Uh-oh!

          So I just realized that I haven't posted anything for over a month. Whoops! Since my last post a lot has happened. I haven't been crazy busy, but a lot of what I thought I wanted to do in the future has changed. I guess it'd be best to just start at the beginning.

          For a while I'd been surprised at how sad I was that this was my last year writing for the Post. I was going to miss the interviews, the screenings, the back-and-forth-never-ending emails with my editors, and the little jolts of adrenalin that I always got when ever something of mine was in the paper. Yeah, writing is not my favorite thing in the world, but that didn't mean that I wanted to stop.

          You can only imagine my excitement when I got a call on July 15th from the Denver Post offering me a year-long position as a Youth Reporter Adviser. I was told that this is the first time they've ever tried something like this, and when they started the whole process, they only had me in mind. Basically, I get to keep doing what I'm doing with the addition of bigger, more complex stories. I'll assist new reporters by answer their questions and giving them tips. Oh, and did I mention I'll get paid?

          This in its self is not such a big deal. The realization that came along with it was.

          Let me back up again. (Sorry!) Back in May when I found out that I wasn't accepted into Legacy's Student Government, I was crushed. Yeah, when I first applied, I had doubts about if I wanted to do it or not. From what I had heard, Freshman year in L2K would be insane and over the past 5 years that I've done Student Government, I can't say that I particularly loved it. Even with my many wavering feelings about StuGo, it still stung when I found out I was rejected when so many of my peers were not.

          It wasn't until July 15th that an idea started forming. It was something that my head wouldn't consider and my heart wouldn't let go of. What if what I had planned wasn't what God had planned? What if me not getting into StuGo was God telling me that he has something bigger and better in store for me? I had figured that by this time of the year, with my writing gig over and school starting, Student Government would be a perfect fit. In no way would I have thought writing would still be taking the front seat!

          All of this, as minuscule and unimportant as it may seem, has got me thinking. What if a degree in Psychology from Yale followed by a career as a councilor with World Vision in the Congo isn't what I'm supposed to do? I've had everything planned out with no room for changes for as long as I can remember, and time after time nothing turns out the way I thought it would. At the beginning of 8th grade if you asked me where I was going to high school, I would have said anywhere but Legacy. And then when the time came to choose between my top two schools and L2K, for some odd reason I felt like Legacy was where I was supposed to end up. If you know me at all, you know that I like to plan ahead when it comes to these things. Like, way, way ahead. Well, maybe I should give up on planning.

          On a side note, Devyn, a girl with an incredible story (dnmslife.wordpress.com), went from having her life planed out (all the way down to what she would name her two golden retrievers) to not knowing what she was going to be doing next month. She's the perfect example of someone who put their life in God's hands and then actually listened to where He told her to go. I think one of the most amazing things about her is that she didn't give up on Him, even when a dream of hers was turned down, what she had planned was canceled, and people looked down on her for not knowing what she was going to do after high school. I definitely consider her to be one of my role models, and wish that I had her incredible faith and her strength to persevere.

This is Why I Write

          I'll admit, most of the time I hate writing. Actually, I don't hate writing; I despise it. I'll be sitting there, trying to think of the next line to put down on paper, thinking to myself, "Why do I keep putting myself through this, accepting stories that I know in the end I want nothing to do with?" I diligently type up what needs to be typed, send it off to whoever it needs to be sent off to, and congratulate myself on a battle won.

          And then there's those times, like now, when I am so proud of my work that I want the whole world to know. Most of the time being published doesn't really excite me. But when it's things I care about, moments that I know I was incredibly lucky to have, and pieces that I genuinely can't wait to write, I get this rush that's empowering and rejuvenating and makes me feel like the world is my oyster. (Sorry for that lame, totally cliche saying, but that's exactly how it is.) When I see pieces that I stayed up all night working on taking up almost an entire Colorado Kids, I know exactly why I put myself through the stress of writing about little things that have no revelance to me personally.

          I do it because, as with most things in life, there's always a price for the things we love. In order to get big time interviews and the freedom to write about things that really matter, I must do the things I don't want to do. All of the boring stories make me all the more thankful for the interesting ones.

          P.S. Congrats to Meghan Sharma for 4 stories published in one edition! Great work!!

Happy 4th!

          I was sitting in church today and it really hit me that here in America, we have so many freedoms and privileges that are taken for granted every single day. Just the mere fact that I could be sitting there, without fear of persecution, was an incredible feat in and of its self. All over the world, people are willing to die in order for others to be able to worship freely. 

          There's so much in my life that's been handed to me. And I take it all without a single thought as to how I got it. Whether it be my freedom to report what is actually going on in the world in the paper, or my right to a good education, or even the fact that I have a roof over my head and food in my stomach every night, there's no doubt that my life would be drastically different from how it is now if I didn't live in the good old USA. I am so thankful to all of the men and women both in the past and present who have put their lives on the line so that I can live mine to the fullest extent. 

          I hope you all remember that cliché saying, "freedom doesn't come free," and say a little prayer for those who have given their lives for our country as well as the loved one they left behind. Pray that God will keep our troops out there fighting for other's freedom safe and home soon. And most important of all, pray for the people out there who are still stuck in oppression, poverty, political corruption, famine, religious persecution, and genocide. 

          I hope you had a wonderful (and somewhat dry) 4th of July! Happy Independence Day!         

     

Plato on Love

    I was reading this book called Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of  Philosophy  by Christopher Phillips a while back and fell in love with this passage. Cecilia is describing a passage that she read from a speech by Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium.

       " 'Plato tells a story-I guess what most people would call a myth, but I'm not sure if I agree-that the sexes were not originally two, as they are now. There used to be three: man, woman, and Androgynous, the union of the two. These sexes were round and had four hands and four feet and one head with two faces. To curb what he felt was the growing arrogance and might of the human race, Zeus cut each of these three sexes in half. And from then on, the two severed parts desired their other half. They threw their arms around one another at every opportunity and longed more than anything to be one again.'

          "Then Cecilia says, 'Wait, I want to read this part of the passage verbatim, because it's so beautiful.' She retrieves from her purse a copy of Plato's dialogues that is beyond dog-eared. She quickly thumbs to the page she's looking for and reads, 'And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself... the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and will not be out of the other's sight, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together.' She stops reading there, even though the speech continues. She eventually closes the book and puts it away. She looks downward as she smooths the folds of her dress. The she looks at me with a smile that I can only describe as wonderfully disturbing and mysterious.

          "I believe that it is at this point in out long conversation that it dawns on me that I want to ask her, 'How do you know when you're in love?'

          "But I do not ask her. Not then. I wait nearly two years later, after we're already married."

          Awwwww, isn't that adorable? I would highly, highly recommend the book to anyone!

Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy by Christopher Phillips, W. W. Norton & Company, 2002, page 144



        

Insane Week

         The fact that it is the middle of summer has no effect on my ever busy schedule. Why most people my age are hanging by the pool, watching TV, going shopping and enjoying the world, I've been crazy busy. As most of you know, I write for the Denver Post. Most of the time it's an incredible job that has definitely provided more than a girl's fair share of so-called "one in a lifetime opportunities." And then there's those weeks where I'm writing non-stop, getting no sleep, and traveling all over the state from 5 in the morning until 10 at night. This has been one of those weeks.

          Saturday, June 26th, I had the fantastic opportunity to interview Tinsel Korey and BooBoo Stewart from "Twilight Saga: Eclipse." You can check out the interview here. We hung out for around 30 minutes before they had to leave for an interview with a local news channel. With all of the obsessed, idolizing fans, I was surprised to find just how down-to-earth and humble they both were.

          I then headed down to Sloan's Lake Park in Denver where hundreds of fans were waiting for Tinsel and BooBoo to sign things, host a trivia competition, do a Q&A, and then announce the screening of New Moon. You can read all about that here. From the moment the stars arrived to the moment they left, there was nonstop screaming and shouting.

          Sunday was spent at the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference where I interviewed numerous educators and students from a few of the 72 countries present, including Australia, Singapore, Chile, Turkey, Germany, Mexico, France, and Japan. I had a video conference with a teacher in Pakistan and listened to Jean-Francois Rischard, former Vice President of The World Bank, speak about 20 problems facing the world and why we only have 20 years to fix them. 

          Monday I woke up at 4:30am to babysit for the neighbors across the street (my other job that actually pays. I have some amazing experiences, but writing for the Post pays nothing.) As soon as I finished there, I headed downtown again to interview Ellen Siminoff, one of the founding executives of Yahoo, about her new website for students. You can read my review of Shmoop and the interview here. She was late, so I spoke with Brady Wood, the VP, for quite a while until she showed up. When she finally did, we ended up talking more about college then we did the website. She gave me some awesome advice as to how to get into an ivy-league, which as of now is one of my dreams: 

1. Get to know all of the alumni in the area, and get to know them well. You want as many outstanding references as you can possibly get, and having alumni on your side is a huge plus. 
2. Start planning now. The first day of Freshman year, sit down with your councilor and create a step by step plan. If you don't have a good councilor, hire one. It's really worth the extra money in the long run. 
3. Attend a summer program offered by the college. 
4. Join a sport. It doesn't matter what sport it is, as long as you have one. Colleges really look at that to make sure you're well rounded. This one will definitely be the hardest one for be since, as most of you know, I am quite possibly the most un-athletic person in the world.   

          After wrapping up the interview, we headed down to a screening of Eclipse. Screaming occurred every time RPatz or Lautner appeared on screen, and random, unnecessary allpause filled the theater during all of the on screen kisses. You can read my short review here.  

          Tuesday I once again attended the ISTE conference, this time hanging out with some really cool guys from a private high school in Mexico City who were presenting that day. I toured the convention, had some great food, and checked out some incredible technology. 

          Today I arrived at the conference bright and early in order to give a presentation over and over again to educators along with four other reporters. One reporter, whom I won't name, really pissed me off. As I said before, there were people there from all across the globe, including Mexico City. There was a group of young boys (maybe 10 or 11 years old) who were hanging out around our booth, asking questions and taking some of the pins (which was totally fine, because that's exactly what they were meant for.) As the group of students were walking away, the reporter turned to me and  another reporter standing next to me and went off on how much he hated "those little Mexican kids" because "they stole all of our stuff" and "wouldn't stay out of his personal bubble." He then went on to say how American's were more superior than the kids and that "Mexican's don't have any manners." 

          I couldn't believe the nerve the guy had. Different countries have different expectations as to what is appropriate and what is not when it come to social situations. I hate that so many American's have no respect for any other culture than their own. They don't get that being American doesn't make us any better than someone from, I don't know, Mexico. Their complete and utter disrespect for anything other than their way of doing things highlights exactly why most of the world hates Americans. And after seeing that today, I can't find one reason why I don't agree with the rest of the world.  

   

          Thursday, althought I'm babysitting from 9 to 6, is my day to catch up on writing thank yous, doing research for my next interview, and *crosses fingers* a little bit of reading. 

           Friday I have a phone interview with Stewart Raffill (director) and Kayla Jackson (actor) from the new movie "Standing Ovation." As soon as that's finished, I'm off to Latin lessons! Can't wait for this week to be over so I can actually get some sleep.  

Starting a Blog... This should be interesting!

          I've decided, once again, that I want to start a blog. I want to prove that I can start something and stick to it. I write all of the time, but never about what's going on in my life. I've heard several times that the best way to figure out what you actually think and how you actually feel about a subject is to write about it. So here goes!

          My goal is to post at least once a week. I have a feeling I'll do well at the beginning, but eventually loose interest and run out of things to write about. To avoid this, I'll be tackling a new problem, debating an issue, analyzing a quote, or just ranting about the craziness that is Bailey's life (more in next post.) I'll write about my dreams and goals and inspirations. I'll recommended good books and movies. And I'll definitely keep you posted on the latest interviews and screenings.

          Feel free to email me or leave comments with suggestions, questions or requests. Enjoy!