Sprouts!

We've been growing sprouts! It's really easy, and quite fun. The first two pictures are day two of our experiment. The last two are day six. Well, half of  them anyway. The sprouts grew so much we had to separate them into two jars! 

Cheers,

Lauren 

short story

I had to write the first page of a short story for a creative writing class I'm taking. I've never really done a lot of fictional writing, so this was a fun challenge. I thought I'd share what I came up with. [=

~~~
You know those stories that they show on the christian tv stations, the ones about the Christians held captive by oppressive governments? The kinds of stories that you see and say, “Oh, I’ll pray for them,” and then never do. I can’t stand to watch those. My friends used to tell me that they were all scams run to get donations from grannies, but that’s not why I hate the programs. --I hate them because they never get people to do anything. “Here’s a problem, do you want to see if we could maybe, I don’t know, possibly, kind of help just a little?” If you really knew what kind of situations these people actually faced you’d be knocking down doors to help.

It all started when I took the semester to study abroad in Kenya. We were working extra hard because we had to stay caught up in our honors courses, and complete the foreign language and culture classes. After an especially long week, we decided drive to see the Indian Ocean. All we wanted to do was have a fun time away from the village. It’s not like we were trying to convert the nations! We didn’t even know we had crossed the boarder into Somalia until the guards stopped us and we couldn’t cross back over.

I guess they decided that we were a threat to society, or maybe they just wanted to send a message to the world because, well, let’s just say that I’m not welcome here. But I’m also not welcome to leave. As the leader of our outing, and class president of sorts, I’ve been deemed as unsafe to let go. I think that the others were only held for a couple of days, but they want to make us an example. As far as I know, I’ll be here forever. I’ve learned to rely on sounds. They are all that keep me from going mad in this room. It’s pitch black, no windows. I can hear the clanking of the doors along the corridor, and the footsteps of the guards changing posts. The daily scrape of my metal food pan sliding across the floor, and the occasional grunt of a guard on his rounds are the only break from the oppressive darkness. They are the only times I can imagine that there is life on the other side of the door. It’s too early for my meal, and certainly not time for rounds, so I am surprised to hear my cell door open. As light floods the cell, and a guard pushes a young man into my cell. Apparently I’m to have a roommate. The young man is bruised and has obviously recently sustained a beating. He collapses against the wall as the guard leaves. “Aren’t you going to welcome me into your wonderful abode?” His voice surprises me; it’s deep, rough, and American.
~~~

~So, what do you think? Should I continue with the story? I may use this for NaNoWriMo next year.

2012!

What a year it has been so far! I feel like I've been living a whirlwind of activity. Life has been great, busy, hard, fun, and complete chaos.

In January, I was asked to give a short plug for the National Right to Life Oratory Contest, and encourage teens to become involved in the fight against abortion at the state-wide March for Life in Little Rock. Honestly, it wasn't a big deal, except that there were probably around four thousand people there. It was a great experience! I feel like I learn a little more about myself, and about public speaking each time I do get to "speechify". Anyway, that was probably the biggest event of the month. --Other than turning eighteen. --Yeah, that's right! I'm a major now. :P

February was a huge month. On the tenth, we held our Senior Class Winter Formal. I helped decorate for it, and ended up spending around 6-8 hours with a few others getting the room ready. It was awesome, but also a little stressful beforehand.

I had a major scholarship application for the GE Reagan Foundation due on the seventeenth. It required a 500-750 word essay, and is worth approx. $40,000. But I probably won't know until almost June whether or not I will receive it.

I left for a leadership training camp in Little Rock on the 20th. It was a week-long fairly intensive class on government, including around 30 pages of pre-class homework, writing a resolution to debate in a mock legislature, and a political communications class. We were able to go to the capitol building every day, and even got to interview a few lobbyists. Honestly, they packed so much into one week, it's hard to list everything we did while there. ;)

On leap-day, I finished a second scholarship essay. It's not as important as the GE Reagan scholarship, but it's still very important.

I've also been swing dancing a couple of times this year! It's been super fun, and I've enjoyed getting back into that.

Although I've been busy, and really haven't had much time to sit and reflect, I feel like I've been changing. It's almost as if I'm morphing from one Lauren into the next Lauren. I'm still me, but I've learned so much and been stretched out of my comfort zone in so many ways, I just feel changed. I wonder if others will see it, or if I'm just changing on the inside.

Anyway, this post is mostly for me. I've been needing to just write, (crazy -- I've been writing all week, getting this scholarship essay written, and I still find that I have to write to decompress. I don't understand!)

So, if you find this post long and unimaginative, sorry! I'll write something more interesting later! Actually...I may post some scholarship essays soon. =)

Cheers!
~Lauren