To Do List

So retreat is coming up really fast now and I'm really, really excited to go because it is going to be my last summer retreat in High School, but hopefully not my last retreat. But it's not Friday yet and I have a lot of things to do before school starts YAY.  So I'm writing a TO DO LIST, that I hope to finish by Friday, in order to keep myself accountable.

• memorize Preamble
• memorize thirty-two court cases
• memorize the twenty-seven Amendments
• be familiar with the Articles in the Constitution
• review and study chapters one and two in Government book
• memorize fifty-five language terms
• review Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby for the test

Crazy Little Demons

So this summer I started working officially working at my mom's summer school. Now I actually get paid for teaching little kids how to add, multiply, and write neatly. This sounds like an easy task right? WRONG!

On Sunday, some SMT Korea team members gave their testimony on how God affected their lives through the trip, and one thing I noticed about the testimonies was that it always talked about how crazy the little kids were. I was like, "Oh ya. I can totally relate." Then they talked about how the kids opened up to them and now they love them, and I totally understand that, being that I've been to SMT Korea twice.

Kids are the craziest little monsters that ever walked the earth. I realized that to deal with them, you need a Godly amount of patience. And I emphasize "Godly". The kids at SMT Korea opened up, but these are not SMT Korean kids. These are kids that do not want to be learning anything over the summer and who will not do anything unless they are screamed at. And I really hate screaming at kids. That's when I get really ugly, and I don't think anyone has ever seen me angry before.

I've known a lot of these kids for a while, but they don't see me as Teacher Daniel. They see me as Daniel or DK. They think I'm their friend; but come on, they are here to get ahead of everyone else and I don't want their parent's money to go to waste. Am I just being too nice? Is the only way to deal with kids to yell at them? Really? I don't want to believe that, but I am slowly starting to give in.

Who am I?

First off, I don't know why I am making one of these. Maybe it's because reading other people's blogs is fun. Or maybe it's because I feel that I really need somewhere to vent and let go of life's problems. 

Recently, I've been thinking about my future and I've come to the conclusion that I am really don't know what I'm going to do. All my life, I've taken orders from my parents. "Go to this place" or "do this". Because of that I've developed this mentality that I can go where ever life leads me. I don't have to do anything. Everything I need will eventually come to me. I couldn't be any more wrong. Because of this thinking, I've been left in the dust while everyone around me speeds off to success. This is my senior year. What am I going to do? I just have one year to catch up to everyone.

Now I have to work doubley (not sure if that's a word) hard to catch up. I need to dream big. I need to take the initiative. I need to grow up. But I also need to ask God if what I'm doing is the right thing to do. I know many people who have experienced midlife crisis' and I am determined that I am not going to be one of those people. My favorite bible teacher showed our class this diagram: 

BELIEFS-----------> OPTIONS--------------> CHOICE

People who realize that they do not like their career, for example, always go back to their options. When their choice turns out to be something that they don't like, they go back and pick another option. But they should be going back to their beliefs. Options that are not God-centered are likely to feel like hell. I don't want to feel hell.

I feel better now. :)