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BethoHOG
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Name: Betho
Birthday: 10/3/1989
Interests: I follow Jesus to the best of my ability. I may fail many times, but I know He's always there to pick me back up.
Message: message me
Member Since:
11/25/2002
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| Beginner’s Ballroom 
My TTH 11 am class had a ridiculous amount of AACMers. We even had three AACM TA’s (Jenn, Marco, Andrew). Here’s our group at the final skill evaluation. TTH mornings were definitely a highlight for me and something I looked forward to starting the day with. I’m glad that I took beginner’s - even though I already had base knowledge of almost all of the dances we learned, it was still so fun and helpful to learn more! At the end of the semester, I auditioned for a TA position in the future. I got it, but now I have to figure out my schedule and see when/which class I can actually TA for. I am currently on the wait list for Intermediate ballroom, so I’m crossing my fingers for that to happen. Slosh 
Slosh has been a huge blessing in that it’s definitely been a way for me to meet so many freshmen. Every Saturday night, I’m blown away by the sheer number of freshmen who show up. I will admit that at times I am overwhelmed and sometimes wish for slosh to be like last year with a smaller more intimate setting more conducive to actual learning, but then I am reminded of how blessed I am to have this chance to hang out with so many freshmen and get to know them in this way. A select number of them are just as eager to learn as I was last year and that gives me warm fuzzies to see others so excited and enthusiastic about dancing. Midnight Rodeo 
We’ve definitely gone less amount of times than last year. But I guess that means more money saved. Midnight Rodeo always proves to be a fun outing. The last week of classes, a ginormous Asian crowd went to Midnight Rodeo, and it definitely proved to be the most crowded dance floor I’ve ever experienced. It was pretty brutal at times - got stepped on, nearly elbowed, etc. But it was still fun. =) Fall Retreat 
Dude, I loved our class costume!! As you can tell by this picture, we were Super Mario themed. Interestingly enough, I ended up being Mario, simply because it was the easiest last minute costume I could create. I had the red shirt and white glove already. Jason took me Goodwill shopping and I found the overalls and red hat. I also purchased the blonde wig and crown you can see beautifully (cough) bestowed on Donald’s head. 20th Birthday Surprise 
I already made a pretty long post about my birthday party, so I will not venture to retype it all. But here’s one of my favorite pics of the night… because it’s not often that I get to take a picture with my Austin boys. Peter’s missing from this pic, but that’s what he gets for coming late. Haha. Sophomore Get-Togethers 
Anytime the majority of our class gets together (for dinner, for games, etc.), it’s always a good time. Unfortunately, I think the increase in school work and responsibilites for everyone in our class affected our ability to get together very often… so dinners like this one at Dobie (pictured above) was a rare occurrence. IM Football - Power Rangers 
I like this picture because pretty much everyone is failing at the concept of jumping, which I think is humorous. Anyway. Oh, just FYI, this picture comprises half our team. We have yet to get a complete team picture. Maybe next semester when I try to organize a team reunion. This past semester, I co-captained an AACM IM football team with Khang. Our team was called the Power Rangers, and I don’t really remember why. We went down in the season with a perfect losing record, but I’m okay with that because the way our team bonded and grew to love each other was so evident and heart-warming for me to witness and be a part of. We had a good number of freshmen boys on our team, and I grew very fond of each of them, as if they were my own little brothers. Hehe. I felt very privileged to captain an awesome team, and can’t wait for another season of football! IM Volleyball - WALL-E Ball 
I really grew to love this team a lot! Though we didn’t get to play as many games as we hoped (two of the games we technically won were due to No Shows by the other team), we still made it to the second round of play-offs and had a blast! I hope we’ll be able to form this same team again next year. Accounting Study Parties 
So Bernice, Sean, Ryan, and I took ACC 310F with Verduzco, but I did not end up in the same section as any of them. Regardless, we still got together to study and do homework assignments. I definitely enjoyed hanging out with this bunch as it made accounting more bearable and sometimes even enjoyable. Honestly, I think the reason why I liked hanging out with these guys so much is because Sean and Ryan are so easy to make fun of. Favorite quote of all time: “Mmm… BUTTERED CHICKEN!” UT Football Home Games 
I went to three of the UT football home games. I wish I had gone to more, but oh well. The sophomores got seats in Section 35 which is in the end zone. The view kind of sucked to watch plays, so I usually craned my neck around to look at the jumbotron to follow what was happening. But for other things (like the players running in and out), the view was awesome. Large Group Team 
Girls of LG team, represent! For The Joint, all the girls somehow got assigned for set-up. It was fun lugging around large heavy equipment on our own (well, with Kevin and Jesse’s help), but it was also very tiring. Haha. LG team has been an interesting experience so far. To be honest, sometimes I feel like I don’t have a lot to contribute or that my abilities aren’t being used. However, I realized that this thinking is selfish. If I concentrated only on how I can best be used, I could be missing out on God’s greater picture and plan that maybe requires me to tone down my expectations of leadership. In a way, I also have enjoyed the laid-backness of LG team and never really feeling overwhelmed by my responsbilities, which are to show up to Tuesday night meetings and Friday LG meetings an hour or two before it starts. AACMapella 
AACMapella has been a big blessing this year, in numbers, in talent, in dedication, and in each person. This is a picture of us after our second performance at The Great Banquet. We sang Shout to the Lord and Blessed Be Your Name. Somehow, Andrew pulled me into being a much more visible leader for AACMapella this year, which has been a humbling experience. Also, again… the number of freshmen who showed up to rehearsals each week was very affirming and exciting to see. We all love to sing and we all love Jesus, and that is what binds us together. Can’t wait to see what happens with AACMapella next semester! Wong Fu Productions 
Wong Fu came to UT, and the moment I found out through one of their Youtube videos, I marked the date on my calendar, bought a ticket, and swore that I would go. And yes, I went. And yes, I got to meet Phil, Wes, and Ted!! They were super super nice - willing to take pictures with everyone, shake everyone’s hands, make sure everyone had a good time, etc. I was pretty star struck upon seeing them on stage during the presentation. But it kind of died down a bit once they began talking and I realized that they are totally normal people, haha. Girls of Grace 
For our first social outing, Grace and I planned a Longhorn paraphernalia photoshoot. Thanks so much to Josette for being our awesome photographer! Girls of Grace (GG) was established this semester as a way for the sophomore girls to build community and accountability with each other and within our class. We haven’t had a chance to meet up that much yet, but hopefully it will continue into the next semester and we’ll see how that goes and where God leads us. TTH Late Lunches 
Every Tuesday and Thursday this semester, the four of us (Donald, Marco, Fiona, and me) ate at JCL past 2 pm due to our schedules that allotted time for a late lunch. The constant eating at JCL definitely made my dine-in-dollars take a hit, but I definitely enjoyed having a set group of people to eat with two days out of the week. Sometimes, other people would drop by and join us and that was fun too. =) CSD 308K with Daniel & Samuel 
This was taken right after we finished our third and final exam, aka MY last test before winter break! We’re definitely scrubbed out in sweats and hoodies, yay! And wow, I’m so short. Daniel, Samuel, and I took the class Perspectives on Deafness taught by the dean of communications (Mark Bernstein). I am glad that I had these two with me because they definitely livened up the boring moments. Also, seeing them every TTH was fun and allowed me to get to know them better. Just being around them is cause for smiles and laughter. Wow that was cheesy. Rooming with Jenn 
Jenn and I have now been roommates for 1 1/2 years, and I am convinced that every second of it has been a blessing from God. Lol, sometimes we’ll be silly and compare ourselves to Colt and Shipley’s roommate relationship. But in all seriousness, I could not imagine myself living with anyone else for college. And I could not ask for a better friend, sister-in-Christ, roommate, and accountability partner all in one. Jenn: I love you so so so much! NO ONE can or will ever replace you, because you are uniquely you and because of what you mean to me! <3 | | |
| Whenever someone asks me the inevitable question, “So how was your semester?” I usually have a hard time answering. However, after multiple attempts to answer this question during a number of different one-on-ones, I think I finally solidified an answer. My semester can be described in two bipolar halves, the first being a desert period and the second being a fruitful period. Through both halves, God has been continuing to teach me about trusting in His faithfulness and His own timing, and with this come lessons in patience, prayer, and perseverance as well (oh how nice, unintentional alliteration). The first half of my semester was a relatively spiritually dry time for me. I didn’t necessarily fall away from God, but I was convinced that God had purposely distanced Himself from me and was keeping silent. Frustration began to kick in when I realized that God wasn’t answering my prayers. I questioned why God wasn’t using me in tangible ways, why He wasn’t answering my prayers for the discovery of my spiritual gifts, and why all the things I was doing for His kingdom was not producing any fruit. To make it even worse, I could see God so evidently working through my friends close to me. God was using them, why couldn’t He use me? This question circulated my mind more often than not and began to lead me down a road of jealousy and bitterness. This frustration culminated and burst at the point of AACM’s fall retreat at the end of October. I came off of retreat having simply had a good time of fellowship and worship. On the other hand, my friends came off of retreat having met with God in crazy ways. After hearing this, I couldn’t help but to once again question why God was choosing not to come through for me and in my eyes, not to use me at all. How wrong I was. The week immediately following fall retreat, God began to break through and prove His faithfulness all along. And He did it by producing tangible fruit in numerous areas of my life! The first instance was during lunch with my brother that week. Since last March, I’ve been getting weekly lunches with him, hoping to strengthen and deepen our relationship by spending time together and talking. Up to that day, however, our conversations never went deeper or more personal than, “How’s school?” But that day, I prayed very lightly that you know, maybe, if God willing, we could talk about something deeper. God answered that half-hearted prayer in full force. Over that one meal, I felt the barriers of awkwardness and guardedness come crashing down. We ended up talking about personal stuff that I never would’ve imagined chatting with him about. But most importantly, God gave me the courage to ask the question that I had been dying to know, “Where are you with God?” Regardless of his answer, the fact that we got to talk about it and the fact that God gave me an opportunity to speak truth into his life blew my mind. Over 8 months of persevering through semi-awkward weekly lunch after lunch, and God finally answered! Doesn’t matter how long it took (and is continuing to take), the fact is that He answered in His own timing. That one break-through lunch with him gave me a renewed reassurance that God is ALWAYS faithful, even when He’s silent. It’s just my own limited human sight that can not see His faithfulness when He’s not showing Himself in more tangible ways. The second instance of break-through that week came in the form of a one-on-one I had with my fellow small group member Tammy. Up until that 2 hour dinner, I had lots of reservations and grudges about being in an AACM small group. I only joined because Kevin Wang said that it was a requirement for leaders (which I later found out that it wasn’t). My reasons for not wanting to be in an AACM small group was because I felt like I wouldn’t “get what I wanted” (community, learning, accountability, etc.) out of it and that it would take up too much time. However, I stuck it out for some unknown reason, though I debated dropping it several times just to free up my schedule and because I was already in an Austin Stone missional community group. All these reservations and desires to rid myself of small group vanished upon my dinner date with Tammy. We began to talk about our different small group experiences from last year and realized that they were in fact pretty similar, though we were in different small groups. We both agreed that we didn’t get the Biblical community we desired out of small group, that we didn’t feel comfortable to share deep personal issues within our small group, and that we wished we could’ve gotten more out of it. Having these similar struggles and concerns due to our experiences, we both realized that we shared the same deep desire to see more of our expectations come true in this year’s small group. And we both shared a hopeful vision that this WOULD actualize eventually. This excited me to no end, and God allowed that dinner to change my perspective of small group completely. I no longer look at small group as a waste of 2 hours on my Mondays. Instead, I see it as a blessed time of getting to know the girls in my small group and slowly but surely becoming more comfortable with them. Again, this was God proving Himself faithful in answering my doubts about being in an AACM small group. I now see why He placed me there and kept me there, and I’m excited to see what God will do in our small group next semester! 
Another area of my life in which God has produced fruit is my time spent at Church Under the Bridge. Though I’ve only been a total of 4 times, God has been fostering my relationships with the homeless Deaf people there. I’ve especially been getting to know these two guys named Jimmy and Rafael. I communicate with them solely in ASL, so sometimes it is challenging for me to fully comprehend their life stories just because of the language. But in the end, what really matters is that they seem to really appreciate it whenever I come. The past 2 times that I’ve been, they’ve given me big hugs. And what, I had only met them twice before that? It’s pretty amazing what God can do in such a short time. Besides being involved with building relationships with the Deaf, God presented me with the unique opportunity to perform Lifehouse’s Everything skit during CUTB’s Sunday service. I gathered the AACM team who performed for TGIF last year and was so very blessed to have them be on board to practice and perform. The night before the performance, God led me to Isaiah 61, which I immediately understood to be God’s way of telling me what message we’re bringing these people - a message of hope for the oppressed. The morning we performed the skit was a big blessing. After finishing the skit, many of the homeless people approached us to say thank you and good job. But more importantly, God provided several opportunities for conversation. Allen and I ended up chatting with this guy named Jerry for a good 30 minutes. I was very inspired by his own faith in God despite the incredible amount of crap that he’s been through. I felt very affirmed when Jerry repeatedly told us, “I needed to see that this morning.” God was showing me that He is faithful and has been this whole time. 
Along with teaching me about patience and trusting in His timing through other means, God has really proved His faithfulness to me through these three specific examples. I’ve also come to realize that although the first half of my semester was a desert period, it was just as important as the second half. It was the walk through the rocks that allowed me to see the mountain view in the end. And yes, looking back, I see the lead of love. | | |
| Experiencing God in another language and culture is always powerful. This past Friday evening, I went to a Christian Deaf conference held in American Sign Language (with voice interpretation provided for the hearing folks) called Deaf Crusade. Although I officially went to get half of my ASL class volunteering hours out of the way, this event truly did spark my interest and stirred something within my heart. I’m so glad that I went. I really did not know what to expect, but in the midst of open-eyed prayers, songs performed in ASL with stunning passion, and a culturally-diverse audience waving their hands in the air to show praise and agreement, I felt my heart beginning to explode with some unexplainable emotion. As the pastor gave his sermon in ASL, he told a short testimony of a time when he felt so trapped by bitterness and sin and felt convicted at that time to lay it all at the foot of the cross. He said that he prayed in his mind and asked God, “Would you care if I said it all with my hands? Will you understand me if I sign?” God answered yes, and so he bore his soul to God using sign, and God understood every word of it. When the pastor said this, an obvious realization dawned on me so suddenly. Even though I have been exposed to Deaf culture for many years now and have had an interest in it for many more, I’ve never experienced nor truly thought what it would be like to connect Deaf culture with Christianity and God. At that moment, the thought came into my head, “Wow. God knows sign language.” Haha, yeah… a very juvenile epiphany, but it was still significant for me. With this realization, my understanding of God expanded into a much bigger picture. God knows sign language. God knows every single language in this world. But more importantly, God transcends above language, be it spoken or visual. He knows our hearts to the deepest core. Whether or not we are able to communicate that through the spoken, written, or signed word, it doesn’t matter. Before the sermon was given, four songs were performed in ASL. Two songs were performed by a “choir,” and two songs were done solo. All four embodied a gargantuan amount of passion and fervor that no spoken language could convey. By the end of the night, I fell in love all over again with the beauty of American Sign Language. It’s interesting to see how up to this point, my life keeps getting pushed in gradual increments towards the direction of ministering to the Deaf. I feel as if this was another one of those steps towards realizing where God may be directing my future ministry wise. In the foyer, many Deaf churches and Deaf Christian ministries had informational tables set up, and a poster that simply said “Missionaries for the Deaf” completely caught my eye and captured my heart. Though I didn’t have time to actually go up to the table and ask questions, the fact that my heart leaped and my mind was suddenly opened to that possibility remains significant. To what this leads to, only God knows at this point. Friday night was my first time to truly experience God in ASL and my first time to witness Christianity and Deaf culture collide. I talked briefly to the woman in charge of organizing the volunteers (who was also in charge of running the whole conference), and she simply said that it was very very rare for Christianity and Deaf culture to come together in a big event such as Deaf Crusade. In my heart, I know that I’d love to see these two worlds collide much much more often. | | |
| Today was one of those days where at the end of it, I couldn’t decide if I had a good or bad day. It definitely had its ups and downs. But in the end, today revealed to me just how much I lack in trust and how much I cling to control. Two things slipped out of my control this afternoon, thus creating a sense of anxiety and agitation in my soul. First, it was my ASL project (due tomorrow) - my partner was not responding to the several urgent-sounding e-mails I sent her. Second, it was going to Reagan HS to volunteer - my partner had to bail and I was not comfortable with the idea of going by myself and taking an unknown bus-route to get there. The combination of having to deal with these two dilemmas that were both out of my control made me realize how much I was lacking in trust. I was not trusting God to take care of a situation in His hands. On the contrary, I was freaking out because the situation was NOT in my hands. I did all I could to take care of each individual situation. I e-mailed my ASL project partner again and I asked another potential partner and tried to arrange a time to work with him and awaited his response. I e-mailed my M/C leader to ask what I should do about Reagan HS and awaited her response. Though I was doing my best to “take care of the situation” with my own ability, I did not have any sense of peace whatsoever reigning over my heart. I went through the day like this. I decided to go to Reagan HS despite the fact that I had no partner, despite the fact that I had to take the bus to get there, and despite the fact that I was pretty scared for my safety due to the previous points. Nevertheless, I found in my heart still a resilience to go. So I went, but still with anxiety prevailing over me; this time the anxiety was plaguing me with my tardiness due to missing the bus I could have easily caught if I was paying more attention. I found myself being short in temper with the unfriendly bus driver who I had asked for help in telling me which stop to get off at. In short, I found little things agitating me so easily. During the 15 minute bus ride there, I pulled out my Bible and started to read. I was led to Ephesians 5 and Romans 15. These verses stuck out at me. 1. “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” Ephesians 5:16 2. “And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5:20 3. “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with the joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 I found these verses strangely applicable to my anxious day. First of all, I realized as I was walking from the bus stop to Reagan HS that I was not going because I truly wanted to. A large part of the reason why I was going was out of obligation and duty. But Ephesians 5:16 was telling me to make the most of every opportunity God gives me. And obviously, God was giving me an opportunity right here, no matter what sacrifice of time and comfort I had to give up. Secondly, I realized that my heart was grumbling all day as I had to deal with situations out of my control. Not being able to run things the way I wanted them run aggravated me more than anything. Being forced to wait on others made me impatient to no end. But then Ephesians 5:20 was telling me to give thanks to God for EVERYTHING! I was struck by this statement. It’s so easy to give thanks to God for the good things, for the blessings, and for the little things in life that cause me to smile. But it’s just as easy to grumble and complain about inconveniences, about the irresponsible people who create unnecessary stress, the unfriendly and curt people who wouldn’t hurt to smile a little more, and the inability to make things happen the way I want them to happen. Yet this verse was telling me to give praise and thanks to God for inconveniences; for people who flake out; for people who don’t smile enough; for the lack of control. Upon reading this, I tried in my heart to thank God for these things but I couldn’t do it with sincerity. Finally, I realized the reason why I was feeling anxious all day was because I was not trusting in God to take care of these things for me. I lacked the filling of complete “joy and peace” and the “overflow” of “confident hope,” simply because I did not trust in Him. Man… I was pretty convicted of how much I don’t trust God and how I trust myself so much more. It was a sudden penetrating gaze into the deeper depravity of my sin. In the end, God worked out everything perfectly according to His will. Looking back, it’s easy for me to scoff and reprimand myself for getting so worked up over nothing. He helped me get in contact with a new ASL partner and he made me late to Reagan HS on purpose (teachers didn’t get out of their staff meeting until 3:30 - I got there at 3:20 when I was scheduled for 3:00). He gave me the opportunity to be the first girl from my missional community to actually meet our adopted teacher (she was out for 2 weeks because of her mom’s health problems) and help her out by arranging and organizing her bookshelves. I was able to get back by 5:30 and began working on my ASL project at 6 pm. My partner Brian and I did not stop working until we completely finished at 12 am. It was kind of ridiculous. But oh well, we finished. Praise God! In the end, the biggest lesson I learned is one of trust (or lack thereof). What does it look like to really trust God? I don’t really know… but I want to find out. I’m tired of clinging to the idol of control in my life. Today, God gave me chances here and there to relinquish that control, but instead, I grasped onto it and cried like a baby (not litrerally) when I realized I no longer had it in my hands. If anything, this day made me realize my desperate need to let go of control. I got an ugly snapshot of what worship for control looks like. I didn’t like it so much. I’d rather have the confident hope and the complete joy and peace described in Romans 15 please. Oh Lord, help me relinquish this idol of control to You. Help me TRUST. Anyway… just my thoughts for the day. | | |
| I turned 20 this past Saturday. What was in my head a more bitter than sweet transition from teenager to adult turned into a tangible reminder in ginormous proportions of just how blessed I am. By the close of October 3rd, my heart was too full to explain in words. I was at that place where I desperately wanted to convey how thankful, humbled, and moved I was by all of the elaborate planning, preparation, and sacrifice of all involved and of all who simply came out, but I couldn't. So now, through the medium of this blog and the written word, I want to say a more appropriate (though still not adequate) thank you to those who planned, those who cooked, those who decorated, those who delegated, those who surprised me, those who went out shopping to buy stuff, those who left the party to grab stuff from various places, those who supplied entertainment, those who came to say happy birthday, those who danced with me, those who taught dance lessons to the freshmen because I was too busy doing my own thing, those who dressed up, those who didn't dress up, those who gave me hugs, those who humored me with my incessant pictures, those who took pictures, those who served food, those who prayed over the night/meal, those who contributed money for the cost of the food, those who lied to me throughout the week in order to ensure a pleasant surprise, those who cleaned up at the end, those who refused to let me do anything except enjoy the night, those who sang with me, those who laughed with me, those who learned the Hoedown Throwdown from me, those who couldn't come but called, texted, Facebooked, or made me cards, and to those who just simply showed me such a huge amount of love that could only come from one source - God. The love that was shown to me that night reminded me not just how loved I am by people, but how loved I am by God. So thank you all for that reminder. I'm pretty sure I could go on and even thank every individual person, but I will stop here. For my memory's sake, I will recount the night and list some highlights of my birthday, not just from the night but from the whole day starting with football practice. Caked Upon arrival at Clark Field for IM football practice in the morning, I receive a phone call from Khang saying that he would be late because he just woke up. I thought absolutely nothing suspicious of this, but just threw around a football with my team and scrimmaged with Jon and Michael's team until he arrived. After Khang came and practice went on, the rain started to get heavier, so we ended early. Suddenly, Khang pulls out a cake (that said "Happy Birthday The Real Deal") with unlit candles out of nowhere and before I know it, my whole football team is singing me happy birthday. Afterwards, I decide that I want a picture to preserve this memory, and as everyone is smiling for the camera, I suddenly find my head being pushed down by Andrew's hand, and the next thing I know is that my entire face is planted in the cake. Mmm, yummy. Haha, it was my first "face-plant into a cake" experience ever and it was a great one. Lots of pictures were taken afterwards in my ridiculous state. After that, our team went to Kinsolving to eat lunch together. If I haven't mentioned that I love my football team yet, I will say it now loud and clear. I LOVE MY FOOTBALL TEAM!!! Even if we go down in the season with an 0-4 record, I will still love my team just as much! Haha. Okay. Surprise! From what Jenn had told me before my birthday even came, I thought she was planning me a birthday potluck dinner to be held at the Union. I didn't know anything else (like who was invited, that there was even a surprise involved, what we'd be doing, etc.) basically, the strategy that Jenn used was to feed me a lie by "telling me the truth" so that I would chase that truth/lie and be too distracted to figure out the real plan. It worked miraculously. When Matt, Jenn, and I left Jester to head over to the Union, the rain was pouring down pretty badly. Between the three of us, we only had 2 umbrellas. So Matt, being a dear brother and gentleman held the umbrella and covered me the whole time, consequently getting poured on himself. Lol. Seeing the severity of the rain, Jenn suggested cutting through the Business school to cut down the time spent in the rain. I gladly took this suggestion - if she hadn't said anything, I would've suggested it anyway. We finally get inside the building and go up the escalators to the second floor. Upon reaching the top, I looked outside the doors and silently dreaded in my heart the thought of having to walk some more in the rain because of the "long" distance to the Union. As soon as I finished this thought and determinedly walked towards those doors to continue our trek to the Union, I found myself being suddenly attacked by an enormous mob of well-dressed Asians with screams of "Happy birthday!" and "Surprise!" The feeling of joy welling up in my heart began at that very moment. As they sang me happy birthday, I stood there awkwardly, my mind still reeling from the surprise and trying to take in every person standing there. After the song, Kate pulled me aside and said she would now lead me to the real party place which was a room in the Business school on the third floor. Taking it all in After entering the beautifully decorated room, I began to take in all my surroundings. As I did this, I slowly began to understand just how much work and how many people were involved into making this night happen. I took in the long stretch of food and wondered how long that took to make. I took in the room itself and wondered how many strings Kate had to pull to reserve this room on a Saturday night. I took in the decorations and was bewildered by the fact that they actually made the effort to decorate. I took in the people present and noticed how well they were dressed and wondered how long everyone took to get ready for that night. For the first 10-20 minutes or so, I was pretty silent because I was taking it all in. Pictures After eating my delicious meal of spaghetti, fried rice, and salad, I decided that I wanted to get pictures with everyone. Kat so graciously elected herself as my photographer. And so began a (really long) time of standing in one spot and taking pictures with everyone who happened to get up for more food. I apologize to those I did not get a picture with, because I know I missed some people by accident. =( Also, we took a group picture, but I was a little sad because not everyone was there for the picture (due to running around getting things for the party). I'm sorry to those who did not make it in the picture. =( Birthday dance My first real birthday dance!! Last year, I (and all of the Sloshers) didn't know how to dance well enough at that time to have one, so I was really excited about having one this year. The dance did not disappoint my excitement. I was a little bit nervous/scared about dancing in front of everyone though because the floor was really slippery and I felt like I could've slipped and fell at any moment. But thankfully, that didn't happen. I started with my lovely Jenn and then was stolen by Marco, Matt, Gabe, Jeff, and Fiona. It was so much fun, and I thank you all so much for dancing with meee! Haha. After the birthday dance ended, the "dance floor" opened up to anyone. And for the rest of the night, we all danced. "Speech" If you recall, I did make a sorry attempt at a heart-felt speech during the night. I don't even remember what I said exactly because my brain was trying to describe an insurmountable amount of emotion, but please know that I am not an impromptu public speaker at all. In fact, it is the one thing I try to avoid the most. However, I was so moved and touched by the entire night that I simply HAD to get up there and say something, otherwise I know I would have regretted it. This goes to show just how much I really appreciated everything you guys did for me. Thanks againnnn!! Hoedown Throwdown So I don't really know how this happened exactly, but thanks to Andrew pushing me into it, I ended up doing a "performance" of the Hoedown Throwdown (knowledge so wonderfully acquired at my summer camp TLC) for everyone's entertainment. And then I ended up teaching parts of it to people, who to my surprise, were really enthusiastic about it. It was actually really fun, though somewhat embarrassing, but most significantly, I was reminded of camp and all my friends from the summer. I thought of them and inwardly laughed at the image of their response to the fact that I did the Hoedown Throwdown at my birthday party. Haha - I suppose camp still lives within me through that song. I could probably go on, but I will spare you. This has been a pretty long post anyway. To close, I just wanted to say that I love you all so much. Thank you thank you thank you. I am filled with joy because of the blessings God has given me through you all. I am definitely not worthy or anywhere near deserving of the love you guys lavished on me. | | |
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