The story goes, a girl walks into a band
banquet. Some type of story, kinda like "this one time at band
camp"? Well anyhow, I was somewhat messed up when I was
younger. The back story was that i was smoking and drinking before 12. It was not just
beer, that I was drinking whiskey, wine, schnapps, vodka, and the
likes. I did not want to deal with things that had happened to me from 4
on.
I felt so alone. I did not have more than one friend. I
was the "cry baby" the oversensitive one of the school. Who wanted to hang with the
girl that everyone teased? Some girls told me that my eyelashes were too
long. So that night, I cut them. Another time, I was told that I
was ugly and should wear a bag over my head and still at 6th grade camp no one
from my school wanted to room with me so they took 2 other girls out of another
room and housed us with a different school. Talk about isolation. So I
drank and smoked.
While in 3rd grade, I did learn how to play
flute. My parents got me a tutor to learn how to play better and I was
even given the task to help teach the new girl on flute what she missed because
she had started later than I did. I knew her in 1st grade but never really got to know
her until 3rd grade. She became better than me but on the upside she was my first friend, Cherish but that's for another story.
When middle school hit things were only getting worse on my life. I was in counseling for my
teary attitude. Now I was the nut job. I would walk across the street at 12 mile and Greater Mack and not car if cars were coming. My sight of
everything around me was gray or a dingy yellow. Nothing ever looked good to me out side of my
room. My sanctuary was my safe place to
write and pour out my soul about stuff I couldn’t talk about to the counselor.
So there's that. You can understand
why high school was so pinnacle and especially that faithful day I met a
wonderful person named Leisa at the band banquet. She was so far my
opposite from me it was insane that we ever met.
When I entered high school I did not quite the
smoking, drinking and now boys were very much the forefront of my life. I
didn't care about school, extra activities I once liked (scouting, baseball,
swimming, volley ball, band) and my grades were showing it. The band had
a banquet in which I met this group of people where one of them was
Leisa. She said hi to me and told me her name. I was shocked but
what ever, right? So later in school and further later at band camp she
kept saying hi and talking with me. I had no idea why she did but she
just did. In the mist of school, she invited me to a church event.
It was a volleyball competition with the area Baptist churches. I was
game because she asked me to do things before but I just wasn't sure about this
whole Leisa person.
Well, we went on the church bus to the place of the
activity. We played volleyball and I met
a guy. Of course I went around the back
corner of the stage in the building and was necking with that guy. He gave me an address and a phone
number. I thought that maybe some guy
would like me who did not go to my school.
Yahoo! Then it was time to sit
and listen to a speaker. I was so
hesitant because why do I want to hear what anyone has to say. It will be all churchy and stuff, I went to
my church every Sunday, what would be so different.
Then it happened!
I don’t remember exactly what he said I just know that it felt like he
was talking to me, about how bad my life was, why it was bad, and why it should
be me to have God try what type of person I was. I felt so uplifted and happy, but at that
time I just thought it was because of some guy. (Too bad later I found that what he gave me were all false numbers) Later that day, I was beaming from ear to ear. I told Leisa thank you and went home to
sleep. As my heart swelled with the word
of Jesus inside me I woke a new person.
I was happy and positive. I
dressed nice and walked out to the car with my mother. The grass was green. I had not noticed that we had green grass it
was always a dingy yellow green. When I
got to school the walls had paintings on them and the people in school had
color on their cloths. I started to look
for more things with color because I think I had not seen colors in years. The sky was light blue, the sun was fire
yellow, and the cars came in all sorts of colors. School was an amazing place on the walls, the
people, and the classrooms and on the outside.
I decided not to get a ride home with my smoking friends; I walked home for
one of the very first times in a long while.
I walked with the butterflies going by my head, the bees buzzing into
the flowers along the side of the walks, and the birds sang with such a glorious
melody I could not believe that I had missed so much.
My life changed for me and I saw the light of what I was
suppose to be amdva direction of where my life should go. My grades changed, my
friends changed (at least the smoking ones) and I began a new life with purpose
because of my new wonderful friend Leisa who just did not give up on me when
everyone else seem to. I quit smoking
and drinking (at least for 10 years). For all that she did that year I never
forgot. How can you forget a new birth! There are times that we all falter but then
you have to pick yourself up and try again.
I have fallen off about three times now but every time I remember this
story to have the light back into my heart to remember to live again. I have to tell the world about this wonderful
person so her memory lives on because he has
now since passed but “God only takes the best”.
We need to learn by her example of never giving up and that our high
being, hers was Jesus Christ, will be their to guide us in any issue, good or
bad. There is nothing we cannot handle
with Him!
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