Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.
At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I’m using: Seriously ~ fabulous ~ retain ~ delegate ~ hells bells!
They were submitted by: http://superiornonsense92.blogspot.com/
Every time I participate in this blogging challenge, I ponder my words and try to come up with the most brilliant way to use them. This time around, I really could not think of a way to use them, but they did remind me of something that happened back in high school. I really wanted to come up with some fabulous use for my words, but seriously nothing else came to me. I am sure this boring story from my childhood will be an awful read, but it is all I've got.
When I was in high school I was involved in every club and activity I could get into. Part of me did it to not be bored. Part of me did it for the fabulous transcript to submit to colleges. Part of me did it to get to spend time with my friends outside of class. For whatever reason, I was involved in everything.
I loved it. I loved the socializing. I loved getting out of afternoon study hall (All resident students at my boarding school had to attend an afternoon study hall). I loved helping out. I loved learning new things. I loved making changes at my school. It was a great experience.
One of the problems I would run into was squeezing all my school work into the small amount of time I had left at night. Most nights I found myself secretly staying up after lights out, and silently finishing homework. If I did not stay up late, I was trying to finish it during breakfast. It was hard trying to retain all the knowledge I was taking in, while finishing my homework in such a rush.
Sometimes I felt myself getting overwhelmed. I was trying to balance school, work, friendships, activities, and just living/relaxing/being a teenager. My senior year seemed to be especially rough. On top of balancing all of that, I was also balancing a relationship. Though my boyfriend was pretty fabulous, so it didn't make it too difficult. I know at times certain commitments suffered because of my involvement in other activities, but I think in the end, I did a decent job juggling it all. Not perfect, but decent.
At one point during my senior year, I felt like I was really starting to lose track of everything. I was not quite up to par in areas where I really needed to be. While sitting in my dorm room one night, listening to music, a thought occurred to me, while "Hells Bells" was softly playing on my stereo... I should delegate some of my duties to my friends that were involved in certain clubs with me.
One of my most favorite activities was the Mission Club. We were basically a club that did good things. Seriously, that is what we were. We adopted an orphan through Save the Children. We did landscaping around the school. We helped out in the community and our school however we could. My senior year, we even sponsored a blood drive.
I had donated before, and despite my hatred for needles, I found it to not be that bad. I also understood the importance and need of donated blood. It was something I very much wanted to do before graduating. So, it was no surprise that I was somewhat overwhelmed by it. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make it as perfect as possible. Looking back now, I can think of a million ways to have made it even better. You know what they say about hindsight...
At the time, I decided to seek help. I was infamous for trying to do everything on my own. One of the greatest things I have learned over the years is to ask for and accept help when you can. It is one of the hardest things for me, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and lean on others. I decided to lean on my girl Angela. I was smart to do so. She was extremely helpful!
She helped me advertise and get people signed up to donate. She helped set up. She helped keep everything organized. She helped set up. Let's just say, she helped! I will forever be grateful. To this day every single time I donate blood, I think about her. Partially because she is a fabulous friend, partially because she was so helpful with our Mission Club blood drive, but mostly out of guilt.
You are wondering why out of guilt, aren't you?! It is because I worked so hard to convince her she just had to donate blood. I stressed the need for donated blood and told her how easy it was (based on my personal experience). She, being the kind person she is, totally agreed to donate. I feel had I not been so persistent, she probably would have decided to wait until she were older, and did not need parental permission due to potential risks, and she never would have scared the living daylights out of me.
You are wondering how she scared me, aren't you? Well, we donated and went over the snack area to relax. Things were great. I was looking around at all the people there, and feeling so proud about what a great thing the Mission Club was doing. Then Angela suddenly wasn't feeling so well, and then she had a seizure. It was SCARY. To this day I feel guilty and scared thinking back. It took me weeks to forgive myself. It was awful.
It was bad enough that I still remember it twelve years later, and it came to mind when reading my words. So, I did it. I used my words. I am sorry I did not do them more justice.
Do yourself a favor and click the links below to visit all the other people that used their words! Thank you guys for reading! Thank you fellow bloggers (especially you, Karen) for including me in this challenge!
Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:
http://BakingInATornado.com Baking In A Tornado
http://followmehome.shellybean.com Follow me home . . .
http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/ Confessions of a part-time working mom
http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com Spatulas on Parade
http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com Someone Else’s Genius
http://www.healingtomato.com Healing Tomato
http://superiornonsense92.blogspot.com/ Superior Nonsense
http://www.rocksnosaltmommy.com Rocks, No Salt Mommy
http://www.eviljoyspeaks.wordpress.com Evil Joy Speaks
http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com Stacy Sews and Schools
http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com/ The Bergham's Life Chronicles
