Creative Writing Work

Hello! I'm in a Creative Writing class this year. It's challenging - harder than I thought it would be. But I am enjoying it and I have written some pretty neat stuff. At least, I think it's neat. So. I'm going to be posting some of my assignments for you to read! This is partly inspired by my husband, whose blog is here: cuestrianconnection.wordpress.com. I recommend his Fiction link, where he is beginning a story called Knightly. I hope you enjoy it!

Alrighty! I will be posting my first Creative Writing Class post soon.

Make it a great day everyone!

Response to "I Don't Wait Anymore" by Grace for the Road, a blog that was recently shared on Facebook

Link to original blog: http://gracefortheroad.com/2012/02/03/idontwait/

I have been married for a month and two days now...my husband is 19 and I am 20.
Lives are so beautifully different because of God's grace - he can use a single woman in mighty ways and a married woman in different mighty ways. I think sometimes Christians can spiritualize marriage and make it some kind of lofty goal, like it's akin to the glory of God. Well it's not, even with all the great perks (and I'm no dummy, I'm not gonna deny that there are some fabulous perks to being married). But if you stop and think about it with eternity in mind, singleness is the permanent condition, not marriage. As a married woman this sometimes makes me sad, but it is also freeing for me because it reminds me that Jesus is the only permanent thing for me in the light of eternity. It also helps me to lighten up. Sometimes I can get so tense because I lose perspective. Some little thing hurts my feelings, I have a bad dream where he's not there to help or save me (yes, this actually has happened and he was actually in trouble for a few seconds until I came to my senses), or something else happens and I make it a bigger deal than it is. But if I remember that I don't rely on my husband for my happiness, suddenly my expectations settle to an attainable level. Suddenly I have better perspective on life.
And it is that perspective on life that is so very valuable, and a woman does NOT need a husband to gain that eternal perspective.

So when I read this blog and I heard about all these girls (and guys) who bought in to the fantasy of "God will bring you a spouse if you just honor Him," I just wanted to write down my thoughts, as much for my benefit as anyone else's. Because if I heard that message growing up, I certainly didn't buy it. God's really going to drop a husband in my lap? And I don't even need to date - God will just show me in His time? It seems to me that placing myself in situations and groups where I can meet people makes more sense. I don't know, I just have little patience for a girl who cries because she wants to get married but God hasn't left a man on her doorstep with a "From God" tag around his neck yet.

Now, I HAVE only been married a month. So...I'm sorry if I'm a little idealistic in my thinking and experiences. These thoughts are by NO means complete or probably even that coherent, but I need to wrap it up because I'm not really getting anywhere right now and I have class in the morning. So, I will sleep on this and report either tomorrow night or the next day. chau!

It's a baby

[SLIGHT RANT/WARNING] [BIRTH CONTROL ISSUE DISCUSSED]

Now, since this topic is a team discussion between my husband-to-be and me, I took this to him before I posted it and asked if he was comfortable with my rant. He gave me the go-ahead to post and advised me to diversify my research. It has been two days since I wrote this, and I've had some time to think, pray and evaluate my thoughts since then. Something that Robbie pointed out was that I went to Planned Parenthood, an organization that supports abortion and other methods of birth control that I feel are against the spirit of Christianity, which is my personal belief system. (The morning-after pill, which the site called "emergency birth control," makes it impossible for a fertilized egg - a baby - to attach to the uterus and then grow. I feel that this is against my principles of respect for life from the moment of conception.) Anyway, I decided to go back through and comment on my own blog. The underlined remarks are my thoughts a few days after my initial writing of this little article.

I'm getting married in a little less than 17 weeks, and I'm super excited about it. Robbie and I have talked about family planning and decided that it would easiest for us to finish school before we started our family because we want me to be able to stay home if at all possible. Anyway, I've been doing birth control research because I'm an ignoramus on the subject, so I spent around 30 minutes this morning on the Planned Parenthood website gaining intel. I would typically not think to look at this site, but it was one of the first sites to pop up on my Google search, so I figured I'd look to see what kind of information they had on the different methods of birth control. I began to be annoyed rather quickly because of how often this kind of warning popped up.

IMPORTANT! IF YOU FORGET TO DO WHATEVER YOU NEED TO DO FOR THIS METHOD, YOU MIGHT BE AT RISK OF PREGNANCY.

Um. Excuse me? RISK of pregnancy like it's some kind of disease?! And another thing that this particular site did was never, not once, use the word "baby" or "child." It was always a pregnancy or a fetus or a fertilized egg (which in my book is a human life, a baby, a child, a person).

All of this ticked me off because if I had it my way, I would skip the whole birth control thing altogether. I would love my husband, enjoy his love for me, work to build a strong and godly family dynamic, and let God do our family planning. I would trust Him to provide jobs and opportunities to do ministry. And then my husband and I would raise a family to do some serious damage to this notion that children are an inconvenience, a burden. When I see a culture that views children as a problem in the present rather than hope for the future, I start to be scared for that culture.

I feel that I understand my dear little friend Shane Buxman better in this moment, because all I want to do is bang my head against a wall and say, "Words, come to Ariel!" I have a feeling that I need to wrestle with this idea more to truly find my footing. I may be saying that I disagree with birth control altogether, but I'm not really sure about that. I think I'm more concerned with keeping my perspective in line. In my planning for the next few years of my future as a new wife with a new husband, I need to always remember the number of lives depending upon our decisions. I need to remember that children are a blessing from the Lord. I want to always remember that God's plans are permanent, while the plans of men are tentative. And I need to be always willing to forgo my will for His. Is birth control a symbol of that for me?

I'm not sure.


My main problem with the idea of family planning is that I need to trust God. My main problem with the Planned Parenthood website was NOT that they had faulty information or that they attacked a religious group or anything like that. I understand that their main audience is people who are choosing to be sexually active with multiple people outside of wedlock. With that in mind, my main problem with the website was their approach to birth control, like if it doesn't work then the woman is doomed to be a mother and her partner has to learn to be a father. 

This offended me in a deep part of my soul, because as I fall in love with Robbie and look forward to our life together, I am excited for the other lives that will come into being because of our love. If the birth control didn't work and I was one of the hundred women who get pregnant even though they're on the pill or whatever we decide to do, I would still be thrilled! And I know that Robbie would be, too. Would it be hard? Inconvenient? Sure, but when are children easy and convenient? Anyway, God makes life and He lets us in on it through the beautiful gift of sex. Where is a better picture of God Himself than when a life, a soul!, is made through making love, through unity? Think about it! With God, love and life always belong together!

I understand the practicality of birth control, and I am not trying to oversimplify or spiritualize something that ought not be simplified and spiritualized. I just encourage people to think. If my one year at college has taught me anything, it's to think. Thank you for reading all the way through my rant and trying to hear my heart. Here's a lollipop. :) Just kidding. God bless!

On the Day of My Engagement

I first woke up around 8:45, but snoozed the alarm until around 9:30, at which point I got up and around because I was meeting Robbie for lunch at noon, though I figured others would join us. That seems to happen a lot. People just flock to us. :) hehe anyway, since I knew I was going to dinner at 5:30 that evening with three other couples from church, all older and married. I decided that since I couldn't dress up much (I was working a camera for the play that night), I would curl my hair. I love having my hair curled, but it usually takes about 45 minutes to get it all curled up nicely. Plus, I like to have extra time to dink around, mess with music, and stuff. Oh, I also wanted to spend some time looking for contacts since I ran out of my dailies this week and have been wearing glasses.

Anyway, I texted Robbie at 11:30 (he has this habit of sleeping in, so I've learned to help him with a little morning sweet talk :D) and said, "G'monin." Lol, that cracks me up so much. Anyway, he responded with some real sweet talk and called me "girlfriend" for the very last time!! GASP! And then what happened?? Well I'll tell you what happened!

So we went to lunch at noon and others came and joined us. There was nothing suspicious going on that I noticed and had absolutely no idea he was going to propose though everyone else at the table knew! And there were FOUR of them! But that's a story that Robbie needs to tell because I wasn't actually there when they all discovered Robbie's plan the night before. So after lunch Robbie said he needed a nap. Now, at this point I was a little incredulous because as far as I knew, he had been asleep until 11:30, and we hadn't stayed up much past midnight. I thought, "Sheesh, how much sleep does he need??" Anyway, I just assumed he had some enormous sleep debt and decided that I could work on homework while he napped. So we said see you later and I went upstairs and grabbed my computer to have my "pre-study study break" hehe and spent the entire hour on David's Bridal looking at bridesmaid dresses. I already had my favorite wedding dress picked out and put in a wish list :D. Anyway, I also called my mom because my sister's basketball team was playing at the state tournament, so I talked with both my mom and my sister for a little while. When I admitted to my mom that I was SUPPOSED to be doing homework, but was browsing David's Bridal instead and had found "the perfect purple", she said "Very cool, too bad you don't have a ring. :(" Nearly at that moment, Robbie texted me the first clue and I told Mom, "Mom I'll get back to you in 30 min I think that's about to change!!"

And then began the adventure of seeking each successive clue, which he wrote in verse. My favorite clue was the final one, which had the line "to become husbands, men must take wives." The entire time I tried to not get my hopes up too high, but when I read that line, my heart quite beating and just starting vibrating. I ran from North to the creek and leaped into his arms, because there he was in all his handsomeness. He said, "Hi." and I said "Hi." :D Then he said that since we're going to dinner with all these married folks, he figured we should at least be engaged. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out the ring, dropped to one knee and said, "So, Ariel Christine Regier, will you marry me?" And I said "I will!!" I don't why it didn't occur to me to say "yes", but my excuse is that I was pretty scatter-brained and breathless at the moment. And then we kissed for the VERY FIRST TIME!!

Not gonna lie, it was kinda clumsy and since I was smiling so widely we very nearly banged teeth. But we got the hang of it pretty fast, so don't you all worry about that. ;) :) Then we spent the next hour calling people, and I managed to overlook my poor faithful friend Mysti Rothfuss, so she gets to be in my engagement day blog to even it out. :)

The rest of the day sped by. It was around 3:30 then, so we went back to Mayfield and got ready for the dinner that evening, which was stinkin TORTURE because my cousins Derek and Kate were there, along with four complete strangers. I didn't know what to do and since I wasn't actually wearing the ring because it needed to be sized, I knew it wouldn't come up in shallow conversation. I tried to get someone to ask about it in a roundabout way because I checked my phone TWICE and TWICE I said that my phone would not stop vibrating because of all the Facebook notifications I was getting. I didn't want to just say, "Oh guess what! We've been engaged for two hours!" because then I knew that people would ask questions that we didn't have the answers to or worse, begin a long discourse on things we already knew. Now, I have nothing against questions or even discourses on marriage, but I had just met four of these people and had only recently begun to know Kate personally through women's chorus at school. I didn't want an awful and awkward evening. It's alright, though. :) I guess it's all out now!

So anyway, after dinner (which was SUPER AMAZING chicken enchiladas yum yum!!) I had to go to work and I was even a little late, but everyone knew what had happened and were smiley and happy for me. It was a great night of work and super fun. It was kinda awful that I had to spend five hours away from my brand new fiance (is that right or is it fiancee? I just don't know...I've never been engaged before :D) on the day we were engaged. 

But we made up for it! When I was finished with work at midnight, we went to the honor's house and watched Ever After, our very first movie as a betrothed couple. :D The movie finished at around 2:10, and we stayed up and talked until around 3:15. (I know this is very late. If you know Robbie, you know the man's Circadian rhythm is late by about three hours.) So anyway, after that we walked back to my room, kissed good night for the very first time, and I went upstairs and quietly got in bed and fell asleep. But not before I slid the ring off my pinky finger (I figured out it fit there :D) and placed it back in the box in the pocket of my coat so that I would not risk its falling off in the middle of the night.

So that is my one and only engagement day in a nutshell. :) I am engaged to be married to my other half, the man who completes and leads me. I am so excited to walk through this life hand-in-hand with the man of my dreams and my parent's prayers. But right now...I need to get ready for church!

Written Jan 13, but Published Jan 30

I decided to keep up with this blog even though Honor's Orientation is over. I am learning so much, and I would like to have a place to put down whatever I learn and hope that something helps someone else. After all, it was the stories of others that helped me to see and escape the cage-of-my-own-doing.

Classes this semester are beginning to be a little overwhelming. :/ My friends (you know who you are) are amazing as always. Way too amazing for my study habits. Speaking of amazing, Robbie still is. :) God is so good and powerful. Everyday something new and beautiful pops out at me. Those moments usually happen when I'm with Robbie. I love him and want to keeps him...

Girls, never settle! Guys, you either! There are people out there who want the same things you want and believe in the same things you do. I think sometimes girls decide to like guys who are so unworthy of them because they think it makes them look superior or spiritual because they are seeing the guy's potential instead of  whatever it is everyone else sees. There is compassion, girls, and there is recklessness. A man who is incapable of taking care of his own spiritual life will not be able to lead you in yours. A man who is emotionally immature and hurt can't care for your heart like he needs to. The Lord is able to bring two hearts together more completely and perfectly than any effort on our part can every accomplish. Wait for Him! And love Him, too.

I wish I could give something to the guys out there. Maybe it's this: we (girls in general) want you to succeed. We want you to win our hearts. But the girls worth having, my brothers, will not hand out the keys to their spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being without commitment on your part. I suppose there are girls who will tease you, lead you on and then dump you. From all the rest of us, I apologize. Your woman should help you to feel like a success. I heard once that there are very few things a man cannot endure if the woman he loves is faithful to whisper belief into his ear. May it be true of us.

Good Things

Intrinsic Good - There is no need for outside good or value to be given; that which is intrinsically good is simply good because of what it is.

Twenty Good Things:
1. Music
2. Prayer
3. Sunsets
4. Pets (any animals, but especially the ones that live in our homes and become our friends, siblings, confidantes, and children)
5. A deep conversation
6. A classic car
7. Movie night with close friends
8. Diamonds
9. Joy
10. Laughter
11. Hard work
12. Helping and serving others
13. Rain
14. Snow
15. A snowball fight
16. Exercise
17. The sun
18. Hope
19. Love (the kinds that God made)
20. Thanksgiving Day football game with my cousins and more pumpkin pie than we can eat...though we always try.

I am a practical person. I have always had a practical, logical, serious personality. And I can actually say "always". Wanna know why? Because when I was in Kindergarten, I complained to my mom that my friends were being immature. I was in kindergarten, and I was already taking life very seriously.

So that's my personality, you get the drift. So I find my "happy place" in a good book or a deep conversation with someone I trust. In September, when it was just starting to cool down, I would take my lawn chair and go outside. I would sit in my chair on the Mayfield quad and just enjoy nature while I read a book for class, or texted a friend. I even took my computer out there and made an outline for one of my classes. If a friend walked by, they would sit with me or stand and talk for a little while. I remember those days, though they were few, and they were just good days filled with good hours spent in good ways. Another good day was Halloween, and I walked down to Broadway with a friend. We saw the kids in their costumes, and their parents. We laughed about some of the costumes and said that the babies dressed like little bears were so cute. We walked back slowly, taking the path that goes by the stream that goes through downtown Siloam. It was a good conversation. I can't even recall most of what we talked about...but I am glad for the memory. It is good just because it happened, because we were together, being happy together. And I believe that's a good thing.

Cha-Ching! Oh wait. Wrong bank.

Blog Question #3. Push back on Freire's concept of education. Pick a passage and disagree with it.

So I'm good at arguing. It's energizing, in a way. In my life, there have been a few times that I have even been so good at arguing that I've convinced myself that I was wrong. You see, I tend to talk through my thoughts, so there are times when I don't even know what I'm thinking until I hear myself say it. With that being said, I am going to "push back" on some things that I read and thought, "Hey! That's not right!", but by the end of my post, I just might be saying "Oh wait. Yeah, I agree with that".

Freire's Quote: "In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as a process of inquiry."

Okay, I have never had a teacher who thought I knew nothing. They knew that I had not learned some things. That is the reason for schooling: to learn new things! Just because I learned long division in second grade doesn't mean that my second grade teacher thought that I was dumb; she realized that I was ignorant of how to divide "long" numbers. I don't agree that a teacher who is focused on filling his/her students' heads with new knowledge is participating in an evil system. My favorite classes were the ones where I learned something new every day, and we didn't necessarily have discussion every day. It is true that making learning all about new facts will make it boring. However, making it all about discussion, inquiry, and a personal quest is not the answer, either. Students need to be guided. They need a responsible adult, someone with their best interest at heart, to steer them toward the right paths. As Proverbs 22:6 says, "Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it." I am very thankful for the people who let me grow on my own, but I am also very thankful for the times that they helped me back on course.