Spring Formal

Last night was spring formal for USF and it totally rocked! Honestly, I never really liked dances all that much before I came to college, but this one was a lot of fun. So for all of you who couldn't be there, here's how it went:

Jesse, in a tux with a spiffy green bowtie and vest, gallantly escorted three of us--myself, Dianna and Christa--and we met the others there. The others being Sara, Sarah, Adam, Chris and Mandy. And of course, there were lots of other people there too, though at first it was just us and a couple others, which was interesting. They played a lot of oldies at first, which was cool.

Dianna's dress was really cool. It was her mother's prom dress in 1969, which she had made herself. So needless to say, it was completely unique and totally retro. Definitely a hit.

For myself, I wore the dress I got for junior prom in high school. The purple sparkly one. I've always loved that dress, and apparently it also matches my personality. ;) The shoes I wore were bought yesterday afternoon. They have 4-inch heels, which made me over 6 feet tall when I wore them. Which was cool because then I was almost eye-level with Jesse when we danced. Of course, the shoes came off for a lot of the dance--it's hard to jump around like a fool to CottonEye Joe in heels. ;)

So all in all it was a fun experience. I can't dance, but you tend to lose your inhibitions when nobody else can either. And it's just fun to get all prettied up once in a while and be treated like a princess. Though I'm equally glad to be back to my jeans and sneakers today. ;)

God bless.
-Kim

Lack of Tree

There is a new tree stump in front of the library. This was quite a suprise to Dianna and I the other day. It wasn't so much the lack of tree that caught our attention (in fact, don't remember for sure any tree ever being there before) but the presence of the stump. And even if the stump has always been there and we're just unobservant, it raises an interesting question. Are there other things in this world that we take for granted so much that we don't even notice them anynmore? And if those things suddenly disappeared would we be shocked by the emptiness, or the vague scar or the proverbial stump left behind. It makes one think. At least, it made me think. Maybe nothing makes you think. That's not the point. Personally, I wish I were more observant. I wish I could remember the tree, but instead all I can see is the stump. Pay attention to the "trees" before all we have left are the stumps.

Okay, don't worry, I'm not an eco-freak, it's symbolism. Sheesh. Go think about it for a while if it intrigues you at all. If not, go sit on the stump and forget I ever said anything.

God bless.
-Kim

Kim 101

I've learned some rather interesting things about myself lately. So I think I shall share them with you.

1. Kim gets paranoid driving other people's cars. Especially big cars. Especially big Caddies belonging to people named Jesse. But don't worry, that only means that she drove slowly and took several minutes figuring out how to work the lights.

2. Kim does not appreciate being laughed at by Diannas when said Kim is driving said borrowed car. ;)

3. Kim really sucks at the X-MEN arcade game. But it's still a lot of fun to play. Especially as Wolverine.

4. Gigglebees' pizza is questionable at best and may be responsible for the strange pain in Kim's stomach.

5. Hair clips with the days of the week on them are actually cool.

6. Kim can get more tickets out of Skee Ball than any other game.

7. Kim is currently obsessed with the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack.

8. Kim is definitely an alto and can't hit half of Christine's notes.

9. Kim has a hard time sleeping after eating a lot of sugar, which probably explains her tiredness today.

10. Kim is such a dork that whe was wildly excited by finding a copy of "Fiddler on the Roof" on the library's 25 cent cart yesterday.

11. Kim has an overactive imagination and thinks like a Romantic (as in the era, not the genre).

12. Kim has awesome friends whom she would like to thank for being so awesome. thanks, all. :)

13. Kim is tired and should probably go to bed now, because she has an 8:30 class tomorrow followed by the LAR lecture.

To all my awesome friends, take care and God bless you all.
-Kim

A Blast From The Past

Today was fun. I don't think I accomplished anything, but we need days like that every once in a while.

This afternoon I went to Phantom of the Opera with Jesse, who hadn't yet seen it if you can believe it. It was amazing, even though this was my third time seeing it. that is some of the best music ever written, and they certainly did a great job with the special effects. The opening transition is basically the coolest thing I've ever seen--it just sets the stage for the rest of the movie, so you know it's going to be awesome. And being in a theatre (yes, even the cheap seats) and seeing it on a big screen makes one feel like seeing it live on stage or something. Which is why this movie must be seen in the theatre the first time. It's too big to be captured on a small screen.

Anyways, moving on. I went to Cru. at Augie tonight with Dianna. And who do you suppose I saw there? Josh. Yes, the same Josh who gallantly escorted me to my senior prom last year and whom I hadn't seen since LifeLight. He's just as crazy and energetic as ever. In fact, he was louder than all the Augie kids combined. We didn't get much chance to talk, but it was good to see him again.

Cru. itself was pretty cool. The dude from the Crossing was speaking and he had us all follow him out into the hall and sit on the floor while he delivered Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. It was powerful.

That's enough for tonight. God bless and take care.
-Kim

Incoherent Rambling

So, is it a bad sign if you're cold all over but your face is hot and red? Yeah, thought so. Which is why I've decided not to walk to Dr. Dyer's Bible study tonight. For some reason spending that much more time outside doesn't seem like an especially good idea right now.

In other news, you may have heard that I probably won't be working out at Judson this summer. It's disappointing, but if God wants me here, I'll stay here. So I've been looking at employment options at this end of the state. On the bright side, I'll be able to do things with my friends throughout the summer and I'll be able to help my mom with the Art's Festival. At this point it looks like my best possibility will be in painting. There's a mural that needs to be repaired, and apparently there's a crew of people that paint classrooms every summer. Who knew?

I think my brain is tired, which is severely limiting my creative capacity. So I think I'll just stop things here for today. There should be a limit to my incoherent rambling.

God bless.
-Kim

Water Balloons! Keep Running!

I guess you haven't really been in college until you've been attacked by water balloons returning to your dorm at night. If that is so, then I have officially been to college now. Let me tell the story in full.

Tonight Dianna and I went to the play again. (To see her opinion, click the link to her blog.) Anyways, leaving Jeschke we decided to run back to GI, like we did last night. Well, where the sidewalk goes between Jordan and Glidden, there were strange patches of wetness on the cement. And then suddenly water balloons were being chucked at us from the top of the Glidden fire escape. Dianna didn't see them, she only heard them hit the sidewalk, so she got confused and though she had dropped something. She slowed down and asked, "what is it?" "Water balloons!" I cried, not slowing down at all. "Keep running!" Thankfully, moving targets are hard to hit, so we stayed dry. Some other girls were not as lucky--I heard them screaming through my open window later. Ah well, that's college life for you.

Take care.
-Kim

Guildenstern Speaks

I thought about typing this one last night, but then Dianna incited me to watch a movie and afterward I was too tired. In fact, I didn't even feel like getting up this morning, I think I may be on the verge of illness and I'm trying to stave it off.

Yesterday was a good day. A bit on the chilly side, but good nonetheless. My day wasn't as good as Dianna's, but not much tops that. ;)

One happy occurance of Friday was my getting a package in the mail. It was a couple CD's I had ordered earlier in the week. Salvador and Matthew West. Yesss! Matthew West is so awesome!

The other happy thing was going to the play with Dianna, Jesse and my grandma. I'm really glad grandma could come, I haven't been able to spend time with her for a while. They had the theatre set up so that the audience was up on stage with the actors. Before the show started they engaged us in swordfighting and other medieval and Shakespearian delights. Jesse fought Becky and beat her quite quickly then later did an impressive bit of juggling. Later Becky was asking if there were any other "daring young gentlemen" who would fight her. As none volunteered, I quickly stepped up to the challenge. It was so much fun! I actually have no idea how to swordfight except what I've picked up from various books and movies, but I pushed her back quite easily. I shall have to see if she wants a rematch tonight. I think Jesse ought to teach me to fence. The practical purpose being that it would help me with my writing to be able to accurately describe real swordplay, and it would just be a lot of fun. ;)

The play was "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead." It was hilarious. Though at the same time, they managed to address the quite serious topics of death and the worth of the individual. As professor Cole would say, they "move from levity to gravity in a sophisticated, flawless motion." Although the leads are not meant to be sophisticated at all. They are average guys swept up into affairs far beyond their comprehension or control. Of course, the conclusion is depressing. They die, of course, the title tells us that. But they seem to reach the conclusion to simply accept their fate without a fight. Everyone dies, they say, why should it matter that we haven't done anything wrong? Death is meaningless, and life must be meaningless too, if death can come to us in such a fashon. After all, who are we but two men in this world of men.

But life is not meaningless. And individual people do have worth. God made us that way. I choose to view the morbid ending of this play as a warning. Don't fall into the trap of thinking this life pointless, or you may find it ending before it could begin. Not neccessarily in a literal sense, but I have seen people who find no real joy in life simply because they have decided that it is pointless. Don't let that happen.

Well, now that we're all sufficiently depressed, let's try to brighten the mood, shall we? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are an awesome comedic duo. Grandma said that they reminded her of the great Abbot and Costello. (Who's on first? Exactly!) Jesse said they were like him and his twin brother. Fun. Dianna thinks that she and I are the two. She is Rosencrantz and I am Guildenstern. Actually, I can envision the two of us having a conversation like the one on death next year when we're roommates. She'll be the one lying on the floor rambling on about whatever happened to come into her head, and I'll be the one listening and rolling my eyes. Ah, good times coming.

Well, that's probably enough for now. I need to work on a couple of papers and then hopefully work a bit on my story. I need to rewrite a scene because I just changed the architectural design of the building.

God bless, and take care.
-Kim

Volleyball

Today was a good day. We played volleyball at Trinity Baptist--and it was fun! None of us are especially good at volleyball, but we had a blast anyway. I went with Jesse, Dianna, Adam, and Chris showed up later. It's probably a good thing we weren't keeping score. Anyways, the game eventually devolved to a parody of soccer played with a rubber schoolyard ball with Disney princesses on it. We played Dianna and me against Jesse. I think we may have been beating him, but only because he had to cover his whole side alone. And then we came back but I was too jazzed to sleep yet, so I thought I'd make a post.

Oh, and Jesse, right now I am definitely in. ;) (Everyone else, if that statement makes no sense, please disregard it.)

It's raining outside. It's been raining a lot. In fact, getting out of the car after volleyball I noticed that the sidewalks are covered in worms. I hate worms--they make me crazy! Crazy? I was crazy once. So crazy they locked me in a round room to die, but you can't die without corners, so I dug a hole to get out, but there were worms in that hole. I hate worms, they make me crazy! Crazy? I was crazy once. So crazy they locked me in a round room to die, but you can't die without corners, so I dug a hole to get out, but there were worms in that hole. I hate worms, they make me crazy! Crazy? I was crazy once...

Playing Catch-Up

Well, it's been a few days since I've had time to write a post. So this one is going to seem pretty random as I try to catch you all up on what's been going on.
On Sunday afternoon my friend Mary had her senior recital, and it was really good. I ended up playing usher and passing out programs because I was there early. Mary is a great person and whe has an awesome voice, so it was really cool to see her recital.
The last couple days I've been stuck inside working on my paper for LAR, which led to a discussion on whether or not I would be bitten by a muskrat if I went to the falls wearing a green shirt. Jesse, I still say I wouldn't get bitten.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful the past few days, so I've been outside as much as possible--which isn't musch because of all my homework--grr. But I was able to sit outside of Jeschke the other night while I did some reading, which was fun.
That brings us to today. The first good thing that happened was that Cole pushed back the due date for our papers to Monday instead of Friday. Hallelujah! I also got to register for my fall classes today, and I got into everything that I wanted. Which actually isn't that much, but I decided it was pointless to overburden myself when I have so many extra credits already. And it's official: I'm joining choir in the fall and going to Europe next interim! Woot! And I'll be in Psych with Mandy, Philosophy with Dianna, Brit Lit with Christa, and choir with Jesse. It's good having friends in classes.
I did a silly but very exciting thing today. I ordered sheet music for the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." I'm so excited! It has the fiddle part along with parts for guitar and piano as well as the lyrics for voice. So, I've kinda got this silly idea about next fall. For homecoming there is a variety show, and now I'm gonna have this incredibly fun song that I could do. But I'll need help. Perhaps some of my musically-inclined friends could be persuaded to join in the fun? But that's still a longs ways off. At any rate, I'm going to have fun working on it this summer.
That's probably enough for today. I could attempt to turn part of this post into something profound, but my brain is tired from LAR.
God bless.

A Cross-Cultural Experience

Today Dianna and I attended a Greek Orthodox church for our worship paper for Intro to Christian Thought. (Wow, that's a mouthful.) It was quite an experience, so I'm going to tell you all about it.
The church is just a few blocks from campus, so it was easy for us to walk there. The building is rather small, but very beautiful. As an orthodox church, they have a lot of icons. The front was completely covered in them. Some looked familiar to me from my art history class. They had images of the archangels and the life of Christ and a huge image of the virgen Mary surrounded by images of the apostles. Their stained-glass windows were also quite attractive, and definitely iconic--the faces of the people were clearly defined.
In the front, of to the right side, was the "choir." They answered the priest in a sing-song sort of chant that was tonaly beautiful, but hard to understand. They spoke Greek half the time, but even when they were using English their singing style made the words hard to decipher. They had given us books to follow along with the service, but at times it was hard to know just where in the service we were. (I must have seemed very lost, because this lady kept bringing me books and pointing out the spot we were at. There are now two extra books in the pew we sat in because I didn't know where to put them back.)
For the most part, we tried to follow what was going on. we stood up when everyone else stood up, and we knelt when they knelt. Of course, kneeling was rather interesting. Dianna and I had decided to dress up for this, so we were both in skirts. It's hard to kneel in a skirt. They had these little bench-thingies that we pulled down to kneel on, but they were very smooth wood. That, coupled with the proximity of the next pew made my stance unstable. The entire time we knelt all I could think was, "I'm going to fall off this thing and embarass myself. I am so going to fall." Thankfully, we didn't keel long, so I didn't fall.
As an orthodox church, they have a great sense of tradidtion. Everyone involved in the service had a special robe of some sort, even the young boys whose job, it seemed, was simply to walk around periodically carrying huge gold symbolic objects. the priest's robe was cool, it was green with all sorts of gold trim. Several times during the service he used incence. The incence was in a chalice-shaped dish suspended on chains with bells so that when he swung the incence the bells would ring. At one point he also hled up a gold Bible. I'd never seen one like that before. It had portraits on the front that I can only assume were Jesus and the four gospel writers. At least, that's what would make sense to me, I didn't get a very good look at it.
Whenever the boys came out with their gold staff-thingies, they came through a door with the archangel Michael on it. When they were done standing in the front, they would go into the back again through a door with the archangel Gabriel on it. On the way back in, they would kiss the image. That kind of weirded me out.
Another thing I noticed that doesn't happen where I usually go to church was people crossing themselves. There were many times during the service when the entire congregation did it at the same time, some of them over and over again.
Communion was definitely different. The boys led a procession out of the little door which included more incence and the priest caring the covered elements. When it was time for people to go forward, only a few of them did, including all of the children. when the priest served them the wine he used a little spoon and they had to lean over or squat while he did it.
There was no sermon. There was a reading from the scripture, done in sing-song fashon by a man who obviously had not practiced singing that passage before. The main priest, on the other hand, had obviously learned English as a second language and was more comfortable doing the Greek side of the service. Later there was a reading that commented on the scripture, but I don't know who wrote it.
At the end of the service they brought up the guestbook and read our names to the congregation--I certainly wasn't expecting that. Afterward the priest was giving communion bread at the front and we were told that we didn't need to be members to take it at this time, that it was a "gift," so we did. On the way out a man stopped us and explained some of the icons at the front of the church. He said that since they are the Church of the Transfiguration, the image of the transfiguration of Jesus had to be in a special place in relation to the altar. It was all rather interesting.
One thing that struck me was the evident effort they had put forth to make the service as modern as possible without breaking tradition. The choir had microphones and there were two young girls singing with their mother in the choir. Also, although the book we followed used words like "thee," when they sang it they used "you."
After visiting this church today, I'm glad that I don't go there every Sunday, but I'm also glad that I've experienced it. Life lived in a bubble isn't very intersting. (And I should know.) I now have a better appreciation for what the denomination is like, and I should be able to get some good stuff out of it for my worship paper.

Take care of yourselves today--praise God, take some time off, and give someone you love a hug.

Joy and worm guts

Today is a great day. Now that I finally have my bicycle again, I was able to ride the bike path this morning. I realize that some people may consider me crazy for taking such joy in biking so far when I could have been asleep in my bed, but I've always been an anomaly.
This was a perfect morning for a bike ride. The wind was out of the east, which meant that it was against me early on but helped push me back to campus at the end. Also, it wasn't too hot, it was actually a bit chilly when I first set out. As an added bonus, it rained last night which meant there were huge puddles on the path in a few of the parks. Needless to say, I was rather muddy by the time I got back, but sending up that spray of water is well worth the mess. After all, I was going to do laundry today anyway. Of course, there were other things in the puddles too and I discovered dead worm guts on my bike later. But they come off pretty easily if you don't let them get all crusty.
So anyway, that was the happy part of my day. I now feel great and energized and I get to go do research inthe library for my LAR paper. Joy. Or something. Oh well--what must be done, must be done.
God bless.

Rainy Day (is this going to be some sort of pattern?)

Well, it's raining today. And guess what wonderful thing I did in the rain today. I had a lovely little bike ride in the rain. It wasn't actually raining when I left, there were just a few sprinkles. But by the time I was done filling my tires at the gas station, it was definitely raining. So I rode back to campus in the rain. It was actually a lot of fun.
So Jesse, thanks for helping me get my bike this morning so I could embark on this silliness. And don't worry, I won't go riding in the rain again--I know better than to get myself sick.
Well, I guess this will be a rather short post, I am presently going to join Dianna at her home to eat pizza--yum.
God bless you all.

"The movie in my mind"

Last night I saw the musical Miss Saigon at the Washington Pavilion. We got the cheap student rush tickets, so they put us in the nosebleed section, which actually wan't that bad because we could hear everything just fine. And actually, I'm glad I didn't have a front row seat for the first scene. If you've seen the show, you'll know what I'm talking about, otherwise, don't worry about it.
One of the reasons I was so ecxited to see this show was because my marching band last year played music from it for our field show (which, by the way, we took to Portland and blew the Oregon bands out of the water with). I really wanted to learn the words to the songs that had already flooded my mind. "Sun and Moon" was especially beautiful, and I love it both with the words and without.
I knew before I went that this was going to be a sad show, but I didn't realize how emotional it would make me. I almost never cry, and this show had me in tears at the end because of all the sacrifices Kim had made and all the things out of her control that had led her to that point. Maybe it's because we share our name, but I felt connected to her as I watched. I felt her pain as her dream, the "movie in [her] mind," was lost forever. I have put away dreams too. It can hurt terribly to lose all hope of achieving a dream held on to and cherrished for so long. Of course, if it's not the right dream, then in spite of the pain, we should be glad.
We all have dreams deep in our hearts that we cherish. For some it's a certain career, or a certain fammily life, or simply feeling important and making a difference. Whatever the dream is, we all think about what life could be like and watch the movie in our mind. The movie in which we are the star and everything is going our way. But life soesn't work that way. Often people who achieve those dreams find that real life is not nearly how they imagined it in the movie in their mind.
Personally, I think I understand why my lost dreams had to be abandoned. I can't be the center of my own life, and I can't just do whatever I want. God has a plan for me that is better than anything I could dream up in my wildest imaginings. So even though it may be painful to lay down some of the dreams I carry, I know that in return God will give me one that is better by far and worthy of my dreaming and achieving. And the best part? He has one for you too. He has a dream for you that you will never have to let go of.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11
In closing, there is a song by BarlowGirl that has touched my heart on this subject that I would like to share with you:

Surrender
My hands hold safely to my dreams
clutching tightly not one has fallen
so many years I’ve shaped each one
reflecting my heart showing who I am
Now you’re asking me to show
what I’m holding Oh so tightly
Can’t open my hand can’t let go
Why does it matter
Why should I show you
Why can’t you let me go

(Chorus:)
Surrender, Surrender You whisper gently
You say I will be free
I know but can’t you see
My dream are me, My dreams are me

You say you have a plan for me
and that you want the best for my life
Told me the world has yet to see
what you can do with one
that’s committed to your call
I know of course what I should do
That I can’t hold these dreams forever
But if I give them now to you
Will you take them
away forever or can I dream again?

Peace and joy to all of you--go enjoy the lovely spring weather.

Sunny Day

Today's "Friendship Quote of the Day" (from my spiffy little daily calendar I got for graduation) is: "A friend is a person with whom you dare to be yourself." -Pam Brown.
That may seem somewhat trite and obvious, but I like it anyway. So thanks to all my wonderful friends who read and made comments. This shall be a lighter post since I don't really have anything profound to say. Except that I got my essay back in LAR today and Dr. Cole loved it--woot! (That would be the essay that was posted yesterday.) Not that that's profound, but when I'm happy I try to share the joy. Or something.

Today there was cherry pie in the caf. It made me very happy. When I eat cherry pie it makes me think of my mother, because it's her specialty and she makes it for every major holiday. When I got old enough to roll out the dough properly, I started helping her, so now it's something we do together. And that's why cherry pie makes me happy. Well, plus, it just tastes really good!

You know, I was going to try to write something that might actually matter, but it's a beautiful day outside and I can't concentrate. So, thanks again to all my friends who love me even in my random silliness. I'm going to go play outside.

A Hairy Subject

Welcome, all, to my blog. This is my first attempt at blogging, so please don't laugh. It may not be the best idea to post something so long the first day, but I'm going to do it anyway. Lots of people have asked me why I cut my hair, but I don't think any of them have gotten a complete answer yet. It's a complicated issue, but here goes nothing. To start the explanation, take a look at an essay I recently wrote for LAR:

Striving For Imperfection
It seems that almost everyone is quoting Napoleon Dynamite lately, even people who don’t especially like the movie. “Hey, Napoleon, give me some of your tots,” is now heard in cafeterias across the country on tater tot day. Even my own mother can now recognize such quotes as, “Tina, you fat lard, come eat your dinner,” and “go make yourself a dang quesadilla.” She recognizes them because I introduced her and my father to Napoleon Dynamite during Easter break. Watching the movie again with my parents made me see it in ways I hadn’t before.
My mother watched the opening credits with a bemused smile on her face. I watched her throughout the movie as she took in the weird randomness of Napoleon and his friends. Some parts of the movie brought the bemused smile back to her face and other parts brought on the raised eyebrow of confusion and incredulity. The scene with the chickens was one that brought out the smile—it was familiar to her, as she grew up on a farm herself. And according to her memories of farm life, chickens do have large talons. A scene worthy of both the smile and the eyebrow was the dance. My mother made the astute observation that, though the brown suit Napoleon wore to the dance was obviously intended to make him appear even dorkier, it actually looked good on him. In fact, it looked better than anything else he wore in the entire movie. Personally, I would have to agree.
After the movie my mother made a comment that caught me off guard. She said that she admired Napoleon because he isn’t afraid to be himself. That made me stop to think, and I realized that I admire him too. Oddly enough, I actually want to be like Napoleon. That’s why I cut my hair. Perhaps I should clarify what I mean. Watching the movie did not make me decide to cut my hair; watching the movie with my mom helped me understand better why I cut my hair.
I have always been a perfectionist. I do not like to do something unless I am sure that I will succeed. At least, I don’t want others to see me try if I fear that I might fail. These are fairly common feelings, but most people seem to overcome them. Even as a musician I don’t like for my sound to stand out, lest I should be found to be playing my part wrong. As a result of my fear, I almost never allow myself to perform to the best of my ability. I feel much more safe playing simple music or hiding my sound within a group.
I hate hiding behind that façade of “perfection.” I feel like I’m living someone else’s life instead of my own. Like every decision I make is based on what others think I should do instead of what I think I should do. Instead of asking myself what Kim would like to do, I ask what the perfect girl would do. I worry whether my reputation will be ruined if I don’t do an extra credit assignment or get a less than perfect score on a test or paper. I know some people think that I never fail; they’ve told me as much. This perceived perfection is a hard standard to live up to. In fact, it is an unattainable goal.
How does this relate to my hair? Quite simply, my hair was a crutch. It’s not the only thing I hid behind, but it is the one thing that I can change most easily. My long hair could be beautiful when the rest of me wasn’t. I used it to distract from my imperfections, physical and otherwise. But this charade could not last forever.
Napoleon Dynamite is certainly not perfect either. The admirable thing about him is that he doesn’t try to hide his imperfections. He doesn’t fit in, so he finds friends who appreciate him for who he is. One of Napoleon’s memorable phrases is, “Whatever I feel like doing—gosh!” He lives his life for himself, not for the expectations of anyone else. At the end of the movie the entire school recognizes this great aspect of Napoleon as they give him a standing ovation for his unique dance moves. If Napoleon can be respected for who he is, then surely I can be respected for who I am.
Like its main character, the film itself is imperfect. And I’m not talking about the lack of a discernable plot. The entire movie is shot with the camera on auto focus, which my friend who is a media studies major complains about to no end. But again, the makers of Napoleon Dynamite never pretended that their movie was anything more than what it is: a low-budget project that never expected to be popular. And it is because of this humility that the movie has soared to such popularity. Words of praise for Napoleon Dynamite travel by word of mouth rather than an extensive advertising campaign.
So what does all of this mean for me and my hair? Most of my attitudes and habits concerning perfection will take time to change and I will be dealing with them for the rest of my life. But my hair is easy to change. Within the first five minutes at the salon, in fact, my hair was already shorn to the point of no return. My hair is now my personal testimony and reminder. Like Napoleon, I don’t always need to do what others think I should. I don’t need to look the way they think I should. And I don’t need to keep my long hair just because other people like it. All I need to do is live the life that works for Kim. So what am I going to do today? Whatever I feel like doing. Gosh!

So that's one side of it(The essay is done now, in case anyone was confused). Some of you may not understand my other reason, but I'll tell you anyway. God has been working on me lately, teaching me things. He's been showing me that I need to learn to give up the things that are preventing me from following his plan for my life. Not all of these things are bad, but they are in the way nonetheless. And since I'm rather stubborn and fearful, he had to start by asking me to give up something rather trivial. I've always liked my hair, even when it was anoying. I'd been thinking for quite some time that I would like to donate my hair to Locks of Love, but I could never bring myself to actually do it. Then God made something very clear to me. It was as if he were saying, "Just let go. You can trust me. How am I ever going to use you to do something bigger if you won't give up this one small thing for me?" That really struck home. I want God to use me, no matter what that entails. So I did it, and God has blessed me for it. Not only will a child get a wig, I like my new haircut. i have wash-and-go hair again!

One last thought: Now that I've done this, what will God ask of me next?