Expounding on 10 Seconds

I'm not sure how I feel about posting online.

This was one of the first times all semester she realized she missed her roommates. She missed having someone to go home to, to squeal and laugh and relive the minute details of insignificant moments. She tended to think herself above that-- she frequently got annoyed with typical teenage girl behavior and tried to avoid those individuals whose only form of communication seemed to be a loud, high-pitched squeal and whose only topics of conversation revolved around boys, toys, and the latest fashion.

This is not to say that her roommates were always like this, nor even frequently so. But with six college-age girls all living under the same little roof with far-less-than-soundproof-walls, sometimes the estrogen levels became a little much.

But at this moment, she missed it. There's nothing quite like having a moment of intense, giddy excitement, looking around for someone with which to share it and finding no one. In fact, she realized he was a little embarrassed by her sudden outburst. Sighing, she picked up her tray, crushed the remains of her styrofoam Jamba cup, and dumped it in the trash bin. Her excitement from moments before seemed tainted now, and try as she might, she could not bring it back to its fullness.

Unexpected Inspiration

Wow, it's crazy where help and comfort can come from, isn't it? I'm not a huge Jimmy Eat World fan (I've never listened to much of it so I really have a limited opinion) but I've had a rough couple days. So I was sitting at work trying to concentrate this morning, and my brain was all jumbled and preoccupied when suddenly (I read recently that suddenly-s happen frequently in stories) this song came on iTunes. I was the only one in the office at the time, so I turned it up and listened to it a few times. Now I just need to take it to heart.


Hey, don't write yourself off yet
It's only in your head you feel left out or
looked down on.
Just try your best, try everything you can.
And don't you worry what they tell themselves when you're away.

[Chorus]
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be alright (alright).


Hey, you know they're all the same.
You know you're doing better on your own, so don't buy in.
Live right now.
Yeah, just be yourself.
It doesn't matter if it's good enough for someone else.

[Chorus x2]
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be alright (alright).

Hey, don't write yourself off yet.
It's only in your head you feel left out or
looked down on.
Just do your best, do everything you can.
And don't you worry what the bitter hearts are gonna say.

[Chorus x2]
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be alright (alright)

Cool Quote

"When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it into the baby's mind. And then God waits." E.T. Sullivan

The Trenchcoat

I walk down the hallway into my class. I am invisible, hiding under this covering I've made for myself. My own personal trench coat. People see it and run in fear. All, save very few, are fooled,and cannot see the magnificent gown underneath. A gown made of every good color of every good part of every good thing on God's marvelous earth. My gown, created of love, woven of the wind and sunshine, studded with poetry, embroidered with pain. All this they cannot see. They see only my trench coat.
Ofttimes I enjoy the hiding; the existing, the knowing, the eternal observing behind shades of indifference. Always outside, looking in upon this cold world where I now dwell, where all feign hearts of stone. Always observing from under the protection of my trench coat.
Other times, I long to cast off this hideous covering and reveal the glorious gown underneath. But if I ever try lifting even the coat, exposing even the smallest hemline--if ever I lift the mask, turn to them, and gaze into the windows of their very soul--still, they refuse to believe. The hearts, crusted in man-made stone, wish to deny that I could be any more than a trench coat and a mask.

This they may wish, yet the soul within them whispers that I, as they, am not what I seem.