How I got here (part 2)

Well, we survived the moving trip to Georgia, and the first person we met was the principal. I was impressed right away with his kindness when my little sister (who was about 5 at the time) introduced herself by saying, "I'm Anna Elizabeth Nething" and he replied, "Well, I'm Timotheus Lee!" Most everyone was kind, but that first year was pretty rough. 7th grade can be a trying time to begin with, but having just moved and knowing no one made it worse. I remember sitting in class the first few days thinking "I should be starting jr high with Reylan, Demarcus, Shannon, the other Sarah, the Jennifers, and the Nicoles (there were 2 of each of those in my class)." I joined the track team in 7th grade, and I think that helped a lot. When I was in 9th grade, the youth pastor announced a missions trip to Mexico. I didn't really know any Spanish, but as I had said many years before, any chance to go on a missions trip I would take. I don't remember how much money we had to come up with, but it was somewhere around $300. After all the interviews and meetings and stuff, the team was made up of 7 girls. Rachel, Leila, Kristy,Valerie, Helena, me, and Tiffany Stokes. Mrs Jones had not been planning on going, but with the team made up entirely of girls, she and Pastor Mike both came with us. We took the trip with Oremex , an organization that among other things helps churches take missions trips in to Mexico. Often, more than one church is involved in the trip, and that was the case with our trip. Another church from Georgia, about and hour and a half south of us went the same week. During the week we helped a small church with VBS. The things we could do were pretty limited because of the language barrier, but it was a good time. We also helped build offices on the roof for the pastor who had given up his office to build bathrooms for visiting teams. I learned a lot that week in Mexico, and the Lord used one of the missionaries we were working with to challenge me about some things.In tenth grade, I started Spanish class, which I mostly enjoyed. Mrs. Pittman drilled the vocab and verbs into our heads, and I was very thankful for that when I started college Spanish. Eleventh grade was my second and last year of high school Spanish.All this time, pretty much since the same time I felt the Lord wanted me to be a missionary, I also had wanted to be a doctor. More specifically I wanted to be a pediatric neurosurgeon. I can see now that the Lord probably used an uncontrollable shaking in my hands (which would be disastrous in brain surgery) to steer me in a different direction. I'm not sure where the desire came from, but I have always been (and still am) fascinated with anything medical. Part of it, I'm sure, was that my dad is a science teacher. Because of that we were always being exposed to one thing or another whether it was being woken up at 2 AM to see a comet crash into Jupiter (at least I think that's what it was-everything's foggy at at that hour), helping dad practice for his dissections in class, or tagging along on a field trip to Johnson Space Center in Houston as a prize for one of dad's students. I remember times in highschool when one of my brothers or sisters injured themselves, and there was so much blood that mom and dad made me look at it (because the blood didn't bother me) and tell them what it was so they could describe it to the doctor over the phone. I remember telling my mom that she needed stitches in her finger after she cut it on a can-she didn't really want to look at it. I also had the amazing opportunity to be present for the birth of my brother who is now in second grade. (wow, I feel old!) Needless to say, in high school I fit every possible science into my schedule, even taking Physics and Chemistry in the same year in back to back hours in my dad's classroom. However, through all this, the Lord had other plans for me.

Almost done!

It has been a while since I've given a real update on what's going on here, so I'll give it a shot now. I'm quite likely to forget some things, but I'll try to remember. My trip to Greenville in April was wonderful. I spent some time with my sister on Monday the week I went. We went to Paris Mountain and Reedy River and took a lot of pictures. I was able to go to my Spanish church several times during the week, which I really enjoyed. I was also able to visit Agnew Rd., the church where my former high school choir director is now pastor. They didn't know I was coming, so that was fun. I ran into old friends and old roommates, even some I wasn't expecting. The first couple days I was wandering around campus were interesting, because every five minutes or so, someone would see me, scream, and come running. Only a few people knew I was coming, mostly because I was so busy I neglected to tell people I was coming. I really think that made it more fun. I stayed with Amy in CVA the whole week, and we enjoyed ourselves getting some work done as well as catching up (even though I talk to her on the phone almost every week, it's been a while since we've seen each other).
The weekend after I came back, we began the soccer tournament. My girls lost their first round game 4-3, but they did so well! I was sad, mostly because they were, but they really did their best, and were just starting to put everything together that we've worked on all season. The second round was supposed to happen on Saturday, but torrential rains turned the soccer field into a mud pit, and we postponed the rest of the tournament to the next Thursday. In the second round, we played for 3rd place. All my girls showed up for the game, and they played the best soccer I have ever seen them play. The offensive players were passing, and playing together, and the defense was really on top of things. They did almost everything I asked, which was really nice. We won that game 3-1, with 2 goals scored by Sydney, who hadn't scored once all season. Valerie scored the other goal, and on the way back down the field, she turned to me and said, "I finally faced the right way!" She's an aggressive player, and probably the best on the team, but she had this problem of her shots just missing the goal because she was trying too hard for the corners. It took all season for it to sink in that if you face diagonally when you kick the ball, it's not going to go straight. Also, during half time, the girls came and said, "Teacher, we're doing your plan!" All season, I worked at convincing them that to me, defense is just as important as offense. Some of them tend to think that if they're not put in the offensive positions, they're not important. Anyway, one of the things I would say to my defenders is that their job was to keep the goalie bored-they should get the ball down the field long before the other team has a chance to score. So when half time came, they were very excited that so far, our goalie was bored. They were so excited at the end of the game, it was almost as if we had won the championship. Oh, almost forgot, we actually scored all 4 of the goals scored in the game-one of my defenders accidently kicked the ball into our goal while she was trying to get it out. Oh well. I really enjoyed getting to know the girls during the season. They all learned and grew so much. I especially enjoyed the interesting discussions they would start as we sat waiting for the games. My two favorites were, "Teacher, the Bible says love your enemies. Do I have to love Satan?", and "Teacher, is God going to come today?" The second conversation was especially interesting, since they were talking about what will happen at the rapture.
Last Sunday, my roommate was sick, so she took me to church, but I had to find a ride home. I thought I had a ride, but it didn't work out, so I was going to call Priscilla and have her come get me (which she had said she would do if she had to). The only problem was that I couldn't get ahold of her, because she was sleeping. Well, when Mrs. Santana saw me in the parking lot trying to call Priscilla, she asked if I had a ride. When she found out I didn't, I got in trouble for not telling her earlier. The Santanas took me with them to Longhorn, where we celebrated Mr. Santana's mom's birthday. When we got back to church at night, I was instructed again that if I ever need a ride, I had better tell them. I think I've learned my lesson. =)
Last Thursday, we had our teacher appreciation banquet, which I really enjoyed. We ate at one of the fanciest restaurants I've ever been to. They handed out service awards, and Longhorn certificates for those with perfect attendance. The best part of teacher appreciation was that we had Friday off! I went bowling with 12 other people, mostly teachers, and a few college students. It was only the second time I had gone bowling, but it wasn't too bad. However, it was sad to find out as we were returning our shoes that mine were the same size as Walter's, one of the seventh grade teachers. And if you're wondering, that doesn't mean his feet are small!
This week has been interesting. Several of my piano students are doing very well. I've been giving them things to do for their last lesson, so we've been looking at a lot of things. This weekend is Mother's day, as well as college graduation, so it will for sure be busy.
It's also nice to have the college students from BJ back.