Regionals '12.. Can't really think of anything cool to call this.

I remember pulling out my notebook of inspirations at the beginning of this year and jotting down a list of dreams/goals that I had for the future.   They were a combination of short term and long term goals.  After I finished writing, I stared at the paper, there were about 16 or 17 in all.  As I scrolled back over the list I noticed that each would take a great amount of effort and time.  They would require me to work extra hard and at times, really step outside my comfort zone.  But, I figured that this is what I wanted, so I was gonna work for it.

I ended up posting the list on this blog and if you remember back to that post (The Zone of Comfort: My Dreams ) You'll remember that one of my goals was to make it to Nationals in NCFCA.  In my mind, this is going to be one of the harder ones. 

At the beginning of this speech and debate season I began brainstorming ideas of what I wanted to write speeches on.  I decided to do something a little different this year and try my hand at Illustrated Oratory, which is basically a speech with boards for visual aids.  But what to write my IO on?  That was the question.  I was stumped.  I didn't want to write it on any usual speech topic that everyone else would be attempting to claim.  I wanted something different.  But most importantly, I wanted something I felt strongly about and that would impact the people around me.  Finally, after much thinking I decided to write a speech on Sex Trafficking.  Was it random? Absolutely not.  I feel very strongly about the abolition of sex trafficking.  It's a depressing topic, but people need to know that it happens.  I wanted to make them aware and then empower them to want to end it as well.

My mind was made up, and nothing was gonna change it.  Besides maybe my parents, no one really thought my speech topic was cool.   "What's your IO on?"  "Sex trafficking!"  "..Oh.."  This is usually how the conversations went and they were always accompanied by strange looks.  Times like this made me second guess myself and my speech topic.  Hmm.. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea.  But the Lord encouraged me to keep going.  This speech topic was odd, it was out of the ordinary, and it was different, but I was gonna do it anyway.  In your face, haters. :)

The year started out rough, but when I placed second with it in Houston I was encouraged.  I came home, worked on it some more and prepared to take it to the Regional tournament.  Yes, my dream was to make it to Nationals, and I worked hard.  I wasn't gonna come home after Regionals and wish I had done more.  Needless to say, the Lord never left my side.  I prayed before every round and I placed my PG-13 speech in his hands.  Whatever he wanted.  I was kinda freaked out because sometimes when I get really nervous in a round I blank out and since this was Regionals, I couldn't afford to blank out.

Well, every round was perfect.  I ended up advancing to finals and again, that round was perfect.  I can't give credit to my own strength because I did nothing but give a speech, it was all God.  I gave that last round my best and then waited. Oh, the joy of waiting.

Sitting in that big sanctuary.  Watching people walk up on stage.  Seeing friends qualify to nationals was all incredible.  Finally, they called up the IO finalists.  I don't know if I looked nervous, but I can tell you that my stomach felt like it was gonna implode at any moment.  We all stood there.  They announced 6th place.. 5th place.. No advancement to nationals.. 4th place.. Conner Liberto.  I started walking.  Dang it I thought as I started walking towards the stage, I barely missed it.  Ugh.  Next thing I know Mrs. Cromer says: "And she is advancing to the National Championship!" I stopped.  My mouth probably dropped open, but I can't really account for anything else that I did after that.
 I accepted my award and walked over to get my picture taken.  I don't even think I smiled because I was in shock.  Pretty sad, I know.  But that's not completely my fault, he didn't say " say cheese!' or anything!

I did it.  Not by my own strength, but by God's.  I proved to myself that if you set a goal and work for it, then you can achieve it.  I felt so blessed in that moment and I felt like I didn't really deserve it, but it was amazing nonetheless.

So yeah. That's this years "Regionals story" :)

Friends.. can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em

Well I've had an eventful last few days.. to say the least.  Wednesday I worked at the church all day.  Doing what, you ask?  Millions and millions of water balloons.  Okay not really, it was only about four hundred and something, which is not nearly as bad.  I was there all day making water balloons with my best friend.. and her brother.  Of course we couldn't start this adventure until we had eaten, so to Taco Cabana we go! I was thrilled. An excellent way to start the day.. mexican food!  Well, not really.  

As we were nearing completion of our third bucket we got a little distracted and our 2 year old sides really came out in full blast.  We started fighting.   Now, as hard as this may be to believe, I did not start this fight.  She threw a water balloon at me and I had no choice but to return the cold favor.  So I filled one up and threw it back. Next think I knew we were wrestling with the hose, soaking wet.  We were in the church parking lot  so basically, we were like "Live Idiot T.V" to anyone lucky enough to drive by.  I'm sure, in between these people's snorts of laughter they were probably inquiring why a 2 teenage girls were having a water fight.  My response to these party poopers would be, "Ya know, you only live once.  And you are never to old too have water fights. Don't hate."  And then life would proceed as before.  This was really quite fun and so it's hard to believe that anything bad could possibly come out of it.  Have you ever tried walking around the rest of the day with wet jeans?  If you have, then you can only imagine how uncomfortable this was for me.  Especially when we went to go get ice cream and the world stared at us as if we were freaks or something, oh please. You're just jealous 'cause you don't look like me right now.  Actually this is probably not true. In fact, it was I who was jealous of them.. and their dry pants.  However, I did get to truly experience what it's like to be a gangster.  How did you experience this? You ask.  Well after I got my jeans wet they became like 5 sizes bigger and began to sag.  All I will say to this is, thank goodness I was wearing a belt 'cause I sure didn't want my "pants on the ground".   In the end, I didn't care that I looked like a wet hobo, I was extremely happy.  I'm very blessed to have such an amazing best friend, who will still have water fights with me.  Someone I can count on and talk to whenever.  The moral of this story is: Keep your friends close and the water hose closer.  

On a more serious note, don't take advantage of those people God puts in your life.  I can assure you they are there for a reason.  They should be a blessing to you.   My friends are definitely a blessing to me.  And also, don't go through life as a boring person.  Sometimes crazy is good. ;)

A Thanksgiving Tribute

And again, Thanksgiving has come and gone, but just because the day is over doesn't mean the spirit should be also.  We may not 'chow down' on turkey everyday but we can still choose to be thankful everyday.  We should take every opportunity to show gratitude.

What did we do this Thanksgiving?

We left early Thursday morning, about 8:30.  A little later than I had originally hoped but hey, we're the Liberto's remember?  I should've expected nothing more.  Anyway, we were out by 8:30 and we started traveling to Houston.  I was content, we listened to Narnia in between reading and listening to music, and the trip just flew by!  Although, for us yearly Missouri travelers, the trip was nothing.  We were supposed to eat about one o' clock and in hopes of not getting there late, we were racing against time.  Don't worry though, no speed limits were crossed.  We arrived just in time, about 12:45 actually, were we lucky or what!  And get this, we didn't even get lost!  This was a big thing for us.  Those maps are pretty complicated, believe me.  Well, the food was absolutely delish and I ate a lot, as always on Thanksgiving day. After this we all went outside to enjoy the weather, I was patiently waiting for it to get colder.  And just my luck, it starts pouring rain.  But this was the fun part!  Running back to the house, occaisonally taking refuge under large trees. I took refuge under Stephen's 40 dollar hat. :)  Don't worry, It didn't last very long at all and we headed back out over to the fake, manmade lake.  I believe 'Unswimmable' is an accurate term for it.  We hung out there for a while and then in the car and off to Huntsville!  The remainder of the trip was more than fun, I had recieved the cold weather I wanted and I spent the rest of my Thanksgiving break with people I really enjoy being around.  We made fires, watched movies, went bowling, jumped on the trampoline with sleeping bags and made tons of unforgettable memories.  I realized how grateful I was to have such awesome friends and I hope we will continue to be friends.  Thanks, guys, I love you all. :)

Thanksgiving comes only once a year, but this doesn't mean we should set aside only this day to be thankful.  We should wake up everymorning with an 'attitude of gratitude', we always have something to be thankful about, even if we don't realize it.  I can say I'm thankful for my family, my awesome friends who never cease to be there for me, my education, my life.  The fact that I have a bed to sleep in at night and food to eat in the morning.  But most of all, The unescapable fact that I have Jesus, who cares for me so much that he would die the most excruciating death for me.  This is what I'm thankful for; and I try my best to express my thanks as often as I can, although this can get tough.  It's can sometimes be hard to act thankful when the circumstances are giving you no reason to be thankful.  We have to steer away from finding our happiness in life alone, when we start to find our joy through Christ we will find there are many things to be thankful for.

Be thankful and I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving day!