Did you know one of my very best friends in the whole world is engaged?!

Once upon a time I created a little thing called the Friendship Bracelet Club at my Junior High. A group of girls started making bracelets, building friendships and then decided to make some sweatshirts.

The next year more friends joined the FBC and they wanted more apparel. You can never have too many crewneck sweatshirts.

Now another generation of Friendship Braceleters has joined the friendship bracelet cult... I mean club. We've just decided this will be the back of our new sweatshirts. Let me know if you want to join the club and get a sweatshirt.

Two Junior High Moments I Loved Today:

This morning one of my students came to my door and said, "Miss Wright! Guess what I'm being for Halloween! Everyone else is being fairies and cats but I'm going to be an old-fashioned wooden TV. It's so cute. I have a big cardboard box and I painted the sides brown and I'm going to draw the lines on so it looks like wood. The front is covered in plastic wrap and I'm putting a picture of I Love Lucy inside. There are going to be little knobs to turn and I'm going to wear antennae on my head. Oh, Miss Wright it's going to be so cute."

Then I was standing in the hall saying Hi to the children before first period and a girl stopped right in front of me. She stared at me for a second and then said, "I was dreaming that I was in school last night so I was really wide awake in my dream. Then I woke up. And I'm really tired... What day is it?" I laughed, "It's Monday." She nodded her head, "Oh, okay, thanks," and ran off down the hallway to class.

Young Life is an incredible thing to be able to be apart of. In this community you show up when you can because you want too, not because you have to and not because you'll feel guilty if you don't come. In this place everyone is included no matter what their group of friends is at school. Here we cheer when we say we're going to play From the Inside Out and all of the High School kids sing extra loud because they have memorized all the words. Here we talk about trusting in Christ and believing that our struggles draw us closer to him. In this group we share what we think and what's on our hearts because no one is going to make fun of us. Here we pray together and we hug when we say good-bye.

This place, these people are really special. This doesn't happen everywhere. It's easy to take it for granted once you're a part of this community but we shouldn't forget how special it is.

p.s. I came home tonight and my roommates said, "We have a surprise for you!" They pulled out a pair of brand-new running shoes in my size that their friend who works for the shoe company dropped off for free!