Time is flying by. Last week was spring break and I feel like school is almost over! This is a good thing because I am ready for the summer. There are many exciting things happening. Seth and I feel like this will be the best summer ever!
Despite all of the things we are celebrating in life we are also mourning. Yesterday, Seth got the news of the death of his dear friend, Brad. It was extremely unexpected and everyone is shocked. I truly believe that God places different people in our lives for different reasons. I also believe that when he takes them from us, it is for a reason too. Even though I was not close friends with Brad, his death has reminded me once again to remind those whom I love that I love them. Each day is borrowed and we have to remember to cherish the times we have with our friends and family. Unexpected turns can leave us in shock and turmoil, wishing we could change the past. . . Maybe we could have done something different, said something sweeter, or even just acknowledged someone else's actions.
I have been trying to teach my 7th graders about choices. Maybe they won't learn so much about diagramming sentences or how to identify a compound complex sentence with an adjective clause at the beginning, but hopefully they will learn about how their choices affect others. Like the waves created by throwing a pebble in a pool of water, each choice we make ripples out into other people's lives.
Several weeks ago, I had students steal from my classroom. At the time they made that decision, they thought they were being "cool." These children were only considering the short term "benefits" they thought they were going to get out of it (popularity and cash). They didn't think about the ways they would affect so many other people. Later that week, we created a list of how many people their actions affected and the list was well over 100 people long. This incident opened my eyes to a huge problem future generations will face if we cannot teach our kids to be responsible for themselves and their actions.
Back to Brad. Even though the accident was NOT his fault, at some point, for whatever reason, the decision was made to not wear a seat beat. This is a decision that Seth and I make on a regular basis while riding around in his truck on the farm. All of these times, I don't ever remember thinking that by not wearing a seat belt, this ride could possibly be my last. I also don't remember thinking of how that decision could potentially cause so much hurt in someone else's life. Now I am seeing it first hand. Several decisions were made by several different people and the end result was catastrophic. The decision of the driver of the car to pull out in front of Brad, the decision not to wear a seat belt, the decision to go somewhere at that exact moment, the decision to go to Jackson for the weekend, the decision to be in a hurry, the decision to not look both ways before pulling out into the street. And now the only thing to show for all of these decisions is the grief and sorrow so many people are feeling.
The events of the last several weeks have encourage me to challenge myself to think about how each choice I make has the potential to ripple outward and touch the lives of countless others.
This turned into a book on accident. :) My decision to ramble on and on has caused you to have headache from reading and suffer from major boredom. oopsie.
On a positive note, God has great things in store and Seth and I can't wait!
Seth jumping from the "Cliff of Death" as I call it. Yes, I jumped too... It seemed like a good idea from the boat, but from the top it seemed like certain death. At first it was only us on the cliff, but soon I became a tourist attraction. It seemed like every boat on the lake pulled up just to "watch the scared girl jump." All jokes aside, there were more that 20 strangers yelling at me to jump. I even had a 2 year old (literally 2) jump off while I stood panicked on the edge. That has to be some sort of child abuse, throwing your child off of a cliff like that. Finally after about 15 minutes of suicidal contemplation and ridicule from the crowd, I did it. Oh yeah, it sucked. Real bad. 
