The ball is in B.C.

Hello!!

So, Matt refers to me as Stilly or Still... Most people simply say; Liz. For those of you who know me or who were on Mission, you will understand this. For those of you who don't know me and were not on mission... I apologize because you will probably never find out as to why he refers to me in this manner.

As Matt had mentioned in our very first blog entry, this blog came about in a very peculiar way. You see, Matt and this 'other guy' (who shall remain nameless) were pestering me all summer long. "Stilly... you haven't updated your blog in awhile..." One day, Matty, being all sarcastic (yes I caught it, so you can go run around the building, house, church or car that you are currently in right now, three times please) said to me... "I almost wrote a blog today, and then decided not to.. maybe you'll beat me to it" implying once again that I hadn't written in my blog and that he would beat me to it one day.

side note: you may have noticed the "history" box to your right--->

this would be my old blog.

So, here we are a month after mission with our new blog!!

Stilly & Matty... COAST TO COAST! We hope you enjoy your stay!

Just so all you readers know... Matt and I won't always necessarily (or ever) know before hand what each other has written or what we are going to write. So, little to Matt's knowledge, I am writing a blog entry the very same day he wrote his AND that what I'm going to write about is very similar to what he wrote. COOL EH?!!

I too, have been thinking lately about what I'm going to do with my future... career, family, etc. While on Mission, I decided I needed to take a year off school. You know, pay my student loans back, get some money, work a bit, take a break from my lovely hour and a half commute every day for classes and to just be more present at home with the fam jam. Then of course, the day after I got back home from Mission, I unexpectedly got this job as Youth Minister at my Parish. WOAH!(dramatic effect?)

I had been wondering during mission how I could be more active in my Parish when I got home and I think God spoke pretty clearly to me here and said "this is how... and you start september 1st." So, here I am, September almost over and I know that this is where I need to be.

Before mission, I would never have thought I could possibly put my plans on hold and take a year off, so I'm very new to this. But I'm left wondering what I'm actually meant to do for the rest of my life? Am I supposed to give up MY DREAM of being a teacher? Go back to school in one year, in three years, ever? Go to a different school? However daunting these questions may be, I'm trying to just focus on today for ["can any of us by worrying add a single hour to our span of life?] (Matthew 6.27)

I'm finding it very exciting not knowing what God's plans are while at the same time knowing full well that His plans are far greater than my own. ( "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55.8 )

Being as I have no idea what I'm doing as a Youth Minister, I may as well not have any idea about what I'm doing come next year, right? Expecting the unexpected one day at a time...that's my motto.

One of my fav. verses actually...

But strive first for the kingdom of God

and His righteousness, and all these

things will be given to you as well.

- Matthew 6.33

Intro, or Growin' Up

I'm not about to pretend that this initial Blog entry was the first attempt at writing one; I've been fighting with time constraints and the drive to write (or lack thereof) for about three weeks now, probably to the frustration of my colleague Stilly.

Allow myself to introduce... myself. Yeah, I just stole that from Austin Powers, but it's sort of vintage, as that movie came out over twelve years ago. It was that long ago, yes. Regardless, I am the titular Matty, one half of the eponymous "Stilly and Matty". I am the Right Coast, or East Coast half of the team, writing to you from a sunny and warm Halifax, which is being both unusually sunny and unusually warm.

This blog came about when I started making fun of Stilly for her lack of Blog updates.

No, really, that's pretty much the truth.

She had a Blog, which I found through her Facebook, and it ended just a few days before meeting me, which was too bad.

You see, Stilly and I came together with 51 other university students and university-age folk to take part in a Summer Mission project called Impact Saskatoon, which was held in the city of the same name in the beautiful province of Saskatchewan. Being faithful Catholics (she's better than I am), we wanted to keep the flame alive after having lived for the Gospel and working hard (and playing hard and praying hard) all Summer. Through the wonders of social media and technology, Stilly and I can keep in contact, but more importantly, we can spread our net and inform the denizens of the internet of what is going on in our lives.

Maybe Stilly would disagree, but I don't really have a SUPER exciting life, but my life does have its foibles and fun, and my mind has it's opinions and outlooks. Plus, there's the whole concept of context; if I wanted to, I could dip my toes in the beautiful Atlantic Ocean, and look beyond to try to see the moors of Scotland, the coast of Portugal and the shores of Africa, while seeing the streets of my port city en route to the water. On the other hand, Stilly can, if I understand correctly, go to the Pacific and look for the shores of China, Australia, and Atlantis. Actually, sorry, that's wrong. Atlantis is clearly in the Atlantic ocean, as the etymology of the word suggests. My bad, all.

So there's context. Stilly and I share our Catholic faith and a number of other things, but we're divided by circumstance and by the Dominion of Canada, which isn't actually called that anymore. This is our introduction, but I figured I'd let her do more intro on herself. We'll alternate, so that one of us doesn't dominate this Blog.

I also through I'd offer a little different content after the bold, asterisk ellipsis.

* * *

Welcome to the land beyond the bold, asterisk ellipsis. I've always liked that style of writing, the one that allows such things. It might've been in Harry Potter, so I'll pretend I'm being cultured and British. Hmm, yes, quite.

I've been thinking a lot lately about my future, my plans, and my finances. Now, before you skip ahead because that sounds boring or something, it's far more interesting than that.

I've alternately (alternatively? Maybe?) titled this entry "Growin' Up", after the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name. The lyrics of that song don't really reflect my thoughts on the idea, mostly because he was still pretending to be Bob Dylan then, and didn't have a very coherent lyrical structure. Regardless, these things sort of pile up into the ideas of growing up, that is, maturing. Getting older. Becoming an adult. Or, becoming a young adult, as it is apparently alright to say.

I'm hitting the practicalities of growing up, and it's okay. I'm now approaching them from the viewpoint of the practical.

Before, I don't know, maybe the Summer, I generally strayed away from making grandiose plans. I mean, I had some large, vague ones, but nothing more immediate. A year ago, for instance, I was going into my second of four years of a Bachelor of Journalism programme. Yeah, my school spelled 'program' like that, so maybe that tells you a bit about it. From this, I was going to graduate (in early May 2011) and find some work in the area, maybe in radio, maybe in newspapers. Who knows. But I had that plan.

I realized, however, that I was dreading my Journalism courses that came in January 2009. They didn't interest me. I was bogged down by that idea. So I dropped out, and went into a Bachelor of Arts program (now at a school whose spelling seemed more in line with late-2000s North America) with a declared major in Political Science. Yeah, I declared a major halfway through my second year, SO WHAT. I was pretty confident, okay?

So I went from vague plans about my future to no plans about my future. "What will you do with a degree in Journalism?" asked relatives and strangers. "Become a Journalist, of course!" I would respond, with a lot of enthusiasm, apparently. But now, when asked what to do with a Poli Sci degree, I usually honestly respond that I'm not really sure, but I'm willing to find out. I don't have a dead-end degree by any means, it's just not as clear. And no, as a lot of people wonder, I'm probably not going into politics, at least not for another ten years or so, if that, and that's also very vague. Although I appreciate the questioners often answer that I'll be Prime Minister. Thanks, that's cute of you to say. And if you don't vote for me, you better pay my campaign expenses instead.

Moving on.

After the summer, because of a number of social changes in my life in friends, 'friends', and employment, I'm looking at a lot of things in my immediate future. I used to think to myself that if I made plans, that they wouldn't be following what God wanted, and He would dash them, so just put 'em away and meander through life. But I'm seeing that that is a negative way of looking at my situation, and to a certain extent, irresponsible. I have to ask myself where I'll be next Summer, what job I'll work when I get there, where I'll live next year, what my last year of university will be like, and really, what will I do with this degree. So there's changes! Heck, I'm even going to start keeping a budget, so I can make those things happen.

So growing up. It's happening, right now. Just not maybe in the more juvenile sense, as I would have looked at it before.

That's all for Matty. Still, the ball is in your court. Or, the ball is in your province.