At the beginning of the week, I had a series of doctor’s appointments so that I could get ready for college and stuff (because apparently my mother thinks it’s perfectly okay to schedule appointments one right after another so that we can “get them over with.” No, Mom, actually I’d sort of rather let my body recover sufficiently from one visit before moving on to the next torture chamber doctor’s office, but thanks anyway?) Anyway, somewhere in there, I had a dentist appointment, which even ordinarily are just tons of fun for me (I have to take a quadruple dose of antibiotics beforehand, which just makes my stomach feel wonderful, if wonderful is the same as “just got run over by a large truck”.)

So, I’m at the dentist, sitting in the chair, holding my stomach and trying to ignore the fact that there’s someone poking around my gums with a sharp metal object, when I’m told that I’m finished, but I have to get an x-ray. To which I sort of respond, “Whatever, can we just finish as quickly as possible so I can go home and vomit?”- which I didn’t actually say (It was implied), but I just sort of nodded sickly. A few minutes later, the dentist comes in and starts talking to the hygienist sort of quietly and quickly. Normally, I’m pretty good with keeping up with these sort of conversations, but I think too much of my brain was devoted to not throwing up, so I didn’t really pay attention. At least, I didn’t pay attention until the dentist told me I had wisdom teeth, and they needed to come out. Soon.

She asked me if I’d felt them coming in at all- I hadn’t- and she mentioned that she was surprised I wasn’t in any pain. Because, apparently, when you’re growing new teeth and they’re pushing up against the old ones underneath your gums, it’s supposed to hurt. Now that I know they’re there, though, they do hurt a little bit. That’s nice, huh?

So yes, I have the pleasure of having my wisdom teeth removed soon. And, oddly enough, it’s not the recovery that terrifies me (the part that everyone whines about)- five years of orthodontic work and I’m pretty well used to the idea of my mouth being in pain a lot, even if it’s not really the same thing- it’s the procedure, because for some reason, the idea of someone entering my mouth and carving up my gums makes me queasy. Imagine. And I’m not really comfortable with the whole IV-sedation thing; the idea of being under and not in control of myself freaks me out almost as much as the IV itself does (Random fact of the day: I’ve never had surgery and have never been under sedation before). Even watching my dad do his daily rounds of IV meds grosses me out a bit; how am I supposed to stand something like that in my own arm?!

In conclusion, yes, I have wisdom teeth. They are coming out. I’m mildly terrified. And if anyone has any stories related to wisdom teeth, please do share! Just the good ones, though. We can share the horror stories after mine have already come out.

A week ago, I was experiencing a thirteen hour drive back from Savannah following one of the best weeks I’ve had in at least a year. It was my second and last mission trip with my church youth group. I’ve graduated high school. I can’t go back, and I think this has yet to hit me. I’m going to miss it- possibly more than I’ll miss anything else about high school- but last week was one hell of a way to finish.

The week started off a bit rough- our lodgings (Savannah State University) were not quite what we’d anticipated- we were staying in a college dorm, which we knew beforehand, but the rooms hadn’t been cleaned before we got there, which we HADN’T known beforehand. Most people in our group found cockroaches under their beds, and my room didn’t have mattresses for the beds! The air conditioning in the dorms was pretty sub-par, too- and even though I live in a house that doesn’t have central AC, that’s in Maryland, which has a much milder and significantly less sticky climate than Georgia. But we managed to fix it up- one trip to Target later, and we’d secured an army of fans and a cleaning supplies to improve our rooms. (Apparently, the boys’ dorm was much nicer. Don’t these people know that the GIRLS are supposed to get the better rooms because they care more? I’m kidding, of course… sort of…)

The group that was running the mission trip (which was actually called Group, incidentally. No, I am not making that up. Google it.) also did a few things that were unexpected- they split us up. We worked in groups of six, and the only reason we got to work with each other at all was because we were new to their mission trips and had opted not to be split up. Still, we’d assumed that our whole youth group would be working together on one project, and when we found out that we weren’t, it was kind of a big deal. Our youth group is really close- closer than any other youth group my school friends are a part of, at least from what I can gather. We weren’t happy about being sent to five separate locations. At all. But again, we worked it out. We had afternoons and evenings to spend together, anyway, and the boys usually stayed at our dorm until 10:30.

As for the actual work, I feel like at least my group got a lot done- we managed to paint an entire house by ourselves. I got to work on trim! The couple was very friendly (which provided a nice contrast to the lady we helped on our last mission trip, who barely spoke to us), and the wife even came out to sit with us and participated in our daily devotions sessions. By the end of the week, though, all of our walking and the insane amounts of rain that had been dumped in the past few days (there was a heavy thunderstorm almost every night) had turned the backyard of the house we were working on into a mud pit. And sure, it was hot and very humid every single day we worked, but it was well worth it to see how much we’d accomplished in the end.

In the end, the trip wasn’t really much like what I’d expected. The rooms weren’t as nice, we weren’t working the way I’d expected, and we didn’t get to see much of downtown Savannah, or go to the beach for an afternoon. It wasn’t what I’d expected- but it ended up being so much more than what I’d expected. Actually being in contact with our resident was awesome, and being in smaller groups actually made working a lot easier. And while this mission trip was a lot more focused on devotions and nightly worship than the other mission trip I’d been on, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing- I think it really helped our youth group grow. We grew as a group- both because of all the challenges we had to face together, as well as becoming closer because of all the time we spent with each other. Even though all the time together almost caused a bit of drama for me personally (a whole different story, but it makes me feel stupid), it was amazing. I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world- like I said, it was one hell of a way to finish my experience with youth group.

Also, just as an aside, Georgia has enormous cockroaches. Like an inch and a half long. We found that out- or rather, one of the parents did- when she discovered that one was inhabiting her shampoo bag. We could hear her screams and her stream of profanities from the showers down the hall.

If you’re curious as to what I’ve been doing this week, I’ve been helping at Girl Scout camp, which was an adventure in and of itself (more so than usual, I mean.) I had to help with the “Teen” group (11-12 year olds. Not really “teens”)- that’s quite a story. Many stories, actually. That’s what’s coming up next. For now, I’ll just say this- 12 is not as mature as it used to be. Or, rather, 12 seemed like a much more mature age when I was 12 as opposed to now, when I’m almost 18.