Changing the World.

As a Senior in High School, I constantly get asked the question: What are you going to do for the rest of your life?
For the past year my answer has been: I have no flipping clue.
Of course that is still true, but I might have come to a sorta answer of these past few months: I want to change the world.
Now don't you dare ask me when. And don't ask me where. And don't even think about asking me how. I still have no clue. Also I would like to clarify, that changing to the world doesn't have to be the same as taking it over. If I can effect just one persons life, that is changing the world. I just want to do something, and do something good.
That is my promise here to you, and to myself.
Heres to a new year, a new goal, and to changing the world.

Let Them Effect You.

Take one look around you.
A laptop, a phone. A fresh glass of Dr. Pepper. A blanket, my window, a bag of finished pretzels.
Now open a new tab and open your favorite news website. What do you see?
Fires, accidents, death, drama. War.
We live in a world where everything, literally everything is at the tip of our fingers. With the swish of a mouse we can thousands of pictures of cats. We can read up on Africa, learn some facts about Koalas, or try to destroy colored bubbles.
The real question that I am getting at here, is with all of that out there what are you spending your time doing? What are you google searching for. If you're not sure, check your history. You can go back, days, months, even years and see every single thing you have searched for. We are living in a world of such great power and knowledge, but what are we doing with it?
What are we doing with it.
How is it that we have come to live in a world where a cat falling can be seen by millions of people, yet none of them could explain to you what is going on in Syria right now.
Of course as I sit here typing this, I am reflecting this upon myself. I only happened upon a video about the strife in Syria on accident literally half an hour ago. It is not that I am blind, because I see plenty of sad stories that float along on the internet. All asking for money to help some trouble in the world. Of course I know I can't help them all, but has it gotten to a point that I don't even seem to care.
'It's just another organization wanting my money.'
But it's more than that. Those organizations are people. People who have given up their lives to spread the word to raise something that rips at their heart. So why can't we take two measly minutes out of our lives to watch there video? I'm not saying this to guilt you into giving money, like so many of them seem to be doing. I am saying this so that you take the minute to glimpse into these peoples lives and see all of the hard work and passion they put into what they are doing and into the issue at hand. I challenge you, and myself to not donate, but to listen. Listen to their story, appreciate it, and remember it.
I find that a lot of times those videos can all become blurred as one in my head. No more. With all those cat videos you have watched and are probably thinking of right now, remember the things in our world that really matter. If you have the funds to help, and are moved to do so then by all means, but there are other ways you can react to these sorts of things without just passing them by.
Let them effect you.

Bentley

Bentley, the farms new pony, is fitting in wonderfully.
I took a group of kids out there to brush him the other day, and he loved it.
Bentley is a Welsh Pony, gray in color, and very fluffy. He sure isn't photo shy, which is good for my sake. So far, he is an amazing addition to the farm.

Ready. Set. Live Nativity.

The Live Nativity at the Farm (Critterbarn.org) started last week.
The farm is all dressed up with lights, the costumes are out, and the stage is set.
Some of the volunteers love to dress up and play a Shepard, while others have to be dragged kicking and screaming to help. Most of the time, if they don't want to do it (assuming we have enough kids), they can do other things. We only have so many costumes anyways, so there are normally three Shepard's.
This is where my part comes in...

I'm Mary.
The one problem that we found this year, was that I have to cover up my purple hair. The tips of my hair is purple, and that is not very authentic... so I had to hide it under the headdress.
The only person missing from this picture is Joseph. He actually showed up late on this day... we almost had to find a substitute.
Otherwise the whole thing went smoothly. It was the first day of many to come.

Pony!

Unbenounced to me, we got a new horse at the farm. Well he is technically not a horse, he is a pony. He is a pretty big pony though, if I may say so myself. His name is Bentley and he is some kind of welsh pony... or so I have been told. He is the sweetest thing. I went in there to meet him and he came right up to me, which is saying a lot compared to our other horse that struggles a bit. 

Me and a few volunteers brought him some treats last night, which he very much enjoyed. Although he did like to stay in his hut, which I don't blame him for because it was Very cold outside. That just proves how smart he is. Hopefully we will be able to ride him, once he gets settled in more. I can't wait to get to know Bentley better, he is going to be a great addition to the farm. 

The Day I Was a Man.

As the Christmas season is drawing near, I would like to do a throw back to the last Christian season.

During December, the Critter Barn always does a beautiful live nativity. There is a Mary, a Joseph, some shepherds and lots of sheep. This means that we need lots of extra help to keep the farm running and to have people in the nativity. One day last year we were a bit short staffed, and so we didn't have any males on the farm. People kept coming though, so we had to get a Joe somewhere. That is how this happened...

That is me as Joe, and another little volunteer had to be Mary. We were probably the scariest couple of all time, but the people still loved it. A few things I learned that day: beards are itchy and they taste gross. Also wigs are just as bad. I'm thankful for being a women, and not having to worry about growing or shaving a beard. That just sounds like way to much extra work. :) Though it was fun being Joseph for a day. 

Impulse Traveling.

Today at my SOGO site, I had some good life chats with a group of seniors and some other volunteers. We were playing this game where you roll a dice, and the number you get shows you what card you have to answer. Each card had a different question on it, so we would go around answering questions. The game was called, "Getting to know you better."

There was only one slight problem, we kept getting off topic. Now that wasn't actually bad, it was quite good. At one point, one of the senior (lets just call him Joe) got onto the topic of impulse traveling. Apparently he was an impulse traveler in his youth. He would decide to go there, and when he got there he would call his wife and ask, "Guess where I am?" Of course his wife didn't like that too much, but that didn't stop him one bit.

He went up to Alaska for just two days one time, without telling anyone. He said that he would always travel alone. Joe also told us the story of him calling his wife from Amsterdam, he had just decided to pop over to Europe for a bit. This was all when he had kids even. What a guy. I am surely impressed (by him and his wife), and bit inspired as well. Maybe my next blog post will be from Japan XD (if only I weren't a poor high school student.)