shine on

last night we had a meeting for the youth and young adults of our cluster, of which there are 40+. 11 people showed up. 9 of which are from my community and the neighboring community. it was frustrating to say the least. reminded me all too well of the georgia tech baha'i club, where we have about 15 baha'is on campus, and no one shows up to anything.

anyways, we talked a lot about how we cannot be reliant on anyone else to do the work of the faith for us. how the entire weight of the world is on our shoulders. and not on our collective shoulders, but on each individual's shoulder. the entire weight of the world is on my shoulders. i can't just sit back and wait for someone else to do the work. last night put a lot of things back in perspective for me.

recently, many of my conversations with dear ones has revolved around the topic of independence, strength, and respect. i've learned so much from the hardships that were endured a few months ago. and there is still so much to learn. i'm ready.

hopes for the next two weeks:
--to sleep outside under the stars at least once
--to spend as much time with my grandmother as possible
--to visit maya
--to spend at least one afternoon at the beach
--to lie under the santa cruz stars
--to fall in love with 17 other individuals
--to not hold back
--to enjoy every single moment of youth week
--to not take anything for granted

summer themesong

lately...

so there are only five weeks of summer left, and that kinda scares me. because that means in five weeks, i will be living back at school, and subsequently dealing with the drama that i have come to associate with georgia tech. trust me, it's not fun. plus, there is still the dilemma of what to do with my life after graduation in december. but, this is all five weeks from now, and not now. the summer has been good and there is still time to enjoy it.

some highlights:

--field day my junior youth group planned for the children's class
--junior youth dessert fundraiser
--late night trampoline jumping under the stars with some of my favorites
--watching armin deliver his salutatorian speech at his graduation
--stone mountain with the family, grandmother and aunt: a little girl walks by with her family and enthusiastically smiles and waves at us, yelling "hi family!"
--euro cup
--hanging out with my bestest
--random, spontaneous hangouts with nissa and danesh
--hours spent with armin and fitzgerald
--laughing with my family
--the children's class i've had the bounty of helping out with
--california in a little over a week

some regrets:

--missing vicki and randall's wedding
--letting mileage and gas prices get in the way of seeing people i care about
--not making it to chapel hill
--lack of pool time
--not getting outside as much as i would have liked
--too few junior youth get-togethers

so, my goal is to make the most of the next five weeks and to not take them for granted. totally doable.

i've been thinking about resuscitating my old blog for a while now. just starting over fresh. but then i realized that i couldn't just neglect my previous blog. so i've copied over some of my old posts, starting with the end of my first year of college. i feel as though they help to explain this most current approximation of who i am and the direction i'm heading in.