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Thank you Sabryna for sharing (://)

The quarter-life crisis (by Unknown) It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realising that there are a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know and may or may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realising that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you do not realise is that they are realising that too and are not really cold or catty or mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would be doing or maybe you are looking for one and realising that you are going to have to start at the bottom and are scared.

You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socialising with the same people on a constant basis. But then you realise that maybe they weren't so great after all.

You are beginning to understand yourself and what you want and do not want. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging a bit more than usual because suddenly you reality that you have certain boundaries in your life and add things to your list of what is acceptable and what is not. You are insecure and then secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life but soon realise that the past is drifting further and further away and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough to get to know better. You love someone but maybe love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you are not a bad person.

One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans and money and the future and making a life for yourself and while wining the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realise is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

This month. Has been jam-packed with lots of activities from the moment exams were over.

Last time I was here, I talked about my new phone. Let me just say that it was a good thing because our family camera got stolen. You know, the Canon IXUS 850IS I dubbed "Nancy". It got stolen when my sister brought it to one of her friends house parties. Only just a couple of days after she got her drivers licence, the camera and her wallet got stolen so she had to cancel all her cards and order in a new set. I felt really sorry for her because my dad kinda forced her to agree to buy a new camera for the family.

Anyway, enough about that - let me go on with my personal adventures for the month.

Pole dancing. (05July08) One of my friends decided to go pole dancing lessons for her birthday and boy, did us girls have so much fun. We went to Bobbi's pole studio and we had our own private classroom with six poles in it and an instructor to teach us some moves and put together a little routine. Unfortunately I didn't get photos because I hadn't yet figured out how to use the flash on my camera. But yeah, it was definitely a good work out. My arm was sore by the end of the night and we were given champagne to drink while we were in there so that we wouldn't have any inhibitions. I hadn't eaten dinner before going so I was affected easily by the alcohol, lol. No worries - I had fun!

GK Reverse GAT. (08July08) Because a lot of pilgrims were coming to Sydney because of World Youth Day (WYD), a couple of us from the YFC community volunteered to take out some of the pilgrims from the Philippines Gawad Kalinga (GK - "give care") around the city and tour them around the Universities in the city.

We went around the University of Sydney (USYD), the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), and the best uni of them all - the University of New South Wales (UNSW), hehe. We done a whole heap of walking that day and by the end of the day, everyone was pretty much buggered. It was a lot of fun because there were some guys who came along who were a little cheeky and were lots of fun to hang out with. Hillarious!

100% Pure. A few days later (10July08) a few people came together to learn a new dance to perform for the YFC festival at WYD. We danced to Janet Jackson's "escapade" because we thought that it portrayed a really happy message that our segment was supposed to lead. Let me find a youtube video of the original video clip by Janet Jackson for you all to see what I mean.

University results. (11July08) Our marks came out and Mike left me an sms asking me if I went to check it but I had work that morning so I didn't get to take a peek. As soon as I got home from work, I went and checked and was kinda disappointed. I had failed that dreaded PSYC3001 Psychology Research Methods (statistics) subject. Surprisingly though I wasn't too upset and went into the city to get a haircut before meeting up with Mike for dinner because he was leaving for the Philippines for about ten days to visit his grandfather.

World Youth Day. Was a massive event. From 15-20July08 the city was packed with pilgrims from all over the world to come and celebrate what it was to be Catholic in the world today. It was overwhelming to see so many youth come together to share their faith and love for God. Streets were closed off, police were hired (but it was probably really boring for them because nothing happened), and the media were having a frenzy over the presence of the Pope and the 400000 pilgrims who came to watch the Pope say the final mass at the Randwick Racecourse. I was very blessed to have experienced this with some of my closest friends as well.

Tuesday, was the opening mass at Barangaroo and I think about 250000 people were there. Getting in, we had to make sure that we didn't lose each other, but once we were in - everything was fine and dandy. I was a volunteer that night and I was honoured enough to have the role of escorting priests down to a particular section so that the pilgrims could receive communion. I felt kinda important leading a group of priests down paths where police were keeping back pilgrims from walking into. Apparently I was also on television for a couple of seconds because I was at the very front for the opening concert where Guy Sebastian, Paulini, Damien Leith and CBD performed. The master of ceremony (MC) was actually someone who belonged in our youth group so we were very proud when she came up and greeted us. It was such a rocking night and the fireworks were spectacular. I slept over my friends house in Broadway that night because it was a late finish to the day and I was tired already.

Wednesday, I had a day off from volunteering so I was a pilgrim for the day.  In the morning, there was catechesis and learnt a few things about my faith. We had a guest speaker who spoke about how his life was affected by cancer and he came out of it as a miracle. He has a book out about it called "Pilgrimage to Life" by James Cross which was a true story of suffering and grace and after a Bishop give us a talk to compliment the sharing and then he went on answer questions and then celebrate mass with us. By the way, there are more photos in my facebook (://) account so if you're really bored - you're more than welcome to view them.

After that session, we went and had lunch at Tumbalong park and I bought a WYD jacket near the Sydney Convention Centre and then headed towards St Francis of Assisi, Paddington because that was where our performance was going to be that evening. We got off at Taylor Square and discovered that the church which we were expecting to perform in wasn't exactly the church we were given. We ended up walking all the way up Oxford Street to where Max Brenner was. We basically practiced using the wrong dimensions for the stage so we had to quickly alter our introduction and positions and the mistakes ended up being an advantage to us. We practiced a few times and then people started streaming in. We got changed and then watched the show unfold and it was a great performance by all those involved. Praise God for such a successful evening even though there were a few hiccups in the process of getting everything all together.

Thursday, I was volunteering at the Sydney Opera House but they moved me a bit further down to where Circular Quay was. I had to tick of names at the wharf for those pilgrims who had pre-registered to go on the ferry that would follow the Pope around the harbour. After that, I met up with my friends at Barangaroo to wait for the Pope's arrival after which we then went on to go to St Aloyisus College in Milson's Point to go and check out the happenings there. We ended up going to this talk which was entitled "Mission to Love". It was basically about smart loving. Loving the other the way they most feel loved because it should be other-centered and intentional rather than instinctual (://). It was given by this couple who had been married for twenty years and they were very good together - very natural and everything they pointed out was very important and so true. It made sense for dating couples and married couples who were serious about wanting to have better relationships with each other while keeping it God centered. A couple of us stayed in this empty classroom while the others were in some meditation workshop and we took a few 'class photos' and videos because we were bored. Unfortunately I couldn't upload the video's because vox doesn't recognise the format my phone took it in.

Friday, by this time I was starting to feel aches all over my body. I had never done so much walking in one week. I was basically on autopilot every time we needed to move because my legs were being used so much I couldn't feel it anymore, lol. Anyway - I was supposed to have another shift at the Sydney Opera House but I decided not to do it because I didn't want to do a half-arsed job at helping other people out. So, I was a pilgrim for the day and went to catechisis in the morning and then Stations of the Cross. But before going there, we decided to do a detour and get some easy-way and take some touristy photos on the way to Hyde Park to get some official WYD merchandise. After Hyde Park we then went on to proceed to Barangaroo where we were supposed to be for Stations of the Cross. We caught the end of the re-enactment and then that was when Hillsong Receieve the Power concert started afterwards. I ended up going home early because I was starting to feel a little run down and wanted to sleep a little earlier than I had been the past couple of nights. That - and Saturday was going to be a huge day.

Saturday, got up early and packed my bags for the pilgrimage walk and sleepout at Randwick Racecourse. We walked around 9km from North Sydney till Randwick and it took us all around 2.5 hours. We made a pit stop at Darling Harbour for lunch and then continued on towards Randwick. I don't think I'll ever view the trip to uni the same way ever again, lol. As we arrived, we were handed our food for the weekend and then settled into our section by setting up tents and flooring for our sleepout. While waiting for the evening vigil to start, there were concerts to keep us entertained and everyone was just happy to be there. We made some random friends from Korea, Italy, Spain, and all these other nationalities it was wonderful! When the Pope arrived, everyone had candles and it was so beautiful when I glanced back to see what it looked like.

Anyway, the sleep was so cold! I swear I was wearing a singlet, a shirt, two jackets, tights, jeans and the volunteer windbreaker on top of that while wearing a beanie as I was in my sleeping bag on top of which I put that foil looking thermal blanket and I was still cold. I started feeling sick the next day - not only because of the cold night but because of getting run down by all the activities during the week left my immune system low. The final mass was said and by this time the toilet systems were starting to fail. They had to shut down some blocks because the water demands stopped the flush from working. Ohhh well, I'm so glad I didn't really need to use the toilet except to urinate. I felt really sorry for those girls who had their periods during the week as well.

Late nights, early mornings and exhausting walks all contributed to making me sick. But nonetheless, I enjoyed the whole World Youth Day experience and I'm looking forward to going to Madrid, Spain for the next World Youth day in 2011!

Reunion. Mike came back to Australia on the 22July08 and he dove over to mine because I was still feeling sick. I felt kinda bad because he was sleep deprived around ten hours because there was a delay and then a stop over at Brisbane. Thanks for doing that babe! He brought home some goodies from the Philippines and he got me a black Rusty Lopez bag which I could use for uni, black supatube Lee jeans and a herBench perfume, yay! Anyway, we ended up going to Rouse Hill Town Centre that late afternoon to have a coffee and then dinner at this Italian place we decided to try and it wasn't too bad. After dinner - Mike took me home because I was starting to get a fever and he left to go home because he had work the next day.

Cirque du Soleil. (23July08) After work I met up with some friends who drove to the city to watch Dralion. We picked up Mike and Kay from outside St Mary's Cathedral and there were still some pilgrims out there, haha. Aww, WYD is slowly diminishing from the city. Anyway, before the show, we ate dinner and had some ice cream. The dude gave us huge scoops so we were happy to share the love. The show was really good - in Cirque du Soleil fashion, there were these clowns who picked on someone who we thought was a member of the audience but he ended up being part of the show. Mike was laughing so hard, lol and I was amazed at how these humans can perform these almost imposible feats! I ended up sleeping over at Mikes because my friends caught a cab home and they lived in a different area from me. I went home first thing the following morning and tried to recover from what I still had from WYD.

Weekend. I was supposed to go to the YFC Global Leader's Conference but I was still feeling unwell/recovering so I didn't end up going. I did go and see Mike on Saturday and went shopping. I went in looking for a black leather jacket (there was a pair from Sheike that I almost liked but I didn't quite like how the sleeve ended) but came out buying Bettina Liano ace jeans in stretch indigo like these (://) except the stitching isn't white, it blends in with the rest of the jeans. I love them and they fit really nice except I need to get the length altered.

Today. University classes started but I didn't end up going because I dropped of the person we were hosting off to the airport. He was a WYD pilgrim as well as a YFC delegate from Canada. That, and I have work later this afternoon.

Also, note that I have discovered chamomile tea and its wonderful flavour, yum! And what is this "Twilight" saga that I've been reading about. I need to get my hands on a copy!

The revolution of hope. There were so much things I learned from the weekend. All the speakers were awesome and inspiring and made me feel motivated to want to do things they mentioned. There were 150 members from all around YFC NSW to share the experience with. Most of which were around the 15 years old mark and made all the YFC Campus Based feel their age, lol. It was also the first time my whole family was at a camp together including my parents since they were the couple coordinators for the North West chapter in the Broken Bay cluster.

We were privileged enough to listen to Kuya Ray. I remember him being the cluster head for Sydney back when I had just joined which was seven years ago and now he's moved through from Youth for Christ (YFC), Singles for Christ (SFC) to Couples for Christ (CFC). He was one of my idols along with Ate Pam and I remember them being so inspirational and so out there. He talked about how we should go about getting the land that God has promised us and that we shouldn't just sit back and expect it to come to us without us working for it! His talk kept us all entertained but at the same time portrayed the message that was meant to jump out at us.

There was a creative showcase and Campus Based performed a dance. We were awesome and we won! Woo hoo! All those hours of practise had paid off. I bet all those who were going to go to uni/tafe/college/work after highschool felt like joining Campus based, haha! We're still cool! There was also a "Rev-run", like an amazing race going through all different stations to complete certain activities and learn from them. Our group came third even though we were losing at the beginning, woo go aqua!

Next session was split up into two and tailor-made for the sisters and the brothers. We started off with a worship and it was really empowering to hear all the sisters sing together without the brothers. Kathy talked about being a woman of God and Kurt a man of God. Obviously I wasn't there for Kurt's talk but I heard it was well done. The sisters learnt that we're already beautiful and that we should love and honour our brothers and allow them to lead in the way they should. That they need us to support them and that when they do take the challenge to lead, we shouldn't be afraid to submit to them and bring out their own strength. Brothers were asked to serve and protect and the sisters were asked to love and honour.

Kuya Harry talked about how YFC doesn't need to change and that if there is something going on in our lives, it is our own fault. We shouldn't blame YFC for us failing our studies or that how sometimes when some people are active in YFC, their family life suffers. We shouldn't allow this to happen, but instead, we need to make the change within ourselves and learn to manage our time effectively so that there is as balance in our lives. We heard from a couple of sharers that it was possible for people to be leaders in YFC and still do well in all aspects of life.

Saturday night all the campus girls (Kathy, Alexia, Frannie, Myself) plus Mary, Marigold, Pia and Dorothy all slept in one room. There were seven beds in the same room and there were two heaters and it was nice and warm. Everyone was really tired so after a bit of talking, one by one us girls all went to sleep. I was the first to greet Frannie a happy birthday since it was past midnight already and she almost forgot it was her special day.

Sunday morning, there was another session where Joseph talked about sustaining our path towards the promised land and pretty much wrapped up all the sessions and talks that were heard. All in all, the weekend was loads of fun. The worships were really uplifting they made people feel like surrendering everything up to God and I'm sure many were touched in their own ways. Theres something about a big worship that is just so hard to describe. I really felt God's love throughout the weekend.

Everyone said goodbye when it was over and I dropped Kathy, Alexia, Frannie and Marydem home before going home myself. Had dinner for Frannie's birthday at Thai Spice with campus people and then went to sleep. It really was a memorable weekend as I know people would agree.

Okay, this was one huge break. I'm doing my reflection journal for my Science and Religion subject. Exams are in two weeks and I'm so lucky to only have two exams. One on the 22June07 and the other on the 28June07.

Also, I'm working on Wednesday night for the State of Origin at Telstra Stadium. And so far I've been working on the registers so I don't have to cook. And I've also been lucky enough to work on the members only floor so I get to wear nicer uniform than everyone else, woo!

Ack! I've got a sore throat which I think happened as a result of the busy weekend I had.

Execom retreat. I had a really really good time on the weekend. Seriously, I learnt so much and had so much fun. We had guest speakers and they were really effective in the messages they were trying to convey and the fact that they were from the previous generation only reaffirmed that. We could really see the vision that God entrusted on us is being passed on the way it should be. Our vision is "A society renewed in Christ through the campuses" so that's what we're trying to uphold.

We heard talks about the importance of our vision, serving with love, the correct attitudes to leading and despite everything that's going on in our lives - we have to be still and surrender it all up to God because He is the one who created this plan for us. There was this really special session where we got to wash each others feet like Jesus did to his disciples and it was really humbling.

UNSW had all these crazy dreams and I believe that it is only a matter of time that they will be reality. I'm so proud to be part of such a great team.

WYD Cross and Icon. To top off an already very inspiring and eventful weekend, a bunch of us went to the city to welcome the WYD Cross and Icon to Australia since it arrived yesterday morning from New Zealand. It was impressive to see the amount of youth from Australia gathering in that one place at Darling Harbour to greet the symbols which have been travelling the world since 1984. Makes me really excited for the actual WYD event which I know will be even more overwhelming. We're expecting over 600000 youth from all over the world and I believe that this is what the world needs. It's going to be massive and the hype is going to last us at least another ten years.

Guy Sebastian and Paulini sang the WYD theme song and it was great to really see them singing and praying at the same time. Our group ended up in the middle near the front - we travelled from all the way at the back and squeezed through crowds to get there but it was all worth it.

 
After greeting the WYD Cross and Icon at the park, we had dinner and then proceeded to walk towards St. Mary's Cathedral. I love that place, its just so beautiful. The mass was said and the choir was impressive. After mass, the public got the chance to venerate the Cross and Icon and I was touched by thought of these symbols changing many lives. I was fortunate enough to touch the cross - something I will never ever forget.

Unfortunately my camera is not being recognised by my computer at the moment so I'll upload photos as soon as I get it to cooperate with me. (All done!) Such a truly inspiring weekend I had a good one.

Serving. At the camp this weekend was really fulfilling despite having things feel out of control, but Praise God that everything turned out alright! I couldn't have asked for a more awesome service team, participants and fellow team leaders.

I've uploaded 176 photos (out of 343 that I took for the entire weekend) and I'll upload some videos on youtube another time. I'll do a recount of the camp another time because I need sleep and because I need to do some study for a test I have on Tuesday.

I'll also email the service team my letters once I get the database from Lesly, hehe. Thank you guys so much, you made serving such a pleasure! :)

Just some photos. Here are the happy snaps taken from last night's meeting at Kristone's house.

Was good fun :)

Hi!

It's 4.20am and I'm putting off my assignment...I will return to it soon...I'm thinking that I won't be able to sleep again and then I'll have a red eye like at camp! haha

Anyway just saying hello to campus-based because you would probably the ones who could best relate to my all nighter thingo. It's funny coz this assessment isn't even that hard, it's just annoying.

 I promised myself that tonight I will sleep at 9pm. Hooray! Can't wait...I just have to get through a day of group meeting/presentation/library studying/driving/tutoring...hmm what else am I doing tomorrow?

Praise God for the good stuff and strength for the rest.

<3luke

p.s. hmm I think I might do this next time I have an long-nighter/all-nighter haha

Some vids from the camp. Sorry not all of them were uploaded, the files were too big and I don't have a program that can cut it :|

Hi Campus Invaders!

Let me just break down the happenings of Campus-Based:

08th of September 2007 5pm         - Bowling @ Blacktown
15th of September 2007 11am       - Fellowship @ Lake Parra Reserve

We'll be sending an email about what to bring for the picnic fellowship.

For more info:
About Bowling: call Tam 0404 942 542
About Fellowship: call Luke 0403 827 719
Or leave a comment.

NAE :o)