brianna's place

body shop post #7

2009-04-09T16:47:00.002-04:00

last night was fun! when i got to bodyshop i was greeted with hugs from a couple of the girls that were at the lock-in. i really wish that we could have had the lock-in at the beginning of the semester. i think that it would have really helped in connecting with the girls and i could have gotten so much farther in relationships with them. it was really good though to see all of the girls and to see them interacting with each other more than before. it would be really interesting to see what could have developed if it wasn't the end of the semester.

body shop post #6 lock-in edition 1.2

2009-04-06T15:43:00.004-04:00

ok...so now that i'm somewhat caught up on my sleep time to fill in the incredible details of the night...

i showed up at bodyshop at 6 on friday not knowing really what my role would be in the event. i knew i would hang out with the girls, but other than that i was clueless. what my part ended up being was really a support to the girl that planned the whole night. i took charge of checking the girls in as they arrived and collecting their money, i took part in the comedy show that all of the leaders put on, i was official photographer for the night, and helped to get activities set up throughout the night. i was really able to see myself be sort of the behind the scenes leader...i wasn't really up front at all or leading any of the activities and even though i did spend quite a bit of time with the students it was not as much as the other leaders...i was really able to be the one to serve the other leaders to enable them to do their "thing."

it was really cool for me to not only see what kind of leadership i would bring to the night, but also to watch the other girls who were leading as well. they were all freshmen and sophomores, so i was the oldest leader their and i was really impressed with all of them. they stepped up and really got to know the girls, they dealt with girls not feeling well, with some drama that could have ended badly, but they were able to work it out, and they did a great job of leading the various activities throughout the night.

do give you an idea of what the night looked like...we began with big group, ice-breaker, type games in the gym, we then moved to decorating shirts and shoes with markers, fabric paint, hot glue and gem stones. after that we played crab soccer, which is when the kids do the crab walk to play and use a big beach ball! it was really fun to watch that game!! after that we did the comedy show and by towards the end of that the girls were beginning to disengage a bit so we were a little worried that things would go south fast. we were sorely mistaken. after the comedy show, one of the leaders sat down and shared her testimony with the girls...she was very transparent with the girls about things she had struggled with in her life and the girls really latched on to what she had to say and were very attentive. it was clear that God was speaking through her to these girls and they really responded. we spent the next two hours talking and praying with girls who were sharing their struggles and some really hard things that they were dealing with. through this time we were able to see the girls encouraging and loving on each other and even see one 6th grader lead a 7th grader she had just met to Christ. it was really an incredible couple of hours!

after that time, we moved into a dance party and then put in a movie. we ended with breakfast and clean-up about 7 in the morning and the girls were picked up at 8. all of the leaders were exhausted by the time the girls left, but we all felt so good about the things that took place throughout the night, both the more serious things and the crazy fun things!

i feel that i really got to connect with some of the girls this weekend and honestly, i wish that this event had been earlier in the semester so that i could have connected better in the beginning and continued the relationships rather then it feeling like they are just now starting at the end of the semester...oh well...i'll just have to try and make the most of the time that is left!

body shop post #5~lock-in edition 1.1

2009-04-04T08:42:00.001-04:00

wow...what an awesome night!

however, i am running on ten minutes of sleep in the last 24 hours, so i'll catch up a bit and get back here later.

body shop post #4

2009-04-02T20:02:00.003-04:00

its been a while since i've posted and i missed body shop last week so i'm a bit behind. anyway...last night was good. i played volleyball with a few girls at the beginning and that was fun. i feel like i am just now getting into the swing of things now that the semester is almost over! that is so frustrating. i feel that i didn't contribute as much as i thought i would, oh well, nothing i can do about that now. we are having a girls lock-in on friday so that should be really fun...i wish it had been at the beginning of the semester so that i could have connected better with some girls then instead of now.

i guess that's all for today...i'll post again after the lock-in.

body shop post #3

2009-03-06T22:41:00.003-05:00

so this week is spring break and i could have skipped body shop, but i decided to go ahead and take the hour drive to be there. my mom and her friend (and my mentor) came with me. they have both spent a lot of time with jr. high and high school students in their days. it was fun to have them there with me.

i realized something this week...because it was spring break i was really the only college student there to help out, there were a few high school kids, but that's beside the point. i think that the other college students who are typically there may be the reason that i am hesitant to jump in with the kids. when it was just me, i jumped in there started some games of knock out, took more lead in the crowd control arena and had a really fun night. i think that i feel intimidated by the other college kids who are there because they have more history at body shop than i do and they know the kids better than i do. but that won't change unless i jump in and get to know the kids.

i need to not let my own insecurities get in the way of my learning or my relationship with the kids.

we'll have to wait and see how it goes next week when everyone is back from spring break!

flavor of the week #6

2009-02-25T22:14:00.002-05:00

so mcconn has this drink...osaka sunrise....its amazing. it has strawberry and orange syrup, sierra mist, and orange juice....so good! you should totally go and get one right now...seriously...go...now! :)

body shop post #2

2009-02-25T22:04:00.003-05:00

so i forgot to write about body shop last week, so i'll have to roll the two into one...

i am finding that i'm not as sure of myself with this group of kids. the group that i worked with in the past we kids that i had known in some capacity for a while and they were mostly "churched" kids. now, i don't know any of them, some get no church other than wednesday night youth group, and some are just rougher kids. i don't know if i'm afraid or what, but for whatever reason i'm having a hard time even going up and introducing myself to girls. i so badly want to do well in my time there and to build relationships with the girls, but so far it has been really hard.

another part that has been a little difficult is how i relate with the other leaders there. there are several college students who help out and i've been there for three weeks now and two of the probably 20 or so have even talked to me at all. i can tell which of the leaders have been helping there for a while because they interact with each other, but its almost like a "don't talk to the new kid until she's not new anymore" thing....it's just really weird. i kind of wished that there was a time when all of the leaders could get together and just hang out and get to know one another. i feel that doing that would really build that team feeling and that we would all work together better to love and serve the kids that come.

i don't know if i'm making much sense, i'm just kind of unloading my thoughts...more to come

body shop post #1

2009-02-11T22:20:00.002-05:00

so tonight was the first time that i helped out at jc bodyshop with the jr. high kids. i mostly sat back and observed how it all worked. it was typical jr. high youth group...the kids and staff would throw balls at each other and run around for the first hour then music, games, and a lesson. there was another girl there as staff for the first time so we pretty much stayed together.

i met a few girls named sierra, georgia, and chasity. they were pretty cool, but i really didn't get to talk to them much. i don't know if i really picked up any real leadership insights or anything, but i do know that next week i want to dive in a little more and interact with the kids more. i think it will be a good semester, but i don't want to end up just going wednesday nights and just playing. though there is value in that time with the kids, i want to do more...what that more is, i'm not sure at this point, but i hope to find out soon.

more next week...

flavor of the week #5

2009-01-27T21:00:00.005-05:00

so since i'm now at iwu in the short time that i have been here i have already grown to love mcconn. yum....specifically my drink of choice as of late has been hot tea....more specifically...wildberry plum hot tea....so good! you should totally try it!

back again

2009-01-27T20:48:00.002-05:00

so i know i haven't been here in a long time, but life has been a little crazy...so to fill you (being the 2 people who might read this..hehe) in...

i am now in my forth week here at iwu and i am loving it!! things are going really well...i've made a few new friends and am reconnecting with some old ones.

i am taking a class called authentic leader and i really like it. we talk about some pretty heavy stuff, but it is really good. part of that class is a leadership practice. what that means is that i need to have some area of my life in which a have some kind of leadership role. i'm still working on the details, but i plan to plug into a local church youth group. i will have to quote un-quote keep record of what i'm doing and learning about leadership throughout the semester. i plan to do that here. i will continue to write random things too, but now maybe about once a week (depending on what the practice part looks like) i will be posting something about that.

i am really excited about this semester and the things i could learn about leadership and about myself!!

nuts, right?!

2009-01-08T12:39:00.003-05:00

this morning i was reading for my servant leader class. we were assigned to read several chapters in the old testament. in 1 samuel 14, king saul's son jonathan decided that he was going to go attack the philistines. now, this wasn't like jonathan and the army, this was jonathan and his armor bearer....that's it...against all of the philistines.....um....nuts, right?! totally what i was thinking.

then i was thinking....this armor bearer guy didn't really have a choice, he had to go with jonathan. if i were him i would have been a little freaked out at that point...two guys against an entire army! then in verse 7 the armor bearer says, "do all that you have in mind. go ahead; i am with you heart and soul."

whoa.

he had the trust in jonathan and the faith in God to be like, "alright, bring it!" i don't know if i really do that. how many times to i willingly go into situations that look ridiculously impossible and dive in with the faith that God's got it all under control? not very many. it's no big deal if it seems easy or normal, but what about the hard stuff? isn't that where your faith should really show up?

just a thought to ponder.

ahhhh!

2009-01-05T19:15:00.003-05:00

sunday...wake up, church, drive down, move in, dinner with fam, bed

monday...up at 7, registration at 8...business info meeting, business info meeting x2 (long story, don't ask), register for classes, lunch, orientation, get ID, buy books, back to room, dinner, and now.....

breathe.

but only for a moment...

classes start tomorrow!

change

2008-12-24T20:16:00.008-05:00

"to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone"

well...i will be seeing a lot of this in the very near future. i am transferring schools and will be moving in 11 days. i'm excited, nervous, and a hundred other things. i'm sure there will be much more writing to come as i go through this....change.

..on to..

flavor of the week #4

2008-12-24T20:14:00.002-05:00

cranberry iced tea...had some at higher grounds the other day....delicious

...

2008-12-15T09:36:00.000-05:00

finals....back in a few days

flavor of the week #3

2008-12-09T09:47:00.002-05:00

so this is a little late, but here it is...every thanksgiving my mom's side of the family gets together. we spend all day at my grandparent's house eating and hanging out, eating, napping, playing basketball, eating and did i mention eating (after all, it is thanksgiving, what else would we be doing?) well...along with that eating comes drinking...not the bad kind of drinking...haha...bad kind....anywho...with the exception of this year we always have rc cola....love it! i truly missed it this year and this post is now my ode to rc and all of it wonderful deliciousness.

...i'm back..

2008-12-09T09:45:00.001-05:00

so i know it's been forever since i've written on her, but i finally finished my four projects that were all due on the same day, so stress levels are down, and the writing that i actually enjoy resumes.

stress levels are rising

2008-11-19T13:54:00.002-05:00

the lack of posts is due to a giant portfolio that i have due in two weeks that is 60% of my grade for that class...see you in two weeks

silence

2008-11-13T09:33:00.003-05:00

these last few days i have felt like i have nothing to say

my flavor of the week #2

2008-11-05T16:07:00.003-05:00

who doesn't love a nice fruit punch every now and then...i mean really...this is good stuff.

...diwali...

2008-11-01T23:14:00.002-04:00

according to dictionary.com diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, an important four-day celebration in october or november that commemorates the beginning of winter

my dad was invited by a man that he works with to attend a party for diwali at ipfw tonight. my brother and i went with him. it was really interesting...i really just wanted to sit back and observe. here are some things that i observed...

1- i saw so many stunningly beautiful women in fantastic clothing. the clothing that the women wore was so colorful and full of beading, and they were all so different and unique

2- the man that invited my dad, amrut, genuinely wanted us to learn about his culture...several times during the event he would lean over and tell us some fact about a dance that the children were doing or something about the language...it was really very interesting. it was neat to see the pride that he had in his heritage.

3- the whole thing felt like a big family reunion. we got there a little late and by the time we arrived the seats at the tables were full and the food was almost gone and everyone was walking around talking to everyone and i think that the mc's for the night asked everyone to sit down 4 or 5 times so they could start the festivities before anyone began to settle...love it!

i love learning about different cultures and their customs and religions and things like that so i loved going tonight.

mellow

2008-10-28T22:58:00.003-04:00

do you ever just need to have that feeling of just kind of chill? for me, nothing influences my mood more than music. lately i've been feeling mellow...not a bad mellow, but a kind of relaxed mellow. i was going through my ipod and stopped on an album that i hadn't listened to in a while. i love tracy chapman her voice has a real soothing element to it and the album has a real folksy feel to it and tends to relax me. anyway...here is a sample...love it. you should definitely check out some more of her music.

"..."

2008-10-26T22:49:00.002-04:00

"before you get to wonderful you have to go through alright"

...

2008-10-22T22:01:00.002-04:00

tonight i went to my great-grandma's 87th birthday party. it was neat. that's all.

this is brandon, my dad and i with my great-grandma in florida a few years ago.

my flavor of the week

2008-10-21T09:23:00.001-04:00

i think i'm in love......with an iced mocha. it's name is mocha joe....i heart burger king!

wait, rewind that

2008-10-20T11:34:00.003-04:00

for one of my classes i had to lead a problem solving meeting using a technique that we learned in class and it was video taped so that we could watch it and write a reflection paper on what we did well and what we could improve on. as i was writing my paper this morning i was thinking...wouldn't it be great if we had that for our spiritual lives. think about it, we would have a chance to see what we were doing well and things that we could work on. it's one thing for someone else to tell you that you're doing something wrong, but to have the chance to see yourself doing it would be a whole different thing.

while i was giving my presentation of the meeting i found myself trying to stand up straighter, talk more eloquent, and things like that because i knew i was being recorded...maybe i should live my life like i'm being recorded, because i guess i sort of am...God sees everything i do.

fail

2008-10-19T16:08:00.004-04:00

a few weeks ago msn.com had a list of the 10 best ways to waste time online and my current favorite is failblog.org. basically, it just has pictures and videos of things that are huges fails! pretty much amazing...

here is my lastest fav..

and so it begins

2008-10-19T16:01:00.002-04:00

so here i am joining the wild and crazy world of blogging. i've tried this before and it sort of died, so this time i'm not going to try and make it anything that it isn't...it will just be a place for my thoughts, funny stories, random things i find online, etc.

enjoy!