Story Time!

Short story that I just finished:

I stood face to face with 'it.'  It was not me.  It couldn't be me!  I was standing right here!  In front of...it.  It looked at shocked as me.
"Who are you?"  It asked.
"Katie."  I heard my voice rise and crack.  "Who are you?"
"K-Katie...."  Its voice was identical to mine.
"How old are you?"
"Fifteen...."  It looked me up and down.  "How old are YOU?"
"Sixteen."  So it wasn't me.  Well...it was...but it wasn't.  I looked it up and down from the very top of its head, which was he same copper shade as mine, to its feet, which, as usual, were bare.  It was wearing the shirt I got on top of Pike's Peak that boasted, 'It's illegal to get this high in most states!"  Her blue eyes and slightly flushed face made me feel like I was looking in a mirror and I wondered if it felt the same.
Finally, it spoke again.  "Are you me?"
"I don't know...are you me?"
"I don't know.  Do you like cats?"
"Yeah.  Do you?"
"Yeah...."
"Do you know what the word 'acrophobia' means?"
"Yeah...it's a morbid fear of heights."
We stood there, staring at each other.  Neither one of us knowing what to say or do.  Would this change anything in the fabric of time?  Us meeting like this?  Finally, I cleared my throat,
"So, were you homeschooled 'til the start of your Freshman year of highschool?"
Her face lit up like mine had done when I was in her place.  "Yes!  But don't ask which I prefer, because I like both or them and I don't think I could chose between them."
"I know.  I think I'm you.  And it's weird."
"It IS weird."  She shivered.  "So, you know where you are, right?  If you're...you know...from the future."
"I'm at Indy camp, right?"  Indy camp was a general church camp that people and families of all shapes and sizes attended once a year.  I'd been going since before I was born.
She nodded.  "Right after my first year at Indy Bible School."
"So....how long has camp been going on?"
"Just started.  You've been through this before...anything I should know?"
"You mean about camp?"
"Or in general over the year...."
"Well, concerning camp, be prepared to run and pound on a camper door; it might save a life.  And when one of your younger friends says something that sounds strange; listen to them.  But don't worry, there's fun to be had as well."  I wiggled my eyebrows mysteriously.
She laughed.  "How did you get here?"
I shrugged.  "Beats me!  But it's kind of cool seeing my past self."
"It's kind of cool seeing my future self!"
We laughed together.  When the laughter had subsided, she looked at me with a look of worried concern.  "What about my mom...and her boyfriend?"
Of course...I should have expected that.  "Well...."
"He's not her boyfriend anymore, is he?"
I shook my head.  "But, he gave you his hat and a ton of sharp objects, knives, a hatchet, a double headed axe...."
"Yeah....but we moved again, didn't we?"
I nodded.
"Do I like it?"
"You mostly stay in your room."
"What's my room like?"
I started grinning, "You tell me."
She grinned in return.  "Well, the walls are probably blue or green...bookshelves...my desk...my bunkbed/loft thingy...and I'm sure there's tons of stuff on the walls!"
All I did was smile.  She was very, very accurate.  But not completely.  Of course, she didn't need to know that.
"Do you have any words of wisdom for me?"
"Wisdom?  Me?!"
"Oh come on, we both know you're wiser than you act!"
I cleared my throat awkwardly.  "Maybe we feel like it sometimes...but honestly, Past Me, we really aren't all that wise or smart."
She sighed, "But we can pretend, can't we?"
"Sure, why not!"  I laughed.
"Well, do you?  In as little wisdom as you have, do you have any for me?"
I thought long and hard.  "Remember to look for the good in others...like for example, two people in your class...."
Her lip curled up.  "Are you talking about...?"
I laughed.  "Yes.  They're not all that bad though.  Remember your field trip?  The rope swing?  The way they were the only people in your class to push you?  I mean, yeah, your class is small...but still...."
She gave me a lopsided smile.  "I should say thanks sometime."
"You do eventually."
"More wisdom?"
"Um...Stay strong.  DON'T DATE.  Read your Bible.  Don't give up on God.  Do crazy stuff.  Keep your knives sharp, listen to--"
"Knives?  Do I kill someone?"
"No, but it's a good idea to keep your knives sharp."
She laughed.  "Niiiice."
"Do you have anything you want me to always remember?"
She thought for a moment, then nodded.  "Always remember the way you and Kayden always hung out and sword fought.  And never forget Zena.  Always remember what Corgan and Travis did for you.  And of course never forget how Gavyn practically rescued you from a creep at the end of the school year."
My brow furrowed as I had a sudden thought.  "Do you think this is a dream?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we're bother here randomly...And I have no idea how I'm here."
"Ugh, I hate stories where it was all a dream!"
"Oh me too!"
"It's just one of those--We're the same person, Katie, of course you hate it too!  DUH!"
We laughed together
"But what if it is a dream?"  I asked again.  "Who would wake up?  You or me?"
"Or both of us?"
"Oh dear...this is starting to seem like an episode of Doctor Who."
"An episode of what?"
"Doctor Who.  You'll understand it all in December.  One more word of 'wisdom.'  Make the most of your life.  You know, actually WRITE something.  in a NOTEBOOK."
"As you wish."  She curtsied.  "Katie."
"Yeah?"
Her face went blank and she called out again, "Katie."
"I'm here!"
"Katie."  Her voice sounded far away.
Even though my eyes were open, I felt them open.  I blinked twice and there was my mom.
"Katie, it's time to get up!"
I stared at her stupidly for a moment before blurting, "Seriously, Mom?  I was having a great heart to heart with myself!"  Then despite having just woken up, I fell back to sleep.

The End.

Pros and Cons between Journals and Blogs

Once, a long long time ago, I did a thing about the Pros and Cons with Homeschooling and Brick and Mortar Schooling.
Click Here to View it. 
Well, I've decided to make something similar for Journals and Blogs!  Yay!  Let's get to it!
Journal
Pros:

1. You can put all your dark secrets in there.  Secrets you don't want people to know.
2. You don't have to worry about making your writing legible for everyone else.
3. You write for you and you alone.  No worries about any mispellings or grammar errors.  It's just for you.

 Cons:

1. If anyone gets a hold of your journal and you do have secrets in it...well...you're dead meat.
2. You only have so much room.  Both in the journal and room to put all the journals you're going to be filling up.
3. Journals cost money and a lot of the time, unless you use plain notebooks, it takes more money than most people want to spend :/

Blog
Pros:

1. You get to show pictures, thoughts and ideas to the WORLD with just the time it takes to type up stuff and click the publish button.
2. For many people, it's faster and neater to type, rather than to write, so even if you were showing your journal to others, they would be sure to know what you had written, instead of trying to decipher  your bad handwriting.  No, I'm not talking about anyone in particular, it's just that some people have bad handwriting and I think I'll leave this point now....
3. You don't need a light on to write on the blog, because you write on the blog on a computer or other lighted device.

Cons:

1. Once it's out there...it's out there.  No getting it back.  You didn't want anyone to know about it?  Well, it's too late now.
2. You have to have internet connection.
3. You have to have a computer or other electronic device in order to make a blog post.

Well, there ya have it.  I keep both.  A journal and a blog.  See, the thing with a journal is that it deals with things on a much more personal level, whereas if I feel the need to make a point on something or rant, I come to my blog.  If I have to get some "guy stuff" off my brain...guess where it goes...my journal.  If I am super excited about something epic, I might post it on here AND write about it in my journal.  If it's something about a book I'm gonna start writing, I'll write it in/on both!  You see how this works?
Yes?  Oh?  Well...I gotta go.  Katie has WORK in the morning.  Well, not morning.  Not 'til 1:30...but Katie has other things she'll be doing in the way too early hours of morning....  Grr.  Well, again, I gotta go.  Bye.
    ~Katie :)

*sighs*

Hey y'all.  Sorry for not posting more often...but I'm posting now.
I was really disappointed when a day or two ago I saw on a website that I love--a Christian website--the writers basically saying that wearing a bikini all just depends on how the girl feels about it.  Well...no...that's not exactly how it goes.  This is a Christian website.  A Christian website where girls asked the question wanting the Biblical answer....  This was the first answer:

I think it definitely depends on your age, your style and whom you are around. If you are with some close friends and go to a spa or to a private pool with family, a bikini could be fine. If you know you are going to be around a lot of boys and it might make them stumble, then you might want to wear a cover-up, a wrap skirt or a tankini.

For one thing, a lot of my close friends...at least half, possibly more...are guys.  Actually, one of my guy friends I talk to more often than I do to my friends that are girls.  I'm not even joking.  So, as long as you're close friends with the guys, it's alright to wear nothing but your underwear to go swimming around him.  Makes perfect sense.  The next thing is with family.  Even in the Bible, family was not supposed to look at each others' nakedness.  (Leviticus 18:13-15)   And besides that, in order to not uncover their nakedness, the priests  had to wear underwear that went from their waist to their thigh.  (Exodus 28:42)  A bikini doesn't come close to covering that.
Another thing that the person who wrote the article said was this:

If you wear a two-piece I don’t believe you should be judged

If by two piece she's referring to bikinis, rather than tankinis or something else that's like shorts and a shirt of some kind... *shakes head*  No, they should not be judged...but...they should be told the truth in love.  That kind of stuff is stated in the Timothys, possibly Romans...Corinthians...those books.  About telling the truth in love.
A bikini swimsuit covers the same as a bra and panties...and if a guy walked in on a girl wearing her underwear, she'd freak...BUT if it was a swimsuit...it'd be fine.
One of the things that was brought up in the comments on this website was about the whole causing guys to lust thing....  Here's one of the comments.

Maybe we should be teaching boys to respect what’s inside the bodies they seem to appreciate so much. Instead of putting the responsibility to keep boys pure on girls, we should hold boys accountable. There is nothing wrong with bikinis. There is nothing wrong with one pieces. That is a decision of personal preference. It is, however, wrong to teach girls that there is something dirty about the female body, and by even writing this article, that is what we are perpetuating. Stop sexualizing women and holding them responsible for the actions and thoughts of boys. We are trying to fix a problem at the wrong end. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for modesty, but what anyone wears, modest or otherwise, should not be judged or used as a segway into the “have you heard about Jesus” conversation. God loves everyone regardless of how they dress, and so should we.

Yes, boys should be taught to respect what's inside the bodies, however, when guys see things like that, they start doing this thing called objectifying....  Yes, boys should be held responsible...Is the guy starring or attempting to avert his eyes?  Is he making sure that he looks at her face no matter what or letting himself look all over her?  I'm not a guy, but things like that can be hard for guys...or so I've heard.  In a way your swim suit is a matter of personal preference, but if your preference is something that you know can cause yourself to be a stumbling block, you need a new preference.  There was nothing mentioned in the article about the female body being dirty.  Nothing is mentioned here about the female body being dirty.  The female body is--not to sound weird, which I am going to anyway--beautiful!  But, it's not for every guy at the pool to see!  It's to be saved for your husband.  As for the sexualizing of women...we sexualize them when we put our three year old little girls in bikinis.  Yes, God loves everyone regardless of how they dress, but each person is held responsible for the knowledge you have.  If you have the knowledge that wearing a bikini causes your brothers in Christ lust after you or objectify you, you shouldn't wear it.
I'm not saying guys don't need to watch themselves, because they do...I'm just saying that girls need to do their work on their side too.
I'm going to add a video about the history of swimsuits, bikinis are indeed mentioned.  I would greatly appreciate it if you watched it.  It would help with the understanding of all this.  Hopefully.
Jessica Rey - The Evolution of the Swimsuit
No model would even wear a bikini, the inventor of them had to hire a STRIPPER to model it for him....  Watch the entire video.  Just watch it.  She says it so much better than me.
~Katie :)
P.S.  I got a kitten.
P.P.S.  Watch the entire thing.  WATCH IT!