Writing Exercise: Relationships

So one of my New Year's resolutions this year, which I almost never make because I feel like I'll never accomplish them, is to finish a book. As a result I have pinned a bunch of writing exercises to practice keeping my writing skills refreshed. This first exercise... Relationships of course! Haha. It was a pin I found on blog topics. I decided it was a fun topic... sure. As a result I decided to share my result with you. 

"Write about your relationship. If you're single write about that."

Well ladies and gentlemen save the romantic drama for your llama because I have been single for 23 years, and you guessed it, I'm 23. Oh well, there was that one-day romantic fling with some kid named Ian from Kentucky in Myrtle Beach when I was five-years-old. I specifically remembered he was from Kentucky because I told my parents I thought it was cool that he lived in Kentucky Fried Chicken. He taught me how to jump into the kiddie pool and I asked him to be my boyfriend. I know, I'm pretty sly. ;) He left the next day and I never saw him again. I must be one faithful girlfriend... 18-years of a long distance relationship with no contact and nothing has happened. Hear that boys I'm faithful ;). He's probably married with his first kid living on the coast of Hawaii as the executive of KFC, and using his summers to plant wells in Africa. 

Sometimes being single is okay, almost freeing. And to be honest that's a good portion of my life where I'm thankful that I'm not married with a kid because I'm nowhere near stable enough to help guide someone through life. But somedays I just desperately want someone to do life with. I tear my clothes, and bang the walls crying and throwing tantrums in the presence of God screaming, "why me?!" (please roll your eyes at how ridiculous I am on those days, I do). The hardest thing is I really want to have kids someday, and I want to be married before that. I fear I will never mother a child because in my 23 years of life there were maybe four possibilities of even seeing a glimpse of a future with a male candidate. 

Obviously the first was Kentucky Fried Ian. Then there was a kid in middle school that I liked, and went to a few dances with, but we grew apart. Then a kid I dated for a day because I didn't know how to say no... I'm still embarrassed at myself for that. He deserved better. Then my favorite... There was a kid in my sophomore science class in high school that told me that he could see a "super ugly girl", but if he found one thing he liked on her she was hot to him. His example was he liked a girl's butt and then thought she was amazing. Then he turned to me, smiled, and looked me right in the eyes, "You have really pretty eyes." ... Um thanks... He left school a month later to go to the juvenile detention school. 

It's also kind of hard to find someone these days. Especially, since the place I spend most of my time is at my university. My university is known for people finding their spouses on their first day of school, but really that just means everyone's engaged before they even leave home their first year. No joke, every guy I have seen that I found potential with in my undergrad experience was engaged. One moment I'm thinking, "I could marry that guy." Next thing, "Hey ____ when are you getting married again?" Great. 

Except now. I'm currently pretty into a guy, but this is unknown territory to me. I literally had to ask my friend how you know if you like someone because it's that unknown to me. I don't know if he likes me, which is the worst. Sometimes I think he does, and then other times I think he's just being nice. All my friends think he likes me, but I think they are as tired of me being single as my family is. I no longer get asked about guys when I go home for break, haha. I mean it's usually a very quick conversation. 

"So, Brooke," with blinking lashes and a smirk, "Any guys in your life?"

"Um... I mean I have guy friends. But that's it."

"Oh. Well that's good."

Conversation over. 

Also, social anxiety is more than real. It's my catastrophic reality. Even if I wanted to ask him out and be the feminist crusader that I am, I doubt I would be able to subdue my uncontrollable personified stomach enough to even approach him. So I guess we will see where that goes... But for now I at least have Naomi, my newly adopted five-month-old puppy. So you could say, things are getting pretty serious. 

Suicidal Cancer

It’s like my brain has a type of cancer. But not the “normal” type that tries to kill you by mutilating your body through cellular deformation. Instead it is a different type of cancer that tries so hard to make me dead, and convinces me to mutilate my own body. It is the type of cancer that creates idiotic logic such as; I will probably never get a tattoo because I am too indecisive to commit to something on my body for the rest of my life yet I never think twice about adding another scar. It plants seeds of thought into my mind hoping that it will grow, and grow, and grow until its roots are so deep that is sucks all the good things from me and leads to my own demise.

It springs up anytime stress comes into my life and feeds off it. It is easy to combat it when life is pretty simple. When I just have a few things stressing me. But it knows one of my biggest weaknesses. I am a thinker. I am constantly thinking. So it fills my mind with all kinds of thoughts. Thoughts that seem harmless at first, but turn out to be the worst. And then it feeds off my distortive thoughts and turns things like “I cannot wait to be married” into “you are never going to get married.” It convinces me that I am never going to be able to handle “normal” life. It takes a simple semester and makes the semester debilitating by clogging my thought process with things like, "you are the worst student" or “why worry about school? You can’t even afford to get food right now.” “Who cares about school when you are so worthless you can’t even provide food for yourself?” “If you can’t do that, how do you expect to provide food for a family?” “It doesn’t even matter. No one is going to want to marry you anyway. And you can’t have children if no one wants to marry you. [My biggest desire in life is to be a mother] I mean who would want to marry someone who can’t even handle a simple semester? I mean who would want to marry you, period? You haven’t even been on a date, ever! You are 22 years old and you have never even been asked on a date! How pathetic is that? What is wrong with you? I mean just look at your body. Look at your self!”

My mind is like the greatest paradox. I am optimistic and have many dreams. I believe so much in others, and I am willing to trust even when they fall short. I have so many hopes for my life. Yet, I loathe myself. I nit-pick everything I do wrong. When I get reprimanded it is like being hit by a bus because I hate disappointing people, but I can handle it because I have already run myself over with a semi about whatever it is I am in trouble for. I hate disorder and mess, yet my room is like the aftermath of a tornado. I obsess over it, but panic anytime I reach down to clean something up. I love to learn, but my classes are beyond stressful and overwhelming, they’re paralyzing. And it’s like this cancer knows it.

People talk to me about suicide all the time, whether they know that the conversation pertains to me or not. They talk about how it is not the answer, how it is a selfish act that is only done to seek attention, how it is tragic, how it is nothing they would ever wish on anyone, how it tears them apart, how they do not understand it, or how it is only for those who are “emotional”. The thing is I know the tragedy in suicide. It is why I fight so hard. I believe that it is NEVER the answer. However, there are times in my life when I am so exhausted from the battle with these thoughts and the stresses of life that I think to myself “if I could only take a break”. That is all I want. Then the “cancer” pounces. It convinces me that the only way to truly take a break is to sleep forever. The only way to sleep forever is to die. That is the only answer. That is the only way you will survive.

It makes no sense, right?

And this is truly my hardest war, the war with my mind.

I don’t want to just put this out here and leave it at that. I want people to understand that there is more to the story. This is a battle, but it is not me and it will not win.

1.     I do not want to die. Not anytime soon. I have so much I want to see and do.

2.     I believe in God and Jesus Christ (that is a complicated statement because Jesus is God, but that’s another conversation for another day). I believe that they are fighting for me. I believe that they are the only reason I have not died from this suicidal “cancer”. For truly I tell you that if it was my power alone in me, I would have lost this fight a long time ago. And I thank God that God’s power is in me. I am thankful that God is fighting on my behalf even when I did not believe in Him. SO thankful.

3.     I have wonderful people praying for me, and helping through this fight. This is not something that I could have said four years ago when I first attempted to end my life. So I am extremely thankful that I now have God, and incredible people willing to hear my story and fight with me. I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that because of the people praying for me I have gained strength to keep fighting. Thank you for praying for me.

4.     I know the positives to choosing to fight and not succumb to the suicidal “cancer”. As I mentioned in my last point, four years ago I attempted to end my life. However, my attempt was embarrassingly (at the time) unsuccessful. But I am incredibly thankful that it was so unsuccessful because I have experienced so many things since then that I could have never predicted. I found Christ. I found a solid group of friends and incredible youth pastors that showed me what it was to feel loved. I moved to Tennessee, ten hours away from home, to a college I had never really heard of much before. I traveled more of the East Coast (and mid-west I guess. I am terrible at geographical terms) in a few months than I have in the previous seventeen years of my life. I went to New Zealand where my father was born, which was a lifelong dream of mine. I led a hall of incredible students at Lee University amongst a marvelous staff (I use the word marvelous because it is the closest word in the English language to how I feel about them). I have found people willing to hear my story and not decide to no longer be friends with me after hearing it. I found people willing to ride out my insanity. I found people willing to let me call them and visit me when I stay at a hospital to attempt to get my mind back on the right track. I started a club at a University. I attended the wedding of a few of my favorite people. And now I have watched one of them become a parent to an incredibly cute son. I met the best counselor, ever (then again I’m a little biased). I am privileged to help lead an incredible group of youth. I pay rent and have a job. (I know that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but to me it is) I’m about to graduate, and go to grad school. I got to do ministry in New York City. There are so many things I have done that I would have never gotten to experience if I had been successful that night and it has helped me fight the battle every time it roars the loudest.

               So I hope that this helps you, even if just a little. I pray with all that is in me that you can't relate to the first part because I would never wish that on anyone. However, if you relate, even just a tiny bit, I hope that the second part can help you. I hope that you know that I am praying for you. Even if you do not believe in God, and even if I do not know you, I am praying for you. And if that doesn’t help I hope you understand what I spoke about experiencing great things after my attempt. I hope that you realize that no one can guarantee that things will get better, but ending your life guarantees that it won’t. I know that is cheesy and lame, but it has helped me at my hardest times, and I hope that it helps you. At the very least know that you can talk to me if you need to. Even if you do not believe in Jesus or God, I honestly will not hate you for that or judge you for it. And I know that statement might not have the much worth in it because of other Christians who may have said that and then did exactly what they said they wouldn’t do. I know because I once did not believe in God myself, and thought these things about Christians myself. So I want you to feel free to talk to me. I don’t want you to be alone in this.

If you are reading this and you are worried about me, know that I am still in the fight and I do not intend to lose. Please pray for me. And I would love to hear from you.

If you cannot relate to this and you don’t even know who I am please just know that someone you know or love could possibly be thinking like me. I desperately hope they are not. But know that the best thing you can do is hear them out, talk with them, and know when to get them help when they need it. Don’t be afraid to do what you think is best. 

Jobless, Schoolworkless, Sociallifeless, Lengthy Period of Time

My thoughts are all over the place lately, so if this post seems to lack a sense of structure I want to offer you my sincerest apologies, and hope that you still find some sort of amusement amongst my musings.

Since returning from New Zealand my life has not been too eventful. My first few days back consisted of working, from the time I woke up until the time I went to sleep, on my global perspectives trip assignment. For those of you who don't know my trip to New Zealand also fulfilled my cross cultural requirements for college. At Lee University, the University I attend, each student must submerse themselves in a culture different from their own in order to graduate. I decided on an individually arranged trip (a trip not with the University). This trip being New Zealand. In order to receive credit I had to turn in a very lengthy project. It contained pictures, news clippings, ticket stubs, journal entries, and case studies. Case studies are interviews of people of the different culture.

After submitting my project I went back to "normal" summer time life, for me. I read "The Fault in Our Stars", as well as watched the movie the day after it was released. I read "Blue Like Jazz", and loved it. I really suggest that you read it if you want a book that is very convicting, relatable, and thought provoking. I ordered my school books. Visited a few friends. Attended church. Watched a few documentaries. Played Sims. Read the Bible. Prayed. Wrote in my journal. Skimmed Facebook and other social networks. Oh, and I mowed the lawn... a lot.

Summer for me has always been the same. I don't know why I do this every summer. I don't do much over vacation, but hangout at my house and do nothing. In the most recent years however my mother has been with me. This is especially cool because it has allowed me to become closer to her. Growing up she was mostly with my sister, taking her to horse shows and such, and I was mostly with my father, so we did not have much time to get close. But now we do.

I have taken my longing to be back at school and tried to be productive with it. I have planned out parts of my upcoming semester. I have flipped through my new planner and added things like, hall reunions and basketball games. I have written letters that I plan to pass out when I return. I have kept in contact with friends from school. I have gone through my stuff and attempted to sort out what I am bringing back with me. However, this mostly just leads to stress, anxiety, and a sense of being overwhelmed. Not because I don't want to return to Lee, but because my stuff is so disorganized I don't know where to begin. As a result I freak out, leave the room, and continue to do something else. I'm very good at procrastinating and ignoring problems I don't want to address at the moment.

The other day I watched two documentaries. One was, "Craigslist Joe" and another was "Happy". I enjoyed "Craigslist Joe", but not so much "Happy". There were a few reasons I was not too fond of "Happy". One, it was not what I expected, it took more of a scientific approach than I thought it would. Two, it felt strange to me to approach happiness in such a scientific way. To suggest that happiness could be derived from genetics, or brain chemicals, I don't why, but it rubbed me weird. But "Craigslist Joe" was good. It was about a man who decided to live off Craigslist for a month to prove that community still existed. His idea of community was that people help each other out. In the end he proved his hypothesis correct, and met a lot of interesting people along the way. It was very enjoyable. I throughly enjoyed the free haircut he received towards the end, it made him look very handsome.

Another part of my summer, unfortunately, is a lot of desperate prayers to God for many things. I say unfortunate because I wish circumstances never had to come to this. But despite that, I always love being able to communicate with God. I just wish circumstances were better. It has been as simple as the heartbreaking news that some people I love may not be returning to school simply because they cannot afford to do to things that are much more complicated.

This year I developed a new perspective for cancer as it slowly made it's un-welcomed way into my life in many different forms. At the beginning of the semester I went to my campus doctor for a check up after my stomach disorder had a long flare-up mixed with some wicked acid reflux. But while there my doctor found that my thyroid was a little large. Long story short it was suspected for a long time that I possibly had thyroid cancer. However, there were no definitive answers. The more I went to doctors, the more masses I found on my body, but no answers. By the end of the first semester it felt like every day I grew weaker, and I feared that no one would ever discover what was wrong with me. In addition, some people that I hold close to my heart discovered they have cancer. When I returned home after New Zealand I went through more testing with my doctors here. They found that I have two masses in my thyroid. Both thought to be benign cysts. It is also thought that the others masses on my body are benign cysts. As a result my doctors screened me for an autoimmune disorder that runs in my family. This possibility honestly scared me because I had seen the immense amount of pain and exhaustion it has given my mother. But the results came back, and I have the genetic marker that gives me a predisposition for the auto immune disorder that could affect my skeletal, muscular, and digestive systems. The good news is cancer is pretty much wiped off the table. The bad news is, I possibly have an auto immune disorder. I don't know for sure because in order to have a definitive answer I need years of data that displays the degenerative work of the disorder on my body. However, I am excited to see what God is going to do through this.

That look upon life is something I learned from the mother of a dear friend of mine that I met this year. I love her very much, and it saddens me to know that her fight with cancer is coming to an unfortunate close. But I will continue to pray for healing everyday, and if she happens to leave us I know she'll have an incredible welcome for her up in Heaven. She has touched so many lives. There has never been a night since I heard that she was growing very ill that I have not shed a tear, but I know she has lived a good life and has fought the good fight. I love you very much Mrs. Jeanna, please tell Christ I said hello!

Basically...
 I'm learning how to keep myself busy in a jobless, schoolworkless, sociallifeless, lengthy period of time. I have found that this is an amazing opportunity to work on my relationship with God, and for building upon my strengths and weaknesses.

I am learning to see the light it what seems like dark times.

I am learning to choose happiness, and understand that sometimes I will be sad. And that is okay. I just have to be careful with how I cope with that.

I am learning to be okay with illness and pain, and to look for the good that comes from it.



P.S. I have also decided to take a break from social media because I have realized that when I wake up the first thing I do is check Facebook and Instagram. Which to me is honestly no problem. But then when I challenged myself by asking if I could live without it, I hesitated, and I knew it was time to give it a break.

However, because it is the way I contact with some people I have given myself a few loopholes. For example, I have allowed myself the ability to post my blog posts. I have allowed my self to check messages, and my friend's page to see how her mom is doing. However, I am trying to not check notifications, scroll through my newsfeed, or post things. It think this will be interesting. I'll see what I do.

THE THINGS COMING UP IN MY LIFE:
-Drama practice. I forgot to mention I have started up a drama team with the youth group at my church with two of my friends.
-Dr.'s  appointment to see what condition my body is in
-Return to school


I'm most likely forgetting something....

Thank you so very much for taking the time to read my words. If you enjoyed this and want to here a little about New Zealand check out my posts with the phrase "Traveling Home" in the title.

If you enjoyed this you might also enjoy my other blog http://yourekillingmesmalls23.blogspot.com/

Okay, bye!

Traveling Home: Day Four

5/15/2014
Today we left Auckland and made our way to Rotorua. 

Forty minutes out of Auckland we stopped at a local McDonald's to meet up with my great-great Aunt Nancy and great-great uncle Ian. I had a hard time understanding Ian because his accent was very thick, and I was still tired form the nap I had taken in the car on the way over. He joked with me that he was the old one, yet I was the one who was hard at hearing. 

The McDonald's was fascinating. Like the one in the airport we went to when we first arrived in Auckland, the menu was different, but even more there was a cafe. Unlike the cafes at home this one was more then just sandwiches and wraps. It had treats, meat pies, cakes, and some healthier choices in opposition to what else you may find in McDonald's. This was also where you would order tea or coffee that came in many variations. 

This is a small coffee. They had a few options for coffee. All were great... so I heard. If you know me you know I'm not that big of a fan of coffee, or tea, or soda really. Water is the drink for me. The had black coffee, which means what it means here in America. Coffee with nothing else added to it. But they also had white coffee, which from what I was able to gather means coffee with cream and sugar.

Then we sat and talked with Ian and Nancy for a while. Unfortunately, Nancy was on the other side of the table so I was unable to interact with her much. So it was Ian and me. Ian asked me if I was the one who rode horses. I laughed, and told him that was my sister. Then I pulled my classic joke, "I like to ride many horses at once." He looked at me with amazement. Then I informed him that I was referring to dirt bikes. He laughed. We talked about family, and many other things. At one point he asked me where I got my curly hair from. I told him from my dad's side of the family. "Really? You think?" Yeah. "Who has curly hair on this side?" "Well, Sarah, Deborah, Barbara. I heard Rodney and Clive had curly hair...." "Oh! Yeah! That sounds about right." I also told him I was studying at University for a degree in youth ministry. He asked what I wanted to do with that degree. This is a common question I have found on all parts of the Earth. I told him that I was not quite sure, but that I wanted to work in a church setting with their youth in some way. Ian was a character and a lot of fun to interact with, even if I needed to get my ears checked. It was unfortunate that we only had a pit stop at McDonald's with Nancy and him. Afterwards we took pictures together. It was a nice moment, but also bitter sweet to think that this would most likely be the only picture I'll ever get to take with them. But I also felt very honored to even have the opportunity to have this one picture. 

An advertisement for meat pies. When I was first introduced to the idea I was a little turned off. But they are actually really good. And, no, they are not intended for a dessert. They are to be consumed as a meal. 

One of the other options at McDonald's, the "Kiwi Big Breakfast".

The selection at the McCafe.

The McCafe.

Top Left to right: Uncle Michael, Morgan, Me, Dad

Bottom Left to Right: Uncle Ian and Aunt Nancy

After seeing Ian and Nancy we made our way to Cambridge where we stopped at my great aunt Rosemary's house for lunch. Rosemary is my dad's cousins Deborah and Barbara's mother. She was married to Clive. Unfortunately, he died of cancer. Later she married Gary. 

Rosemary served us an amazing tomato soup and homemade pizza. 

She also had a corgi named Sky that was very sweet and made me miss my dogs at home, including our two corgis. 

This is my corgi Ruby.

And our other corgi Sandy. 

More pictures of Sky.

Sky's toy pile. 

There also was a cat that came to the door. I never found out if she belonged to Rosemary or not. 

Rosemary told us all about her life and the things that have been going on. She told us about how she had to give up golf recently, one of her favorite pass times, because her arthritis has gotten really bad. She also showed us her garden out back that had many vegetables and citrus fruit trees. 

A lemon tree in Rosemary's backyard.

When her husband Gary joined us he updated us on his life as well. Now he does some teaching at a school near by. One day he brought Sky into work and dressed her up since the school was celebrating the royal family. What amused me was that Gary was wearing sweatpants at work. I loved this since I often get scolded for wearing sweatpants too often back home.

After Rosemary's we finally arrived in Rotorua. In Rotorua we rented a house, or more like an in-laws apartment. There were two bedrooms, and a pull out couch that my sister and I stayed on. The couple we were renting from had some strict rules about upkeep, and there were framed papers everywhere instructing us exactly how to do everything, like setting up the pull out couch, showering, or cleaning a stain on the carpet. 

    
Mountains and trees occupied every horizon around the place. Although the mountains were most likely more volcanoes. In the distance you could see steam coming up from the ground where all the hotspots were. It was really interesting because you could trace the fault line with your eyes just by looking at all the steam coming up from the ground. 

Eat Street

After we put all of our bags in the place we were staying we left to go find a place to eat. We found a place near by called Eat street that was a street filled with restaurants. Every time someone said Eat Street I could not help but singing in my head, "the demon barber of fleet street". And then I laughed to myself when I replaced fleet street with Eat Street. Needless to say I decided if any of the restaurants sold meat pies, I was not going to eat one. We went to a restaurant called Brew. 

My meal at Brew. The burger was aioli sauce, lettuce, tomato, burger, cheese,  egg, beet root, and barbecue sauce.

After eating we went to a grocery store near by to pick up some breakfast food. The entrance of the grocery store had bars that you had to walk through. The bars were set up so that you could not go backwards through them, or in other words you could not exit through that door. 

pumpkins

Also, I saw the pumpkins that we had in our soup the other day, and they look nothing like our pumpkins. They are grayish-green on the outside and bright orange on the inside. They almost look like melons. 

  At the grocery store we met this guy who was originally from Michigan. He moved to New Zealand a few years ago. You can tell he has been here a while because now he has an accent that is a bit Michigan and a bit Kiwi. He was asking us about life in America. Since we met him in the meat section we began to talk about meat prices. Meat is a lot more expensive in New Zealand because they have to import a lot, and the meet that they do have here (cows and lamb) they export a lot of it. My uncle joked that he does not even know the prices back home because he does not think about it, he just buys it. But this man was looking very closely and comparing prices to try and find the best deal because there was a lot of money to go into the decision. 

After the grocery store we went back and went to bed. 

          

Reflections:

            The rules at the Rotorua place might have bothered some people I know, but I thought it was all right. It helped us know how to make sure we were not abusing our stay there. Plus, the place was really nice for a reason. Most of all we did not want to be those “typical Americans” who leave places worse than when they got there. For me abiding by the rules was an easy way for me to express my gratitude towards the owners for letting us stay there.

            At the Brew we had the place to ourselves until about six or seven. Apparently here we are early eaters. However, our stomachs were on a little bit of a different time zone. Then crowds started pouring in. All of the sudden we were surrounded by lots of noise. There was a moment of amusement that hit me when I realized the only Americans in the room were not the loud ones. At first I was a little annoyed only because it made me anxious, and my anxiety makes it even harder for me to swallow my food, but once I was able to calm down I began to enjoy it. I observed closer, and no longer saw people being obnoxiously loud, but rather people with friends and family really happy to be together. To me this was not something to be upset about anymore, but something to smile at and rejoice over. This kind of connection they seemed to have was something I was envious of and wish I had more of in my life.

            The more and more I am here the more I realize there is so much here to take in, especially the nature. It seems like everywhere I go there is a new type of bird chirping at my feet, and not just any everyday bird but one that makes really cool sounds or looks like a fan. I have found a whole new love for nature that I never knew I had or would have.

Dog statue on the side of the road
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uskiwiman

Sign on the side of the road. Remember it's May, winter's coming.
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uskiwiman

A statue on the side of the road
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uskiwiman

This was a KitKat bar I bought from the grocery store back in Auckland. It was called cookies and cream. It had three different parts.  

The gooey part

The crunchy part

The smooth part. This made me wish that KitKat was owned by Nestle here so that we could have more products like this. IT WAS AMAZING

Rosemary's backyard

Aunt Rosemary's House

Pizza cutter at Rosemary's

Water gun at Rosemary's

Inside of Rosemary's house.

The place we were staying.

The entire house. Our room place was on the bottom floor behind my uncle Michael. 

A Church we passed on our travels.

Hot Cross buns at the McDonald's McCafe

Morgan and I in Rosemary's backyard with Sky

photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldodd

other treats

Brew
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldodd

Eat Street

Dad and Aunt Rosemary
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldodd

Dad and me talking to Gary
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldodd

Morgan and I near Aunt Rosemary's lemon tree
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldodd

From left to right: Dad, Aunt Rosemary, Grandma, Morgan, Me
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldodd

Sign on the side of the road on the way to Rotorua
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldodd

Morgan and I at the Brew
photo cred: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldodd