An Influential Nobody

Over the past few days, my eyes have been opened to just how much influence one person can have on others. I, Madi, probably carry on day-to-day conversations with a grand total of about 15 people. Some of those are staff at the school. It’s not that I’m antisocial, have no friends, or ignore and avoid anyone; it’s just that some personalities clash terribly and you tend to talk to those people less. What I did not realize is that although some people out there may not seem like they give a care about anything that I say, they apparently do. I was sending Facebook invites for the launch of FreedomGeneration, and more people than I could have expected responded. I was in absolute shock. I didn’t even tell them that there will be some great giveaways. All I said was that they should come that one Sunday night, even if they’re already involved in a student ministry. I also said that there would be music and fun. That was IT! Nothing else. No bribery, just an invite to church. I didn’t know what to think. We’ll see how many want to come when the actual day rolls around, but I’m sure there will still be a good many. : ) I’m pretty excited.

My eyes have been opened to the fact that maybe, just maybe, if I stepped out of my comfort zone and invested in some of those people that I usually don’t, I might be able to make a difference. So, that’s my goal for this new school year. It’s my Junior year. That means, I have two more years to make the biggest difference that I possibly can at Excel Christian Academy. Pretty exciting. It might actually kind of make me want to starts school. But, just maybe. : )

Awkward Eye Contact

Don’t we all hate it? I have to share my awkward story. If the person in this story reads this and figures out that I am talking about them, you should know that you weirded me out. Just kidding, you gave me a laugh.

There I was, standing in the Under Armour store at the outlets in Destin, Florida. I felt somebody staring a hole through my head. I generally don’t like that feeling, so I looked up, directly into the eyes of some random guy about my age wearing a camo Bass Pro Shops hat. As usual, I was able to go directly back to what I was doing without giving it a second thought…until I did one of those double takes where you briefly glance up to see if the person is still staring. He was, and it freaked me out. I will probably never double-take again.

At that point, I wanted to blow an invisible poison blow dart at him. If you have played the game, you will laugh at that, but if you haven’t, you just think I’m weird.

I tell you this totally pointless story just to get my point across of hating awkward eye contact. One of the worst feelings in the whole entire world.

My Turn

I got to ride my own horse this morning, which made me extremely happy. Granted, I wasn’t riding for fun, I was wearing her out so she didn’t act ridiculous for Jennifer. It worked, which made everyone happy. Jennifer actually asked me today if I could ride her before the show in the morning and teach her how to stay up next to the rail. Apparently, she thinks I can do it.

I have a funny story from today. Here it is. We were all sitting around eating lunch when one of the 7 year-old campers starts talking.

Cassie: I can’t lie.

Other kid: Why?

Cassie: Well, you see, I have a lie bump on my tongue. Whenever I lie, it just gets bigger and bigger. If it gets too big, It will explode and I will die.

I died laughing when she told that story. Today, another kid asked me what “tackle” was, and why we were going to clean it. It took me a while to figure out that I had told her we were going to clean tack. She apparently misheard me and was confused.

Horse Camp…Week 2

So horse camp week 2 is basically close to the same as horse camp week 1. We just have half the amount of the kids that we had in June, and they are a whole bunch calmer. It’s been a good week, but it’s weird not being in charge of my own horse. Although, I was today, because Jess never showed up. We joke around calling Sky the “Energizer Pony” which became very true this week. She doesn’t stop for much, unless she knows that you mean business. I wasn’t able to be at camp on Monday, but I did hear a story about my horse. Apparently, little Jennifer got up on her, and Sky took off at a canter. She doesn’t canter slowly either. She took off today again, but this time at a very fast trot. I received orders to show up early tomorrow to ride her until she’s good and tired before Jennifer gets on her. Jennifer likes the thrill (as do I), but it would not be ideal for the show on Friday. : )

Changes

One of the things that I absolutely cannot stand is when a relationship with a friend changes. It really upsets me, and makes me question what I did to mess things up. Of course, there are those times when you cannot think of anything in the world that you or the other person have changed, but instead, it’s like someone flipped a switch, and nothing is ever the same again.

I was really thinking about it a little while ago, and realized that sometimes, those changes can turn out for the good. I have had so many strange things happen with friendships over the past two years, but those situations have taught me that God is the only friend that you will ever have who will never let you down. Even when someone completely and totally rips your heart to shreds and stomps it into the ground, there’s God, your best friend, waiting for you to turn around and see that he never left your side through everything. I frequently forget how comforting God can be. All I have to say is, I am so thankful that I have Him. : )

TUBING!

Freedom was awesome on Sunday! I really enjoyed the new speakers and the use of a projector back in the elementary room. The kids really like it too! I was so happy to be there, and I realized just how much I missed last Sunday. I have to miss another Sunday, so I am kind of bummed again.

Well, after Freedom, I met up with Evan, Erin, Kathryn, Dustin, and Will at Taco Bell in C’ville to head out on a tubing trip. Mrs.Pickens, Mr.Harvey, and Tiffany also went. We drove up to Helen (I worked in a nap) and stayed at Mr.Harvey’s parents’ house. They have the cutest house, and of course they had room for all of us hooligans because they have 7 grown children. All four of us girls got to stay in the princess room downstairs that was created for their granddaughters. It was too cute, and we loved it.

We spent the evening napping and playing games. We played Scattegories, Spoons, and this awesome game where you are wearing a headband with a card on it. The card says “I am a…” and lists some random item. You have to go around the circle asking questions about your item. The first person to guess what’s on their head wins. That was probably my favorite game ever. We all looked totally ridiculous. Around 12:30 or so, everyone was ready for bed, the adults went to bed, and we decided to watch a movie. We gave Dustin and Will no choice, so they had to sit there and watch The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with us. I guess they liked it at least a little because they could have easily gone on to bed instead of watching it.

Today we went tubing, and had an absolute blast. I didn’t fall out of my tube once, which made me very happy. I am very tired though, so I’ll probably try to squeeze in a second nap sometime today. : )

The Short of It

Day 3 was a lot of fun. We went to the Junior League  horse show that morning, and ended up making plans to go again that night. Because Ms.Cathy is pretty well known in the Saddlebred world, she wanted to have something nice to wear that night. This meant that all nine of us, plus one of Ms.Cathy’s friends (Buddy) from Kentucky had to go to the mall. We were a sight going through there. None of us look like we would be friends, or shop at the same stores, so I’m sure we were entertainment for the bystanders. Just to show what a diverse group we have, let me tell you just where we went. We went to Rave for Rebecca, Hot Topic for Ansley, PacSun for the little ones, Coldwater Creek for Ms.Cathy, Macy’s for me, and Allison and Anna went into Abercrombie. It was entertaining, no doubt. They actually got a picture of me RUNNING out of Hot Topic. Yes, literally running. It was fun though. The show was great, and we ended up going to Waffle House at midnight for dinner to “entertain” the waitress and cook.

Day three was probably the roughest for me. Besides hitting my head extremely hard (to the point where I blacked out for a little longer than 10 seconds) in about 5 different places and temporarily losing my depth perception, I felt incredibly out of place. At the show, I mean. The atmosphere revolves around alcohol, and money. Both of which do not hold a high position in my life (or any position at all). It was just weird. I did get to see some beautiful horses though, and Ms.Cathy thoroughly enjoyed herself. That’s really all that mattered to any of us anyway. : ) So, that’s pretty much the end of my Kentucky stories. If I randomly think of one someday, I will post it. haha.

Early Morning and Fast Horses

Day two of our KY trip was probably one of the best days of my life. We got up super early in the morning to watch the horses at Keeneland (racetrack) breeze. They were absolutely flying, and it was beautiful. I know we saw some great champions in the making. After Keeneland, we went over the the Red Mile where people were practicing for the Lexington Junior League Horse Show. There were some high-stepping Saddlebreds out there. It was a beautiful morning. At about 10 that morning, (we got an early start) we went to one of the most famous Thoroughbred farms in the world called Lane’s End. We got to see the #1 and #2 richest stallions in the world. The #2 is AP Indy, grandson of Secretariat and son of Seattle Slew. It was awesome!!! It was like standing in the presence of the queen of England (who actually used to keep her horses there until recently.)

After all that fun, we took out traditional trip to the Kentucky Horse Park. We really only did the Hall of Champions and the Parade of Breeds. I really just like to go to the Hall of Champions to visit Cigar. He is quite amazing. : )

I’ll post about day 3 tomorrow. (or today…considering it’s early a.m.)

Tales from the Backseat

I’m home from Kentucky, and I had the time of my life. I went to Lexington with Ms.Cathy and 7 other grils from the barn who were camp counselors with me. We left for Kentucky on Sunday in a huge conversion van. Just think about two 12 year olds, one 13, three 16, one 18, and one 20 year old all on a van for almost seven hours. Three of us are mostly quiet, and the other four are basically never quiet, even in their sleep. The ride there was good, and we didn’t really do anything the first night except for go to Ruby Tuesday. The little ones went swimming, and we older ones stayed up in the hotel rooms to rest. I stayed with the smallish ones again this year. I actually think I have more fun in their room than I would in the room with my other friends. Anyway, I figured out very early on that the bench seat in the back of the van is perhaps the bumpiest ride you will ever take. The think converts into a bed, so there are a bunch of springs inside. Every time we went over the smallest bump, you would come about six inches off the seat. It was great. That was “my” seat for the ENTIRE trip. I can see why nobody wanted to switch with the three of us in the back. It was incredibly hard to sleep on a ride that bumpy. It was fun though. I will have to fill everyone in on days 2 and 3 tomorrow and Friday. : )

Quite Amazing

Today has been an absolutely wonderful day. I have spent most all of it at the barn with some of my favorite people, and animals of course. I was pretty much a lazy bum until after lunch when I decided to ride. I chose to go bareback because I hadn’t in a while. It was a day of experimentation. The last time anybody rode Domino English, they ended up in the dirt. Hannah asked if she could try, and did absolutely amazing! Darby thought she might try to ride Buddy bareback with no bridle. Just a halter and lead rope. I already knew this would be entertaining. So, we all paraded into the arena. Each horse had less tack than the one before it. Ansley rode Bo in a Western saddle, then there was Domino in English, Sky bareback with a bridle, and Buddy bareback with a halter. It was a sight. Kendall, Allison, and John Luke came out to watch. When all was said and done, I ended up on Buddy, Allison and Kendall both rode Sky, Kendall also rode Domino, and John Luke rode Bo. It was a day of firsts for everyone. I told Darby that I must really trust her horse because I had never ridden him before in my life, and I jumped on him bareback with a halter, and without hesitation. Just a year ago, that would have totally freaked me out, but it was like the most natural thing in the world. Buddy has the most amazing jog. We describe it as, “It’s like riding on a cloud.” It was pretty much magical. I also had fun watching Kendall and Allison ride Sky because neither of them had ridden her before, and she is probably one of the hardest horses in the barn to ride bareback.  It was nice to see someone else enjoying what i get to enjoy whenever I feel like it. Today was just pretty much fun : )