The Secret Life of the American Teenager

ABC family recently launched a new show called The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a show about a 15 year old girl who gets pregnant at band camp. She is the awkward teen who would be the one everyone would least expect to be in this situation.

Now, admittedly, I watched an episode one night because there wasn't much else on , and because it also stars Molly Ringwald. Yeah, I'm a dork.

So I won't go into a huge review of the show. It is moderately entertaining. I'm not sure how accurate it is for the current daily real life struggles of the American teen, since I was the one who was baffled at what was shown in Mean Girls that apparently was pretty accurate...

What I was not to thrilled with was the way that they portray the "Christian" family. There is one of the popular girls who is a Christian that has decided to not have sex before marriage. Good choice honey. But her Christian boyfriend doesn't really want to wait, sending him to a fairly promiscuous girl, and all kinds of trouble ensues. Now, I'm not upset that they show the real struggle even for the Christian kids. Its not like being a Christian takes away temptation or difficulties of self control.

What kind of made me sad though was the way the family was portrayed. They pretty much seem shallow and superficial, and incredibly hypocritical. I am most sad because this truly is the way many people view Christians. And the way many Christians live give them reason to.

I have begun reading the book unChristian. It makes the point that the way Christians are viewed by others typically can best be described as being "unChristian". We are manipulative, hypocritical, and fake. It is sad.

How do we change this? By changing the way we ourselves act. By being genuine. By being humble. By not making such a separation and thinking of ourselves as better than others.

"... don't think of yourselves more highly than you ought. Instead, think sensibly... Love must be without hypocrisy...Outdo one another in showing honor."

parts of Romans 12: 3 and 9

I love that whole chapter. What would it look life if instead of judging other people we would show them honor and love? What can you do to shift your thinking, and start living out love?

Maybe if we could do this there would be a different presence on the prime time TV set.

"Where's the jelly?"

So I was listening to my iPOD last night, and I heard a song that I hadn't really listened to for a long time. It is a song my friend Rob Hawkins wrote one day just having fun (if I remember the story right... I got a copy of it from his awesome wife Lindsay).

It is just some fun music that has a quote from our pastor at the time.

"It's like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I give you without the jelly. And you say, "Where's the jelly?" Cause it's not right without the jelly."

The song is pretty humorous... but it got me thinking.

I have no idea what the context of this quote was originally, seeing as it would have been from about 6 years ago or so.

But it really describes the way it is when we try to view things without God. No matter what it is. Creation, science, church, food, music, pottery, coffee, and fill in the blank with whatever else you so desire.

Maybe it stemmed from watching Rob Bell's video Everything is Spiritual. Or maybe reading some of his books. But I do know it is a thought that was circulating in my head for a little while before that. And it has just become more real recently.

Do you think that we can have a full grasp of reality, or even alternate realities, without including God in the mix? I don't.

When we look at something without God with it and in it, its just not right until we put him back in.

Just like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the jelly.

Bravo TV's lack of Math Skills

One more thing before I go back to my fantastic world of scientific writing...

I was a little bit surprised at the lack of math skill on Bravo the other night.

I love Project Runway (yes, reality TV junkie that I am). Every week they do some sort of poll that people vote online or via text or something during the show and the results are shown toward the end. Now, I usually don't pay a whole lot of attention to these, in fact when I fast forward on my DVR I usually miss them all together.

But somehow last weeks caught my eye. While fast forwarding. I'm not sure how. Maybe it is my OCD for having numbers correct or something.

So can you tell whats wrong with the screen?

Aside from the poor picture quality via my camera of course.

And, no, it isn't that the circle is incomplete. Or that they made up the word tanorexia. (Although I think it is a completely valid affliction that I have seen some people I am sure suffer from.)

Yeah, the "winner" had 37% of the votes. Now, last time I checked, 47% was greater that 37%...

So I guess Suede got gypped from being craziest. Not sure if he would mind, but if you are gonna win something, you should at least be given proper credit.

Props to Suede for being insane, even though Bravo can't do the math to figure it out.

Writing a dissertation proposal

Writing. It's what I do. At least these days that's what it seems like. Now, had I really wanted to be a writer I may have chosen another career field, like, say, ENGLISH. But, nope. I choose science. And I still get to write. Oh well.

A good portion of my days are being spent in a scenario similar to what is pictured above. The location may vary, but the computer and vast amount of articles that surround me usually do not. I think at last count I had somewhere around 150 articles of incredible relevance to what I do - including an 80 page review that my boss likes to call "the Bible of Endothelial dysfunction - that my committee thinks I should know inside out. (Not to mention all the fringe stuff that could be speculated to be related. but really guys, am I gonna spend a lot of time researching p53 when I have a TON of other stuff to wrap my head around? Probs not.)

And somehow I have to run my experiments, write a manuscript to publish (which thankfully is in the finishing stages), know all these papers inside out, research animals and methods of how to take care of them and sacrifice them, and still find time to write.

Oh, and did I mention I like to have a life? Yeah. It's one of my flaws as a scientist.

But, what are you gonna do? I guess for now I will go back to writing and reading and researching, in hopes that I can take a break later and maybe do something fun. Cause Lord knows if I don't then I may just go nuts.

No wireless for the weary?

Dear local forest ranger at Cooper's Rock,

It has been brought to my attention recently that you have no wireless Internet available at your location. This is incredibly disturbing, as many graduate students have been tethered to their computers writing and performing research all day and night. These students need to be able to see the outdoors at some point as well, and your lack of Internet availability severely limits this possibility. Please consider making necessary changes so that our eager young minds can visit your beautiful vistas while still maintaining the amount of computer contact needed with their PI. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Rebecca Ward
Graduate Student CCB, WVU
Currently writing WAY too much.

Special thanks to Bethany Cooperrider for her input and inspiration in writing this post.

Bithday Goodness

Ok, so I have to tell you guys about my favorite birthday gift.

It came while standing waiting for my amazing iced mocha at the grind Saturday morning talking with my friend Brittani.

She told me she had been thinking about what to get me for my birthday, and then it just came to her...

You see, we had a discussion about a month or so ago and I told her that since I really didn't need anything, I had thought about asking people to just give any money they would spend on a gift to Nuru International. I really didn't follow through on that though. My bad.

BUT, she remembered it. So, she told me that instead of giving me a gift she would make a donation to Nuru! I was beside myself excited! It was one of those fleeting thoughts and conversations that I never really acted on, and was more idealistic than anything. But to see it become a reality was just amazing!

Maybe in your giving of gifts (birthday, Christmas, the just because gifts) you could think about donating to Nuru instead of giving someone more stuff that they really don't NEED. Or, find out another charity or organization that the person you are giving for loves and is passionate about and give to that.

Let's get our focus off ourselves and on to others!

25th birthday in Wilmington!

Some of my friends are spending their summer in Wilimington, NC, for Leadership Training with GCM. Pretty cool stuff. I knew I would really miss them being here in Morgantown, so I had planned to go visit them at some point during the summer. It just happened to work out that I could go down on the weekend of my birthday. It's also my friend Jenna's birthday who is there for the summer!

It was great to be able to spend an entire day just hanging out with friends with no pressure, and no schedule.

We began by sleeping in (which was good since one of my friends kept me up til 4:30 am!). Then we headed to The Grind, a coffee shop right by the beach. I love that place. 6 of us went and just hung out. Many of us just sat reading our Bibles and hanging with God. Some did some stuff on the computer, and one of my friends studied for an upcoming exam. It was just so chilled and laid back. I think that was one of the best parts of the day!

For the afternoon and evening, we went to downtown Wilmington, and did a little perusing of boutiques. The guys left, and the ladies went and enjoyed some AWESOME half price sushi at a really neat sushi restaurant and then got some fudge at the local candy shop. We even went to another coffee shop and hung out for another couple hours (can you tell it was my kind of day?).

Lastly we made our way to the Little Dipper to enjoy a fantastic fondue dinner. Some of our other friends met up with us and we had a great time just hanging out, and enjoying an eventful meal together.

All in all it was awesome. Getting a chance to hang with some awesome friends, and just have a day with no schedule to hang out. Oh, and getting to hang at 2 coffee shops wasn't so bad either!

Too much stuff?

Recently I have been trying to scale down all my "stuff". I am surprised at people's reactions to this, and the thoughts of, "Why would you do that?" or "That's great, but I can't get rid of my stuff." or "Yeah, just be more out there and 'green' Becca."

This whole thing really started for me around February, when we did a series of events in Morgantown called Another World is Possible. The first night there was a speaker who talked about our responsibility to be a good steward of what we have been given. His name was Dr. Sleeth, and you may have heard of his book Serve God, Save the Planet. Through reading his book, attending his lecture, and getting a chance to chat with him afterwards a a little cafe known as so.zo, I really began to think about ways that I could change.

You see, I like most Americans have WAY too much stuff. Maybe you can relate. I am a grad student, who for 3 years lived alone in a 3 bedroom apartment full of stuff. Amazing, huh?And you know, if there can be shows like Clean House on Style network (which I still find an odd place for that to be aired) then obviously there is an issue within our culture!

As I have been thinking more about this, I did a little research. Do you know if you Google "too much stuff" you come up with about 22,700,000 results? (Yes, Google is my go to shallow research tool.) That kind of interested me. There is a lot of information on these pages, mainly about how Americans have too much stuff, and steps you can take to lessen your clutter.

Any one of these ideas may help you get rid of clutter. But really are you going to stick with it? I don't think so, unless you have a change of mindset when it comes to why you have so much stuff anyway, or why you feel its important to simplify.

Now, I would suggest you read the book mentioned above, because I won't do a thorough job of explaining things here. But, suffice it to say that by taking care of the world around us we are honoring and serving God. I'm guessing that isn't enough to make you want to stop surfing the web and go clean out a closet though.

Here is my revelation: having so much stuff breeds laziness. Yup, you read that right. You see, when you have too many clothes, you can think, "well, I have something clean to wear, so I can wait a little while longer to do laundry." Then you end up with 8 loads to do at one time instead of 1-2 a week. Or how about dishes and silverware? Ever not done dishes because there was still some clean, and then it took you 2 hours to wash everything? Yeah, I've been there. Or how about the fact that when you have tons of clutter no matter how hard you try your house will never look clean? So what's the point in trying?

We are supposed to be good stewards if what we have been given. Is spending money on useless things being a good steward of our finances? Is having a house or apartment bigger than we need just so we can house more stuff a good use of resources and energy? Ever think about what could be done with all the money you spend on useless things? (see The hidden costs of too much stuff on MSN.com).

When I found out I had to move out of my old apartment because of a rent increase, I saw it as an opportunity to downsize. I was able (well, I kind of had to) get rid of about half of what I owned to fit it all in my new apartment. The funny thing is, I find myself still getting rid of stuff little by little when I realize I don't use it.

And I have less desire to go buy stuff because I want it or its cool, simply because I really don't need it and have no room for it anyway. I was shopping with some friends in downtown Wilmington on my birthday, and one of my friends asked if I was gonna get anything (most of the others were). I told him no, that I didn't really need any stuff. He seemed a little taken back by this answer. Not because he disagreed with it, but I think it shocked him to hear a girl in a cool boutique say that she wasn't going to buy anything! "But its your birthday!" He said. Well, birthday or not, I still don't need the stuff. Too often we make excuses for why we need the coolest, latest thing, when really what we have at home already is more than enough.

What can you get rid of that you don't use? Can you begin to think before you buy something, "Do I really need this?" and actually lessen your purchases?

Here are a couple more ideas to help you reduce your clutter or your intake:

Plan with your family and friends to only give consumable gifts for holidays (food, other necessities, etc.) or maybe even give a donation to your favorite charity.

Organize a clothing swap among your friends, you'll get some new clothes, and get rid of things in the process!

Borrow, borrow, borrow! Know someone who has something you'd like? See if you can borrow it. And in the same way, share what you have with others!

Try to get rid of 1/3 of the things you have a bunch of and never use all at once (winter accessories, Tupperware, desk supplies, etc.)

Take some time to think about what you can do to reduce your stuff. You may be surprised how easy it becomes after just a little practice!

The Shack

Since I have been on a reading kick the past few weeks, I feel its necessary to give an idea of what I am reading, and whether or not it is worth you taking time out of your busy life to read as well.

A little over a week ago, I finished reading The Shack. Now, I started this one because I wanted something different to read, and it was on all kinds of bestseller lists.

I had some doubts initially that this book would live up to all the hype surrounding it. I was incredibly entertained from the beginning , but just a couple chapters in I was wondering if it could keep its momentum, especially as the main portion of the story, the interaction with God at the shack, would unfold.

Well, I will say it did keep its momentum. It was thoroughly engaging, and really made me think about the way I view God, from issues of time to the trinity to relationships to love. Now, this is not a book of theology, and doesn't claim to be. Still, there were truths from scripture woven throughout without a direct reference.

This shouldn't be read as an actual account of who God is, more of a creative way to view God and His goodness, with literary freedom taken. I would encourage you to read this book and have your mindset challenged. Then, go back to the Bible and investigate for yourself how what you have read reflects who God is.

It definitely challenged how I perceive God, and how I act towards God regardless of what I say I believe. If you have some time, this is a read that is well worth your time.

The Big Visit

Well, as usual, life has been insanely busy and I have gotten behind on my blogging...

But I'll at least try to catch up some today! :)

So here is the update on the much anticipated Garton visit:

It was AWESOME to have my sister Jenn and her entire family come in (yup, including hubby Heath, 6 yr old Isaiah, 4 yr old Joel, and 2 yr old Silas!). As I said in my last blog, I was a bit nervous about my first time hosting people for a weekend in my new smaller apartment. But all worked out well. The sleeping arrangements were a bit more cramped than any other visit might have been, but there was no complaining, and I think all in all they all had a great time. I know I did.

And apparently my oldest nephew decided he wanted to move to West Virginia, and become a rock climber. Yeah, I know, I'm not sure what gave him that idea. Apparently Cooper's Rock had a huge impact on him. So much so that we had to go back another day. And he has even decided he wants to save his money to get a much needed chalk bag (we heard a lot about him needing one on the trip!)

It was nice to get to see them all again, I can hardly believe it had been 7 months! It was great to see them explore Coopers Rock, have water gun fights, decorate birthday cookies, watch movies, and even learn to play DDR. Yes, I attempt to influence them in weird ways anytime I see them. I know it will probably be Thanksgiving before I get to see them again, so for now I will just enjoy reflecting on the awesome time we had together here.

Downsizing from so much stuff

So I moved from a large 3 bedroom apartment to a moderately sized one bedroom apartment in the middle of May. So, I have been in my new home for about 2 months, and I must say I love it.

The picture is of about half of the stuff I gave away, either to people I knew who could use it, or to Goodwill (man was that a couple of insanely large trips!)

It is so much easier to have less stuff! Seems odd, but its true. It is just easier to stay organized and keep things clean (which I will admit I still have trouble with some, but it is much better than it has been in the past!). And, I actually feel less stress having less stuff just laying around.





What do I need all the stuff for anyway, right?





Well, as of the last couple days I have had my first worries of my new apartment. You see, I love to host people, have people over to hang out, spend the night, whatever. I have a fairly open door policy. But tomorrow night my sister and her whole family are coming to stay with me.





Now, I am really excited that they are coming. I will get to see my nephews for the first time in 7 months (and based on the pictures I've seen they have grown up a lot in that time!) and it will be the first time my brother in law gets to come visit Morgantown.





Still, I am worried because this means that I will have 5 extra people in my little one bedroom apartment. Thank goodness the weather is looking like it will be good so the boys won't be couped up inside all day! But there are little things I never had to worry about in my old apartment. Where to fit everyone to sleep? Where to do dinners (since I no longer have an actual kitchen table, just a bar table with 2 stools that it is likely the boys will fight over)? What about nap times? Where do they play?





Well, I'm sure all these will be worked out with relative ease, and it will be much wirth any craziness to have them come visit.

Proud to be an American?

I began to wonder about how patriotic I am (or maybe not) these days when I was watching the fireworks on the fourth of July. Now, the picture here is much grander than what we experienced in Mogantown, from our place standing on the Westover bridge in the rain. Still, I do love fireworks. Never knowing what will be next, the color, the sound, it is just exciting. But I digress.

While I was watching, I began to think about what that day meant to a lot of people, even those standing around me. Some of you know, and many would not be surprised to find out, that I am not really the most patriotic of people. Never really have been. And kinda would get mad when my grandma would inevitably have red, white, and blue paper products for our July birthday celebration every year (of which I was one of the birthdays). Not to mention always having fried chicken. Double yuck.

I would always tell people that I was NOT patriotic, not because I disagreed with the sentiment, but because I did not want to be lumped in with the large amount of people who were blindly and often ridiculously, patriotic without thinking about what they believed.

I think I can trace a lot of my anti-patriotism to my senior year of high school/freshman year of college, when I took Honors History/English with Dr. Ruff and Ms. Blomgren. Oh I hated it to some degree back then, but it ended up being a class that changed the way I viewed life more than any other. You see, it taught me the value of critical thinking, and knowing why you believe what you believe. Well, I was very disenchanted with the US as a whole at that point, a majority of which was probably unfounded and just as backwards as people who are blindly patriotic. Maybe I was just as blind as they were though.

But I have continued on that path to this day. Now I am not anti-American, or against any of the people, so don't get me wrong. In fact, I think that as Americans we have been given a great gift. The problem is how we use it. We are typically arrogant, loud, obnoxious, and covetous. We never get enough, and we don't know how to say no to our own desires.

Over the past week I read another book (I know, shocking that I have made the time). This one is called Jesus for President, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. you see, all too often we get caught up in being American, and in politics, being liberal or conservative, republican or democrat. It kind of reads like a deep picture book for adults, and is full of fun graphics that make the point of whatever the topic is.

"The danger is that we can begin to read the Bible through the eyes of America rather than read America through the eyes of the Bible. We just want Jesus to be a good American. "

I think that sums up the way a lot of us view things. WE separate church and state to such a degree that we no longer even think about what the bible says about politics, or how we should interact with others. We just want Jesus to fit in our nice little box, to come out and magically forgive our sins. We don't really want to consider how he lived his life, in a bizarre and creative fashion of loving people no matter what. No, that would be very difficult to actually do, so we take the easy way out and just think about politics in its own box, school in its own box, work, church, friendships, you name it. We keep it all separate.

What would it look like if we instead allowed Jesus to color all we do?

Would we be fighting a war on the other side of the world? Would we be allowing people in our own country to live in poverty? Would we allow extreme poverty to exist worldwide? Would we continue to allow the heinous things the government does be seen as ok?

Take a moment and think on that. Now, I'm not asking you to become less patriotic. But think perhaps of pledging allegiance to the Lord instead of to the flag.

I'll end with a little bit from the book. (Again, if you have any time and can read- which since you are reading this I'm assuming is a yes- please pick up a copy of this book. It will definitely challenge you, and even if you don't agree wholeheartedly with it, it can make you think about things from a little different perspective.) One of the authors (Shane) wrote this while he spent some time in Iraq (during which he was working with others to bring aid to those in need, even though they were from a country we were fighting against). Apparently he had been asked about being a traitor since he was "supporting" the people in Iraq.

"Traitor?

If this bloody, counterfeit liberation is American...

I'm proud to be un-American.

If depleted uranium is American...

I'm proud to be un-American.

If US sanctions are American...

I'm proud to be un-American.

If the imposed "peace" of Pax Americana is American...

I'm proud to be un-American.

But if grace, humility, and nonviolence are American...

I'm proud to be American.

If sharing to create a safe, sustainable world is American...

I'm proud to be American.

If loving our enemies is American...

I'm proud to be American."

Death Hike: Day 1

And so begins the narrative of the death hike.

Sarah and I started off our day by having lunch with our friend Megan. (Our last meal in her words, before heading off to die.) After lunch we stopped by the store to pick up some last minute things (like 8 gallons of water) and off we went to the middle of nowhere in WV. That's us on our adventures before everyone else joined us!

After a couple hours we were in Seneca Rocks, WV. I have never ventured to this area, and I must say it is beautiful. I look forward to going back and getting to explore some of the other areas nearby! Back to the story though...

Sarah and I somehow volunteered ourselves to make a water drop along our 24 mile trail route at an area where the trail intersects a public road. Now the only issue being that we didn't know where we were going, and there weren't really clear directions on how to get there. (I do believe part of the directions were something like, "after you are on 220 for a bit there is a road, that isn't marked really, that goes through two mountains, that goes by a magic bus, and up to where the trail is". Right.

So after getting lost once (only about 8 miles out of our way) we found our way to the trail.We then found a place to hide the water, which isn't as easy as it sounds when the landscape is kinda open... and then headed back to meet the others and leave our cars at both ends of the trail and begin our hike.

We met up with our other 4 friends (Brittani, Josh, Curtis, and Ricky), and made our way to the south end of the trail where we would begin our journey. As we arrived, another car pulled up beside us, and to our surprise it was our friend Billy and his dad, who were there to hang and help us set our camp that evening. At this point I think it was about 9:30 or so, and we began our uphill climb in the dark. After just a few minutes we found a nice area to set camp, but about half the group decided that it would be best to continue further uphill to get it out of the way.

Well, we were already exhausted from a day of travel, and let me tell you, a consistent uphill hike in the dark after driving all day is not too good. Also... its best to have dinner on a night like that. Sarah and I got so busy that we forgot entirely to eat, which did not help us at all. After about 2 miles uphill we finally found a suitable place to set camp. It was sometime around 12:15 by then.

It was a LONG day and a rough way to start the hike....

The End of Poverty

So I had a big accomplishment this week... I finished reading The End of Poverty.

Now, to a bunch of my friends that are currently reading it, or have recently read it, it may seem like an accomplishment just to get through it. (There was a lot of talk about how it was a difficult book to get through before I started on it, which made me kind nervous.) BUT, the accomplishment for me was that I actually found time to read a whole book, start to finish, in a relatively short period of time!

Now, I will say that there were portions of the book that dragged, and when there was a lot of economic jargon I was less than entertained, but overall it was an incredibly interesting read. A huge chunk of the book is dedicated to telling the specific stories of countries who have had some level of economic crisis, and how they have come out of that, some with great success, and others with more difficulty.

If I had the book here with me, I would probably put some great quotes from it here, but one of my friends is already borrowing my copy. Needless to say, it was eye opening for me. I may have realized that poverty existed in the world, but I did not really know to what extent, and what can be practically done about it. I am by no means an expert in economics, but I will say that this book has piqued my interest, and makes me long for a greater understanding so that I can better make a difference.

If you have the chance, and are maybe ready to read something that is a bit outside of what you would normally read, I would really suggest giving this book a try. Even if it means you just skim through it and read the highlights, I'm sure it can profoundly change the way you view things.