'All Ideas Have Consequences...'

Hey!! I'm back! I survived!

And more than that, I had an amazing time!!

(How predictable was that?!)

I don't even know where to begin when I try to describe those two weeks at Summit. It was SO many experiences wrapped into one. It was the slightly terrifying experience of a homeschooler being thrown into a group of 300 strangers. It was 75 hours of amazing sessions that challenged my very core and changed the way I saw almost everything in life. It was the heartbreaking experience of seeing the pictures of aborted babies and hearing the story of a former homosexual who was abused as a child. It was my shallow view of reality being challenged.

It was heat, humidity and sweat.

It was uncontrollable laughter as my friend Aaron practically had me in stitches.

It was the exhileration of white water rafting on the gorgeous Okoee River.

It was the feeling of communion as my small group prayed over each other.

It was overwhelming gratitude as my small group leader imitated Jesus in washing all of our feet.

It was the giggles of two girls rooming together late at night, talking about boys and every part of our lives.

It was joining in the mutual light hearted complaining about the less than stallar cafeteria food.

It was the daytrips down into tiny Dayton, Tennessee with boys and girls, where the boys would be daring in crossing the street, and the girls would be conscientious and wait for the light to turn green.

It was a whole two weeks without internet or music.

It was a time where my whole self value and the idea that I had of feminity and what it meant for me to be a woman and valuable was shattered, then rebuilt.

It was hot, hard, and heart breaking,

but it was undoubtedly,

the most amazing two weeks of my whole summer.

I sincerely hope I will never be the same.

The plane ride over...

I so was not used to the mountains...the first I hike I went on in them nearly killed me. Who knew it was even possible to walk up ground that steep and rocky?

It was totally worth it to have to wake up at 6:00am if I got to see sunrises like this :)

And don't let anyone tell you Tennessee isn't beautiful...hot, maybe, but certainly not ugly.

Me, my roomate, Ragan, and our friend Nalani :)

The famous and ever hilarious Aaron, my seat buddy and new big brother figure :)

And a cute one of us...at least of me. He looks like he's high :P Oh Aaron...

I love Maggie <3

This was graduation night so everyone was all dolled up, and I had so much fun doing Maggie's make up! She's so cute :)

But we weren't always cute...or serious!

And we definitely weren't the quiet ones on bus rides...

But we sure as heck loved each other.

(Don't you love how she has a bryan college sweatshirt, adn I have my summit tshirt on? REPRESENT!!!)

So in the end I don't really know how to completely describe summit.

All I can say is next summer--TRY IT. It will rock your world, change your views, break your heart, and make you laugh for ours. All the blog posts in the world couldn't fully describe it.

Just try it.

Love,

Ariana <3