Monday, October 17, 2005

10se

Well I'm not really that tense (get it, 10se?) but I just worked out that little word thing today... Then again I have only got 9 days of school left EVER and a fair bit of work to get done within that- final special studies, second art prac, let alone beginning revision!!

So SWOT Camp was AWESOME!! Probably up there as one of the best camp's I've been on, and I've been on a few! What made it so good I hear you ask? Well since I was little I've been a pretty shy person esp when it comes to meeting new people so I was a bit nervous going up and knowing only Dave and Emily's friend Mel who was leading, but it went from on the first night looking at a sea of strange faces and wondering what all these people were like, to on the last day being able to at least name everyone and know to some degree what they were like. It was SO good to be pushed out of my comfort zone, I felt like I was getting stuck in a rut a bit, and meet all these new, for lack of a different adjective, awesome people! Everyone was on equal footing- like you were just friendly with everyone, kind of like it is in year 12 this yr at school I guess but more. Perhaps it's one of the things of being a minister's kid, but I loved the anonymity- a kind which I'd never really experienced before in a Christian setting. Bar Dave there was no-one from church or who knew anything about me previously, so there were no expectations of who I was, what I was like and what I believed. And to be honest that really forced me to take an objective view of myself and my faith- when I step away from the supporting poles of my family and church's faith, where is mine? The main thing I came away with from the camp was to really find Jesus for myself. I know him, I've experienced him, I've heard other people's accounts of him, but I really feel that I need to find him for myself more than I have in the past.

As well as all the soul searching stuff there were lots of laughs and good times- my b'day on Monday turned out to be great, just hanging out, talking, getting to know people, getting lots of gorgeous msg's from ppl, playing cards (point of order, lol) and everyone sang me happy birthday at the end of the first study session (at the end of each study session the leaders did some weird thing to break it up, and for the first one they came in with a muffin with a match stuck in it, and these great glasses/party blower things singing, lol). Very cool! There are so many stories I could go into (lol eg we went on this night hike on tuesday night- literally a hike- with those neon glowsticks and everyone got them all over themselves, on the hands it looked like ET or something) but alas study time will not permit! Oh yeah and I got a fair bit of study done too, about 6 hrs a day! Haha, it's funny that that was the main point of the camp, and that's a side point.

When I got back I had a great w/e as well, so the party just kept on going! Here's the only photo I took at swot camp on the Bad Taste Wedding Night because my batteries ran out (grr) of Ami (not sure how to spell it!) Elyse, Hilary and Bec, and a classic one from Emma's way back at the beginning of the hols.


Well I was going to post the pics, but apparently they don't want to cooperate, so you'll just have to wait for them!!

5 comments:

Michael said...

I'm so happy for you that it was a great week!!! And that you could have some birthday madness as well :-)

There is always so much growth when we are pushed out of our comfort zones, hard as it is to leave them behind! (said by someone who goes kicking and screaming, so to speak!)

Keep on walking and holding on!
You are amazing!!!

sez said...

yay, glad you have fun, i want to go next year coz i know i won't get any study done at home :S :( lol but hey its all good... happy birthday once again, how i wish you'd had your phone switched on... we spent sooo long waiting for midnight so we could send those messages!! [well, about 15 mins sitting in a car at the bottom of my driveway is a long time you know ;o)] oh well, at least you got them in the morning!! :D

now jess dear, i shall emaileth you, but, can i please borrow some spray paint err... sometime this week before prob thurs?! i'll come round and get it sometime i guess... do you suppose any of the colours you have would show up on black? coz we have the music dinner on friday and louise, sarah and i are going as groupies of *insert band here* prob simple plan, good charlotte, blink 182, something like that, but yeah, we need to spray paint black tshirts... why do we always leave stuff till the last minute?! ah well... i'll email you... or msg you... i duno, we'll SEE. toorah!!

[woah, mega comment!!] but i'm on the study computer and i like this keyboard ;o) hehe

Emma Smith said...

heres a tip sez - some paints don't work! lol you saw the tops we made for simple plan? yeh well we tried to spray paint them with white on a black shirt and it all sunk in and just didn't work. so don't use white! good luck tho. And yeh camp sounds like it was heaps good Jess, very benificial in many ways! Have fun in ur last couple of weeks of school. xo

Lib said...

thats heaps good to here, i guess that's what YPOUT was like for me. i love anonymity- its really through anonymity that you find that everyone is really the same. (on YPOUT camp i was talking to ppl about dad being depressed and every single one of them had at least one parent who has/had experienced depression.

Lib said...

haha i mean to hear! there my english goes, down the drain...