Loving your enemies

Jesus tells us that we are supposed to love our enemies.

That is one of the hardest things to do. It really is. 

A thought from the cornfield that really has nothing to do with corn

Yesterday I was walking and roguing (or is it "rogueing"? Enlighten me, please) in the cornfield, just like I have been all week. Out in the cornfield, you have a lot of time to… well, think.

I had been roguing one of the final rows at the end of the field and Alex came to bail me. The thing I love about Alex is his attitude about everything. He is so cheerful ALL the time and seems to take immense pleasure in the little things in life. He and I started talking. He told me about what he wants to do with his life, how he wants to become a pastor or do something in missions because he wants to help people. He told me about his love for talking with people, asking them about their faith, telling them about Jesus, and caring for them. He told me that he doesn’t care if he makes a lot of money, just so long as he can help people. What I loved most was that he was so passionate about it all. Just by hearing the way he talked and seeing his smile (I swear, he never stops smiling), I could tell that he was 100% sincere about everything he was saying. 

I think he’s also the world’s greatest optimist, always finding something to be thankful and happy about. We were walking back to the bus and he said, “You know, I’m really tired, but hey, at least I’m alive! The fact that I’m still able to breathe is something to be excited about.” That’s the kind of attitude that I love.

After talking with Alex, I started thinking (for quite a while) about how I love it when people are passionate. Passionate about what they do, what they want to do, what they believe, their love for others, and life. I love it when people talk to me about what they’re passionate about – seriously, talk to me about your passions. But mostly, I love it when I can see someone’s passion lived out in their own life. When I can see it in their eyes, the way they smile, the way they do something, how they talk, etc. Yeah. I like that. When people are passionate about important things in this world, it makes me so happy, and so glad to be alive. It reminds me that people really do care, and those people inspire me.

^Yeah. That’s what I thought about in a cornfield. Hey, at least it kept me from getting bored. :)

a little bit of me

I found a quote that (I think) describes me rather perfectly.

“There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.” - L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables 

That is me. Through and through. Yep. I like to be interesting. 

nationals :: little memories

As we all know, Region 5 did pretty well at Nationals. And that is really awesome… I was so proud to be able to watch people succeed at debate and speeches. But that’s not the only reason why I’m going to remember Nationals. For me, Nationals was amazing because of the little things that people did for me or that I saw. Those are the things that I remember. So many small things that together help me remember Nationals as an incredible tournament:

The person I don’t know who stopped and asked to carry my debate box for me.

The guy who asked if he could call me “Anne-girl”. 

The many, many, many people who opened doors for me – I have never said “thank you” so many times in a single week. 

Watching people pray in the halls before rounds.

Country music in the dorms.

The little boy, Ben, who asked me to help him with a puzzle. The next day, he saw me again and introduced me to his family as “my friend Anne”. <3

Catching a random person’s eye, smiling at them, and having them smile back.

Late-night talks about life with new-found friends.

The look on Isaac’s face when he made it to finals in humorous.

The goodbyes and hugs from each and every one of my beloved friends -- people from Region 5 and people from not-in-Region 5. 

Yep, it was an awesome tournament. Nationals was made of little memories.

Ready to roll...

Nationals. Yep. The time has finally arrived.

A few small, not-really-all-that-important-or-organized, thoughts:

>First off, I’m sad that not ALL of you are coming to Nationals. Seriously, that’s lame. I’ll try to have fun without you.

>I’ve packed my bags, printed my speech for script submission, and done about as much debate research as I can handle. Pretty sure my debate box weighs at least 20 lbs. Probably more.

>Mrs. Gage chatted me to tell me to not stay up too late at Nationals (not gonna happen, Natalie and I are planning on partying every night ;) ), and then she told me to make my rounds the best rounds that I can at Nationals. She is seriously my favorite debate coach. <3

>I’m really really really excited  for this experience. And I also really want to do well at Nationals this year. I’ve prepped more for this tournament than any other tournament this year. I’m really hoping it pays off. But even if it doesn’t and I completely fail, I’ve learned SO much from speech and debate this year. Things that I am hoping to use for the rest of my life.

>This verse>>>> “For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the passing glory. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!” – 2 Cor. 3:11. To those of you who qualified to Nationals— Congrats, it’s a big achievement! And if you do super amazingly well and win all the awards, GREAT! But keep in mind that any rewards or glories we get here are on earth is NOTHING compared to the reward that we will get from honoring Christ. Let’s go to Nationals and do our absolute best, but let’s not forget that the glory we get there will only be a taste of the eternal glory that will be ours if we honor Christ. :D

>Region 5, let’s go try win every single event. (Highly unlikely, but think about it… how cool would that be?)

Okay, that was your non-intellectual post for the day. :D

A thought...

I was told to take this quote: "I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen." (John Steinbeck) and then write something that somehow related to this quote. So that's what I did. 

- - - - - -

America. The land of the free and the place where everyone can be treated as an equal. 

Or so we say. 

But so often I hear those words and find that there is nothing backing them up. We say those words, and yet we still treat people as unequal, as inferiors. Those of a different race, those with less money, those who aren’t in as good health as we are. We treat them differently. That is our society, our culture. But there are some people who rise above that, there are those who treat everyone as equals, no matter what their circumstance in life. And those are the people I notice. Those are the people I remember.

I saw you, Grandpa, when you treated the immigrant workers like equals. They were poor, dirty from their hard work, and they were the ones who did the jobs that no one else wanted to do. They were different, and because of their differences, they were not accepted. And yet it never occurred to you to treat them differently than you treated anyone else. You invited them into your home and you talked to them. You talked to them and treated them in a way that society didn’t talk to or treat them. I will always remember that.

I saw you too, Dad, when, on your 51st birthday we were walking downtown and you bought some food for a homeless person on the corner and stopped to talk to him. It didn’t bother you that maybe he hadn’t showered for a while and was missing most of his teeth. Despite your differences, you still saw him as someone made in God’s image. It's something I'll never forget, the day you spent your birthday assisting and getting to know someone who, in the eyes of the world, was so different from you.

I saw you, little girl, at VBS. You gave a gift to the girl in the wheelchair. The girl in the wheelchair is the one who can’t talk or really respond to anything at all. I was sitting right behind her, and I saw the whole thing. You walked up to her and handed her a gift. It was a pretty little bracelet. You also gave her a card, which one of the adults showed to her. I was able to read what it said from my spot. “Dear Amelia, I hope you get better soon. We should have a play date sometime! I think you’re sweeter than candy.” The words you wrote brought tears to my eyes, and it wasn't just because it was something nice that you did – it was because you were sincere. You knew that Amelia was in a wheelchair and that Amelia doesn't really recognize who you are. But you treated her as someone just like you. Gave her a gift. Asked her for a play date sometime. Your small act of kindness affected me. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to affect me, but it did. You showed me that our love for others should not stop at those who are the exact same as us. You loved someone that the world would find hard to love.

There are people that we look at our whole lives and we think we know those people, but until we observe how those people act around those who are not their equals, we have never really seen or known them. 

Debate Truths

• Running an “Abolish the UN” case when your judge works for the UN… isn’t smart.  Yeah, it's really not.

•It’s really hard not to laugh if the Negative team gets up and starts singing songs from the “Sound of Music” during their Negative speech. Apparently it’s not against the rules. “So long, farewell….”

•10 page negative brief due for a Nationals Prep Group? Let me find go find those half-page long credentials for the author that no one really cares about. But hey. If it helps you meet that 10 page requirement….

 •Brett D. Schaefer is probably one of the coolest people ever… not to mention he’s the advocacy for just about everyone’s Affirmative case. I’m always really excited when I get to use evidence by him. In fact one time I was so excited about finding this piece of evidence by him that my partner suggested I marry him. Did you know that he’s single? (just so you know, I don't want to marry him, he's too old)

•Team Policy Debate is fun because it allows you to get together with a partner to work on researching. The downside is you get half as much done as you would if you were alone, and you end up wasting twice as much time. Don’t even get me started on how much we get done at “research meetings”.

•Speaking of research meetings, the majority of "research meetings" are spent arguing about what will be done and listening to music

•Lincoln Douglas Debate is for all those “forever alone” people. Just kidding. I love LDer’s. :)

•Debate has taught us all to rely on Google for anything that we don’t know.

•Wikipedia is a good source for generic information, just so long as you don’t say the word “Wikipedia” in a debate round.

•When your mom asks what you’re up to and you say “I’m working on debate”, we all know you’re lying. You’re actually on Facebook (or Google+). Orrrr you're playing games. Nobody actually works on debate, do they?

•If you have ever been at a tournament and heard something about drugs, it probably originated in Cornerstone.

•Speech and Debate has allowed me to meet some of the coolest people in the world. True story. :)