A page of life has turned.

Hey everyone!

New blog. Why? Well, mainly because Google updated Blogger.com's interface and everything here is much cooler now. I would've kept the old blog going, but I couldn't figure out how to switch it over to the new style... so it's easy enough for me to start a new one.

Besides all the technical stuff, I can really say my a page of life has really turned inside the past few months since I left everyone hanging with my last blog. Yes, it ended on a harsh note. So many new things have happened since then.

(A little bit about what's been happening)

Particularly, my family is at another church now. This forced all of us into a new circle, but it's a good one, too. I'm beginning to accept change as a healthy thing. It's interesting starting fresh with a batch of new people... people I'd never met before. It's like these people were hidden away for years.

Anyways, I've been getting as involved as I can in my church. I've started practicing with the youth band to play on Wednesday nights, and I'll start practicing with the Sunday morning band as soon as I start getting better at guitar. I bought a decent electric guitar so that I wouldn't have to mic my acoustic one... but I will never leave my acoustic roots!

The youth group at church was totally disappointing through the first few visits. I kinda kept out of everyone's lives for a while, so I didn't mind leaving and going somewhere else on Wednesday nights. Joey (a dude from church) and I started hanging out more often, though, and I began to feel like I needed to go back.

When I went back for the first time, there was a whole new twist. Joey had been asked by the youth leaders to come up with a good change in the regular youth service, and he decided that we should open up for anyone there to come and share about what they're going through or what they're learning. So he shared about shining the light.

I was just sitting there in the crowd, so moved. I had some things in my heart that I wanted to say for a while, but couldn't find the time or the place to do it. So I asked if I could say a few things, and I went up to apologize for leaving the group without having even tried to make the best of it. I was lead to tell a little bit of my story.

After I felt like I said enough, Cathi (another friend of mine) went up and told a little bit of her struggles. I don't remember everything everyone shared that night, but it was mostly about the reality of everyday struggles... and to hold on. It was so amazing. Everyone that night was so real in those few moments.

So anyways, we've been so preoccupied with the church play that youth hasn't met again for about two weeks, but I can't wait for the next meeting. After that night, it was so much easier to draw closer to the kids from church. I'm glad I can be real with them now. My friends and I are doing are best to keep each other on track and it's one of the biggest blessings I've received this year.

Things are looking up.