When Little Things Get Too Big // College Visiting

Hey, everyone!  It's Tuesday, and I'm enjoying yet another day of long weekend so I'm not anywhere near complaining.  Like any chronic procrastinator, ahem, I mean responsible high school senior, I'm spending my two extra non-school days (thank you, teacher conferences) walking around college campuses, eating their food and filling my purse with their free stuff and otherwise doing highly revealing evaluative research in an attempt to try and figure out what I'm going to do with my life in the next year.  I must say that the whole college search is going pretty well; I'm no longer fighting change tooth and nail, threatening to live at home forever or get married as soon as I graduate while refusing to fill out college applications.  Go ahead, congratulate me.  I'm also offering classes on how to be a stellar prospective college student for a small fee because, hello, student loans.  

Anyway, as I followed our tour guide around the pretty campus of Saginaw Valley State University yesterday, I started to get really, really excited.  (Note: For you aspiring college campus tour guides, please don't walk backwards the whole time.  It gives guidees the feeling that they're constantly backing you into a corner and also inflicts so many mini heart attacks as the guide almost runs into people / trees / trash cans / buildings.)

Look at it!  I didn't take this; it's from here: 

Pretty soon, all I could think about was the fitness center and the Starbucks and the brand new indoor track and the free home football games and the thousands of new people and the really interesting classes and all of the other glittering facets of college life.  I could picture myself sitting and eating dinner with my friends and buying coral and mint decor for my tiny dorm, maybe applying for the honors college or getting involved in campus ministry or club sports.  Also, did you know that the boys in college are more attractive than the ones in high school? Go figure!

As exciting as life is right now, full of novelty and branching with roads untraveled, it's also so confusing.  Choosing between college and taking a gap year to do mission work in Africa is hard enough, let alone trying to get my heart and mind to settle on one particular school and - gulp - a major.  It's times times like these, when my vision is clouded my a kaleidoscope of all that seems bright and beautiful, that I'm so thankful for the absolute clarity that comes from God.  Take this, for example:

"You, God, are my God, 

earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for You, 

my whole being 

longs for you,

in a dry and parched

land

where there is no water.

I have seen you in the 

sanctuary

and beheld your

power and your glory.

Because your love 

is better than life,

my lips will glorify

you.

I will praise you as

 long as I live, 

and in your name I 

will lift up my hands.

I will be fully satisfied

as with the richest 

foods; 

with singing lips my

mouth will praise you.  

Because you are my help, 

I sing in the shadow

 of your wings.

I cling to you;

your right hand 

upholds me. "

The way I see it, these words are a verbal blueprint for how life's supposed to be, and I don't know about you, but that's really comforting.  I don't know right now whether I'll end up sleeping in a tent in Africa or playing a sport at a small private school or going to a huge state university and pursuing a PhD, and those possibilities would be so stressful if I didn't have an anchor in the words of that Psalm.  Regardless of which path I take, I already know that I have a love that can make my life more meaningful than any college experience.  I know for sure that I'm made to praise God with myself, and if that's all I know, I'm good, you know?  I just thought that was so cool, and I had to share! 

Allie

How to Get VIP Access at the Apple Orchard // Photo Journal

Happy Monday! I hope you're spending it in a big, comfy chair with a book and a big cup of something hot and delicious, maybe with a cat on your lap. Oh, and also your laptop / tablet / phone so that you can catch up on blog-reading, because what else are long weekends for?

We spent a day of ours at the apple orchard, where we spent an hour waiting in line to spend 10 minutes picking apples.  We are really efficient apple pickers.  The best way to get backstage apple access, though? Talk to the owner!  Mom ran into him while she was buying doughnuts and asked him if there was any way we could avoid the line that was waiting, probably for eternity, to get into one of the tractors and be hauled out to the apple picking. 

"You're not supposed to," he said. And proceeded to direct her to the path that would take us to the apples by foot and away from the world's longest wait.  Line jumping for the win!

Allie

How to Take Painless, Beautiful Homecoming Photos // Photo Journal

Hello?  Anyone there?  Like, oh, I don't know, the blogger who is supposed to be responsible for posting words here five days a week?   I don't know what you might have heard, but I am not dead, sick and about to become dead, or even without internet access.  You were worried, I know.  Let's just blame my little hiatus on homecoming week and not get to exasperated with me for it, okay?   Life got a little full of hallway decorating and football game attending, and then Saturday I obviously had to spend the entire day getting ready for homecoming: nails, hair, make up, Pinterest, chocolate . . . it's all part of the process!

Actually, I didn't really care that much about what I looked like at the dance as much as I did pictures.  Those pictures are going to be around forever and ever, and darn it if I wasn't going to do my part to make them perfect!  I called on a few Youtube tutorials for a makeover, had a friend over to do my hair, and spent the morning painting, removing, and retouching nail polish.  I tried on my dress fourteen times.  Pictures were bound to be, well, picture perfect, right? I kind of think so.  Since I'm kind of a pro at pictures now, without further ado (drumroll, please) my guide to on how to take painless, beautiful homecoming pictures.

Start things off right by arriving to pictures with gum in your mouth.  That way, you can have lots of pictures with an I'm-sticking-my-gum-to-the-roof-of-my-mouth face.

                                                     

The key to a gorgeous pictures is a natural, relaxed smile.  You can accomplish this look by either by actually falling asleep for maximum relaxation (left) or casually laughing with a friend while having absolutely no idea that your picture is being taken (right).

A few candid shots always make a nice addition, and pictures taken while you're speaking flatter just about everyone.

Posture is everything.  Options range from the skinny arm pose (left) to the squatting / preparing to throw leaves pose.  

 Make sure you like your date.  If you don't, it will definitely show up in the pictures.  Fortunately, my date was pretty fantastic.

(I didn't really go with my little sister.  We're not allowed to bring anyone who isn't at least in high school.)

Be an original!  Everyone else is looking to the center as requested? Look to the outside.  It's that easy.

Bring props.  Prep a serious face for some seriously good photo ops. 

On the other hand, if you're not a serious-picture person, admit defeat and embrace it.

At the very least, try to take some cool jumping pictures.  I, for one, love a good jumping photo, and they're really fun to take!

When you succeed, make sure to be as immodest as humanly possible.  In front of all of your friends' parents who show up to take photos.  And their grandparents, it they chose to bring those.  And their brothers' girlfriends.  And all of the people who happened to be walking through the park.

Just know that jumping photos are risky.

If you're someone who has a short attention span, bring along a friend who also has a short attention span as well as a form of entertainment.

Okay, I promise that not all of my pictures involved me with gum on the roof of my mouth or avoiding taking pictures with my actual date my little sister.  They actually turned out really, really well (don't act so surprised; I'm obviously a professional with a bright future in the modeling arts) and homecoming was a blast!  It was definitely the perfect last homecoming of my high school career.  Um, now please excuse me while I go cry about that for the seventeenth time.

Allie