Coke A Cola Chapstick

So, I think tonight is one of those nights that I'm just going to...you know...NOT sleep. Thanks to math class, I had an Amp (energy drink) late at night, and now I'm just...up. Which leads me to somehow think of this story from junior year of high school. You seated and ready to go? Alright. Store that tray in its upright fashion, hit on the stewardess and pray for no turbulence, 'cause here we gooooooo! (admit it, that one was WAY better than any other one Al Lutz has penned. Geeks, you know what I'm talking about)

Link

It was a warm late summer afternoon. I was hanging out at the field my dad was coaching football practice at. Why? Because I had nothing better to do. I stand around, listen to music on my iPod, and then I get a text from this girl I knew. She was free, and wanted to hang out. I told her where I was, and she said she'd come right over in a few.

As I hang out, I can remember Jason Mraz's "A Beautiful Mess" playing as she pulled up. I stood there as she walked up in those short jean shorts, white blouse and her sandy blonde hair pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. This was something I couldn't help but dream about until it became a reality.

We stand at the edge of the field, watch the players go through their drills (I would have played, had it not been for an ankle injury), and my dad yell and blow his whistle what seemed like a hundred times over. Practice makes perfect, right?

She ends up sitting down, and I follow suit. My lips were getting dry, and I try to carry around chap stick so I don't get chapped lips. It's a pet peeve. For some reason, my mom thought it'd be funny to get soda flavored chap stick for me as a little prank. Coincidentally enough, I had a coca-cola flavored chap stick with me this day, and what happens next, I kid you not, is something I will always remember, and never in a million years expected to actually work. 

I un cap the chap stick, and start to apply it, and this girl looks at me, and asks if it actually tastes like the soda. Usually, I'd say some "here's your sign" joke. But for whatever power that be, possessed me to tell this girl "kiss me and find out."


She did.

She pulled back, looked at me, and told me "Wait, I couldn't tell.."

Leaned back in, and kissed me longer this time.


Guys, this is when I realized that soda-flavored chap stick can be the best thing ever invented. And since then, I don't care if some guys think it's girly, and would rather stick to the "original" or "medicated" chap sticks. I'm buying soda flavored chap stick from here on.

Topical Essay For School

I like sharing what I write, mainly because I like to hear what people think, no matter if it's good or bad. This past week I had to write another topical essay for my English class, and I present it to you to read. Hope you enjoy it, and if you don't, then still leave a comment of your own opinion on what you think I could improve on.

I know first hand the struggles that Elizabeth Wong wrote of in her essay  “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl”. For me, it was the smell of the locker room still gets to me. Sweat, grass and mud, mixed with dirty laundry, and covered with what seemed like an atom bomb of about 18 different colognes from the teammates trying to cover their stench up after a game, it still gets to me. FOOTBALL CAN HAVE ITS GREAT MOMENTS, BUT FOR A PLAYER LIKE ME WHO RODE THE BENCH, IT CAN BE A VERY LONG SEASON. 

Dad wanted me to play. I wanted to play. However, I never realized how much pain and work I’d have to throw into ‘playing’, which seemed ironic to me. You need work in order to be the ones that could play. After the excitement of the first few practices wore off, I started to get lazy about showing up on time. The coaches never took notice of my rep-work when I snaked my way through the line of wide receivers going out for a post pass, or a stop-and-go run. As much as Wong wanted to be in her Chinese language class was about as much as I wanted to be on the field when I realized no one was paying attention to me, yet paying attention their already star players. Even as Wong says “I had better things to learn than ideographs copied painstakingly in lines that ran right to left from the tip of a moc but”  (24), I felt like I had better things to be doing than running mindless plays, if I wasn’t going to be coached on catching the football wrong or stepping the wrong way.

As Wong states that she sat in a auditorium room with chairs and bad smelling Oriental odors and dreamed of ‘better’ countries and what they had to offer, I sat in a old and smoke filled room with my team mates and coaches watching films from previous games. I couldn’t stand the smell of the defensive coaches’ cigarettes. Waving his hand around in front of the projector screen, I worried he’d eventually burn a hole through it with as close as he got to it. He’d yell out a player’s name, and complain about things like a teammate dropping passes, or not tackling correctly. These guys were twice our age, and ten times more competitive than we were. I suppose that’s because they couldn’t play, and wanted to live through our own glory.

As I started my own season, I had to finish it, per an agreement made with my father. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t hate it all the way through as much as Wong hated her Chinese class and talking to locals in Chinatown.  As my own season ended in November, I rode the bench and got a handful of plays in when we would be up on an opponent by thirty plus points. Yet at the last game of the season, coach started me. He said that he watched me be patient and wait my turn, and decided that I deserved to play. Finally, I was someone who could be counted on for the team. 

High School Never Ends

We're all rockin' the Chuck Taylors!

I could go on about how awesome that song is from Bowling For Soup , but we'll not focus on Jack Black being the clown, Brad Pitt being the quarterback, etc.

Kind of ironic, considering I don't go there anymore..

Last night was great. It was a end to four years of high school. End of being a real kid. End of not having a lot of responsibilities. It was a step up into the real world. Onto college. Onto jobs, and real relationships that can end up in marriage.

BCHS' graduation went well. My friends walked across the stage, received their diploma, and threw those awkward frisbee hats high in the air.

My best friend right after graduation. Really proud of this guy! 

And then rest of my night went pretty well. Went and saw Kung Fu Panda 2 after the graduation.

My awesome sister and me waiting for Kung Fu Panda 2. 

Now for the lengthy part of this post: 

Kung Fu Panda 2 was great. I was never totally into the first one, but this one I liked better. It just seemed more on top of its game with the story, jokes and overall visuals of the film. This one still has those classic fat panda jokes Pho makes about himself, but also with some really solid comedy that's fresh. And I must say, the film visually is stunning. The opening scene was great, but a little slow. They open the film with chinese paper puppetry setting up the plot in the form of a backstory. The angles they used were definitely creative as well. With a shot looking directly down over a village as the Furious Five make an escape, they use the alleyways of the town to resemble somewhat of a Pac-Man maze. 

On top of the creative angles, the pure beauty they created resembling China and its culture was beautiful. Wide shots of lush green valleys with a misty sky. The buildings with intensely detailed carvings, it's all just very well done.

Overall there really wasn't much that was bad about the film except the beginning was a little slow to start things off. Other than that, it's a fun film. Definitely one of summer's better films so far. 

Enter Some Old Latin Saying Here. Congrats, Grad.

Well, high school is coming to a close. My friend's at BCHS are graduating tomorrow, and due to economic reasons, I'll be there in the audience clapping along with my friend's parents. But I'm not going to be a downer about that. Instead, I'm going to take the time to post about a lot of the fun times I had with people in the two and a half years I was there. This is more personal posting about some past memories there, so if you don't want to read through, go for it. But if you want to read some of my stories of high school, get comfy. Grab a drink. Put on some music, and I hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I do writing them.

First girlfriend in high school

lunchtime. 

Sophomore year was the first time I had a girlfriend in high school. I had dated another girl the summer before my freshman year, but this was the first girl in high school. I remember asking her out right before Christmas break in the gym. There was big group of us sitting on the bleachers just hanging out, and the entire week before I kept noticing her watching me. I'd make eye contact, and she'd look away. Finally the Friday before we left for Christmas break, on the bleachers in the gym, I asked Kristin out. My best friend had asked her best friend out, and we all decided to go see Marley and Me a week from Saturday. Our first date was the movies, held hands and all that cutesy stuff. Over the next three months we went to formal, slow danced to "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, and spent the rest of the night eating pizza and playing the wii at her place with our group of friends.

I was so lame..nervous as all get out that night. 

Towards late February, early March everything kind of stalled. She broke up with me to focus on school, and I let her. It hurt, because I really liked her, but in relationships, and especially at an age like that, it's better to let go.

Football Games

The first two years of high school I played football. At first I loved playing. It was something relatively new to me, and it was a lot of fun to do. Coach put me in as a defensive end, and offensive lineman on frosh-soph. I can still remember the first time I got a sack. We were playing against Tehachapi High at their home field, and their lineman left a gap open so I darted through, and as I got closer, the Quarterback saw me, and started to run, but I grabbed his jersey and kinda just threw him to the ground. It wasn't a hard hit, or even pretty, but it got the job done. 

What sucked was 'hell week', and the Bakersfield heat we had to practice and play in from July to September. On top of that, there was one time it was a 110 degrees, and there was a fire in Santa Barbara that was drifting it's intense and thick smoke up and into the valley. Where Bakersfield is, it's surrounded by mountains. So what does that smoke do? It sits in the valley. We had a game against Garces High, in the middle of that fire. The sky was literally brownish orange at sunset. We couldn't see the sun, but the sky was what seemed to be apocalyptic. And we ran, and tackled, passed and blocked throughout all of that. Seriously insane stuff. 

Off the field, it was always a party in the stands with friends. We never watched the game, but ended up stealing each others hats and hiding them on the visitors stands for whoever we stole it from to go find it. It was one of the stupidest games we played, but it was entertaining at the time.

Hume Lake

Where to even start with this one?! BCHS takes the entire school up to Hume Lake for a week right after school starts in August/September. This will be a combo of all three years I went. My gosh, there was some seriously great times up in those mountains. From playing poker (yes, Christian school kids playing poker. Kind of ironic, no?) all night the last night of camp, to the dye wars (entire school wearing white throwing dyed water at each other for the heck of it), it's just a great time to get together as a core body and learning more about God and the Bible with our peers. 

The football players had practice during free time, which sucked because it took up most of the time. But we still got to go through a high ropes course, and play some paintball (on that note, it hurts getting shot point blank in the back by one of those things! Stupid freshman. He was even on my team...). 

Classes

Mr. Horner and some classmates

I'm pretty sure my teachers are some of the most patient people I've ever met. My friends and I put them through a lot. From using a pointer laser in the back of biology class to mess with our Science teacher, to Stealing the dean's golf cart to drive around campus after school, we did a lot of stupid stuff that gave them every right to give us detention until we graduated COLLEGE. But they usually let us off the hook because we were, according to their words, so lovable. 

Pranks 

BCHS has always had a 'rumor' that the roof of the Gym had a pool on top that is exclusive to only the senior class. No one really believed it, but I figured I'd take the rumor to new heights and see if I could get away with it. So I took a google map image of the gym, and a google map photo of the pool center in town, and put it on the roof. It's not the *best* photoshop creation I've done (15 minutes before 4th period ended was all the time I had), but it got me some cash from the freshman. I sold them fake elevator passes to the so called pool. It was the only time I ever did it, and boy did the deans not like me for this one. They were more surprised that I actually got away with it than mad that the freshman were complaining they lost $10 (rich dairy kids...God bless 'em.). 

End of The Semester

There's A LOT more memories I've had with people from BCHS. This is just the tip of the ice berg. I may do a part two, or leave it at this, and just make a slideshow of photos/video. But I gotta say, through all the crappy drama, through all the people gossiping about who did what, and who hooked up with who, I still love a lot of people from the school. I may not be there to graduate with my friends, but I'm at least going to be there tomorrow night in the stands cheering them on as they get their diplomas, and start the rest of their lives as they walk off the stage. 

graduate gratulatione. tua merita.

The Crayola Way of Asking Someone to Prom

Some might wonder what I'm getting at with a post title of 'The Crayola Way of Asking Her to Prom', so I'll explain. by Crayola Prom, I mean GET CREATIVE! There's already a lot of really cool ideas that I've seen, but I've thought of a couple that people can use if they want. I know it's that time of year where kids spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to get the dress no other girl is going to wear, and the shoes no other guy is going to dance in. Limos, after-prom parties. Exquisite dinners at the local italian eatery. All as a way of celebrating one last time together by coming on the dance floor with all your friends and dancing the warm spring nights away before heading off to summer.

A lot of the older crowd doesn't get why we do this, but kids that read this understand it. As of lately, it's become almost an underlying competition between kids, and even the kids who are already dating someone to see who can come up with the most creative ways of asking the girls (or those brave enough, the girls asking the guys) to the spring dance. It's just a fun way of finding a creative way of asking. And I can't disagree with that, since it's a way kids can actually get creative and get their minds thinking (seeing that the lame government likes to cut music and art programs, and leave science and math. but that's saved for later..).

A few ideas I've had about asking a girl to prom are as followed. Feel free to use these ideas if you want, but all I ask is you let me know which one you're using, AND then after you ask, send me a letter on how it went, and I'll blog all the stories!

Starbucks: Call up the girl you want to ask, ask her to meet you at a Starbucks. Ask her for her drink order before she arrives, and order her drink. Upon ordering, you ask the Barista to write in each of the boxes on the side of the cup "PROM?"As she shows up, hand her the cup, ask her if you got it right (by asking her to check the side to see if it's exact), she'll notice, and then go from there.

For those who have a video announcement system at their school: Talk to the teacher, and the class (girls in the class would more than likely love to help out, unless one has a grudge against the girl), and try to set it up in the announcements. Something like "And in breaking, in studio news, *insert guy/girls' name here* has just been asked to Prom by *insert your name here*! Then get the camera to pan over, or cut to you off stage, with a sign and flowers (flowers optional) asking her to prom. To make it better, find a friend in his/her class period the announcements are in, and get them to film their reaction. Then make a youtube video about it later.

Get cultural! - Go out to Panda Express, and find a way to slip in a small piece of paper that asks her to prom in her fortune cookie. Simple, and really cute. Heck, I'd like to be asked by a girl like this. But with my luck, I'd just eat the paper along with the cookie.

Break out the legos: build a sign out of the plastic colored bricks and set it on her door step before she leaves for school. You'll obviously be there when you set it. But hide at first to make him/her wonder who left it there.


Those are some of the ideas I've got for now, but if you do use one of the ideas, PLEASE write me an e-mail back, and I'll post your story here on the blog! 

Learning School, But Not Life.

As a guy that's been in public, private, and homeschooling, I've been able to get around and see different styles of how things operate and run. The inner gears that make a style of school tick and run. In short, the politics of it all. I might blog later about public and private school, but right now, I want to focus on homeschooling. For those that know, I'm not a huge fan of school right now, because I'm at home, with free time when I'd rather be out at a school, cramming to get essays and homework turned in, with little to no free time, but God dealed me these cards, and I make the best of it.

Thankfully I get invited to parties and school functions by my friends back at BCHS. In fact, next Friday night I'll be at the powderpuff game supporting my girlfriend and then we'll be hitting up the Sadie Hawkins dance after the game. But what I find entertaining is making fun of this whole homeschooling deal. I'm a part of some organization that gets homeschooled kids together to science labs, or creative writing, and...

...wait for it...

...Proms and Homecomings.


I got an e-mail the other day with an invite to go to the annual Formal dance party the organization puts together. Now to keep other people out of this, I've blocked out names addresses and such, but this is what I got in my e-mail.
My comments on this e-mail are in green.

FORMAL TIME FOR 9th-12th GRADE HOMESCHOOLERS

Hi everyone, it is that time of year again. Formal Time!

This year will be a little different. We are going back to an era when ladies were ladies and gentlemen were real gentlemen and they both acted like it!

It's

Dancing Under the Stars 40's Style

Get out your best ,most conservative evening wear, your dance card and come have a blast.

(dance card will be provided)

What's a dance card? Do I have to apply for it before dancing?

Do I show my dance card to the girl I wish to dance with? And if she accepts my dance card, is there a transaction of some sort? punch a hole in it? Scan it? gold sticker it?

What happens if I get denied?

We will be serving a sit-down dinner under the stars and enjoying a night of food, friends and fun.

Our most important guest will be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! We will have an ice breaker with an appetizer.

 Then we will praise and honor the One who gave

us the freedom to join together. The night will keep moving

40's style with a fun game, then dinner will be served. While dinner is being served, we will enjoy a

fun video of days gone by and not-so-gone-by!

not so gone by...does that mean we're celebrating today?

To keep the night moving, there will be give-aways (used erector set? deck of cards from the 'field trip' to the Grand Canyon?), prizes, games, ping-pong, air hockey, basketball, billiards, volleyball and dance-card dancing. (again with the dance card dancing! I swear this sounds like a Fall Out Boy song title.)

1- 5x7 photo will be provided with each paid attendee

(this means they're using up the extra rolls of film from the grand canyon field trip)

It will be held at the XXXXXX's house 

 Saturday May 21, 2011 

Considering the fact that the party will be held at the XXXXXX's home, there are a few things everyone should be aware of:

First and foremost our house is the Lord's, and everything we do here we try to do to honor our Savior.

That said, here are the rules.........which we feel will help us honor God with all our soul, mind, strength and heart.

There will be NO:

foul language

dirty dancing

public display of affection

mini skirts

strapless or skinny straps on dresses (unless covered with a wrap that is worn AT ALL TIMES)

overly tight clothes

under garments showing

backless clothing

cleavage

vulgar words or pictures on clothing

rudeness

over-all disrespect for each other

(needless to say, if Charlie Sheen and his girlfriends do it, you can't.)

There WILL be:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control, along with a H-U-G-E amount of fun!

(I'm calling them out. Plagiarism on the Bible!) 

I am sure there will be some who think these guidelines are a bit over the to (a bit? I'm a pretty modest guy, but dang...); if that is your view, then this formal IS NOT for you.

Don't waste your time or ours.  If you still want to attend and do not follow the guidelines our family has in place, you will

be asked to spend the rest of the night inside (give me a deck of cards and a glass full of water, and I'll show you a better time inside doing card tricks than the whole party will have combined.), will be asked to wear a t-shirt over your outfit, or told to leave.

This is not a joke, and shouldn't be taken lightly. All who know us are aware of the high standard we

have when it comes to functions at our (the Lord's) house. We are not perfect, but we are to be like Christ more and more each day.

If you have doubts about an outfit.......don't wear it. Or you may send a picture of yourself in the outfit to me and I will either "ok" it or give "thumbs down"(can you say 'hot or not'?).

This goes for any person who accompanies you. We encourage no boy friend/ girl friend relationships here, but if you do bring your "friend"(just a hunch here, but I think they're not big on teen relationships.) he or she will be required to follow ALL of the above rules. It will be your responsibility (the home schooler) to inform your friend of the guidelines.

If you are interested in attending, email me and I will send you the acknowledgement form. You can send the paperwork back along with your check.

The cost will be $45.00 per person. (Remember, that is a meal, 5x7 photo, snacks and attendance to the formal)

 There will be no ticket sales at the door.  All tickets must be bought in advance by May 14th.

Sorry, no refunds.

Parents, I would like to have chaperones for the whole night (even if you can only help part of the time).

 If you are willing to handle this job I will need to have 6-8 parents who will agree to chaperone at a certain station and refrain from congregating with other adult chaperones. (this is what got me. You want parents to help out...with homeschool kids. Who are stereotypically undeniably antisocial...and yet you want them to REFRAIN from CONGREGATION with other adults. You're asking them to come watch a collection of socially awkward boys and girls, for a full night, without talking to other parents encompassing the rest of the dance floor. That is insane. No thanks.)

Dinner will be provided for your service.

 Please RSVP ASAP so I can pass on that info to the other families. If you are willing to help, email

me and I will send you the list of stations and times that I will need covered.

This will be a blessed night that could provide godly, uplifting memories. Please come and join us.

I'm a Christian, but I'm not strict like this. I think families like this fail to realize that Jesus hung out with the non Christians who swore, had PDA, and excessive skin showing. And that's what I base my life off of. I hang out with everyone. I don't care what you believe. If we can find a common ground on sports, movies, music, whatever it may be, we're good. I'm not gonna judge because it's not my place. If you want to live your life one way, go for it. It's your life, not mine.

But this not only gives off a bad image, it just makes Christians look really pious and uppity. I can't help but make fun of it because it's so absurd. I think Christians really need to realize that we can't be Bible thumpers who damn people to hell because they don't believe in what we do. Not everyone is going to believe the same thing. If they did, then we'd have a utopia, and that's never going to happen.

And as a final note, I think homeschoolers miss out on life at times, because some don't really get out. To live in the world, you don't need to be of it, but at least see what's out there.

It's funny how some miss the boat on things.

Having it all, and losing it.

DISCLAIMER: This is a very lengthy post. Read if you wish. 

Ever have those moments you just want to scream? Where you had things that you loved and wanted to keep working at, but get it yanked out from underneath you, and forces you to work with a lot less? I do, and still do.

I’m homeschooled. Not by choice. I went to Bakersfield Christian High. Basically the best school in town. Tuition costs more (now) than Cal State Bakersfield. It’s insane, but the education is worth it. Mac desktops with programs that give you wonderful amounts of access to information, teachers that take time before, during lunch, and after school to sit down with you and talk you through a problem, thesis, or even just to chat about the school sports. I was never top of my class, but I was a good student. I got relatively good grades, and some bad grades (almost didn’t pass Spanish ), but I did ok. I played baseball and football. I helped out with theater when they needed it. I loved it. I loved being at a school where I could be my average self in a crowd of kids that have been raised with silver spoons in their mouths. I had a lot of friends from various 'cliques', and was pretty well rounded overall. I was doing great until December of 2010.

Last year I was signed out of BCHS halfway through my Junior year. It sucked. It hurt like none other to have to take that final walk out of the parking lot, leaving behind numerous good friends, and teachers I really loved spending time with inside and out of the classroom. I had to leave because the economy fell flat and my dad’s company went bankrupt. I can remember pretty clearly that the school handed me a box full of Christmas dinner items. A turkey, stuffing, canned cranberry sauce, etc., And not but an hour earlier I was in a conversation with friends hearing how one was flying to Paris for break, and another was going to New York to see a few Broadway shows. Question came around to me. Not 'what are you going to do on break?' but 'WHERE are you going on break?' I had no answer. I wasn't going anywhere but back to my house thirty minutes from campus. This was one of the lowest points I've had in my life. My family has never been rich, but we've been stable. Enough to live comfortable, but never extravagantly. But walking away from the school, holding that box of Christmas dinner items, I felt worlds away from those kids. I felt defeated, and severely hurt. I was on financial aid trying to stay at the school, but we couldn't even afford it then. I lost.

I’m now home every day. Some say that’s awesome, and at times it is nice to be able to go do whatever you want whenever you want. But that’s not me. I hate not having the 45 minute class periods where I know that I only have 45 minutes of class time to learn what I need to learn. Where I have to get in, listen and study, get out and move on. It may be crazy to some, maybe even most, but I don’t like having the leisure time to learn. It can be great, because you can go in depth with topics for as long as you want, but I miss the tight schedule. I miss it, because I get too loose. If I know I have a lot of time to work on things, I procrastinate. I check Facebook continuously, tweet frequently, text excessively. It’s undeniably hard to focus when I’m here, because I know I’ve got time. I want to have no time, and I want the ‘crunch time’ back.

It hurts. I miss that school like none other, and I’m cringing at the thought that I won’t be up there with my friends this year on stage graduating with them. I’ll be in the audience, and cheering along with everyone else when their names get called and their diplomas handed to them. But it’s going to hurt.

 A big thing with my family is Disney. I've grown up with watching their movies, going to the parks, reading the stories, and playing with the toys. Ever since the second grade, I've wanted to work for them, creating magic, and more importantly, memories for families to remember for years. It's been a part of me for as long as I can remember. As I've gotten older I've learned more, and started to talk more with people in the company. I've had lunch with Dave Smith, the then head archivist for the company. I spent two hours chatting with Steve Davison, the VP of parades and spectaculars about World of Color, how he started with the company, and just life in general at the public premier of World of Color.

I know many cast members, and enjoy talking to them on a frequent basis. I'm starting to find ways to start a career there in the near future. But with all those times talking to the cast members, I try to frequent the parks as often as possible. My family loves going down there to spend a day, or even just a night at the parks riding a few rides, getting dinner, and just enjoying the time together. Some say I go too much, but my answer to that is 'well, you go to the dunes on the weekend to ride quads right? (or whatever frequent activity they do) That's the same thing for me, only with Disney.'

But this year, We're probably not going to renew our annual passes. Why? Because money is tight, and people love to watch and complain about what we do. It may seem a juvenile reason with the family, but it is really hard when you get brow beaten about everything you do. Not even with Disney, but literally EVERYTHING.

The biggest reason I'm posting this, is that I've been struggling on how to cope with some things. First thing is manipulation. I can't stand it when people tweak things to their advantage. If someone gets lucky, and gets something cool handed their way, that's awesome. Good stroke of luck. But to demand the uses of others to force your own 'success' and well being is flat out wrong. I feel like I've been cheated out of things because people close (not emotionally, but unfortunately literally) put a strain on things and drains everything from us. I lost BCHS, and I'm going to probably lose my pass to one of the few earthly things I live for, all because of the manipulation of others.

 Another thing is prying into other people's business. See, I'm a pretty transparent man. I feel that I will let others know the majority of things on my own time. But when people start to poke and prod at me for info, I turn into a snail. If you poke me, I will hide in my shell until you leave, and you won't get anything out of me. It's like my family and I have no privacy anymore. I know we have our family blog, and I have this site, but at least we can moderate what we want readers to know about us.

It's incredibly frustrating when you live in a bubble, and you're forced to put a smile on and deal with other people's stupidity that surrounds you. I wish I could tell these people off in person, but it won't work. All that will happen is they'll think I'm attacking them. Hopefully they see through this post, in simple black and white letters that I won't take their crap anymore.

Things will get better though, I'm sure.  College is this fall, and I’ll be able to do things on my own a bit more freely, and create my schedule that works for me. I'm going to be so busy that I won't have to be around the people that bring us down as much, and if they want to be nosy, well they can see what I do. AFTER I do it, and AFTER I post it online. Otherwise, they'll have no clue, and that's going to feel so great. Knowing they know nothing about me, and have no room to complain and nit pick at my life.

Now its time to count down the days to when I can spread these cramped wings and fly.

Dating The Arkansasians

I went to a small high school. Not small like 30 kids in the total graduating class, but a school with a full roster of maybe 600 students. In fact, my freshman class was the biggest Bakersfield Christian High ever received (125 students).

With such a small school, it naturally happens. Everyone knowing your business. I'm not talking like, it just floats around and eventually gets to people in a day or two. I'm talking it happens fast (For example, I asked my ex-girlfriend out before first period. By third period everyone knew, and that was the trending topic of the day).

But what I find so incredibly funny is that people there are a lot like people from Arkansas. Yes, Arkansas I'm picking on you, but hey, it's true at some points. People date, but people sometimes wind up dating, breaking up, then dating your ex's best friend, and your ex starts dating your best friend.

Checking Facebook tonight I see a friend is in a relationship, and I type my congratulations, then check back an hour or so later to see the comments and find out that she's dating this guy for the third time. But what's funny is that this guy dated my best friend's ex, who broke up with him because she felt she needed to sow some wild oats and date a dairy boy who rides Motocross and quads on the weekend.

I love high school, I really do. But my gosh people enough is enough. Maybe it's just me, but I really think after you break up with someone, you end it for good. It didn't work. Now move on. Do these kids not realize there's other high schools in town with equally 'cool', 'beautiful', and 'popular' kids? Or is it like Romeo and Juliet? No one's allowed to date a Capulet or Montague.

Thankfully I'm graduating in a few months and moving up to college. Hopefully the campuses are a bit bigger than the fishbowl I used to swim in.