Thnks fr th Mmrs

Thank-you


for the nights in the Harper Hall lobby watching youtube videos and "studying" for calculus and chemistry

for flag decorations and watching the OC instead of studying

for the Freshman Forum meetings when Amanda was there... and we ignored her

for progressive stories in Chem and at Steak N Shake

for the first time I saw the eagle fly

for the Little Lovers socials

for Harper Hotties

for the lemonade debacle of 2008 O-Days

for unplanned trips to Tuscaloosa

for the 3am crisis calls

for choreography parties

for Greg and Kenneth parties

for 603 parties

for night's at Stuart and Paul's

for ridiculous warm-ups and Elijah Rock for the 3rd time

for Little Shop rehearsals (and the semester of I can't, I have rehearsal)

for failed attempts to have a youtube show

for successful musical scripts (if only we'd finish those last 2 monologues)

for Greased Lightning and Chattanooga Choo Choo... both better the 300th time around

for the nights in the SGA office... even when I wasn't in SGA

for creativity nights with fiction writing, painting, and John Mayer

for photo shoots at Samford and in Opelika

for the 2am drive back from Georgia. "You know what they say... give a man a fish"

for impromptu lake trips

for Crawfish Boil 2008, it'll never be better

for lunches at Toomer's

for breakfast at Big Blue

for study dates at Toomer's Coffee

for post-show Buffalo Wild Wings

for campaigns and campaign t-shirts and concourse dances and billboard painting

for days in the office that were utterly unproductive but so fun

for karaoke with the CWE cult

for successful fundraisers

for failed fundraisers

for every service event

for every meeting (well, most of them)

for listserve emails

for not telling me in advance about Taylor Swift

for standing outside the hotel and conference center until she came out

for the West Virginia game

for mornings in the President's Box

for Beat Fiji Year, Beat ATO Year, and Beat Farmhouse Year

for lemon drops

for dancing and drink specials

for jokes about making out with 15 year olds (never gets old)

for weeks in Gulf Shores, trying to find dance clubs

for art museums in DC

for catch phrase

for band parties and toga parties

for Dr. Troy's fiction class

for Dr. Burkhart's into to the psych major class

for Dr. Mattson's lab meetings

for every game day date, every road trip, every Tuesday night at 6:00

for singing the alma mater at the end of meetings

for singing the national anthem at the end of meetings

for every time I wore a blue suit and pearls with 24 of my best friends

for every time I put on sequins and poufed my hair

for Winter Song

for alto sectionals where we got nothing done and everything done at once

for party dress jokes

for Shoney's... twice.

for awkward small shows

for formals and weddings and socials

for letting me be one of the blacks and part of the black caucus

for Sundance Sundays at the Maisonette

for Twitter and #superlonghashtags

for iron bowl victories

for rolling Toomers and loving Toomers

for Toomers for Tuscaloosa

for a National Championship

for the music

for believing in the human touch

for blessing me with the Auburn family

for the perfect college experience

War Eagle.

Send in the Clowns

I'm angry.

I'm angry and disappointed and frustrated and irritated beyond belief.

In the past two weeks I have been utterly disillusioned about kindness, responsibility, respect, and integrity left in the world. Particularly in America. Particularly in my corner of America.

I'm usually not one to think that things were "better" in the past. Generally I think that there is always change and that every generation has good things and bad things. But in the past few weeks I have been forced to admit that there are a lot of things now that used to be "better."


I wish people would respect others opinions.

I wish people would take responsibility for their actions.

I wish people would not hide behind anonymity to be rude and hurtful.

I wish people would be aware that things typed or texted exist in people's minds long after they are read.

I wish people would let things be simple.

I wish people would read. I wish they would educate themselves. I wish they cared. About anything.

I wish people loved.


With love,
S

Spark of Creation

I've got an itching on the tips of my fingers. I've got a boiling in the back of my brain. I've got a hunger burning inside me, cannot be denied. I've got a feeling that the Father who made us, when He was kindling the pulse in my veins, He left a tiny spark of that fire smoldering inside... The spark of creation burning bright within me. The spark of creation is blazing in my blood. A bit of the fire that lit up the stars and breathed life into the flood; the first inspiration. The spark of creation.

I see a mountain and I want to climb it. I see a river and I want to leave shore. Where there was nothing, let there be something, something made by me. There's things waiting for me to invent them; there's worlds waiting for me to explore. I am an echo of the eternal cry of let there be! The spark of creation flickering within me. The spark of creation won't let me rest at all until I discover or build or uncover a thing that I can call my celebration of the spark of creation.

The spark of creation - may it burn forever! The spark of creation. I am a keeper of the flame. We think all we want is a lifetime of leisure, each perfect day the same... endless vacation. Well, that's alright if you're a kind of crustacean, but when you're born with an imagination sooner or later you're feeling the fire get hotter and hotter.

The spark of creation.


I have never known a song that I could relate to so strongly. "What are you doing next year?" "I suppose I'll go to law school." And I suppose I will. But what I want is to create and to change and to explore and to discover and to make a difference, key word make. I think what I'm discovering is that to be a pawn in someone elses plan other than the Lord's is never going to be enough for me. There's a fire in me that I recognize from my father to be the one that makes the changes other people talk about. I need that. I want that. I think I'm called to that.

So where am I going now? I honestly have no idea. I've been praying about it, as I've said in past posts, but now that I am "done" with my law school applications, I plan to spend a lot of time looking into service opportunities for next summer, next year, the next few years. Funnily enough, I've had a ton of people say things to me like, "I see you in the Peace Corps" or "Have you looked into the Children's Defense Fund?" I think it's time for me to look more into those things. I have complete faith that God will lead me to the right thing. I know I've talked of nothing but going to New York and working in New York for years... and I still want that. But I want to do His will, and I'll get there. Eventually.


That's where I am. Nothing too exciting to report yet. I imagine those days are coming though. Otherwise, senior year has been a dream. I have the best friends and the best family (and the best football team ;)) and just the best life ever. Which makes me that much more determined to work to give other students the same opportunities that I've had. What is the purpose of being blessed if we never give anything from those blessings?


With love
<3

7 Things

I blog on Saturday nights a lot. I should probably work on having cooler things to do on the weekends. Oh well.

I haven't made a list in a while, so I thought I might do one tonight. :-)

I started my senior year last week. My senior year. My last year. No more undergraduate institution after this year. What? It's completely shocking and fun and terrifying and exciting and stressful all at once. I've bled orange and blue for the past three years and will for the rest of my life... but after this year it will never be the same.

But I'm trying not to think about all of that. I'm not dwelling on the never ending what am I going to do with my life scenario and I'm trying not to focus on all of the lasts that are approaching. Instead I am thinking about my classes, and my social life and, of course, boys.

I'm not a Miley Cyrus fan, but I'm not a hater either. I did always really like her cute little song 7 Things though, and I've had just the slightest bit of boy drama in my life lately. No details, but I think her list is pretty accurate right now. The grammar in the list is terrible though.

• You're vain
• Your games
• You're insecure
• You love me, you like her
• You make me laugh, you make me cry (this is actually 2 different things Miley)
  
• Your friends are jerks
  
• You make me love you

Love might be a bit strong. The rest is a bit legit. Is it ridiculous that I relate my relationships to songs written about / for / by 15-year-olds? Absolutely. But it could be worse... it could be The Bachelor. ;-)

Otherwise, about my life. Taking some freaking awesome classes this semester that are going to kick my butt. Lots of reading and writing in my future. But, hey, no big deal. Its cool. It's also going to be a semester of impromptu day trips, dinner parties, coffee dates, lunch dates, and Maisonette parties.

Oh and football. Lots of football. :-)


With love,
Shelli

White America

Today Ole Miss beat LSU. SEC football is a huge concern for me, so I'm super excited about that. :-)

But before the game, Ole Miss suffered a small embarrassment. Some members of the Ku Klux Klan showed up to protest. My understanding is that Ole Miss traditionally sings a song called Dixie-something or another, and at the end fans have started chanting "The south will rise again!"

But some of the administration of the University don't like this tradition (can't imagine why...) and they requested that the fans stop adding that phrase to the song. Because it's offensive. And they didn't care. So then the University made the band stop playing the song all together. Like a punishment for an entire football stadium. Funny. lol.


Anyway, this information was very interesting to me, not because of the actual story (which is just stupid and annoying) but because of the information about the Klan. And how the articles about the protest have, like, little quotes from the Klan as though they simply found their statements in a press release packet. I thought they were like a big secret. Apparently not.

Cause I googled (or, actually, binged them) them and found their official website... which was a terrible website, production value-wise. I did find a lot of enlightening information though and decided to share with my loyal reader a list of my favorite points from the Klan's platform (yeah, they have a platform. oh dear).

• The recognition that America was founded as a Christian nation. As James Madison, known as the "Chief Architect of the Constitution" stated; " We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves to control ourselves to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

So... this is almost true. Of course, if you look up what other fathers of the constitution say about the founding of our country, you can pretty much find a quote to support anything. Plus this only gets funny later.

• The recognition that America was founded as a White nation. America was born as an extension of White European heritage. Those who formed the very ideals that we cherish such as freedom of speech, trial by jury, innocent until proven guilty, free enterprise, etc. were of White European heritage. All of the early laws of the United States from its very inception restricted citizenship to White people and all of the early charters, laws, compacts, etc were signed into effect by White people.

Riight. Never mind that whole thing about the Great American melting pot. Or the fact that the stregnth of the country was (and still is) due to minorities. As in not whites.

• Abolish all anti-gun laws and encourage every adult to own a weapon. The cure for crime in America is not take guns off the streets but to put more guns ON the streets. Violent criminals should be punished, but law abiding citizens should be allowed to defend their homes, business and families with out fear of the federal government treating them as the criminal.

Don't even get me started on how much I disagree with this. I can sometimes I can see where people think that gun laws should be abolished, even though I don't agree. But I fail completely to see how having more guns will cure crime in America. Ay yi yi.

• Put American troops on our border to STOP the flood of illegal aliens. America is being over run by illegal immigrants mostly from nonwhite countries who do not share the Christian European values of our nation's founders. Immigration should remain open to all White Christians throughout the world . There is not one single country that does not persecute it's White Christian citizens such as in South Africa where the violent crime against Whites is at an all time high. The entire reasoning behind the forming of America was to allow one place in the world where White Christians could live together in harmony without any outside interference from those of other religions or races.

I honestly don't even know what to say about that. Really? South Africa? That's your argument?

• Actively promote love and appreciation of our unique European (White) culture. We must recognize it as the bedrock of American liberty and self government.

The thing is, European culture is a lot of different cultures. Not unlike America. The only thing that really links Europeans is proximity and skin color. And they all don't have the same exact skin color. This is just silly.

• Drug testing for welfare recipients. We recognize that not everyone receiving assistance is on drugs, but those who are should not be receiving your tax money. Welfare should be for those who need it - not those who abuse it.

Plenty of people abuse welfare on things that are not drugs. And plenty of people do drugs that are not on welfare. This just smacks of discrimination. And it's such a sort of random thing to include on your list of assertions.

• Rehabilitate our public school system. We must remove the humanist influence in our schools and teach fact based curriculum to further the students knowledge not someone's opinion. Parents should have the option of private or home schooling if they prefer and students should be free to practice their Christian faith in the classroom.

But I don't understand. If America is founded on Christian principles, then shouldn't people be allowed to learn Christian beliefs in the classroom? Just like they should learn that America was founded for White people and we should all be so thankful that they even allow any other people into the country?

• We support a national law against the practice of homosexuality. This is a Christian nation and the Bible condemns homosexual activity and the perversion of our society which it encourages.
• We support the placing of all persons HIV positive into national hospitals. While the AIDS virus is almost inclusive to homosexuals and those not of European ancestry, many innocent people have contacted the virus. Despite the moral character of a person, the virus is still highly contagious with new and deadlier forms coming out constantly. Everyone who gets it dies! Aids carriers should receive proper medical care while a cure is being researched. This is the only way to stop the spread of the disease. They should be kept from coming into contact with uninfected people.

Two for one. If education shouldn't be related to religion, then neither should laws. And that whole thing about HIV being highly contagious and everyone who gets it dies... well, that's just plain ridiculous. Open a book sometime.

• Restoring individual freedom to Christian America. People should be allowed to hire who they want, live where they want and practice the Christian faith as they please. Likewise people should be able to sell to whom they want , rent to whom they want and socialize and conduct business with who they want. The government should not interfere with the everyday lives of white Christian Americans.

As I understand the whole constitution thing... everyone does have the right to do those things. The thing you don't have the right to do is discriminate based on color. Which I'm guessing White American's wouldn't like either.

• We support the voluntary repatriation of everyone not satisfied with living under White Christian rules of conduct back to the native lands of their people. The brightest and best minds of all races will be able to run their own affairs without outside interference. To support their efforts we should provide the financial and technological resources needed for a limited period of time in the building or rebuilding of their independent nations. After that their success or failure is totally up to them.

Kay. Thanks, I'll just go to Africa and live there. It'll be just like my life in America I'm sure.

Gotta love extremists groups. Oh Southern America.

With love
<3
Shelli

PS: just for the record, I don't support the Klan nor to I condone their actions or beliefs... anything I said that seemed in agreement... tongue in cheek. And if you agree with any of it... I really don't care. :-)