The Beginnings of My Very Own Bucket List

(italic = accomplished)

1. go skydiving
2. go scuba diving
3. visit the pope in Rome
4. go on a mission to the third world
5. graduate college
6. get my Ph.D.
7. go on a photography vacation
8. work for the Church
9. learn conversational Czech
10. learn to play the guitar
11. learn to play the piano
12. learn to waltz
13. learn to polka
14. enter the czech royalty pagent
15. go para sailing
16. swim with the sharks
17. go bungee jumping
18. go to Jerusalem
19. visit all 50 U.S. states
20. be a vegetarian for a Lent
21. see Olympic swimming
22. meet the Pope
23. learn CPR
24. take a cooking course
25. learn the: sign of the cross, our father, hail mary in french and latin
26. run a 6 minute mile
27. be complaint free
28. run a 5k
29. go on a silent retreat
30. take up yoga
31. go without tv for a week
32. take my dad to prague and austria
33. throw a fancy dinner party
34. learn how to invest wisely
35. buy a house
36. have a library in my home
37. fall completely, unconditionally, uncontrollably in love with God
38. fall in love
39. work for CHWC
40. be kissed in St. Mark's Square
41. become a youth minister
42. see the pope
43. go on a mission trip
44. go to WYD
45. complete freshman year of college
46. have a job where I have to dress professionally everyday
47. have a job i can do in my pjs
48. read all of St. Paul's letters (cover-to-cover)
49. have a conversation with Matt Maher
50. save all of my change for a year (and donate it to a good cause)
51. learn the Bill of Rights
52. move to a different state
53. work at a summer camp
54. graduate from high school
55. snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef

Thinking can be a dangerous thing

I am been thinking recently about why I live my life the way I do. I know that the path I choose isn't a popular, especially in today's world. Why isn't a Christian lifestyle popular? Why do people live Sundays for the Lord and the rest of the week for themselves? Why isn't every Christian out there in the world setting the world on fire with their love for God? I think it's because most of us have never and will never have that really exciting conversion story that you will always read about, always hear about. It seems that if you haven't had this great experience then you can't really follow in their footsteps and live how the live after their conversion. I think that this is a shame. I've had my conversion experience, but it was nowhere near exciting enough to have published. Heck, I don't even share it with too many people because it is just that boring. I grew up Catholic, I decided to stay Catholic. While boring, it is very important to me. It was a time in my life when I was very uncertain and chose God instead of this world. Now, I am pretty sure that most people out there have had a similar experience to mine, humdrum and not much to share. Why do these things stop us from showing God's love for us to the world? Those really important stories that make it onto the news and get book deals are few and far between. Way more of us change just a small way because of a friend, but we think that it's not important enough for God. Well, it is. I am by no means perfect, and I struggle with living for Him every single day of my life, and, despite my hopes, this will never change. But I am going to challenge myself to remember that my story is just as important as Mother Teresa's or someone similar, at least to God it is. I am going to let my story help me set the world ablaze.

So...It's been awhile.

I'm just not that good at this whole blog thing. Anyways. Since last time, I have moved home to Oklahoma for the summer and I am terribly missing school. I have just been sitting around all summer because I can't get a job. Grr....with the economy bad people who have been working other jobs got laid off and and are now forced to work full-time in the jobs that I am apply for. They have experience, I don't. I would hire them over me too. Mr. President, Where are my jobs you promised me? Anyways...

I'm leaving on a mission trip on Friday and I am sooo excited. This is my 5th year to go, and I love it. My church goes to a camp call Catholic H.E.A.R.T. Workcamp. They are all over the country. You work on people's homes, painting, light repair work, etc. but then you come back and it is basically a giant youth rally. Awesome. The first year we went to Louisville, KY and it changed my faith life. I began to see what it means to live like Jesus lived. I learned that you shouldn't live life asking "What Would Jesus Do" but ask "What Did Jesus Do?" (Maybe I should make my own braclets!) Then we went to Orlando, the Rockford, IL. Last summer we went to New Orleans which I had beeen begging Joe (my youth minister) to go to since Katrina. This was the first year it was open to people under 18, so we packed our bags and went. I was cool becuase since we were helping Cathiolic Charaties with Katrina clean-up you really felt a part of something bigger. My group hung dry-wall in a home and now the woman who lived there is one step closer to being out of a hotel and back in her home. I hope this year God will use me to just make the life of one person just a little bit easier. No big miracles needed, I'm not that kind of girl. "I pray that You will use my life, In whatever way Your name is glorified." Please keep our youth group of Yukon, OK in your prayers and all the campers that particiapte in CHWC.