Oh My. Junior High.

I can’t thank everyone enough for their outpouring of support and encouragement after I posted last week about Everyday Boldness!  You all supported and encouraged me to pursue this dream, and thank you for all of your kind words, thoughts, prayers and Facebook shares! I am eternally grateful!

With that in mind, I wanted to somehow “repay” you by writing this brilliant post that will make each of you laugh and cry, while helping you navigate whatever circumstance you are in the middle of…all while helping you have the happiest day you could imagine. As great as that sounds, it’s also impossible for me…. So, sorry folks. You’re on your own for finding brilliant blogs that will accomplish that. 

This past week I had a little bit of a break from normalcy because I spent several days with a group of junior high students on a mission trip. There were 3 leaders and 15 students. We all took away some life lessons from the week, but mine might be a little different than the students.

1. There’s a definite truth behind the stereotype that junior high boys smell. They do.

On the first night there, before we had even spent one night, I walked past the boys’ room and literally gasped…. And then went into a coughing spasm. I had never smelled a stench like that, much less inhaled it. 

The next day I bought the male leader a bottle of Febreeze because I honestly didn’t think he would survive the trip while breathing that air all night.

We went through an ENTIRE bottle in 4 days. And it still wasn’t enough. Not even close.

2.  Sugar should be banned until the age of 16.

I already had seen evidence of this, but this trip confirmed it without question. Sugar should be illegal for anyone under the age of 16.

I saw changes, heard noises, and watched transformations that I would not have believed possible if I hadn’t seen them for myself.  Sugar changes junior high students. In ways that you can’t even imagine.

Start a petition. Call your congressman. Do whatever it takes. Keep sugar away from pre-teens. It’s the only way to save our nation.

3.  Don’t ask junior high girls for help with directions.

Some of you read this and probably thought- “Holly, you really should have known that before now.” And I would say to you that is true, but some things you just got to learn the hard way I suppose.

The first day of the trip, I had stopped to get the lunch for our group. As we were leaving, I started backing out of the restaurant parking lot.  I asked one of the girls sitting in the back seat of my rental SUV to look and tell me if I was getting too close to the car behind me. She turned around and yelled “No, you’re fine. You have room.”

The other girl in the backseat piped up “You have room before you hit the car, but you don’t have much room before you hit the man on the ground.”

Brakes slammed. WHAT?! Evidently the owner of the car was lying on the ground in front of it looking at something under his car.

When I asked why in the world the first girl didn’t say anything, she responded with…. “You just asked me if there was room before the car….”

She was fired from offering any input the rest of the trip. And to clarify- I did not run over anyone through the duration of the trip.

 But, I must admit- despite all the hilariousness and weirdness of 7^th and 8^th grade, there’s something special at that age as well. There was something that I think all three of us “grown-ups” would agree on… these kids knew how to enjoy themselves.

4. EnJoY LiFe.

It’s okay to ask questions.

As we get older, the peer pressure becomes so much greater to “have it all together.” To ask a question is to risk being vulnerable, to show that you don’t know everything…. And yet, there is freedom in that. There is freedom in honesty.

These girls asked questions. They didn’t know everything, so they just asked. Sometimes they asked the same question every single day…..again, and again, and again…. But, they still asked. Even if they didn’t like the answer, it still enabled them to follow the instructions, or change their plans so they could do it correctly.

How many times have I made something so much harder than it needs to be because I was afraid to ask? Afraid to admit I didn’t know? Scared to be vulnerable? Afraid I have to change my plans?

When is the last time I asked a question?

Call your parents.

We collected their phones at the beginning of the trip, so they could focus on the trip and not on social media. But you know what? They still wanted to call their parents and tell them everything. 

It was sweet to hear bits and pieces of conversations from girls talking to their parents, and when their parents arrived to pick them up on Sunday, I heard “Mom!” coming from all directions.

Moms will always be moms to their girls. They will always appreciate a phone call, no matter how old you might be.

Embrace Excitement

We surprised the kids with a tour of the Dallas Stadium on the way home from the mission trip. We were a bit unsure if the kids would think it was cool, but we were really hoping they would enjoy it. The group loved it… and they showed it! Sometimes they showed it a bit too much, but I was reminded how different it is traveling with pre-teens and young teenagers. They exude excitement. They breathe it in and shout it out. And despite the exhaustion that means when you’re the chaperone, there’s always something refreshing about it.

 Little things will bring me great joy if only I will let them. I’m the first to admit I usually see negative before positive, but being with these kids, I was reminded that as children, life is fun. It’s full of joy and laughter.  I know that as we grow older, the weight and responsibilities of life change that for most of us. But when we are given opportunities of having fun, of being excited, why not embrace it? Why not soak it in?

 So tonight, when I meet up with my girlfriends, I’m going to laugh. I’m going to smile. I’m going to be excited that I get to spend a couple hours with some girls who I care about. 

 

As I start a new week back at home, a new week of “normalcy” I can’t help but think :

I wonder who I should contact about getting a law passed to up the “sugar age”…. Oh and…I should enjoy my life today.

 

So that’s my goal after spending 5 days with junior highers- to laugh more today than I did yesterday.... Proverbs does say after all… “A merry heart is good medicine…”

So, in this one area, to become a little bit more like a 7^th grader and a little less like a “grown-up”.