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CaTsBaRk
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Name: Elizabeth
State: North Carolina
Metro: Hickory
Birthday: 10/3/1987
Interests: writing, photography, acoustic guitar, reading, helping others, being goofy, making people smile, being barefoot, blaring The Almost in my mini-van and singing at the top of my lungs, challenging myself, laughing, trying to be totally dependent on my Jesus.
Expertise: People say giving advice and cheering them up. :-)
Occupation: Student/Data Entry/Phonathon C
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  sheepstudent
Member Since:
9/20/2002
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| I am writing this with 2 minutes to spare before February 14th is over. Valentine's Day, a day about love. Expressing our love to a committed one through flowers and candy. Or showing love to our family and friends by dropping them a card of appreciation. But, like any other holiday this one has become commercialized. I did some searching and found history on the man behind the day.
"One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during
the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single
men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he
outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers.
Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and
continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When
Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to
death. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for
attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they
were often beaten and tortured."
http://www.history.com/minisites/valentine/viewPage?pageId=882
This man, St. Valentine was a man of the cloth. He died for something he believed in. He was a martyr. He showed love and an undying passion for love itself. I have had a few friends be really bitter about this holiday because they're single and have to watch all this "lovey dovey mess." I am single and in the past used to be the one that sat off by herself with her arms crossed. But I've come to realize... What about the love God has for you? You embrace that everyday, so why not on Valentine's day? Realize that God is holding you tightly and that he LOVES you! He's CRAZY, head over heels for you! And he's never going to let you go, never. And sure, Prince Charming isn't here right now to sweep you off your feet, but take this time that you are single and just be totally devoted to God! When you do find someone or they find you, you will still be completely devoted to God, but you'll know you who are and will not depend on the other person to define you. Because well, God defines you. So, stick that in your juice box and suck on it.  
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| I realize I wasn't in class on Friday and that was due to a combination of illness and utter exhaustion. The weekend has proven beneficial and I am feeling better. I have winter allergies so I am always blowing my nose and coughing during this season. And I don't know what the results of the groundhog were, but I have a feeling I am going to have a head cold for another 6 weeks.
Now, onto my blog topic: Gratitude. How do we communicate it? How do we express it to others? How do we respond when it is given to us? And how do we truly accept it?
I don't know if I have shared to the class about my van problems. But about 2 weeks ago, my serptaine belt basically shredded and I was not able to drive. In fact, I was driving a friend to the DMV to get her car on the road when this decided to happen. God is so good! We parked up on a hill in a housing development which happened to be where Prof. Daryl Couch lives. 2 friends were able to come out. And a mechanic stopped to help us! The mechanic needed a razor blade to cut the part of the belt that was already shredded to allow my van to make it back to campus. 1 of my friends had a razor blade!  And the other friend followed us back to SWU to make sure we would make it. Now, the friend I was taking to the DMV offered to put this expense on her credit card and I would pay her back in monthly installments. This is because she knew I was really thin on funds. After talking to my mom, I agreed to this. So, about a week goes by and we find someone that will do the labor for free on campus. He comes out on Friday to make sure it is the serptaine belt and what does he do? He goes and buys the belt for me, puts it on Saturday, and tells me not to worry about anything!
Now how do you take that amount of gratitude? I was speechless on the phone when his wife told me. All I could spit out was, "Are you serious? You don't have to do that." And she responds with," Do not worry about it. We wanted to do this for you. Now, I will bring you the keys tomorrow." This was truly a blessing from God. An after I told my mom, she immediately wanted their address to send them a note. Now, I know my mother and I knew she would try to send them a gift card or something like that. Because she has a hard time accepting something without giving anything in return. And I have the same problem. But I am working on accepting this gratitude and will express it to someone else. A prime example of the movie, Pay it Forward.
RIP Maw Maw...12/9/1939-2/3/2002
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| For class there was a required personality test. After receiving the results, I must say that it was quite accurate. From previously being a Psychology major (and still minoring in it), I have taken my share of these tests and this one seemed no different. Like it was mentioned in class, I almost wanted to answer it completely opposite just to see what would happen. My results were as follows:
Neurotocism- Average
Extraversion- High
Openness to Experience- High
Agreeableness- High
Conscientiousness- Average
After class, a bunch of girls decided to go see 27 Dresses which is the newest chick flick. The main character in the movie has been a bridesmaid 27 times hence the title of the movie. She loves weddings, but doesn't know how to say no to people and finds herself living off of other people's happiness. And she realizes how miserable she really is when her sister and boss decide to get married. She has had feelings for her boss and when she finally gets the courage to tell him, he meets her sister. Very Hollywood I know, but still a great movie. The humor in it was tasteful. Well, Miss Miserable meets Mr. Cynic. Mr. Cynic is a journalist who oddly enough writes the Commitments section in the newspaper. Mr. Cynic's cynical front is only to protect himself since he got left at the altar some time ago. Case and point, these two wind up falling for one another and discover they'd rather fight with each other than be falsely happy with someone else. And that's the beauty of this movie. The two of them realize that when communicating with one another, they are going to fight and have disagreements. But, they know it's worth it because they know they love each other and that gets communicated through and over the fights. And they took their relationship to the level of marriage. Granted, Hollywood has a way of twisting romance, but this film showed the dirt and grim that comes along with a relationship. But also, it showed the joyfulness that comes with loving someone even when they're frustrated with one another.
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| After reading about the principles of interpersonal communication, I have to agree in all cases with the statement," Actions speak louder than words." I've always thought about why we have body language and I realize that God made it essential for communicating with others. For example, words alone cannot express how much you love someone. I would like to think the person you say those three "small" words to will grasp the weight behind them with your ear to ear smile, the firmness when you embrace them, and just the little things you do for them. Even when someone just tells you that they love you, you can see it in their eyes. Their eyes will sparkle. I may be getting too poetic, but that's just another quirk about me. Annoyance and aggravation are 2 other things that can be highly interpreted through body language. When I am annoyed with someone, I tend to roll my eyes, sigh slightly louder than I usually would and I will fidget with something like the zipper on my coat. After reading this section, I realize that I need to pay more attention to my body language in certain situations. 
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| Ok, so I know it's been basically forever since I have been on Xanga. I suppose it's obvious that I have moved on to Facebook and Myspace. However, my old entries hold too many memories to delete this blog. It has shown me how much I have grown just by the way I type. And you can actually see my transformation when I became a Christian because I was not saved when I started this blog. But anyways, I am back to Xanga for at least a semester. My class Interpersonal Communication requires to keep a blog about what we talk about in the class and our opinions. And I enjoy blogging, so this should be fun.  Here goes the first entry in which we have to describe ourselves.
I am a person.
compassionate
To begin with, I did not become a Christian until I was 16 and a junior in high school. I still very much cared for the people in my life, but when I became saved, my love was able to be even more selfless because I had finally found the source of truth and love. I had finally found the one true love that will never die and never will be based on condition. I want to help people in way possible hence why my major is Human Services. I used to be a VERY quiet person and avoided confrontation at all costs. But now, I love interacting with all people and when I have a problem with you, I will tell you. Of course, it's in private and in a loving manner. I tend to want to take on everyone else's problems to forget about my own. But I realize that in the end, people have to finish their own battles in life even if I helped them in a certain stage of the battle. Laughing is a wonderful creation by God and it's one of my favorite things to do especially with family and friends. And for the randomness of me, I've been writing poetry and short stories since I was about 8 years old. I've recently picked up song writing which is basically poetry with a tune. Card and board games tickle my fancy especially Texas Hold Em' and Apples to Apples! With being a compassionate person, I am also very trusting and tend to cling tightly to friendships sometimes. It may come from my abandonment issues with my father leaving me at an early age, but God has gifted me with the ability to love deeply and well, I don't mind it at all.
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