Walking Rocks

I find it interesting that every time I dip into a new blog post, I literally dip into a different mindset. I am well aware that I am behind the times a little as I just finished watching Inception for the first time (ever), and my mind already feels slightly trippy. Where am I now, in reality? It feels almost like a dream, writing these memories, blurring this past that occurred on the other side of the world. How many times has the world revolved, round and round, since that experience? I never was a numbers person...

First shot of Hong Kong

For my last and final semester of college I am student teaching at a nearby high school, a choir of around 200 kids, a couple music theory classes, sectionals, and kids just dying for someone to hear them sing. I'm realizing more and more how some kids have this natural way of 'sticking out' at you, as a teacher. There's a part of me that absolutely can't stand this because my mind so desperately wants to treat every student as equal, all as capable, competent, and well-mannered as the other. Unfortunately, that is not the way that it goes. It is a testament to our individuality and individualism. Odd, because I've always been happy to inform anyone that I am an individual, yet now as I transition to this adult world, there's this part of me that wants everyone to be the same, equality and justice for all. I know that that was not the case this past summer, and I'm even more aware that it is not possible in my current situation. I'll have to unpack that later I guess.

We all live experiences, and all of those experiences have a beginning somewhere. Sometimes we are lucky in that we have no idea how big or meaningful an experience will be before we begin. Therefore, we have limited expectations and just dive right in. Sometimes expectations get in the way and scary things must happen before an experience can be underway. Sometimes that means getting into the car and driving to the airport, sometimes it means facing our emotions and allowing them to be set free. Think about it, getting down on one knee, abort or keep the baby, taking the step onto the actual stage before the congregation. There is always a point of turning back, somewhere. Sometimes we pass that point with ease. Other times we have to stop and deliberate long and hard, mentally battling ourselves to either continue or turn around.

When I think of 'memories' I try to start at the beginning. It's not like I can account for every hour of flight across the Pacific, but I do remember watching "How to Train Your Dragon", and clips of "The Notebook" as I dozed in and out of consciousness. Upon arriving to Hong Kong, we were so very tired. We had an hour bus ride before we made it to the ferry, and we had an hour ferry ride before we made it to our island where we had training. I somehow remember assembling myself across a couple of seats. I also remember clear as day Danielle standing over my face, slapping my cheeks. I looked to see my limbs spread wide, a person gripping each, shaking. Apparently there was slight fear that I was dead. 

I don't know if you know this, but there are a lot of stairs at the Great Wall of China. This may come as a shock, but climbing all of them makes one really tired. It's funny because there is a part of me that is like "Kayla, they are just stairs, suck it up." For all I know, that is what you're thinking too. Trust me when I say that it was one of the most physically demanding challenges of my life. I think about this because I recently listened to a song by Caedmon's Call, the lyrics proclaiming "...had to walk the rocks to see the mountain view. Looking back I see the lead of love."Let me tell you that the sight at the top was one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen. Perspective is a beautiful thing because now when I think about that experience, despite being so tired, the first thing that pops in my mind isn't the thousands of stairs we climbed, it's the glorious big picture, the view from the top. Now, I have come to love that journey and I know that I have been on that journey because He loves me.

Sometimes, it's easy to hate the journey we are on. It can be hard, we can stumble, or even sometimes we may hate it for the fact that we do not feel challenged enough (one could argue that these are the scariest journeys). I'm not quite sure if this is my personal attitude thing, or a humanity thing, but I have come to find that perspective has brought me to love every journey that I have been on. Rocks can cut, inflict pain, and kill, but they also build and support a foundation.

Mary Beth & Danielle "warming up"

In thinking of mountains, the great Liupan Mountain comes to mind. The great Liupan Mountain was merely a half hours drive from LongDe, so of course we were taken to see it. It truely was a beautiful day as our van weaved up this mountain, bend after bend. We arrived to what seemed to be a national park of sorts. We realized that there was a building on the top of this mountain, housing a museum of the important historical role the Liupan Mountain played in Chairman Mao's progression to power (wish I could tell you more, but the entire museum was in Chinese... I saw a lot of pictures though and made up my own stories. They're probably not historically accurate.) Danielle and Mary Beth thought it would be fun to race up the stairs to the top (literally 200 stairs or so). They forgot to take in the altitude factor, so both were exceedingly winded upon arriving to the top. Quite entertaining.

That's our van in the bottom right hand corner!

While touring the museum, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with emotion as I saw pictures of Chinese armies and photos from the Chinese Civil war. Living in America, we've seen photos of war our entire education, by the time fifth grade rolls around we've become numb to the sound of bullets and wasted bodies. Well, this wasn't the case at Liupan Mountain. I was so overwhelmed that so many lives had been lost. I was even more overwhelmed at the concept of "why?" I did not know a single soul in those pictures, they were taken decades before I was even born. At the time, I felt like a crazy over-emotional girl, but now I realize that it's the beauty and humanity within each of us. Realizing that harm was done to some, therefore harm is done to all really struck something within me, a light dizzy feeling and a complex that the mind is unable to comprehend on its own. In some crazy way, I now feel verified that I have a soul.

We stood at the top of Liupan Mountain for a long time, taking in the beauty, and awing the fact that we were actually at the mountain that everyone had been talking to us about. Literally...forty times. We took time for pictures, jumping pictures, team pictures, photoshoot pictures, and we also took some time to sit on some stairs and bust out our rendition of "Lean on Me". That's my memory for today.

Chairman Mao's famous poem, atop the Liupan Mountain.