The One and Lonely Extrovert

It's 10:30, I've done my laundry, then relaxed, and got ready for bed. My big exam was tomorrow for a class I utterly despised, but I knew that I was at least going to get enough sleep before the early alarm clock goes off....

... Then suddenly one of my roommates comes in the apartment with her boyfriend, the other roommates join in on their fun and begin chitchatting, and there is laughing and silly movies being played.... Without me, on that ONE night I had to go to bed early...

Besides the fact that that was annoying because it woke me up, it also made me feel uninvited. Don't get me wrong, people are allowed to have fun in groups without me, but when it's in a space that's also mine when I'm trying to sleep, as you can understand, it can be pretty upsetting.

Typically extroverts have this general need to either be socially stimulated, or to not miss out on what others are doing, whereas introverts need their quiet or alone time to process their thoughts. Even though my personality type has the mildest form of "extrovertedness", I still can get pretty lonely pretty easily! It's a nasty feeling, but thankfully with my group of friends, I've been learning to deal with it alright.

Being the only extrovert in my apartment can really suck sometimes, to say the least. I'll wanna party at times when my roommates wanna chill, and sometimes they'll do fun things when I'm not even there. They're not doing this "on purpose", it's just the way they are. Because of this I have learned a lot about what makes them unique, and also what's cool about my personality type, and the beauty between our inner differences.


Sometimes, because I'm the "odd-one-out" in our group, the other three can connect in an intuitive and psychological level that I simply cannot. Later in life I'm going to deal with people who can't relate to me, who DON'T want to hang out with me, who need me to NOT be around, and I'm going to have to give them their space, whether that's what I want or not. It's a good lesson to learn, even if it's a hard and sometimes lonely one. I will say, the good times with my introverted buddies outweigh the sometimes-tough-times, and I couldn't have asked for a better situation.

They may never understand me fully, and that's ok. People are going to be different, vastly different, and sometimes it's really not so bad being the "odd-one-out". Sometimes that just means you're the special one. If you frequently feel friction just because of differences between you and others, or you get lonely often, or you just feel you don't belong, hang in there. And if you introverts out there have wee had to deal with an annoying lot of extroverts, I feel you. The toughest moments in life are always the ones that make us better in the long run.



One other thing I also learned from them? Is that I need to get me some more extroverted friends, FAST!!! Before I go CRAZYYYY!!!!!!




Peace out everyone!


Bethany

Why Spiritual Experiences Can Ruin You

Spiritual experiences can confuse us greatly. No, spiritual experiences are not a bad thing. Heck, they're really, really, REALLY frikkin' awesome. It is a HUGE blessing and has an addicting effect on souls, and can change any life forever. Soooo then... why is it we go on retreats, start speaking in tongues, prophesying, gettin' drunk in the Spirit, then we go home and life isn't very exciting anymore? Where have the spiritual fireworks gone? Why does our spiritual life feel so... boring again?

Perhaps because we rely too much on our senses than we think.


When we feel God's presence, it's super easy to believe in Him, right? When we have the proof right in front of us, God feels so much more real to us. That's human nature. However, to really prove that you're serious about following God, He wants you to prove it by going beyond your natural human borders and discover the deeper side of love, despite the fact that you might not "sense" Him there all the time.


I heard this true story once of a formerly Catholic woman telling someone about her leaving the church because she felt like she wasn't getting anything out of it. The man then responds by saying, "Let me get this straight... You're saying that you've been consuming the literal body and blood of Christ, listening to the entire Bible plus teachings of it for years, and receiving absolution, and you haven't been getting anything out of it?"

This lady is a prime example of how the human heart can become obsessed with the stimuli of the senses. If all we really need is a spiritual experience, we can go to a Buddhist temple and be totally satisfied after that. Our reliance on experiences is what's caused all those "wars"and is why the body of Christ keeps splitting up, it is certainly not because of religion itself. It's just like our general idea of love, how gooshy feelings, soulmates, and making out and "woohooing" our weekends means romance. Or  even more commonly how in movies we know that two characters are in love because of that big kiss scene.

This is why divorce rates are so high, especially among Christians, because we worship our feelings, not the actual God Himself, which is love. Love isn't an emotion, it's an action that we choose. Love is when we choose not to yell foul words or accusations at someone, even though they've wronged us. Love is forgiving and forgetting. Love is cleaning up after the other person even when you're worn out from work. Love is laying down your life for your friends. Again, love is NOT based on feelings!!! In fact, oftentimes, true acts of love are done when the other person doesn't even want to do it.  

That is what makes the Eucharist so wonderful. It looks like a wafer, it tastes like a wafer, but we know in our hearts and minds that it is the body of Christ. There's more "magic" and power in that than any sort of feeling we may find, because we are denying ourselves and letting Jesus in physically. We may not fall to the ground crying from it, but despite that we just know that it's really truly Him. This is what faith is all about. 

Now let me say this again, spiritual highs are really sweet, and this isn't to say you won't or that you're not supposed to get "high" from taking communion, I'm just saying that love and faith is beyond us. And there is no doubt in that at all. 

The Real Reason Why Jack Frost is so Awesome!!!

Why Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians is Awesome

I saw ads on the side of my facebook advertising Rise of the Guardians. By looking at the pictures, the concept art, and the way that they had presented the movie, I thought it was going to be some sort of fantasy movie that took place in an icy forest, with a rather handsome main character, a talking magical bunny, a tree fairy, a wise old wizard, and some golden cloud guy who floats around. They deal with the perils of the forest at nighttime, when this dark evil force comes forth, and they protect the innocent creatures of their home as best they can.  

Boy I was wrong.

I go and see the movie with my little brother, and my idea of it was WAAAAAAAAAAAY off. Nevertheless, I left the theater feeling pleasantly surprised at how good it was. At first I wasn’t sure why. When it came out on home video, I saw it again and finally realized what it was that I liked about it. It was Jack. 

This is NOT a fan-girl post. It isn’t even really a “fan” post. Thought I’d say that. 

Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians is a stunning character. It doesn’t take much character creation analysis to see that this character was purposefully created to appeal to a very wide spectrum of people, to be marketable. Although 80% of what makes the character likeable is completely shallow, there are some “subliminals” to him that I have come to notice the more I observed him.

So here are the four reasons why Jack Frost was created:

First, and the most obvious, is because of his dashingly good looks. Perfect smile, narrowing eyes, boy-band hair, skinny pants, hoodie... Doesn’t help that Chris Pine voices him, either. *sighs* 

OK, you get the idea. This is to grab the female’s attention, and young and old, are automatically captivated by his icy design. While I, regrettably, admit that I have a cartoon-crush on him, this is clearly a powerful marketing ploy, because statistically females spend more money than males do. The more females at the theater, the more money made in the box office. This is the number one reason why Jack Frost is on the silver screen. Typical mega corp behavior... 

Dreamworks poop. 

Ok fellow dudes, you can stop rolling your eyes now. 

Secondly, and on a relatable level, Jack is on a quest to find out who he is, what his purpose is on earth, and just why he was chosen to do something he didn’t think he could do. We all wanna know who we are, what we are, when we are to be us, and most importantly why... Why are we here? Why does God wanna use us? Why, and will I ever know, am I... me??? And how am I supposed to be me in this world? What is the point of it all? Teens are always struggling with this, as they (ahem, we) are budding adults. Everyone can relate to this.

Thirdly, on an even deeper note, Mr. Frost has a longing for a family, a love for children, and a desire to just make children happy. Jack is a very fatherly figure. Ladies, stop imagining what you and his kids would look like, and pay attention. 

He has a very real and natural longing to serve children (the new generation) and bring them into a life of fun, or “spiritual” joy, if you will.

He is self-sacrificial, risks his life to save others, and is a hero that children can look up to, both in real life and in Guardian land. Everyone admires a superhero character, and one with a familiarity (a somewhat nostalgic feeling) of wanting to be with children.

Fourthly, he gets tempted. This is where the half-unintended-by-the-designer-but-not-by-God part comes in. 

Pitch hates children. He doesn’t target the adults, he targets the kids. Why? Because they represent the faithful ones. Pitch is all about fear. In reality, Satan isn’t necessarily about brutally tearing you to pieces as painfully as possible, despite what all the horror movies want you to think (that’s what Hell is for). He’s more interested in the littler, more subtler things that “sneak into” your weakest moments (when the kids are asleep, for example) which can eventually lead you into a greater catastrophe. But where does all the real-life violence, money-pooling, conspiracies, and lustful mindsets come from? 

“Why tempt a man into adultery when gluttony is enough to send him to hell?” -The Screwtape Letters

Every sin we commit is fueled by fear. Think about it. The fear of what the others might think if you don’t do it. The fear of getting caught. The fear of remaining never being loved. The fear of never experiencing a romance. The fear of being defeated. The fear of messing up big time. The fear of pain. Even the fear of our own selves. It’s a very personal and very real darkness contained within our own souls. 

Back to you, Jack.

Yay!

Jack doesn’t even realize that being a guardian (which is, his destiny, his calling), trusting this mysterious powerful force that has chosen him, even though he has been “silent” to Jack all these years, will lead him to his center. Pitch wants Jack’s center to be of fear. This is when the power of the encouragement of fellowship comes in.

I am now going to put the basic plot of the movie into a strictly Christian perspective.

In the intro to the movie, Jack is risen from the dead, is given a second chance, and new life. He is new to being “born again”, and he doesn’t understand what his new life is all about. Then, without warning, this unknown force intrudes on his life and turns it all around. Through this, North, Tooth, Bunnymund, and Sandman all teach Jack very different but essential lessons about true identity through faith. 

North responds to the call to evangelize to Jack, which is what invites him into the discipleship and challenges him to seek out truth over all things in a completely different way.

 Bunnymund is all about new beginnings, which is where new life in Christ starts, and also points to the joy of Jesus’ resurrection. 

Tooth tries to comfort and listen to Jack when he is at his lowest. She also reminds him that even though he was never guaranteed an easy journey in the faith, it was undoubtedly the most joyful one, and it truly made a difference in the world. 

And finally, the most loving sacrifice, Sandman lays down his life for his friends. 

The power of “four” (or more), and using our own spiritual gifts to built a culture of love is oddly very evident in this movie!  

And what does all this come down to?

Faith like a child. It’s like when the little boy says right to the face of darkness:

“I believe in you, I’m just not afraid of you.”

In our culture of fear, we are learning not to believe in the existence of Hell and devils. We must must MUST believe in fear, but by all means, we must mist MUST not be afraid of it! The little boy is also an amazing example of how the true Christian faith really looks. I am thus encouraged in my faith journey, and I really hope you are too, or at least have an idea of how to look through new eyes to see Jesus’ perspective, or messages in everyday objects. 

Now I guess I can say that seeing ROTG was well worth my $7.50. 

Bye bye babies!!!!

Muah

Quitting? ME??? Nevah!

I highly doubt that anyone is going to reply to my WordPress post. I mean, why should they?

Don't worry, I'm not going to get all depresso on ya with why that is.

So uh, heh, *blushes* guys? About that last post.... NO NO no, not the WordPress one, the OTHER one! I was eh, just kidding! Eh heh heh... ahem....

I just wanted to point out something: My posts have been too serious lately. I've been flippin' through all my older posts from last year, since I was a pretty active blogger throughout 2012, and something occurred to me: Those posts stay more true to my characteristics than my current ones do.

I am a joyful human being. I am optimistic. Outgoing. Sometimes goofy. A sanguine. That's just me.

I kinda want those old posts back, now. I mean, quitting?? What was I even thinking?

To sympathize with myself, I did have someone die, I did move out on my own for the first time, and I did forgo some intense realizations, life lessons, and inner changes over a very short period of time. Yes, that was very rough, but I'm still alive!

I can now still be who I was born to be, but something is different from me now than before: maturity. I also have a much stronger passion to defend what I believe in and stand for. If someone, anyone, offends that, I can get pretty defensive. I am loyal, persistent, and I don't like to quit. That's why I was surprised at myself to even read that post I had written about quitting. Poo.

I can take my suffering and learn from it. I can grow with it. I have changed. A lot. But I am still the same ol' cheery Bethany somehow. I turned 19 yesterday. My 18th year is officially over. The end of that chapter was hard, again, I can sympathize, but that's all over and done with. Now it's ADVENTURE TIME! *Raises Crystal Sword* Thanks, God. You da bestest!

So even though I have fallen, I am back up now, and not giving up.

Yeah dats cliche. But many never even learn that. 

Peace out, Honey Babes!!!

WordPress HALP??

I'm not very good at giving up.

So here I am, ladies and germs!!!!! So why am I back? Well, I had done some research on what blog engines are the best/favorite of le internets, and what I got was WordPress with a HUGE lead at number one, and Tumblr at two. Blogger was probably three, but it was closely matched with a few other blogs. Anyway, so I immediately began looking into WordPress, and it's EVERYWHERE! It's not just a blog site, it's a website maker! And it's free! You can also sync other blogs onto it, so I could include all of these posts onto my WordPress. Sounds perfect! So I began downloading it, right? It even guarantees a simple 5-step setup process.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's too difficult. And I've hacked Mac-related things before.


DOES ANYONE IN THIS INTERNET WORLD KNOW HOW TO DOWNLOAD WORDPRESS ONTO A MAC???? I'VE LOOKED AT TUTORIALS AND THEY DON'T HELP!!!


Thanks.