New Blog

so - it is quite obvious that I haven't blogged here in a while. and that is for many reasons.

but i have started a new blog. which is a lot more relevant to things that are going on in my life.

so, come visit me over there sometime.

http://hollyjohnston.posterous.com/

"There Was a Kid...

with a head full of doubt, so I'll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out."

Graduation has come and gone and in two days time I am going to be sitting on the beach with a book in my hand relaxing. As I start to plan out my summer, I am realizing that I am on the go pretty much the entire summer. I leave on Tuesday for the beach, come back next Monday. That Thursday I am heading up to Staunton to spend the night and then on Friday I am going to Mary Baldwin's campus to set up my schedule and all that good stuff. That Monday I start work, then on July 10th I am off to spend two weeks at UVa, which I couldn't be any more excited for! I come back and then up until the 13th of August I am back on the internship. Then sometime around August 22 I leave for school.

While looking at my summer schedule, which will not go as smoothly as I am hoping it will go, it seems a little overwhelming. Although I know that I can handle it and that this is the last time for a while that I am going to be able to make an impact on my community before heading off to school.

Speaking of school - I am finding it very hard to believe that in the morning I don't have to get up to go to class. I am almost a little sad. While I didn't cry on Friday night, the realization that I am never going to have a class with these kids ever again makes me sad. Although it makes me even more excited for Sorensen this summer and then heading of to school in the fall.

I can't help it, I'm a nerd.

It has been a while...

but that is because I have been pretty busy lately.

In the past few months I have:
-given a couple presentations on Darfur.
-I have had 3 interviews.
-I have been hired as a Common Good Summer Fellow for Congressman Tom Perriello's re-election campaign.
-I have been accepted to Mary Baldwin and American University and wait-listed at Bryn Mawr.
-I have gotten glasses
-Helped organized and helped ran a meeting for the Virtual Va social studies club with Congressman Perriello

Throughout all the hustle and bustle of what senior year holds, I have been enjoying life in general.

I have been doing lots of reading as well. In College Composition we have been reading the Romantic poets, and I can't help but think about how much I love Lord Byron's writing. The one line that has been sticking out in my head for days is, "I love man not the less, but Nature more."

I have also had a Henry David Thoreau quote stuck in my head. I first heard it when former Governor Tim Kaine was speaking at Girls State. He opened his speech with "I love my fate to its very core and rind." These are two lines that in general sum up how I feel at the moment about my life and I although I couldn't be more confused about what I will be doing after high school - I would not change a thing.

A Black Boot, a Red Bench, and a Aeroplane sticker

You may be wondering what these three things have in common. It is not something that is obvious and it is not something that any one reading would understand. It is something that only I understand the connections.

Each of these are things that I see and remind me of the simple things in life. In this open field lays a black boot that has been there for years. Hanging on a tree by two metal chain links is this bright red bench swing that's vibrancy has caught my attention due to the dullness of winter. Someone has placed an aero plane sticker on the ceiling above the stairs at my church. Every time I walk down the steps I look up and chuckle.

These three things remind me of the simplicity of life.

On another note that is completely unrelated - Real Time with Bill Maher has started back - and I am super excited.

Charlie Wilson

My favorite congressman of all time has passed away. Charlie Wilson passed away earlier today. Wilson is best known for getting majority of the funding for the covert operation in Afghanistan. While Wilson was known as "Good Time Charlie" on the Hill, while he was in office, he got work done. If anyone has seen or read Charlie Wilson's War then you would be familar with the wild lifestyle that Wilson led, but he was honest with his constituents and he was effective.

Wilson is the main reason for my interest in Afghanistan and always will be my favorite Congressman.

RIP Charlie Wilson

The Night That the War Began

From some reason I have been thinking about the night that the War in Iraq began. I was in 5th grade, and I can remember knowing that day that then President Bush was going to declare war. I sat that night watching the TV, waiting for his announcement, but my mom finally made me go to bed.

I woke up the next morning and watched the news as I always did - even in 5th grade I was nerdy. The footage of the bombings in Iraq are still something that are embedded into my mind. I can remember the buzz at school the next day, none of us were really sure about what was going on.

Why this has been on my mind lately, I'm not sure. It is definitely something that I have been thinking about a lot. Maybe it is because I now know people that have fought, are fighting, or will fight in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Maybe it's because of my growing awareness of the Middle East. Either way - I vividly remember the night that the war began.

Howard Zinn.

I am writing this post saddened by the news that I have just read. Today, Howard Zinn died of a heart attack at the age of 87.

This man has helped shape my views of history - and the history community lost an important person today.

I had thought about today as I browsed through my school library re-reading "A People's History of the United States" and I know now that the first thing that I am going to do tomorrow is check it out and read it.

RIP Howard Zinn.