I am currently reading "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis, for English II. For anyone who hasn't read it, it is a fabulous book. It is a collection of letters from a demon to his nephew, giving the nephew advice about a "patient". I find it interesting because it isn't your average devotional book; it is from Satan's point of view and has very helpful and practical advice for any Christian (obviously, the advice is backwards, but the lesson in it is very clear).
Today I came across a part that I thought was completely true, and I wanted to share it.

Some background info:
In this chapter, Wormwood ( the nephew) has written to his uncle about his patient having a "second conversion" of sorts (Wormwood's side of the correspondence are not actually included in the book, but you can tell from Screwtape's letter the basics of what Wormwood has written.), which is obviously bad for the demons. Screwtape (the uncle) has been talking about this and telling Wormwood what he did wrong. Remember that this is from a demon's point of view... for example when it says The Enemy, he is talking about God.

"It remains to consider how we can retrieve this disaster. The great thing is to prevent his doing anything. As long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance. Let the little brute wallow in it. let him, if he has any bent that way, write a book about it; that is often an excellent way of sterilising the seeds which the Enemy plants in a human soul. Let him do anything but act. No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will. As one of the humans has said, active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel."

I'll leave you to digest this yourself, I just wanted to share it because I liked it. :)

It's November 14th? Really?

Ughhhhh....

This week has not been terrible. Actually, it's been pretty good overall. The last few weeks have been. But for some reason it's worn me out. Everything is slipping by so fast! so fast. I need to stop and take a breath, but life just keeps zooming on by at lightning speed! I had an English presentation this week (SO glad THATS over...), next week I have to give a presentation in an Anatomy and Physiology class and I'm in a preshow for a play at my school. I had orientation to volunteer at Florida Hospital this week (I am SO excited for that!!), and an interview on December 2nd. I need to sell Christmas CD's for youth group. I need to raise Bowl-A-Thon pledges for Circle Theatre Company. I need to sell Chick-fil-A calendars for Company. I need to babysit/ do odd jobs or whatever to earn money. Not to mention the upcoming holidays and semester finals, and then taking the SAT and being in Guys and Dolls next semester.

AHHHH!!!

hahaha. I really do love my life and wouldn't trade it for anything... probably....
Just kidding.
But- I do wish I didn't feel so frantic and worried.
It'll be alright. I can manage to continue to get by by the skin of my teeth. (Is that the right expression?)

On a lighter note-
This past Sunday I went to Merritt Island to visit my grandparents, who are down from Alabama. My aunt and uncle and two cousins were there too. So me and my family hung out and had lunch with them, and me and my cousins played outside, and my dad even took me and my sister to the beach for a little while. That was fun.
Then today after doing schoolwork and babysitting at Jazzercise, me and my family went out to dinner at Steak n' Shake (yumm), and then watched the shuttle launch. It was so amazing. I've seen shuttle launches before of course, but it's been a while; especially since I've seen a night launch. The shuttle lit up the sky... it was great. I can't imagine what it would be like to be one of the people on the shuttle. Wow.
Oh the joys of living in Florida. :)

Thoughts on the election....

Welllll. A LOT has happened this week, and while I am NOT happy on the results of the election, I think it is all very interesting. So I figured, "Heyy, I have a blog, why not share my opinion!" Thus, this post was born.

Let me start off by saying that I am not really that surprised that Obama won the election. I kinda saw it coming. The thing that DOES surprise me, however, is that this country elected a crazy left-wing liberal president, and passed amendments outlawing gay marriage? What the heck? Don't get me wrong, I don't want gay marriage to be legal, and I do not agree with homosexuality. But really? I am truly blown away by that. I thought for sure that Amendment 2 (that's what it was in Florida, anyways) would not pass.

Secondly. You can probably guess already that I do not like Barack Obama. And I don't. I think he is a socialist and I think he is very bad for this country. But I know that God has a plan. I know things will work out. And I know that I need to respect Barack Obama as the President of the United States because that is the right thing to do. Even though it sounds oh so wrong. I can deal with Obama being the president.

However, that being said... the thing that scares me/ worries me/ saddens me/ frustrates me more is what our country has become. We have strayed so far from what our founding fathers originally meant this country to be. We have messed up our political system until it is flawed. Still better than most, might I add, but not what it could be. The media is crap because everyone is biased. The political system is chock full of liars and is like one big sick game to see who can get the most money and power. And most importantly, we as Americans are lazyyy. No one has a good work ethic anymore. They just expect the government to take care of them. GOVERNMENT DOES NOT SOLVE ANYTHING. The bigger/more powerful/more involved government is, the worse things get. Does no one see what happens because of socialism in the rest of the world?! Come on, people! Russia! Iraq! Germany! Nasty dictators who promise great things and give you NOTHING. Can we not learn from history and the mistakes of others around us? I suppose not, because this country gets closer to socialism every day. And it really sucks. It makes me sad to see that so many people just don't use common sense, and the direction that the United States of America is going.

Well, those were just some thoughts bouncing around in my head for now. I'll be posting anything else of importance that comes to mind.
God Bless America! Oh, and Palin 2012! ;)

Just to get you up to speed...

This is a summary of my year so far, just to catch up anyone who might actually be reading this, since I'm going to be posting on a regular basis now.
Just the big things, I'm just hitting the high points:

• May: I was in a local youth theatre's production of Les Miserables. Very fun.
• June: I was extremely surprised to find out that I only have a 90- degree field of vision and will never be able to drive. (Remind me to tell you that one sometime...)
• July: Went to church camp in Taccoa, GA, and went white water rafting for the first time. If you ever have the chance to do that, then do it! It was a blast.
• August: Went back to school. :/

And that pretty much brings you up to speed.... not many big things, even though I'm really busy.

Inspiration...

So. I've been inspired to actually use this blog.

As I've said before, I want to be a doctor "when I grow up" (sounds silly, but what's the REAL way to say it??). My mom found the blog of a med student (who is now an intern) and suggested I read it, especially because she did an interesting program where you finish med school in 6 years instead of the usual 8. Well, I decided to start from the beginning, even though that meant I'd have to read through almost 3 years worth of blog posts. But it ended up being completely worth it, because I loved it!
Check it out!
http://www.6yearmed.blogspot.com

So even though I know that my blog will not be even half as good (partly because I'm not even out of high school), I've decided to post more often. I'm probably going to delete some posts, too, because a lot of the old ones are just stupid. lol.

Thank you for your glimpse at the medical world, Danielle, and keep up the amazing blogging!

Hello.

Wow, my summer has passed by so fast. It's July 17 and I start school on.... the 6th I think? Not sure. But where has the time gone?!
I'm actually kind of excited to get back to school. Not sure why, except for I can't wait to see all my friends. But I think the other reason is that its nice to have a fresh new start. The second semester of last year was awful. My grandmother was really really sick, and my family was insanely busy, and I let my schoolwork slide some, and I just got really bogged down and everything was so hard for a while, and I was so glad for the schoolyear to be over. But now that I've had a nice break, rested and had some fun, I'm ready to start anew.

But summer's not quite over, and next week I'm going to Student Life Camp with my youth group. I think it'll be pretty kick awesome..... especially since we're going white water rafting at the end. Plus, it should be pretty interesting because we have way more going than usual, and there are new leaders going.
Today me and my brother went shopping at American Eagle because we needed some clothes for camp. It turned out great. I got most of my stuff on clearance (two pairs of shorts that I got were $11.99... score!) and everything I got I love. And I'm so proud of my brother because this is his first time getting AE clothes. He looks amazing in them.
Tommorrow we are going shopping for our secret pals (its a tradition in my youth group to do secret pals during camp. We draw a name and give that person gifts all week, as well as pray for them, without them knowing who it is, and at the end of the week, you find out who was giving to you/ you tell the person you had that it was you.), and I have to do laundry, then on Saturday we have to pack, Sunday we leave our luggage at the church for people to pack in vans, and we leave at the crack of dawn on Monday.
On top of all this getting ready and such, VBS is going on at our church, which me, my mom, and my brother work at, and my sister participates in. So I am crazy exhausted and this week has been busy. (I really enjoy working at VBS, though. It's fun.)
So on Monday I leave for Georgia and the highlight of my summer. I can't wait.

Here's hoping that the rest of your summer is amazing, too!

Bored...

So.
I'm pretty much just posting this because I'm bored.
It'll probably be pretty boring.
haha.
What to say, what to say....?
Well...... I'm out of school for the summer. Its pretty much frickin amazing. My summer's actually been fairly good so far. I can't wait to see what happens in the next couple of weeks.
What else, what else................
I really can't think of anything.
This concludes the most boring blog post ever.

First time on "New" Blogger

Well well well. Here I am posting on my blog. Is it just me or is anyone else wondering "What was wrong with blogger in the first place?" I mean really. Why do you have to go and make a google account just to sign in to a blog? Oh well. I had to make a google account anyway for a google church group.
So. Wow. A lot has changed since I was last on here. I've even seen snow since my last post. It's not all it's cracked up to be, trust me. Especially when the only actual snow is manmade, on the slopes, and the rest is ice. And dang! Skiing is waaay harder than it looks! It's kinda scary. I'm not a big risk taker, I'm a chicken, so it ended up being very scary. But I did okay for my first try. Also, my tip for the day: don't go night skiing if you're a beginner. lol.
School's going pretty well I guess. I've managed to keep a 4.0 so far, although it'll probably slip away from me pretty soon because of my stupid history class. I love the teacher in that class, he's a genius, but you really have to work hard, and let me tell you, I don't always have time for that. Haha. After I graduate I want to get a degree in microbiology and then go to med school. I might even get to go to Harvard for free- that's pretty sweet. And after I graduate from college, I'm going to do medical missions in Africa or India, or research HIV/AIDS. Granted, this could and probably will change a little. But not drastically. I'm pretty sure that that's what I'm supposed to do with my life.
Now that I've given a little update on my life, I might come on here more often. But now I have to go clean up the kitchen before my grandma gets here. That's all for now.