Apologies

So to my dear readers, I am terribly sorry to lately announce that I will be taking a break from blogging until after school lets out, and that will be May 25th. What with finishing assignments, getting caught up, and finals fast approaching, I haven't found time to blog, or just plain forgotten to. One of those moments where you mean to do something, and then get distracted and forget. Repeat that at least several different times, and you have me. So, soon enough now, I will see how I did for my first year in high school, and how my summer starts off. So here are some things that happened and are going to happen.

What did happen in the last three weeks:
*Went on a three day trip to Anchorage, and toured UAA
*Went on a three day trip to Old Harbor to learn about DC electric currents (super fun!)
*Got a third horse, a chestnut brown thoroughbred, named Junie B. She's 18 years old, same as my horse.
*Been driving a lot more.

To happen soon:
*Graduate the ninth grade with decent grades
*Leave Chiniak School and go to the high school
*Krab Fest
*Five-day hike on a trail close to Anchorage.

Thanks All, and you will hear from me soon!
 

More Than A Feeling

So anyone reading this who experienced a sibling leaving the house for the first time might know what I am talking about. My oldest brother, Abe, has already moved away, and I cried every night for nearly a week when he left. Which I think is kind of funny, because for the longest time, I seriously didn't like him. In fact, none of my siblings liked him when we were younger. He would get so mad, even over the dumbest things. Once, I tagged him 'too hard' and he ran after be until I locked myself in my room and stayed in there for over an hour. There would be other times where we would be running to the house "Abe's gonna kill me!" oh, what times those were. But then, he left to boot camp in South Carolina for the National Guard. And all of a sudden, my heart just shattered. I've only seen him a little while after that, and I miss him so much. I admit, he has matured greatly, but he is still my brother, and I love him dearly.

And then there's Erik. That lug of a boy has the body of a grown man, but still the childish manner of a 12-year-old. He is, how do you say, a smart alec wise guy sometimes, but others still, he's a six-year-old laughing all giddy like after he pranks someone really bad. He's leaving in a month to Texas for the Air Force Boot Camp. I am slightly happy that he is leaving 'temporarily', but only because that means I get his room. A room all my very own. I did have it before when Abe left, but then his girlfriend moved in. But at the same time, I feel ashamed for saying that. Yeah, leave already so I can have your room! Not what I really want. But, kids grow up. And I know that one day I will leave too. And I am so unprepared for that transition.

I don't think anyone is truly ready, until finally, it's time.

A No-Title Blog That Apparently Has A Title😂

Good day, my readers! I am so sorry for the long delay, but I was on a trip to Anchorage, and there was no wifi where I stayed. How evil! It was, just a bit. I mean, I think that I am the only sixteen-year-old without a cell phone, so I rely on my computer to text my parents.

Anyways, just dropping a little note, to ask why I got no comments from my readers on the game!😢😢😢 Was it that bad???????

Please give me tips on what blogs you would like to see, and how long, because I try to keep them short and simple. Like this one. Ask me questions, see if we have anything in common. ALSO, invite me to your blogs. Obviously most of you will have them, I'm sure. And I will talk more about my trip in the next blog. Technically, right now I am supposed to be reserching Shakespeare. 😖

Lets Play A Game

Don't worry, it's nothing like all those horror movies. I really want to start seeing what my public sees, and wants to see.

I was sitting on the bus ride home, thinking of HOW I could get this going. I follow Rick Lax on Facebook, an awesome magician, when I don't figure out how he did it, and he has given me an idea or two. So, here's how it's gonna work, through trial and error.

All you have to do is comment, like 'Hey, I love your blogs, but I want to see more on horses."

And say there are six comments. I would take a die, and roll it. And if you happened to be the second comment, and I rolled a two, then my next post would be about horses.

Let's see what becomes of this. Maybe I will make it an annually Monday thing. :-)

And PLEASE don't feel scared to comment. Whatever it is that you write, I won't judge. What you put on is up to you, not me. Please, please, please put some comments!

As Unique as a Unicorn!

Exactly what the title says. Why, you may ask? Because everyone in the world is different. No one is at all exactly like someone else. Sure, you may have something in common, but that doesn't mean that anyone can tell or make you do something that goes against your personal standards. And that can be anything: listening to music, playing a game, wearing someone's clothes, etc. Anything that you don't want to do, doesn't make it your fault. Trust me on that.

I knew someone once, whom I thought was my friend, but it now turns out that she wasn't. (not Elizabeth) She changed to please people, giving her the nickname 'chameleon'. See, when you change to make someone happy, you yourself will not be. It's like my other blog, talking about makeup. Your putting a falsehood up, giving off impressions, but at the end of the day you will have to wash it off.

And I'm not saying that you, the person reading the blog, is a fake. You are unique, in more ways then one. God made you special. So before I close this one, I want to say something that Ronald Reagan once said, in reference to lefties (me), and mixed cultural families:
"All great change in America begins at the dinner table."
And that, my friends, is so very true.

Those Embarrassing Moments In Time

So we all have those photos that we wish were burned, right? Ugh, same. I actually have some that should never have been taken in the first place. But hey, blackmail, right? That's what my mom always says. So take a moment to look at some of these pictures taken within the last few years, and have a good laugh.

My mom and one of my brothers. I can't for the life of me remember what he was talking about besides the fact that he was imitating someone. Maybe Jeff Dunham in a pries? That was probably the best trip we took so far; driving all the way from Homer to Fairbanks and back again within two weeks. It was something alright. Then this picture, of one of my little sisters eating a sour raspberry.

Continued by my brother dressed as Minnie Mouse.  He is such a goob!

So you know those scary pics that you see pop up at the end of those videos you show your friends to make them freak out? Well, this could totally used for one. My youngest sister, making a face unlike any other.

The two most perfectly timed photos ever taken. Me and my best friend Elizabeth above, and my oldest brother dressed up for prom below.

These pictures are what memories are made of. You look at them later on in life and laugh about the good times shared with those in your life. Memories are what makes life more understandable, when you look back at what made you happy. So a good trick to do, is to get the most hilarious picture you have ever taken, and put it in your wallet, pocket, purse, etc. and when you feel down, just pull it out and have a laugh. :-)

School Food

Ok, so last Monday, I saw that we were going to have a chicken salad for lunch, and i was honestly too lazy to make lunch. So I told our lunch lady when I got to school that I was having lunch. And do you know what my amazedly envisioned chicken salad turned out to be? A can of cat food and a bag full of cracker crumbs.

So I had to substitute in my BBQ Pringles, pumpkin seeds, and various fruit cups to make this my new wholesome lunch of the day. Yum, so healthy, too.

And that was my lunch. Because the stuff that the school board was trying to feed us was absolutely disgusting. Absolutely balderdash for the people who thought that we might have actually enjoyed pretending to be a cat. If our cats would even eat the chicken. That I will never know. We need REAL food for lunch! Pizza, meatloaf, teriyaki chicken on rice, chili, real food for real people!

Stereotypes Are....

Well, to me, they mean garbage. Their junk-not real or fake. Stereotypes are society made beliefs about different types of people, places, or things. Sharks are born to kill (so not true) police officers eat doughnuts, and Alaska we live in igloos. See what I mean? Society has created these  'beliefs' for what purpose? To make life easier? I mean, whose benefitting from this? 

Alaska seems to be a major disastrous stereotype state. I have had countless encounters with people, tv shows, and even advertisements that portray Alaska as some form of the Arctic. One girl I chatted with once asked me how we got food every day. She was going on about asking what kinds of animals we ate, and if we were next to Hawaii, why was it so cold where we were, but not in Hawaii? I was having the greatest time just seeing the kinds of things that she thought were real. 

Then the confusion happened. I had to tell her that Alaska was connected to Canada, and that we were right above Washington state, and that we were the biggest state in the U.S. which really confused her. Then, to make it even MORE funny, I had to explain to her that we had stores, giant shopping malls on the mainland, paved roads, heck, even Starbucks on our puny little island. 

The point that I am trying to get across is that sometimes we just need to see things for ourselves. Or just not believe what society wants you to believe. There are those things that need to be seen and not heard. 

Beauty Isn't Life

 Yesterday, I learned that beauty deceives people. Not necessarily all women, but those who dress themselves up to be something that their not. Through our youth group lesson last night, I realized that self obsession can lead to eternal damnation.

Now obviously not all women try to purposely present a fake self, and who said that makeup is a bad thing? Me personally, unless it's a formal function, I just throw mascara on like if I'm going to town. I dress tomboyish, depending on my mood. Some days it'll be clean pants and a crisp colored blouse, while other days, like when I really don't care, it's my dirty sweat shirt I wear during welding and a
t-shirt that really needs to see detergent. Laundry is a horrible chore, if you ask me.

Totally off topic. What got me most was how people can be insecure about themselves. And I deal with that too. Oh, my skin is weird, I don't like my hair, I look like a freak,  my cheeks are so red, (I have a skin condition) I'm too fat, my eyebrows look like a rat's nest; those thoughts drift around my head day after the day. But what I do, is that I look at my good spots. My nose is the perfect size, I'm sixteen and I don't have any acne problems, my facial skin is really smooth, my eyes have never looked so blue. And if that doesn't work, I always go to my mom, and she always says the same thing. "Rebekah, God made you perfectly beautiful in His own way." Mom's are always there when you need them.

But the more you spend in front of the mirror, then the more you are going to pick at yourself until one day you will consider yourself so ugly, when others think that you are a beautiful person. Think about it.

1 Peter 3:3-4

3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

God Will Make It Happen

And it's true. Even if you don't understand what exactly He is making happen, well happen, God does it for a reason. Ever hear someone say that 'everything happens for a reason'? Well, this is it. Let me tell you a little story.

So for the past few years, I have had my heart set on getting a Mini Cooper as a car, someday in my life. I got my permit the beginning of 2016, but we didn't have any decent vehicles for me to start on. So I waited, and prayed, and waited some more. Two weeks ago, my dad found a car. A dark blue 2006 Mini Cooper for $7500 in Fairbanks. It had been very well taken care of by the woman who owned it, practically a spoiled car,  and before I knew it, my Dad called me and said that he bought the car.

Even now, I still don't believe it. Like my thoughts are deceiving me. My dream became a reality. Now of course, I live in Kodiak, and Fairbanks is a long time away. So I prayed that God would give me an opportunity. That same day, Dad came home, and asked if I didn't mind him and my mother taking a 'test drive' before me. The day after tomorrow, Wednesday 5th of April, my parents will depart via plane, and then proceed to drive my car home.

If you have your heart set on something, and if you pray, God will make it happen. He always does.

John 15:16 says this:
"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you."

The Most Dangerous Game - The Eccentric vs The Sane

The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Conwell is a fictional short story about a maniac who lives to trophy hunt. So after he conquered hunting around the world, he became beside himself, as he had nothing to do. No excitement, no drama, no challenge in hunting animals for joy. Until he discovered what was really a challenge: hunting people. You can read the full story here.

In my way of thinking, General Zaroff is a very crazy man. He tricks and entraps people into this game of his, and the story still gives me the chills. Why? I have no idea. But I was thinking, wouldn't Rainsford become sort of like the General since he killed him in the end? Would he do the same, hunting people because of the thrill? Think about it.

The Bet- Life, Consciousness, and Existence

The Bet is a short story about a banker and a lawyer who don't agree on how a prisoner should be executed - through years of imprisonment, or the death penalty. You can read the full story here.

The lawyer thought that the imprisonment was better than the death penalty, and therefore he bet that he could stay in a cell happily for fifteen years. The banker took him up on this deal and said that if the lawyer stayed in solitary confinement for the full time, he would pay the lawyer two million dollars, which to him wasn't much since he was a millionaire.

The lawyer became depressed and deprived of good health during his time, but he learned to cope with it as he studied and learned six languages, and read a vast multitude of books. He learned hard through fifteen long years that he despised the human race. On his last night, he wrote a letter to the banker and left, therefore revoking the bet.

The banker was utterly confused at the letter, as he couldn't understand why the lawyer would back out of two million dollars. The lawyer explained that he didn't like the wisdom the books poured out to him and that humans were

"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand you." 


What amuses me the most, is the fact that the banker went into the lawyer's cell the last night of the bet to kill him. While the lawyer was suffering through no human contact, the banker was growing more broke each year the passed, as he was worried about having to pay the lawyer. That was where he read the letter. And when he was finished, he kissed the man atop the head, who was sleeping at his table, and the banker left.

*********************************************************************************

I don't really enjoy political topics, however, everyone has their own opinion, and I need to respect that. But the fact of the matter is that this was an English assignment for school, and my best friend told me that she believes the assignment was to help us kids understand how to think more abstract. In my own, respected opinion towards others, there should be both death penalties and life sentences. For those men and women who have done the unthinkable, their lives should be brought into a courtroom for a jury to decide their fate.

But there are those who should get a second chance at life. To only spend a portion of their lives in prison, and to then be on parole. The thing with people is that they can learn from their mistakes. They can learn right from wrong. And what if they were wrongly accused? Take the consideration that whatever it was someone else did, some other person was thought of doing it. I actually have a cousin who was falsely accused of a crime due to the fact that he looked almost exactly like the culprit, and was in the same area. No, he wasn't charged because he had friends with him who vouched where he was at the time of the crime. But if he was alone, do you really suppose they would have believed him? I don't think so either.

I want to end on a positive note, and I want my readers to know that I mean no disrespect if my opinion is not your own. I am not a bias person, and I stand by with what I say. But know that your opinion is yours as well, and I won't dislike you if you don't agree with me on what I say. It's just the way the world goes round.

Friends

Friends can be one of the best things that can ever happen to you. They make you laugh, make you cry (not me) and can be an all-around pleasant audience to have when you want to tell stories.

                          Elizabeth (orange), me (purple), and her black Lab, Pepper, at the beach. 

What I find absolutely hilarious, is how much my best friend (Elizabeth)  and I argue. Time and time again we have actually argued to the point of putting us both in silence. And that is usually hard to do. We could argue over some of the most ridiculous things and actually get mad about it. Of course, we always decide that it is dumb to argue about it, and we almost always end up laughing later on.

 But the best friend that I have is also really special. For the past five years, she has never strayed from me. She and I are practically joined at the hip when it comes to true friendship. For as long as I have known Elizabeth, she has always been the crazy one. Eli would be the one jumping off a 200-foot cliff into the water, while I am laying on the ground screaming that if she were to die, I would kill her later on. Of course, it would be horrible, and I would never really do it, but sometimes that is just how I think.

The most perfectly timed picture while at a museum. Yes, those objects we were allowed to play with.   

See, me and Elizabeth love each other in the way that best friends love each other. I don't think that there is one thing that could ever break us apart forever. Eli is the most adventurous, scary and unpredictable person I could ever know. She dreams of one day finding her own 'Tarzan', a good looking guy who loves her for her craziness, and he has to have big hands. Me, I'm still not sure. I can obviously create the perfect man in my head, but only God can make him come true.

                                   Being bored on a camping trip and entertaining ourselves. 


A few people that I know say that opposites attract, and I have to say that when it comes to Eli and me, we are a living example. I have always been the more quiet one, while Elizabeth is the one that makes me laugh to the point of my stomach hurting. She is crazy, while I am usually more subtle. And that is just what makes us the perfect thing. I couldn't have asked for a better friend, and these last few months have really made me thank God for the most perfect person He could possibly give me, who always surprises me in her faith and wisdom in the Lord.

The Barber

So last night, I was scrolling through Facebook, and there was this video that caught my eye. Of course, I watched it, not realising what exactly it was about. But it touched me, and I feel the need to write about it. So let me retell it in my own words.

After a barber hears his well-known regular say the words 'thank God', something happens to the barber. He finishes his client's hair, and as the man gets up to leave, the barber says, "I don't believe that God exists." 

The man turned around and said, in a calm voice, "Why do you say that, my friend?" 

The barber replies, "When we go out there, we realise THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST. And if God really exists, then tell me........why are so many people hurting?" 

The man's face drew back in sorrow. 

"Why are there so many kids abandoned? Sick people? No, my friend, if God exists, then there wouldn't be any suffering. There wouldn't be so much pain in the world." 

The man looked stunned, at the accusations the barber threw out. 

The barber continued, "I don't understand, how if there is a God, he allows all these things to happen." 

The man takes a breath in, and with a smile replied, "Well, until next time." He tells the barber to have a good day and leaves the shop.  

Standing outside, the man thinks about what the barber had said, and then notices a young man standing close by, with wild curly hair that goes past his shoulders. 

He brings the man into the barbers' shop. "You know something?" he says. 

The barber looks at him, confused. 

"Barbers do not exist." 

The barber laughs. "What? And what am I?" 

To that, the man simply says, "Barbers do not exist, because if they would exist, there wouldn't be people with such long hair as this man has." 

The barber laughs once more. "The barbers DO exist, the problem is that these people don't COME TO ME."

"Exactly,' cries the man, 'that is the point. God exists, the problem is that people don't go to Him, that is why, my friend, there is so much pain and misery in this world.  

This is so true. I have heard people tell me that God can't possibly exist, simply because the world is miserable, and God would never allow it. And that is true, to a degree. See, the truth is, is that God hates to see the world fall apart. He loves each and every one of us, but we can only have happiness if we went to God with our problems. Only He can take them away. If everyone followed the Lord, we would be such a different place. I love Him, with all my heart, and I feel happy every morning when I wake up because I know that he is in control of my day, and wants to only see me love Him continuously. His love never fails us.

My Story

Hello. My name is Rebekah Walton, and I am a new time blogger, and I wish to share my story before I begin with the numerous blogs that will follow shortly after. So let me begin.

I was born in Fairbanks but moved to Kodiak Island with my three older brothers and parents when I was two. We moved to a two-acre lot with a three bedroom two bathroom trailer. We stayed there until early 2009, right after Christmas. The house we moved to was built behind our trailer, which was soon excavated afterwards. Our new house was a four bedroom, three and a half bathroom two story house. It was absolutely beautiful.

In October of 2013, my family adopted three little girls whom we have grown greatly attached to, and if we didn't keep them, they would have gone to someone else. So then our family grew from six to nine people in our house. It was the best years I could ask for. If it had not been for God's grace, I would not be who I am today. I have the best of friends, especially my best friend, Elizabeth Luther, who also has a blog site on here. She is my world, as she is the only friend who has never left me, and I am very thankful that we plan to always stick close to each other, and never grow apart. She is the craziest, most energetic person I know. And the fact that she will be related to me in a few short years (due to her older sister eventually marrying my second oldest brother) is even more awesome because she already acts like a sister to me. We could not see each other for ten years, and we would just pick it up where we left it off.

I have a loving family and a wonderful island that will one day be far behind me as I explore the great unknown.