Subject to Change

My church's youth retreat is one of the most highly anticipated (youth) events of the year. This year we teamed up with the church our church is starting, and invited their youth too. Not only that but it was our youth pastor's last retreat because he is the new lead pastor of the new church. Sorry if that was confusing! 

This year's theme was "Subject to Change" and it basically describes my life. No matter how much I plan, everything is truly up to God. This fits my favorite Bible verse- Proverbs 16:9. 

We stayed at Camp Mihaska, which is a Salvation Army "sponsored" (if that's the correct word) camp. We left on Friday, and it took around an hour and a half to arrive. We were split up into 14 different teams, with 7 people on each team.

I'm not going to go into extreme detail on every day because you would be reading forever. 

Some of my favorite parts of this retreat were that, one, it was the most peaceful/relaxing retreat I've been on in the past 4 years. Last year felt a little chaotic just because it was our first year at Camp Mihaska, the other place we used to go on retreat to was too small for the amount of people we were bringing. 
This was just a fraction of the students getting ready to worship. Many more were on the sides, coming to the middle

I loved the small groups we were put in, too. In my group the ages ranged from 7th grade-11th grade (me). It was nice to get a different perspective on life and everyone on our team got along really well.

The senior bonfire is always a highlight of my trip as well. It's so weird because my first retreat was in 8th grade and I looked up to all of the seniors. Next year I will be in that spot, to be a role model to all of the younger kids. It's crazy because you never really think you'll be the "top" of the youth group and then just like that you are. 
Before the senior bonfire and lesson #4

Finally, another really powerful is the hour of prayer. It has rained during the hour of prayer for three or four years straight now, but honestly I think it adds to it. The hour of prayer is also an hour of silence, to reflect on yourself and with God. I always spend the time writing a letter to myself, or more so God. I feel like it is easier to write everything I'm feeling out. I think it is interesting to see which areas I need to work on in life, and writing it all out makes it clearer.

A part of the Camp Mihaska grounds
Before Game #1

So far this was my favorite retreat. Even though it was Troy's last time leading a retreat as our youth pastor, I know he will continue to do incredible things out at the new church. His daughter, Megan, is one of my best friends, and I know Troy will always be there to support me. 

If you had any role in the retreat this year, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. It was a truly incredible weekend, and I can't wait for next year's, my senior year, retreat.

Until next time, 
Taylor xx

Prom 2015

Prom is the highly anticipated night that many upperclassmen look forward too. This year prom was at the Old Hickory Golf Club. I thought I would just give you all a run down of what happened, what I liked, and what I disliked.



The Good: 
- I loved where we got our photos. My group and I (photo above) took pictures at City Centre Park in St. Peters. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it was going to be, and none of us were huge picture-takers anyway so it worked out.
- The venue itself was really pretty and had a great view.
- I love being able to dress up and get my hair done because I don't get the opportunity to do that a lot.






The Bad: 
- When we walked into the room where the dance was held, they had the heat on. If there's one thing you never want to do before 500+ teenagers come to your dance is turn on the heat.
- The dance floor was SUPER tiny, and again trying to put 500+ teenagers in a small space like that doesn't turn out well
- The DJ was terrible, he played rap the entire night and it was all music from 2008-2010
       - Plus tickets were $50 because, apparently, the place cost $14,000 to rent out for the night. It was a beautiful place, it just wasn't the right place for prom.

The small stuff:
I bought my dress from "Camille la Vie" in the Chesterfield Mall. My dress was just under $200, which is extremely good for a dress coming from this store. When I first started shopping for my prom dress, I was extremely against strapless dresses. I also really wanted a gray or blue dress. As I was going to the dressing room to try on a few more dresses, my mom saw this dress on the end of rack. I tried it on and instantly loved it (I'm also not a big shopper so if I love it, I'm going to go with it).


I got my hair done by a woman named Audra at a place called "Hair Studio" in St. Peters as well. She did a fantastic job and my hair stayed all night long. And I also want to thank my grandma for painting my nails, from when I was little until now.
I wore white Converse with my dress because every year that I've tried to wear heels for homecoming, I can't walk and they hurt my feet. With these shoes, I know I'll wear them multiple times and it's just "me". 

Okay, I think I covered it all. Sorry I haven't blogged the past week, I just got really busy and forgot. I hope this makes up for it :) 

Until next time,
Taylor xx

Competition

When I was younger, children my age played any and every sport just for fun. I played soccer for a long time, I did tumbling, I played on a YMCA volleyball league, and I swam on a summer swim team (beginning in third grade through last year). 

I played volleyball my freshman year of high school but decided to only play that one year because I wasn't going to join a competitive volleyball team. I had no desire to join a club volleyball team and basically, if you didn't join, you had a very slim chance of playing JV or Varsity in the next 2-3 years. I liked volleyball before, but playing it in high school made volleyball unenjoyable. 

Freshman year volleyball
Then swimming. Again, I have swam on a summer swim league every year from third grade until my junior year. I made the high school swim team my freshman year with no problem. I was one of the better swimmers, I wasn't incredible but I wasn't awful either. Then sophomore year, again I wasn't awful but I wasn't the number one swimmer either. The incoming freshman class had a few competitive swimmers who took the spots on the A relay, which they totally deserved because they were better. This year, my junior year, even more competitive swimmers joined the program, not just on my team but across the entire conference. Last year I swam the 500 freestyle in 6:41 at our conference meet and made it back to finals. This year I swam it in 6:35 and didn't return the second day for finals. So many girls now swim competitively that I don't stand a chance. 

Freshman year before GACs
Sophomore year when I won a rose for placing in the top 16 with my relay

Junior year before GACs
The thing is, I don't want to swim competitively. I tried that for like 4 months in 8th grade and it made me hate swimming. I've seen it in high school all the time. People who've dedicated their entire lives to a sport get burned out. Then a slim few actually go on and play in college. I understand if you want to do a sport competitively but it totally consumes your life. I want to live beyond a certain sport. I don't want to have to spend every night and weekends at a place training for my sport. I want to have the freedom to do what I want with my time. And if you enjoy doing that, go ahead and do it, it's just not for me. 

My whole point with this is that all of the kids growing up will have to pick one sport and get really good at it. There is no room for rec leagues anymore, if you want a chance to do anything in high school you have to be doing it competitively for a long time. I'm glad I was born when I was because I enjoyed doing a multitude of sports just for fun. It's sad for kids who are like me because I'm sure some of them won't have the same outcome I did (being able to play sports in high school). 

I wish we could go back and enjoy sports for what they were some times, and not be so serious.

Until next time,
Taylor xx