Smiling in the rain

Bad times do not last forever.

You were created for a reason, and God has been cooking up something amazing ever since He brought you into the world. He is leading you toward something beautiful.

Even though you might not understand at times, it's best to let Him take the lead and follow along. He knows the way.

You will find happiness in the end.

Remember that you are loved.

Those are the things that my family and best friends have been telling me consistently. It's taken me a while to fully understand and accept things the way they are, but I'm at a much better place now. I feel happy, at peace, and most importantly blessed beyond all else :) I thank God for the people I have in my life because I honestly don't know where I would be or what I would do without them.

Living alone in a foreign country away from everything and anything familiar is in itself a feat that is quite difficult to handle at first, and adding to that the hurdles of growing up and becoming your own person can be stressful sometimes. I've had my ups and downs in the eight months that I've been living in Seattle; some of the goods sent me soaring in the sky, and some of the lows really beat me down.

Even though my family and best friends aren't physically here with me, I thank God for technology because hearing their voice helps a ton. Just having my family and best friends tell me that they will always be there for me, no matter how far apart we are, brings the utmost joy to my heart. I feel tremendously blessed that God loves me enough to let me have these amazing people in my life ♥

Some people come into your life to teach you a lesson, but some others are meant to stay forever.

Trying out some stunts

"All it takes is a second and your whole life can get turned upside down." —Jodi Picoult

Boy, is that right O____O

My two best guy friends Eugene (the one in the black shirt) and Randy (the one in the gray shirt), and I had dance practice yesterday where we decided to be daredevils and attempt a few stunts. Eugene became the main base, because he was the biggest and strongest out of the three of us, while Randy and I became the "flyers" or whatever it is we were supposed to be called.

We were no strangers to stunts, but we tried some seriously crazy, Jackass-worthy stuff yesterday that really scared the wits out of Randy and me. Randy is a b-boy, so it's safe to say that he's become great friends with the floor, if you get what I mean; I am used to being lifted and spun around like a rag doll for dance (and even outside of dance); Eugene has some experience in lifting and executing other stunts. But some of the tricks we did yesterday were really............scary, for a lack of a better word. I got a shoe to the face, Eugene accidentally slammed his knees to the floor, and Randy became even better friends with the floor.

I'll stop talking for now and let you see the videos we recorded yesterday. Warning: please don't try this at home if you've got no experience in stunts or dance or whatever. I don't want to be held accountable if you get injured.

When doing stunts, or simply dancing with a partner/team, it's important to place your full trust in them lest you want to fail, or in my and Randy's case yesterday, fall on our heads. Knowing that Eugene would definitely catch us on time and know when and how to stop immediately if something went wrong gave me some sort of comfort, but I was still quite scared for the most part. Randy even told me that he was scared for me :p but thankfully, nothing too bad happened to us.

I want to try that backflip again because I didn't manage to land properly; I just want to get it right! Oh, please remember to use a mat or any soft, cushion-y material when attempting stunts or tricks—safety first.

Well, I'll see you in the next post!

Love,
Jennifer