Home Archive for December 2010

Well, the thought that I left at the end of my last post about dance was that it changed my life. In this post, I am going to explain the ways in which it changed my life.

I started breaking out of my shell. When I first started going, I was super shy and therefore, pretty distant from everyone, except my friend Ellie. The people there didn't say much to me and I didn't say much to them. It didn't end there, though.

At around that time, Ellie invited me to go to Grace 4:16, the Friday night service at Grace. The service was originally made mainly for college-age students...but there are some high-schoolers that went…and still go, including myself.

Most of the people that came to "4:16" also came to Dance. So, as time went on, I became more comfortable with everyone from Dance because I saw them about twice a week.

I met so many amazing people and developed wonderful friendships with them. Before that, I didn't have that many close friends. Some, but not that many.

The youth group at my old church wasn't very accepting. I didn't have much of anything in common with most of them, due to the fact that they were public-schooled and I wasn't. They were always talking about who was in a relationship with who...and I have never fit into groups that gossip about all that.

Since I wasn't very happy with the church I was going to, I got to thinking, "Hey, I really like all the people from dance...and most of them go to Grace. Maybe we should try going on Sunday mornings." I asked my parents if we could do that, and they said yes. So, sometime in March last year, we started attending Grace.

The thing that I remember most about the first Sunday there was that, right when I came through the door, my friend Rachel D. saw me and rushed over to give me a huge bear hug, picking me up and swinging me around. It made my day. That's the moment that I knew it was my new church home.

Since then, I have done lots of things at Grace that I never thought I would: I started singing in "At The Door", the band for 4:16; I acted in the play, "Fiddler On The Roof"; I did Interpretive Dancing for the services on Resurrection Day (Easter); I helped with VBS; I sung in the Church choir; and now I'm babysitting for choir instead of singing in it.

So now, even though Dance isn't going on anymore, it was something very important to me and to my life and changed almost everything in my life. Because I went to Dance, I have some pretty amazing friends and have a great church family.

God used Dance to help me become a little more outgoing and more open to trying new things and meeting new people.

God uses lots of things like this to direct people in where they should go, what they should do, and who they should meet. He has so much in store for all of us; things we don't even know about yet. It's pretty amazing what God does in all our lives.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:10

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. - Psalm 139: 15,16

(originally posted Tuesday, November 2, 2010)

If you asked my friends to describe me in a word, most of them would respond with, "Shy." The funny thing is, I wasn't always like that.

When I was a really little kid, I would go to parks and if there was another girl there that was around my age, I would go up to her and say, "Hi! I'm Hayley. Do you want to play with me?" And the girl would usually say yes and we would be playing together like we were best friends.

Now, making friends isn't so easy for me - at least, with certain people. It kinda varies. Naturally, I'm more outgoing around more outgoing people. And more shy around shy people.

And here's something you must know about me: I have tended to stick around certain people...only talk to certain groups of people. I haven't usually tried to converse with anyone outside my safe little circle of friends.

One of my closest friends was telling me the other day that she used to think I was really annoying. Which makes sense, because I followed her everywhere.

I didn't really have many friends at that point, and I wanted to get to know her. But she seemed pretty determined not to get to know me. It's a miracle we ever became such close friends, because of how distant we used to be.

Anyway, sometimes I get enough guts to talk to someone and then I feel like it's "ok" to talk to them. It's like there are "safe" people, being people that I can talk to without feeling like they don't care, and "unsafe" people, being people that I think are judging me and just don't care at all about what I have to say...or who don't even want to talk to me in the first place.

But a major flaw with that attitude is that most of the time, I'm just assuming that the person (or persons) doesn't care. But there are many nice people out there that would like to get to know me...but only if I am willing to tell them about myself and to be willing to hear about themselves.

And that's the main point I wanted to make in this post. You need to remember to be open to everyone that comes into your life, even the ones that seem like the least likely to be your friend. I'm not saying that you should be best buds with everyone you meet, just be friendly.

Especially with your church family. I have been settling into a church for the past year. I feel much more like I belong there because I became closer friends with the people I already knew and then became friends with new people.

But there have been some people that I never talked to. They seemed unapproachable to me. I thought that they just cared about their own friends and they wouldn't care to be my friend. But I was wrong.

Lately, I have gotten to know so many people that I never thought I would. A girl that came to dance a few times a long time ago, a guy that I had only seen a few times before, and a girl that was part of a family that I knew from being in plays.

But before, I had only known who they were. I didn't dare try to make conversation with them. but now that I have reached out a little more, they have changed from seeming like "unsafe" people to "safe" people.

And sometimes it wasn't me trying to reach out. With one guy, I saw him at church after he had been gone for a long time, and he said, "Hi, Hayley!" It was a very simple thing, but it let me know that he did care about me and was open to being my friend.

Sometimes it's even more simple than that; someone that you never thought to talk to just looks at you and smiles or says a quick, "Hi!"

It is actually much easier to break the ice than one would think. And people really aren't as judgmental, and are more accepting than we assume that they will be.

There are always those people that are in your life that you see all the time, but never reach out to. So, if you ever think of it, the next time you go to church or school or whatever, I challenge you to reach out to someone that you always overlooked.

If you just decide to step out of your comfort zone and be open to new friendships, you never know what could happen.

(originally posted Sunday, June 20, 2010)

Some people love to play sports or love to read. Me....I love to dance.

Ballroom dancing, specifically. Swing is my favorite kind of dance, but I like to dance many other dances, such as: Lindy Hop, Triple-step, Salsa, Tango, and Waltz, just to name a few.

Like all dancers, I started out not knowing how to do anything. In fact, I didn't even really know that anybody still went ballroom dancing these days. It was still popular in the 50's, but I thought it was completely out of style after that. But I was proven wrong.

When I was about 12, I was in a play that was set in the 1950's, and so, we had to learn how to do some Swing dancing. It was so much fun!

My partner and I learned how to do the "Pretzel." It was fun then, but is still one of my favorite moves. We loved it so much, we tried to figure out how to do it over and over again without letting go of each other's hands, which is very complicated and difficult.

But I didn't do any ballroom dancing for a long time after that...I didn't have any more plays where I had to do it and I didn't know that you could go anywhere to do it just for fun.

But then, about 2 years ago, my friend, Ellie, invited me to go to a ballroom dancing class thing that some of her friends were going to. I decided to go, because I thought it would be fun. Man, was I wrong.

The first time I came, almost nobody asked me to dance and I felt awful about it...I was super shy though, so that could be some of the reason. It was such an unpleasant experience for me; I pretty much vowed I would never come back.

About 3 months later, Ellie invited me to come again...and I thought, "Well, maybe I can have more fun this time." So, off I went.

And, to my surprise, I had a lot more fun than I had imagined I would. There wasn't that many people there, so I got to dance with this one guy (which is now my friend Josh) for almost every song. He was really good and he taught me some new moves that I had never done before.

I was thrilled by the energy and the free-spiritedness of the dance. And that was the moment when I realized that I wanted to do it every week. I had found something that I could get very excited about. I found something that I love to do and do well.

I learned two very important lessons from that.

I should always be open to new things.
First impressions are bogus.

If I had never come to dance on Sunday night, I might have never developed such a passion for dancing.

If I had never given it a second chance, I wouldn't have ever gotten to know all the amazing people I know now and I might not have started going to the church I'm going to now.

My life was completely changed because of dance. And that's one of the reasons why I love dancing so much. (I will tell you the other reasons in a future blog post)

(originally posted Friday, May 28, 2010)

When I was about 5 years old, I had a Pat-A-Cake doll that would sing the Pat-A-Cake song. She was fun to play with, but I got tired of her pretty fast.

At the time, one of my friends had a Ring Around The Rosie doll that would sing "Ring Around the Rosie"...obviously. My friend eventually got tired of her doll, so we switched. We both had new dolls and were really happy about it.

I loved playing with that doll. She had two metal places on her hands, and you had to be touching both of them with your skin to make her sing. So, I would hold her hands and dance around the room with her, while singing along with her.

I loved that song so much, that I started to play it with my brother. There is this one home video where we're playing it and when we got to the "We all fall down" part, my brother fell down right where he happened to be, but I walked all the way over to where he was, and fell on top of him...and he tickled me until I got up. It was so sweet.

The funny thing about kids is that they always want to do things over and over. So, in that video, I kept asking my dad (who was working the camera), "Daddy, can we wing awound da wosie agin?" ...priceless.

I eventually grew tired of her as well, and put her in the basement. I didn't even think about her again until...

Well, I was at home, minding my own business, just being a kid, and I heard a weird sound...it sounded like some sort of music or an animal knocking about. I could tell that it was coming from the basement. I was so freaked out. For a little kid, it was very creepy.

Then, my mom and I went down to the basement to investigate and find the source of the mysterious sounds. As we got closer, we were able to make out some words...the "thing" was singing, "Ring around…ring around…ring-a…ring-a...ring around." over and over again. It sounded like a "Ring Around The Rosie" remix or something. It was rather humorous.

Then we found it, and it was just my Ring Around The Rosie doll. Not an animal or anything...just a doll. Somehow, it was set off. Even though no one was touching her hands. She just malfunctioned. It freaked me out half to death.

But I guess it goes to show that even a small doll can make a child's life more interesting...whether it teaches her a fun song, or freaks her out…or in my case, both.

(originally posted Saturday, May 1, 2010)

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