the girls

i just wrote my friend groshy an email. her name is sarah grosh, but i call her groshy because i love nicknames and we have two sarah's in our beloved group of girlfriends so really that just makes it easier to differentiate. there are ... let me count ... eight of us. eight of us who were best friends in high school and still remain the best of friends.

oh my goodness, i love these girls so much i could cry just thinking about all that we have been through together and how much we've grown up.

we all met in high school, but i don't think that any one of us likes to remember our high school self. (am i right girls?) i think it's safe to say that we were all unique-in-our-own-way wallflowers who stuck together and had fun together, but otherwise took high school way too seriously. none of us even dated anyone in high school, which is hilarious now that we've outgrown our awkwardness (maybe? ha!) and we're all head turners. put us all together and LOOK OUT. there is never a dull moment, which is of course what makes our time together so much fun.

it's like somehow God put us all together. i can't think of another explanation. you don't wind up with friends like these via luck. we have the perfect amount of similarities and differences to balance each other out. the differences are what make me say it had to be the Lord that drew us all to each other. the similarities are what make it so easy to stay connected - especially our shared faith in Jesus.

and with eight girls there is always someone who has advice for whatever you need to talk about. and there is someone to relate to every different boy scenario you get yourself into. God knows we've spent a LOT of time talking about boys, oh the joys. and the disasters, embarassments, mysteries, theories, heartbreaks, first kisses, and on and on - probably our number one topic of conversation?

there is always someone to go shopping with too. just do NOT go shopping with the sarahs - they share a name and a hatred for shopping. sura bura wright so much so that she has been known to get something called "shopping back" in which her back begins to ache to the point that the shopping trip must be ended immediately. becky is my personal favorite shopping buddy, although i'm probably not hers since the time i knocked down an ENTIRE shoe display (domino effect when i put back a boot i was looking at) and left her in the store while i walked out laughing.

there is always someone to fill in the gaps of our memories together. groshy has an incredible memory and i love it. i laugh until i cry almost every time i hang out with my girls. i love when it gets so bad that groshy starts telling me to "breathe, chels!" it can be anything from an absurd story that alecia or meagan is telling, or something crazy jeannette does when we go out, or remembering nights brianna and i slept with tennis racquets for weapons. it can be looking at becky or groshy and knowing we're thinking the same thing and losing it, or it can be looking at sura bura and both losing it for a ton of reasons or no reasons at all.

meagan gets married this june and i don't even know how i could choose a story to tell at her reception. partially because there are so many inside jokes and memories that would really only be funny to those of us who were there, and also because there is such a long list of memories that once i'd start i probably wouldn't be able to stop. i copped out of telling stories at alecia's wedding last summer for the same reasons.

i love that when alecia, becky, brianna, groshy, jeannette, meagan, sarah and i say "the girls" we all mean each other. i love you girls so much!

and groshy, i vented to you in my email as usual - you've always been a great great listener with a huge sensitive heart, thank you - but afterward i realized what a bum i sounded like. you're in haiti serving people. you're living in a totally different world. you're completely roughing it. you're doing it all for free.

i remember when i lived in nepal and felt so disconnected from america, with almost no desire to go back and have any part in "the rat race." so disgusted by the things people considered problems, so annoyed by the way people at home were squandering their time on things i considered to be of little to no value. after my time in YWAM i naively thought i'd never get caught up in materialism or selfishness again, but here i am taking this easy american life for granted, creating problems out of a life of extreme blessing when i have it so good.

groshy, you are so brave and i am so proud of you. thanks for reminding me of what really matters, even just through your presence in such a dark place. i am praying for you today and missing you always!

aw, this is a classic from the outer banks after graduation.

the high school version ...

the last summer version: order mixed up but still a groshy-chelcats sandwich.

sadly we didn't get a picture together at alecia's wedding - brianna was in haiti and jeannette was at the wedding but probably off with her boy when we finally snagged the bride for a picture. fingers crossed we'll get a great shot of the eight of us together at megs this summer.

"friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things." [unknown]
"the most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart." [elisabeth foley]

the good, the bad, and the chelsea

the good ...
well there is a whole lot that i could say for "the good." namely that God is good, in every way, all the time, and there is nothing better to focus on than Him.

in more specific news (ha!) i love writing for the snapper. i love majoring in journalism, and even though i come up with new "life plans" on a regular basis (things like becoming a philosophy professor or a personal trainer, or there's always being a dog walker at the beach. or an actress.) and i have no idea which plan(s) will actually pan out, at least i am having fun with my major. and i can totally see myself pursuing journalism as a career.

this week i had a blast writing about the new juice bar at school (mostly because they gave me a free peanut butter cup smoothie, yum-o.) and interviewing firefighters and ROTC members. hilarious. especially because i wear my excitement on my face like a kid in a candy shop. "whoa this is so cool! i've never been in this building before! it's awesome!" i said when i was getting a tour of the dinky little ROTC building. i was genuinely stoked though, i guess because i love new places and experiences and the idea of getting insider information. the guy laughed and said, "wow you must be easily excitable ..."

what might've topped that outburst of excitement was when i came across as a complete bimbo at the end of the interview with the firefighters. they tried to convince me to volunteer. i told them i'm afraid of fire but they didn't seem to think that'd be a problem. i should have mentioned that i do not even run my finger through candle flames, i am THAT afraid of fire.

when i started to thank them as i was leaving, i couldn't stop myself from word vomiting about how exciting this was and how the only thing i could compare this experience to was the movie ladder 49. they laughed and said, "oh yeah and that's real life."
"really?"
"no. that was a joke, it's the exact opposite."
"oh. well like, which parts aren't like real life?"
and then they stared at me and i realized i sounded like an idiot who thinks that movies are the spitting image of reality. oops.

the bad ...
this morning while i was studying i overheard a woman say, "i think it's just a reality that most people will have two marriages now. one for having kids and another when that doesn't work out." record screeeech. excuse me?!

not that it would have been more acceptable, but i think i would have been less surprised had this comment come from someone my age or younger. but this lady definitely seemed "old enough to know better." what an awful mentality. i could rant about this for hours, but i'll try not to get too carried away other than to say this scares me. devastates me really. my dad always says, "divorce is worse than death" and i guess no one will ever know if that's true because you can't experience both in one marriage, but it sure seems like an accurate enough assumption.

there is something terribly wrong with a world where marriage is just a flippant choice made without true commitment. her comment reminded me of an engagement ring advertisement that i HATE because of the tagline that reads: "because you only get married for the first time once." it's like everyone is giving up before they even start trying.

please don't give up! God designed everything like He did for a reason and it will to be worth it. i'm not harping on people who get divorced, i'm not judging you - my heart breaks for you if you ever had to or have to go through this ... but at the same time divorce has become too much of an option. instead of a last resort it seems like a first resort, and maybe even an expected resort? again, don't give up. we can't dwell on the culture of this earth to define reality ... we need to determine our minds and hearts to dwell instead on the culture of heaven that is perfect in every way. easier said than done, but again: it will be worth it. life doesn't have to be what people tell us it will be. it can be better than the statistics, better than the past. don't accept divorce as an inevitable reality.

and the chelsea ...
one time the airport security guard checking my ID started complimenting my smile, big time. i suppose a good response would have been to just smile, say "thank you!" and move on. but instead i just said, "i had braces." and he laughed and THEN i moved on. finally. so smooth.

almost as smooth as this week when i was buying crest whitestrips and the cashier asked me if they work. again, i suppose a normal response would have been just to say "yes." but not me. i shrugged and said i haven't used them in awhile then showed him my teeth. and not by smiling like a normal person. i showed my teeth like you'd show a dentist. or like you smile when someone tells you to smile but you do not want to smile so you flash a big fake cheesy grin. and he got a really confused look on his face as our conversation ended and i left.

why did i do that? i don't know. i had braces.