God's Love

I was going to go to bed, but no, I brushed my teeth, and the mint invigorated me and a thought that's been floating around in my head for forever was finally like, "Katie, you have got to write that like...now...I don't care how late it is, write it.  It'll never come out right if you try to write it later", so here I am.
Let's start at the beginning...like...the very beginning.  My dad.  My dad was barely around when I was little.  He missed visits.  There is documented proof that he missed visits, because there are pictures in the scrapbook of my grandparents taking me to the park, because my dad didn't show up for his visit.  Looking back, I really appreciate them doing that.  Then he died when I was four...so there was no more chance of visits.
There are people who say that children, male or female, who grow up without a father figure, or with an abusive father figure, often project that onto God...which makes sense, as he is our Heavenly Father.  Now I'll go on a bit, before I hit my main point.
I haven't had the best of experiences with males.  Of my exes, only one of them treated me well before, during and after our relationship...the rest were close to abusive, if not abusive, manipulative, or just ignored me during our relationship, because, "there's less to talk about when you're dating."
And now we come to my current boyfriend.  Jacob.  When I went through my last breakup...he was there for me.  If he hadn't been there, I'm not sure I would have ever recovered from the relationship at all.  Not the breakup, because that was the best part of the relationship, but the actual relationship.
Later, when my ex from that breakup got jealous and said that I was trying to steal his friends (our mutual friends that he had introduced me to, Jacob included), they all left.  Except for one.  Jacob stayed.  He was there when I was crying because Tyler wouldn't even message me back.  He was there for me when I was upset because Josh refused to even talk about what was going on.  He stayed.
He's my best friend.  He accepts me the way that I am...strong, weak, brave, scared, weird, normal (I'm not normal, so forget that).  Sure, he makes fun of me...but that's because we're friends and we tease each other.  Yeah, I still glare at him.
How does any of this tie into God's love?
Like I mentioned earlier, people say that how a child views their father is how they view God.  When I was younger, I always thought, "Wow, I'm lucky, I'm not like that!"  But the older I get, the more I realize that is how I view God.  I have to be good...I have to make sure I never make him mad, or disappoint him, because then he might leave me.  He might get tired of me.  He'll view me as something he doesn't want or need.  Why would he need me?  There are plenty of other people in the world.  Hey, I bet some of them are even redheads named Katie!
To protect myself for when I do disappoint him, because I know I will, I close myself off from him and refuse to fully let myself feel his love.  His eternal, unending, everlasting love.  I do that, because if I don't let myself feel it...it won't hurt when he withdraws it.  The human mind is screwed up, just sayin'.
But...when I talk to Jacob...when I annoy him by saying sorry too much, he doesn't leave.  When I forget to text back, he doesn't get mad.  When we disagree, he doesn't abandon me.  When I'm scared  or sad, he supports me.  And do you want to know something?  I don't understand it!  I have no comprehension of the kind of love he shows me.  I'm used to being a temporary part of people's lives...something that they can easily remove if it ever gets too hard to be my friend...or someone who is easy to drift away from.
The more I look at our relationship, and our love, especially his love toward me...the more I look at God and go, "Wait, is this what our relationship is supposed to look like?"  And I can guarantee you, if the Bible is accurate, God loves me a whole lot more than Jacob does!  I've also heard that the romantic relationship between a husband and a wife is supposed to kind of be an analogy of a person's relationship with God and I know that Jacob and I aren't married, but we're the closest I've ever been to marriage.
In my dating, romantic relationship...I'm learning about God's love...by the way my boyfriend loves me.  The way he treats me.  His kindness.  His gentleness.  And even though I sometimes have a hard time accepting my boyfriend's love (just ask him), he's showing me the way God loves me...and I'm learning.  I'm learning to open up to the fullness of, not just Jacob's love, but God's love.  And I will be forever thankful for that.
~Katie

The Fatherless

In church songs I hear, and Bible verses that are quoted, it often instructs the church to care for the widows and the fatherless.  Widows = women whose husbands have died.  Fatherless = Children (male or female) whose fathers have died.  But...sometimes I wonder...do people really care about that?  Do people really understand what that means?
In Bible times, a widow had very few options.  Remarry as quickly as possible, go into prostitution...die...if they hadn't borne a child by their first husband and he had an unmarried brother, they were to marry that brother and attempt to have children by that brother, in honor of her husband.  But the point is, unless a widow had a son to care for her, she was kinda...um...in trouble.  Hence why when Jesus is on the cross, he tells his disciple, John, that Mary is now John's mother.  In other words: TAKE CARE OF MY MOTHER BECAUSE SHE'S A WIDOW AND I CAN'T DO IT ANYMORE!
Now, someone could look at these scriptures and say that because of all the opportunities there are for a widow and her fatherless children, they don't need to help out anymore.  Say what?!  Um...no?  Does the Bible say, "Take care of the widows and fatherless, UNTIL the 20th-21st century"?  Nope.  And they still need cared for.
Do you have any idea how hard it is for a single parent (male or female) to care for children?  Pretty stinkin' hard, just letting you know.
The role of both mother and father is placed on a widow.  She must protect her daughter from dangers and potential boyfriends, teach her how to take care of her changing body, give her food, water, pay for schooling, mother her, and so much more all at once.  While doing this, she also has to pay all of the bills herself.  Did you catch that?  Herself.  AND keep up with housework.  AND keep up with yard work.  Sounds like a pretty heavy load.
As a girl who is half fatherless (I say half, because Doug isn't my dad, but he's not not my dad, and I know full well what it feels like to grow up in a home without a father), I can tell you, it's not easy for the mother OR the daughter.  Especially when at times it seems like members of the church care less about helping, and more about telling someone how to run their life.
I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but my mom homeschooled me.  She also worked as a bus driver.  Do you know why?  So that she could have an active part in my life, instead of shipping me off to schools and babysitters, where she would get to see me maybe an hour a day during the week!
But she also had to keep up with housework and yard work.  Something many of you may not know about my mom is that she is allergic to grass.  Which means mowing is hard to impossible for her to do and remain healthy.  That means that it fell on me, because most of the time when she'd ask someone for help, they would say that she could do it, or that I could do it.  And yeah, I could do it fine...until one day I tried to mow and I couldn't breathe.  Turns out I've inherited my mom's grass issues.
My momma worked her tail off.  And I don't think I helped as much as I probably could have and should have.
The thing is...these same church members who didn't seem to care (they may have, it just didn't seem that way), like us a whole lot better now that we have Doug....  So now that they aren't obligated by the Bible to care for us, they like us better.  And I just don't get that.
Sometimes, all it takes to help is maybe just coming over and helping clean up, or offering to mow the lawn, or even just talking and being a listening ear can help.  I know that there was a family my mom and I visited a lot, and they couldn't help much, but that was my mom's listening ear.
To those of you who are widows/fatherless YOU ARE NOT ALONE!  And if you need anything, I will do my best to help.  To those of you who have the abilities to help those who ARE widows and fatherless...get up off your butt and actually help them, instead of coming up with excuses as to why they can help themselves.
This rant is over.
~Katie

Modern Education

Let me take this moment to just say that our modern education system is messed up.  Seriously!  I saw a video on Facebook of this girl crying because of school and saying she just wanted to give up and be a stripper.  I don't know, maybe she made that video for laughs, but there are other students who feel the exact same way she at least pretended to feel.
I don't like school.  That may be a shock to some people, but it's true.  I don't like school.  I like learning.  I hate when people think that learning and school are the same thing.  They so aren't.  I love learning, actually.  I tolerate school, because right now, that's the best place for me to go to learn things.
But so much weighs upon a person, especially a high school student, while they're at school.  Students are pressured to make good grades, so they can go to a good college, so they can get a good degree and get a good job.  College is pushed so hard that it could turn someone off to the idea of college.
But then you also have students who work.  There's a student at my school, who lives alone and supports himself.  While also being the right hand man of the FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) sponsor.  He's tired a lot.  Why?  Because he's feeding himself, clothing himself, keeping his apartment paid for and still working to get good grades so he can go to college and go into a career with Google someday, by working his way up.  After Google, he plans to go into politics.
There are students that are involved in sports and music and plays half of the clubs at the school, because those are the things they enjoy, but they also have to keep up with their grades.
And school itself isn't a bad thing, but what is is all the classes that students are required to take.  A student only gets to choose three electives.  Three.  That's three things that they personally want to learn about and that they personally can choose to learn about.
Is an advanced Algebra class, for someone who barely understands Algebra1, who wants to be an English teacher really needed for them and their career?  Stop telling students, "Oh, you'll need it later in life, no matter your career", without telling them why or in what situation.  We're big kids.  Give us the real reasons.
Is an English class really necessary for a student who plans to go into a computer engineer career?  If so, tell them why, don't just say "because you need it", "because you'll use it in life", "because you need to be well rounded".  Give them a real reason, please!
And the worst part for me is seeing all of the posters up for the state testing.  Posters saying things about unlocking your potential, and doing great...what about the kid that bombs it?  Has that student not reached their true potential, just because they bombed that test?  Has that student...failed?  Failed at life, failed at school, just flat out failed?
No!  Because those tests prove nothing.  They prove how book smart a person is.  They prove how well a person is at tests.  They prove how fast someone can read.  They don't prove that this kid is good at singing, or that even though this kid reads slow, they remember and understand everything they read.  It doesn't say anything about how this kid treats others.  It doesn't tell anyone that this student is really good at computer programing.
Those tests only state...how well you did on that test.
Why not let students learn about things they want to learn about?  Maybe a student does want to take all of those classes.  Maybe a student actually likes working with imaginary numbers.  Maybe there's a student who actually kind of likes picking apart sentences and sentence structure.
Why not give classes on book publishing, video game making, hey, maybe even intro classes for teaching!  I get that it could get kind of expensive.  But at least get the kids where they love to learn.  Because then they can go out with their own initiative and find the things they want to learn about on the internet, with the teacher's guidance if they get stuck or need help.  That's kind of what PBL (Project Based Learning) is.  That's why I like PBL.
I honestly don't think that there are any students who would go ahead and have school, even if school was cancelled.  I read a book once, when I was younger, called The Secret School, by AVI.  It was about this one room school house school that got cancelled because the teacher either died, or got sick or had a death in the family, I don't remember which, and a fourteen year old girl, one of the smartest in the school, took the role as teacher, to ensure that people were still learning.  Because they liked to learn.
I guess...school isn't really the problem, it's just that students don't like learning anymore.  And probably because it's been shoved down their throats that they have to learn and they have to learn this and they have to learn it this way and that if they don't do well with their learning, they're not smart and have failed.
And this has gotten really really long, so I'll just end it now.
~Katie

I Don't Eat Brownies

Yeah, you read that right.  I don't eat brownies.  No, I don't have a chocolate allergy.  No, I don't dislike them, but I don't eat them.  I also don't eat chocolate cake.  I have nothing against these two things, or anyone who likes and/or eats them.  But I myself don't eat them.  Why?  Am I crazy?  Yes, but that's not what's influencing this.
When I was...oh, I don't know, around nine, ten at the most, I had bought and eaten a big piece of chocolate cake/brownie from WalMart, while my grandma was taking me to go pick up my cousin Norma, so we could hang out...and on the way there, I felt sick.  Too much chocolate cake/brownie.  I felt like I was going to hurl.
I'm pretty sure that no one likes to puke...but I can't handle it at all.  It's...it's really bad.  I was laying in the backseat, because I felt so sick.  I don't have motion sickness and the food I ate was the only thing that could have caused that.  In my despair, I started praying, "God, please don't let me puke!"  Then, I took it a bit further, "God, if you keep me from puking, I won't eat anymore chocolate cake or brownie!"
Maybe that was a stupid promise on my part.  But it was a promise.  And it was a promise to God.  I don't know about you, but if you make a promise, you'd better keep it...and if you make a promise to God, you'd better double keep it!
Well, I didn't puke.  And I was extremely relieved by that.  And, because of the promise I made, I don't eat chocolate cake or brownies.  Had I puked, I would still eat chocolate cake and brownies, because...well...I like chocolate cake and brownies.  I really do.  But I don't eat them, because I made a deal with Someone, and since they held up their end of the deal, I'm holding up mine.
Yeah, you can say, "Oh, but you were just a little kid!"  ...your point?  "Let your yes be yes, and your no be no" (Matthew 5:37) makes no allowances for if you're 1-12, or 12-100...it's the same no matter your age, last I checked.  I knew full well what I was doing.  I knew what I was promising.  And I still made that promise, still made that deal.
When we were back at my grandparents', I told my aunt...and do you know what she told me? "What, until next week?"  Don't ever do that.  Ever.  If any Christian, young or old, comes to you and tells you that they've made a promise to God, no matter how outlandish it may sound, ENCOURAGE THEM.  Say, "Okay, that's great.  I'm going to hold you to that."  Don't say, "What, 'til next week?"  Because that hurt.  A lot.  And if you tell someone that, especially if they're young and/or a young Christian, you're acting like a promise to God doesn't matter...and a promise, especially to God, does matter.
I haven't eaten chocolate cake or brownie since that time, except for once, when I had marble cake and didn't manage to get all of the chocolate parts picked out.  Once.  And not on purpose.
I also don't eat Ramen Noodles, but that's for a whole different reason, that's for another blog post.
~Katie

I'm Where I'm Meant to Be

Today at my night church, we had missionaries from Hungary speaking about their ministry, and naturally, as we do every time we have guests, there was food afterward.  A lady at my church asked if I was still attending the Bible School...to which I said no, I am currently attending FHS.  She later asked if I miss IBS...and I said "no, not really".  She seemed shocked.
Yes, I am happier at my secular school.  Let me give you a quick rundown of a few things that would never have happened, had I not begin attending FHS.

1. I would never have met Alex.
2. Alex never would have told me what church he attends.
3. I would never have tried out for the musical.
4. I would never have had a practice that entailed me missing my night church.
5. Because I never would have missed that night church, I never would have stopped by Alex's church to see how I liked it.
6. Had I never stopped by his church to see how I liked it, I never would have found a church to attend on Wednesday night.
7. Had I never found a church to attend on Wednesday night, I never would have found my new Sunday morning church.
8. Had I never began going to that church, I would not be baptized today.

Sadly, I wasn't getting anything out of my regular morning church.  I love the people and talking to them and all that...but I wasn't getting anything spiritual out of my previous morning church.  I get a ton out of this church.  And that's just one example!

When I switched schools, my stepdad said, "Katie, I feel like you're supposed to be here for someone."  Maybe I was supposed to be there for me.  Because despite having chapel every day at IBS, I feel closer to God now.

Maybe it's because when you have something every day, it becomes mundane, boring, pointless...but when you have it only a few times a week, it becomes more sacred and special.  Who knows why?  All I know is my personal experiences.

I've met so many people at this school, and have been part of so many activities that I'm almost positive that I was in more of the activity pictures than students who have been attending the Fredonia district schools their entire life.

It seems that every step I take, God reaffirms that this is where I'm supposed to be and that I'm doing what he wants me to do and I'm grateful for that.  I'm so thankful for my church family and I enjoy our youth parties, and banters and Wednesday night Bible Studies that always somehow go off on rabbit trails and wind up with us learning about...well...a great variety of things.

I'm grateful for the friends I've made, and the people that I get to talk to on a regular basis.  I'm happy that I get to drag my friend, Kalli, to the library every week or so.  I'm happy for the neighbors who have invited me to come visit whenever I'd like....  Quite frankly, I'm happy.  I'm very happy with where I am, what I'm doing, and other than like all humans who need to constantly be improving, who I am.

~Katie

"Real Women"

Real women have curves!  Right?  Which implies that unless you have curves...you're not a real woman....  Of course, that excludes all naturally twiggy women.  I have no idea what they are, but they're obviously not real women.  Are they women at all though?  To find the answer to that question, I went to the dictionary.  And here is what it told me:
"an adult, human female".
Well...that's a tad vague...I mean... what does that even mean?  It says nothing about curves, or lackthereof.  MAYBE if I looked up the meaning of real, it might make sense.
"actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed.".
Does that mean that...I've imagined all the skinny women I know?!
When I looked up "real woman definition", I was sent to this article: "real women".  It says nothing about curves either!  Of course, Urban Dictionary popped up...and because I'm typing this on my iPad at school, I couldn't pop it up, because Urban Dictionary has some...uh...moments where it's not very school appropriate.
But nothing I've found so far has said anything about real women having curves.  Maybe if I look for a scientific definition, I can find out what a real woman is.  Well, that didn't tell me anything....  But, I know from biology class that females have XX chromosomes.
Apparently, only curvy women have XX chromosomes....  Of course, with the definition of XX chromosomes, that also rules out "women" such as Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner.
It's so confusing!  What's a real woman anyway?  Well, according to the dictionary and science, it's an adult, female human, that is not imagined, and has XX chromosomes...so...don't worry, my twig-like friends...despite what Facebook has tried to tell us, you are in fact, a real woman.  And as for you, my friends with curves...as long as you're an adult female human, that has XX chromosomes and are not imagined, you're also a real woman!
Silly Facebook...you don't know how to use a dictionary.
~Katie

Welp...I Got Baptized

So...as you can tell from the title...I was baptized!  On Valentine's Day, actually.  Have some pictures:

This one is right after I came up out of the water.  The guy on the right is Josh, my youth pastor, and the one of the left is Pastor Les, the...regular pastor...I'm not sure how to classify him.

This one is later, with Crazy Jenni and a cake they got me (seriously guys, you're way too sweet! :') )  Oh, and it's okay to call her "Crazy Jenni", we talked about this stuff.

Why did I decide to be baptized?  Well...it all started long long ago--okay, not that long ago--when I had a meeting with Josh (seen in the first picture) and his wife Abbey.  Some of the scriptures we looked at made baptism look like...well...like it's necessary...not optional.
The church I grew up in...well...they never did baptism, which gave me the impression that it wasn't necessary for salvation.  The scriptures we looked at...well...they seemed to say otherwise.
So, after that meeting, I thought for awhile, then when we had a "questions" night, for Wednesday night, I asked to talk about baptism again...so we did.
THEN...after that, I went and asked Pastor Les about being baptized and we sat in his office for over an hour talking about it and looking at scriptures...and we scheduled a meeting with him and his wife for Thursday, around 8:00-8:30.
Thursday came around, and I went over to their house around 8:15...and didn't come home until almost 11:00....
I thought for a bit after that, then on Friday, I messaged both Pastor Les, and Josh's wife, and asked for both of them to baptize me...because, well, they both directed me down that path and I wanted them both to be involved.
And...yeah....  The water was hot.  Idk what else to say....
~Katie

To the Girl Who Criticized my Attire

So, awhile back (a really long while back, actually), some friends of mine told me what a girl that I had believed to be my friend was saying about me and my clothes.  Apparently, she wonders why I "dress like this all the time".
For most of you that know me in person, you've kind of picked up on the fact that I wear skirts pretty much all the time.  And by "pretty much", I mean all the time.  At least in public.  So...what's wrong with that?
To the girl who criticized my clothing...why couldn't you ask me yourself?  In fact, I believe I told you while we were sitting together in the same classroom, and if I wasn't telling you, I was telling a teacher and you could have easily heard.
To begin with, that's how my mother was raised and that's how she raised me.  Is that my only reason?  Absolutely not.  I feel more comfortable in skirts.  And yes, I can do everything that you can do in your leggings, in my skirts.  No, I'm not too hot in the summer.  Yes, I'm too cold in the winter, but that's because winter is too cold, it has nothing to do with my skirts.
Perhaps I could ask you why you always wear pants.  I don't believe I've ever seen you in a skirt, except for special occasions.  Why is that?
Let me state something now: Skirts are traditional female attire.  Pants are traditional male attire.  Why are you questioning me for constantly wearing something that is traditionally something a woman would and should wear?  Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Why do you of all people care what I wear?  Yes, I know, I don't always dress fashionably.  Sometimes I just don't care.  Sometimes you just don't care.  We just dress differently when we have our lazy days.
You wear leggings to school.  I wear skirts.  Is this a problem?
I don't like guys staring at my butt.  So why would I wear clothing that would frame my butt?  Because guess what...no, guys shouldn't stare, but we all know that at least some of them will.  Is that okay?  Uh...no, but they're gonna do it anyway.  I mean, murder isn't okay, but some people still do it.
And please don't bring up that guys can look up my skirt.  Why am I going to stand over their head and give them access to look up my skirt?  And if a guy pulls up my skirt to take a look, I can kick him and/or punch him if I need to.  Also, I wear shorts under my skirts in the summer and leggings underneath them in the winter....  It's no different than you wearing spandex underneath your cheer skirt.
Also, why did I wear a jacket over my women's ensemble dress?  Because, I don't care to have my shoulders showing.  And as to the person you were talking to, who said I wasn't supposed to do that...all of the girls were there when we picked out the dresses, and Mrs. Fischer said that if we wanted to wear jackets over them, we were welcome to do so.  If that girl wasn't there when we picked out dresses, for whatever reason, that's her own fault and she doesn't need to be saying I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be.
In short...why do you care what I wear?  What I wear doesn't affect you in any way shape or form and if it does, I'm sorry?  I'm sorry I wear things I feel comfortable, even if it's not "fashionable"?  I'm sorry that you feel the need to talk to other people about my clothing?  I'm sorry that my dressing in a way that I feel comfortable and modest makes you unhappy?  Everyone knows I'm all about pleasing others...constantly...of course....  No seriously, I can be a bit of a people pleaser, but I'm not changing myself to make others happy.  I am sorry that I have displeased you, oh great one, you shall see me in leggings when hell freezes over.  The end.
~Katie

Business Teaching Game?

Okay, so...this game isn't exactly a "teaching" game at all.  It's called Flight Rising an is a game completely centered around dragons.  You breed them, train them in battle, feed them, name them, change their genes around, etc.  Where am I getting that it's a business teaching game?!
Well, also, in this game you do a thing called "gathering", four of the gathering types produces food for you dragons, while the remaining two provide you with other items that you don't need to survive in the game, but can give you cool things.

The way that gathering can help with business type skills is that you decide where you need to gather and how much you need to gather there.  Do most of your dragons eat plants, but you have some dragons that eat meat and you have absolutely zero meat?  Maybe you should go hunting.  Are your food stores all stocked up?  Well, why not dig or scavenge?

Then, with the things you've scavenged or dug up, you can go to the Auction House, and sell them!  But oh no!  What do I price my "white rook" for?!  All you have to do is figure out how much other people are selling their white rooks for, then price your white rook at the same or a little lower.  Or...if the lowest price you could sell it for is less than the price you'd get for selling it back to the store...your best bet is to either sell it back to the store, or hang onto it until the price for white rooks goes back up.

You find all kinds of things you can sell, in your "hoard".  It has different tabs for different things.  You decide what you want to sell and what you want to keep.  Some things, it's better to hang onto.  For example, there's a place in Flight Rising called the "coliseum", which is where your dragons can battle either other player's dragons, or monsters.  I stick to battling monsters.  But they need battle items.  If you have a lightning dragon and a fire dragon, but you only have ability stones for a nature dragon, you might want to sell the nature battle items and get some lightning and fire battle items!

There's also a place in Flight Rising called the "trading post".  At the trading post, there's one place where you can get one thing for free every day, another place where someone buys your items for more than you could sell them in the store, but they get to choose what they want and you might not even have it, one where you can answer questions about Flight Rising and get treasure in return, one where you can trade different items you may have for one big item, usually apparel, for your dragon to wear, and a last place where you can turn some of the things you keep in your hoard into goos, mucks, slimes, oozes, and something else, but I don't remember what, and then you can use those, as well as other materials to make more things.

Also!  If there are things you have in your hoard that you want to make sure you don't sell or throw away or give away, you can move them to your vault.  Which is fantastic.  You can even move gems and treasure into your vault.

How does business come into this?  Well, you have to know what to price your items for.  If you're making things to sell, you need to know what's in demand.  A great way to do that?  The forums.  Not all forums are about selling, in fact, there's one forum that's not even for anything Flight Rising related, it's just so people can have fun and talk about anything and everything.

The more I play Flight Rising, the more I realize I'm doing things like, making business transactions, marketing, sort of budgeting (not exactly) and I feel like if you homeschool (or even if you don't), Flight Rising would be a great place to go and sort of make your own business/market on there for selling this that or the other thing.  Maybe I'm way off, but that's just how it seemed to me.

~Katie

My First Basketball Game!

Okay, so no, I haven't seen a basketball game at all, until yesterday night....  I've been to one football game and that was because I was working concessions...and also...I only saw the tail end...where we did actually win!
But, anyway, I was at the basketball game last night, because I have been promoted to Select Singers (elite singing group at my school), because they needed more altos, so I'm singing alto.  I usually sing soprano, but I enjoy singing alto in church...so...not too different.  Oh and the reason why four Select Singers (counting myself), were there, was because we were singing the national anthem.  We sang accapella and I have heard lovely compliments about us.
So, about the game, I sat on the enemy bleacher side, because Dakota (I may have mentioned a Dakota previously, but not this Dakota.  This Dakota is a girl, and...not the other Dakota....) was filming it for the live stream and the only other person she had up there with her was the vice principal, who was acting as the announcer.  And he really does have a very good announcer voice!  I was impressed.
I feel like we annoyed a few people, because we were cheering with the student section from the other side of the gym, but hey, we gotta show our school spirit!  And hey, I've decided to share some things I learned during my first basketball game!

1. People get way too involved...like...they think that everyone is the rep sometimes!
2. Things that look like they should be legal...aren't....
3. And things that look like they shouldn't be allowed...are?!  
4. There is a lot more falling down than I anticipated.
5. It seems to be more of a contact sport than it's made out to be.
6. Those umpires have got to be in fantastic shape, because they're running all over the court, keeping up with the action and the players and they NEVER SEEM TO GET WINDED.
7. It has got to take a lot of dedication to be a coach....
8. Each player only gets five fouls.
9. It is hard for me to tell what a foul is....

So yeah...basketball....

~Katie

Rant on Feminism

I am not a feminist.  I am a very independent person, but not a feminist!  Wanna know something?  Every person, whether they're a man, woman, boy or girl have equal rights.  Wanna know something else?  Until a child is 18, they are under their parents' control.  Does that make them any less of a human?  Do people view them any differently than another person?  I don't think so.  Maybe, but I don't think so!  They don't have fewer rights, they have the same rights, but they are different!  Just like men and women are different.
The trigger for this rant, was Monday, when I was at a community dinner and someone mentioned my age, so I told them I was eighteen and they asked me if I had registered for the draft yet.  No, I haven't.  No, I don't plan to.  Not because I don't love our military, but because I am not the type of person who could go into our military.  They asked if wasn't it everyone who was supposed to register now?  No, still just guys.
Why aren't women ever ranting about how all women should be required to register for the draft?  I haven't seen it!  Instead, I see women ranting about how men and women are equal, women should be allowed to go shirtless, women should have this, this and that in a job, women should be allowed to have abortions and men can't say anything about it, even if the woman is pregnant with his child.
But do you wanna know what really irritates me about the whole thing?  If a woman doesn't agree with this, this or that about the feminist movement, they don't care about the women who sacrificed for the equal rights of women.
Well, listen up, equal doesn't mean same.  I have equal rights as my friend Steven, but guess what...he's 6'3''...should I be all upset because I'm not the same as him?  Nope.  I'm like...a foot, give or take, shorter than him.  I have equal rights as my friend Elizabeth (known to me as Awesome), but she has celiac and I don't.  Should she be all upset because I can eat gluten no problem?  Nah.  Sure, we're different...but we're still equal.
Sure, women can do pretty much anything a guy can do...I mean, other than naturally pee standing up....  And hey, most men are stronger than women, so women can't make their percentage for people able to benchpress 500lbs higher than men's.  Oh, and also, women and men are built differently, so I guess men and women also can't have the same build.  Wait, men can't have babies.  Or woo someone with their feminine wiles.  Oh and also, I've heard way more stories of men talking their way out of a tick--oh wait, no more women talk their way out of tickets.  Women are typically much more intuitive than men are, but men tend to be fairly observant at times.  Women are usually more outwardly emotional, but men tend to stuff more....
But I mean, I guess women and men are the exact same.  No differences.  At all.  Whew, glad I got that off my chest!  After all, I've almost been hit by both men and women on the street...wait, no, it was a girl that accelerated so she could get across the road before I, a pedestrian, who was closer to the other side than she was, could.  I've never almost got hit by a guy.  Of course, give it time.
Men and women aren't the same!  They just aren't!  They have equal rights and they are both equally human...but they aren't the same.  They are different.  That's why there are men AND women, because they are not the same.  And to act like they are is idiotic.
*big exhale*  Until next time....
Your ranting blogger,
~Katie

Electives

So...I have a friend who attends a different school than I do.  One of the classes offered at their school is Consumer Math.  This friend does not enjoy math, let alone Consumer Math, so when the new semester rolled around, she wanted to opt out of this class.  She was told she couldn't.
However, that's not the bad part about this.  The bad part is that this won't even count as a credit.  Not a business credit and not a math credit; this will count as an elective.
The reason she wasn't allowed to transfer out was not because it's full-year class.  This is what she told me: "...when I tried to explain that [an elective is not a required class], he said that it's required for this school, but it goes on your record (?) as an elective.".
If a class is required, that class should count as a credit, not an elective.  Especially not when the student has not elected to take this class, but has been forced.  If you google, "elective definition", this is what pops up:

I see...

Even at my school, we have a required class for Seniors called "Take Charge of Your Finances" (shortened to "Take Charge", by students and faculty), however, it does not count as an elective, because we have not elected to take it, it is required.  It counts as a business class.

If my friend were to switch schools, on her transcript, that class would go under either "business", or "math", but most likely math.

In the state of Kansas, which is where both of us attend school, a person is only required to have three math credits, and Algebra and Geometry need to be covered.  In other words, if someone takes one Algebra class and one Geometry class, and one other math class, they're good.  Here's the link I got that information from: Information  Considering that that came from the Kansas State Department of Education...I think they know what they're talking about.

At this school, her senior year, my friend will also be required to take something they call, "Advanced Math", which is basically Algebra2, all over again.  It will count as a math credit, but it is not something she will need and is something that she should be allowed to opt out of.  Yet she isn't.

That is not right.

To call something an elective when a student is still forced to take it, is wrong and if you consider that an elective, you need to go to back to English class and learn vocabulary.

If you want a certain class to be required at your school, go right ahead!  However, if you are going to require a class, it is not an elective.  Count it as math or count it as business, Consumer Math would fit in either one, but do not count it as an elective, because it is not an elective.

Rant over.

~Katie