christmas cards with open arms.

This year though, I decided to take it up a level. Ya we have sort of a wacky picture, but to me, it just wasn’t cutting it. So, what I decided to do, was pull a fake prank. I decided that I would write a letter (you know, like the annual “catch you up on what our family has been doing for the past year letter”) but instead of my mom writing it and telling everyone what our family has been doing, I would write it. Not only that, but I made up a story saying that I took out the original letter without my mom knowing, and put in my own letter instead. This time, written from the point of view of my sister and I. Basically, I think this is going to be a hit. Anyway, below are some of the Christmas cards I have thought of in the past. Enjoy.

 

(2011) “Rachael’s Messy Dorm”

(2010) “Getting the Tree”

(2009) “Switched Faces”

^This one is by far, the best.

 

Forever Young?

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting with my roommate’s precious 5 month-old niece Dakota. It was so nice to be with a baby, because since being here at college, I feel like I never see anyone younger than 18. But then I got to thinking. I started thinking about how innocent young kids really are, how they don’t seem to have a care in the world, and how they can truly love without any boundaries. This is something I have seen proven to me over and over. I have witnessed this through being a camp counselor, being an older sister, and also from teaching 6th graders my senior year of high school. Through these experiences, I have noticed a change in behavior as the kids get older. This change seemed as more of a loss of innocence rather than just a child growing up, which is depressing to me. So then the question came to me: “When and why do we let our kids loose their innocence?” 

 

This conversation arose in one of my classes the other day. We were talking about movies that bring back memories of our child hood (Aladdin, Toy Story, and Lion King to name a few) and how we felt about them then, and how we feel about them now. Obviously, the views have changed over the years, but the question still remains of when exactly that happened. People often say, that children begin to loose their innocence at age 5; and when I say innocence, I mean their carefree ways of living, their ability to not pass judgement on others, and their confidence in themselves. Personally, I do not think this is something we should begin to loose at the tender age of 5. I have truly come to the conclusion however, that this is inevitable until we become adults and can try to counteract this concept. I think this because when we are growing up, loosing our innocence and sense of nostalgia about nearly everything, is the least of concerns on our minds. It is only in times like these, when we are sitting in a college class being asked these tough, and sometimes rhetorical questions that we can wrestle with the concept. 

 

I really don’t know where I want to conclude this banter, but rather just say that this is something I try to keep in mind. I also try to be sure that whenever I am around kids, that I can turn into a kid myself, and if only for a few minutes, relive what was once there. Below is a picture of my group from the summer camp I worked at over the summer. They are all between the ages of 5, 6 & 7 and are probably the cutest kids to grace this Earth. It is because of them, that I believe this innocence is possible to regain. 

 

Behind the Card

Many people-and when I say many, I mean two people-have asked me why the blog title “The Wild Card Chronicles?” It’s much more than just a quirky blog title to intrigue my followers. It has a story. One I like to tell.

So, it was in fourth grade. I had my favorite teacher Mrs. Hansen who was probably the only teacher I have ever had who really got me. I mean she got me. As a fourth grader, I was blessed with an incredible sense of humor and abnormal use of sarcasm. She called me many nicknames, but one I always remembered was Wild Card. I never really knew why she called me this, until it finally dawned on me one day to ask. She told me that if I were to be an object, I would be a wild card…like in the game Uno. She explained to me that the wild card can adapt to be any color it wants. It is also a desirable card, that people like to have. Still not understanding how this applied to me, she said that I work with all types of people. She also mentioned that because of this, it made people want to be around me. Ever since, I have taken it upon myself to live this nickname out, and while I may be long passed her class, it is still something I learn from everyday. While this so called “Wild Card” way of living may not always be easy, or liked by people, I think it suits me.

So here I am now. A freshman in college, looking to blog about life. No better title suits my blog than The Wild Card Chronicles. It’s simply a blend of my selected thoughts, ramblings, and stories that I experience as a wild card everyday.