http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/24708
A year has past and now we stand on the brink of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything yet nothing being the same. In a few weeks we will reluctantly give our hugs and, fighting the tears, say goodbye to the people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say goodbye to before we ever left. We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends. We will go back to places we came from and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even thought it has been months, it will seem like only yesterday.

As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become. You suddenly realize that the things that were most important to you a year ago don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand. Who will you call first? Where are you going to work? Who will be at the party Saturday night? What has everyone been up to? Who from school will you keep in touch with? How long before you actually start missing people barging in without calling or knocking? Who will get breadsticks with you at three in the morning? How long until you adjust to sleeping in a room by yourself, or how long before you realize your three best friends aren't in the bed next to your room?

Then you realize how much things have changed, you realize the hardest part of college is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind. In the matter of one day's traveling time, we will leave our world of living next door to our best friends, walking across campus to eat, instant messenger, 8:00 classes, and perpetual procrastination to a world that will seem foreign to us despite the fact that we have lived in it for nineteen years.

But it is different now... We now know the meaning of true friendship. We know whom we have kept in touch with over the past year and whom we hold dearest to our hearts. We've left our high school worlds to deal with the real world. We have had our hearts broken, we've fallen in love, we've helped our best friends through the toughest times of their lives, something their even best friends at home couldn't be there for. We've stayed up all night just to be there for a friend. We've partied the night away, doing stupid stuff, but we were always there for each other afterwards. There have been times when we've felt so helpless being hours away from home when we know our families or friends needed us most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.

A few weeks from now we will leave. A few weeks from now we take down our pictures, and pack up our clothes. No more going next door to do nothing for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose random emails and phone calls will bring us to laughter and tears this summer. We will take our memories and dreams and put them away for now, saving them for our return to this world.

A few weeks from now from now we will arrive. A few weeks from now we will unpack our bags and have dinner with our families. We will drive over to our best friend's house and do nothing for hours on end. We will return to the same friends whose random emails and phone calls have brought us laughter and tears over the past year. We will unpack old memories and dreams that have been put away for the past year.

A few weeks from now we will dig deep inside to find the strength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close. And somehow, in someway, we will find our place between these two worlds.




so i am now adjusting, as i go into the summer, i will be teaching swimming lessons once again, and i will be getting back into the swing of things, but its an adjustment that takes a lot of work..especially with parents being around now.

for those of u who will be starting college at the end of this summer...welcome to your life, take as much as u can get out of it, take all of ur memories with u, meet as many new people as possible, laugh as much as possible, try new things, and dont be afraid to grow up...because ur gonna be forced to...]]> Mon, 16 May 2005 12:44:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/24708 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/24707
A year has past and now we stand on the brink of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything yet nothing being the same. In a few weeks we will reluctantly give our hugs and, fighting the tears, say goodbye to the people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say goodbye to before we ever left. We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends. We will go back to places we came from and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even thought it has been months, it will seem like only yesterday.

As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become. You suddenly realize that the things that were most important to you a year ago don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand. Who will you call first? Where are you going to work? Who will be at the party Saturday night? What has everyone been up to? Who from school will you keep in touch with? How long before you actually start missing people barging in without calling or knocking? Who will get breadsticks with you at three in the morning? How long until you adjust to sleeping in a room by yourself, or how long before you realize your three best friends aren't in the bed next to your room?

Then you realize how much things have changed, you realize the hardest part of college is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind. In the matter of one day's traveling time, we will leave our world of living next door to our best friends, walking across campus to eat, instant messenger, 8:00 classes, and perpetual procrastination to a world that will seem foreign to us despite the fact that we have lived in it for nineteen years.

But it is different now... We now know the meaning of true friendship. We know whom we have kept in touch with over the past year and whom we hold dearest to our hearts. We've left our high school worlds to deal with the real world. We have had our hearts broken, we've fallen in love, we've helped our best friends through the toughest times of their lives, something their even best friends at home couldn't be there for. We've stayed up all night just to be there for a friend. We've partied the night away, doing stupid stuff, but we were always there for each other afterwards. There have been times when we've felt so helpless being hours away from home when we know our families or friends needed us most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.

A few weeks from now we will leave. A few weeks from now we take down our pictures, and pack up our clothes. No more going next door to do nothing for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose random emails and phone calls will bring us to laughter and tears this summer. We will take our memories and dreams and put them away for now, saving them for our return to this world.

A few weeks from now from now we will arrive. A few weeks from now we will unpack our bags and have dinner with our families. We will drive over to our best friend's house and do nothing for hours on end. We will return to the same friends whose random emails and phone calls have brought us laughter and tears over the past year. We will unpack old memories and dreams that have been put away for the past year.

A few weeks from now we will dig deep inside to find the strength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close. And somehow, in someway, we will find our place between these two worlds.




so i am now adjusting, as i go into the summer, i will be teaching swimming lessons once again, and i will be getting back into the swing of things, but its an adjustment that takes a lot of work..especially with parents being around now.

for those of u who will be starting college at the end of this summer...welcome to your life, take as much as u can get out of it, take all of ur memories with u, meet as many new people as possible, laugh as much as possible, try new things, and dont be afraid to grow up...because ur gonna be forced to...]]> Mon, 16 May 2005 12:44:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/24707 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/21560 Sat, 08 Jan 2005 08:42:00 EST http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/21560 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/21503
i am extremely sorry for people who's family members did not make it through this terrifying ordeal and i extend every inch of sympathy and love that exists in my body out to you. this is something that will go down in the books...so remember it. ]]> Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:22:00 EST http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/21503 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/17548 Sun, 20 Jun 2004 02:28:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/17548 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/17410 Mon, 14 Jun 2004 16:33:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/17410 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16788 The Draft will Start in June 2005

There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately.

$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see website: www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html to view the sss annual performance plan - fiscal year 2004.

The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide.. Though this is an unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on "terrorism"] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft.

Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and HR 163 forward this year, http://www.hslda.org/legislation/na...s89/default.asp entitled the Universal National Service Act of 2003, "to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons [age 18--26] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." These active bills currently sit in the committee on armed services.

Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era.

College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed a "smart border declaration," which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance agreement" of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates higher education as a shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.

Even those voters who currently support US actions abroad may still object to this move, knowing their own children or grandchildren will not have a say about whether to fight. Not that it should make a difference, but this plan, among other things, eliminates higher education as a
shelter and includes women in the draft.

The public has a right to air their opinions about such an important decision.

Please send this on to all the friends, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins that you know. Let your children know too -- it's their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change!

Please also contact your representatives to ask them why they aren't telling their constituents about these bills -- and contact newspapers and other media outlets to ask them why they're not covering this important story.






ummmm yea so i think i'm a little bit upset about that. i mean i shouldn't be i think because i'm israeli and they have the whole required to be in the army thing...but why should i have to fight in a war i don't believe in??? vietnam all over again maybe???? i don't know, i really don't know. doesnt creating a draft kind of go against the whole democracy idea somehow??? and how could they not use higher education as an excuse. i understand not allowing class placement, u know the wealthy pay off the president and he doesnt make their kids go to the army. arent president bush's daughters between 18 and 26? wouldnt they have to go than if there will be equality within this crazy draft thing????? i don't know.....what is happening in the world.........



]]> Sun, 23 May 2004 19:01:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16788 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16751 > i will be there by myself for 3 days. how can that be beaten as a graduation present!!! i got to go to spain with my sister in december for 2 weeks for my birthday and now out of my 2 weeks in israel i get to have 3 days to myself. big time score!!!! soooo excited now woohoooooo. i hope i get to go scuba diving again cuz i haven't done that in a while. if anyone is gonna be in israel between the 12th and the 27th let me know, we should meet up that would be so fun. ok so other than being excited about that i'm kind of sad because my brother's girlfriend paige is leaving next week to go to hong kong for one YEAR!!!! such a long time. hopefully i'll be able to go visit her sometime on a break from school that would be cool i've never been to hong kong before it would be interesting to go there and learn about the culture. i watched this thing about hong kong once and tourism and there are these cool people movers like they have in the airport but on the streets!! how cool is that we should get that in new york. lol. so yea lots of interesting stuff. i wish i could travel to everywhere, there are so many places i want to see. i want to go to london again, i want to live in spain, go to portugal, australia, ireland, scotland, denmark, alaska <>, i wanna see the great wall of china, go to different places in africa, i wanna go to brazil and argentina, study the mayan and aztec culture in mexico, and climb mount everest lol not sure that could ever be possible but it most certaintly is on my list as something i can dream about haha. i'll finish my dreams later its sister bonding time woooohooooo]]> Sat, 22 May 2004 19:12:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16751 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16704 Wed, 19 May 2004 18:31:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16704 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16580 Sun, 16 May 2004 12:51:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16580 http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16530
her: I haven't, but my sister has. I don't even want to go to New York. Trust me, it's nothing like what you see in the movies. New York sucks. LA rocks. I love LA. California's great. You should go there sometime. Do you have any plans for the summer?

me:u dont know anything about new york obviously, cuz its awesome, and yes i'm going to israel to visit family and after that i'm working at the camp i've worked at for the last 4 summers as a swim teacher and lifeguard

her:Swim teachter my ass. I don't care. Talk about something interesting for a change.
One more thing, New York isn't what you call interesting

me:um i live in new york, and it is like wut u see in the movies, i don't know wut new york ur thinking about but new york city is the greatest place ever and la is great to. new york does not suck. u don't see me dissing kansas, wut if i said kansas sux, wut do u guys do there, farm???

her:Yeah, I guess that's what we do. I wasn't dissing New York, I was just saying that...it wouldn't be my first choice. Anyway, you fit in New York City cause you're a...nevermind. If you'll excuse me now, I have to go help a homeless person. I'll give him money to buy booze and that way he'll forget his problems.

me:excuse me? are u serious? who do u think u are honestly, u obviously are not a very openminded person, it really makes me sad to see that people are like this. u can think i'm a "..." i don't care, i don't need the opinion of someone as ignorant and naive as u are. how about u grow up a little bit and try to gain more experience being a person before u open ur mouth and try to say things u cant back up. i guess we just find different things interesting. ur so pathetic its a waste of my time talking to someone who obviously has no class and has never been anywhere outside of Kansas.


now i know that last one was harsh, but honestly it really makes me upset when people say things about places they have never even been. how would she know its not like the movies or that it sux...shes never been there. ugh its just so frusterating, and dissing me about my summer job? i love that job as a swim teacher and on long island its actually one of the best jobs to have because during the summer its all about the sun, water and beach here. i would have loved to learn more about kansas cuz i really don't know anything about it but i guess some people just cant handle learning about others' lives. ugh i'm so frusterated right now i don't even know wut to do about it. maybe i'm overreacting but u know wut? its not right, i'm not letting anyone diss new york, i know we have flaws and maybe everyone thinks that new yorkers are "....es" but its not true, we're just prideful. we love our city, we love long island, new yorkers love new york and no one is gonna tell me that new york sux and not have a reason for believing so without me getting upset. ]]> Fri, 14 May 2004 13:35:00 EDT http://volleyqt186.tigblog.org/post/16530