Jordan's Condensed Summer...

Shoot me. I'm sorry. Someone should sue me for horrid blogging ability. Buuut, what's done is done. So I will fill you in on my summer speedily and elaborate on a few high points! Here we go.

**CAMP! So, with my bff Cwizzle, I decided to go to youth camp at Orange Beach. It was pretty amazing. Not full-blown amazing, like I have experienced and was expecting, but it wasn't bad. I made a lot of amazing memories with Court, Megan, Mikaila, and Cristen. Good times when girls go crazy and rock out in the middle of the night, huh? I'm not sure that this description is adequate. I'll do a more in depth one below.

So, in my past, I have been to 3 INCREDIBLY AMAZING FANTASTIC WONDERFUL LIFE-CHANGING camp-like summer experiences that I will NEVER EVER forget. Because of them I am not the same person I would have been otherwise. I came to realize that every year, I expected more and more and received. I'm thinking my expectations were too high to reach maybe. But the thing is, I'm not sure if anyone from the particular youth group I went with to Student Life 2009 at Orange Beach reads my blog, so I'll just say that it's not as much fun being part of people who have never experienced full-blown Jesus and don't understand. Like, I'm sure they grew a lot as Christians, but I just got a little spark of the fresh Jesus fire I was looking for. But whatever, I'm glad I went.

**Amber! So, when I was at camp, my mom called me to tell me that my friend Amber (more on that in a sec) had CALLED me. I was amazed. So, I'm not going to tell you how I did it, but I called her back. (Let's just say I had to do a lot of sweet-talking and eyelash-batting) She didn't answer. So I went on with my camp life, and got back on a Tuesday. When I got home, she had left me a VOICEMAIL! She wanted to hang out. I'll now explain why this was sooo crazy.

See, Amber and I have been best friends pretty much since 7th grade, when we met at McDonough Christian Academy. I knew that separating and going to different high schools was going to be hard on our friendship, but I was pretty sure that we could still make it work. And, it was working. We saw each other roughly once a month and talked about once a week. Until February. In February she met her boyfriend, Zakk. The last time I had hung out with her was the day after she and Zakk's very first date. So, to all of you out there who have been teenagers, let me just say, it's really hard to have your BFF pick a boy over you. You all probably already knew that, but let's just say it KILLED me. I tried to talk to her often, but she was always too busy. She told me that she and Zakk were together so much, that it would be hard for us to get a chance to be together. I knew that if I tried to tell her she was doing something wrong by leaving me behind, she would pull away from me even more. I have never experienced that kind of emotion before. Finally, in early June I decided to stop trying to contact her. What was even the point? All of my other friends knew how much her decision had hurt me. They told me she wasn't worth it, but I knew she was. So I decided to just let her come to me, knowing with a heavy heart that that might never happen.

Like I previously said, that camp wasn't life-changing. But at it I did decide to let Amber go and move on with my life. Coincidentally, she had decided to contact me right when I made that decision.

So when I got home, I called her back. She was like "Hey! Do you mind if I come over tonight?" Pretty much I was awestruck, dumbfounded, and on my second wind (I had just gotten back a few hours ago from camp and had five days and about 20 hours total of sleep. Give or take. Mostly take.) I asked my mom, and that night Beverly dropped Amber off. Now, I'm not gonna lie. I'm a pretty decent actress. I love theater, and being in it. So I was shocked when I couldn't even pretend that I was okay with Amber. I didn't know what she was doing at my house, and couldn't hide it. I wasn't talking, looking her in the eye, and I was pretty sure if I said too much, I would start crying. I'm not emotional, AT ALL, but this whole situation was weirding me out. Amber asked if we could go swimming. A huge part of me and Amber' s friendship has been by the pool, on the deck, specifically. We have had so many talks about life and laughed so hard we cried there. I agreed, and we got in our bathing suits and headed outside. (It was late, about 10:00 PM then, as it always had been when we would go out for our late-night talks) We got in the water. Amber acted as if everything was the same as it used to be. I got on a float, and she got in the inner tube. Then she came over and rested her chin on my arm. I was kinda freaked that she was being so touchy. It was the old Amber, not the new and boyfriend-loving Amber. She talked about school and stuff, and I gave mindless answers.

Finally she said "Wanna go on the deck?" I said "Umm, sure." We got out of the water and dried off, and the laid out on the deck chairs. She was talking about how she had changed this year. I was doing more of the whole,"Uh-huh. Yeah." thing when she looked at me with tears in her eyes. "What?" I asked, confused. She said "I realize what I have been doing to you and I'm sorry. You're worth more than that. Zakk will never be as important as you are. I don't know how you've put up with me so long, treating you like you're worthless. I've been pushing you aside and it's not fair. I came over because I don't want to lose you and was afraid I already had." I am pretty sure I skipped a heartbeat or two at that point. I didn't even know what to say. Me, not having an answer? Yeah, that's just not like me. I finally just put my head in my hands. She was crying hard at that point. I guess she didn't know if I was about to tell her off or what. She said "What? What?" and I finally looked up and told her "I didn't think you knew. You don't know how much you have put me through. All of my friends know how much this hurt me, and they said I should just forget you. But I knew I couldn't. I can't believe you realized it. I can't believe it." We kinda sat there in silence for a minute, me in disbelief. Amber said that she realized what she had done a few days before when she was talking to her mom about what a good friend I was and she hadn't talked to me in awhile. When her mom asked her why that was, Amber realized because she had been treating me like crap. As soon as it hit her, she freaked out. She told me she cried herself to sleep that night. I was amazed that she cared. Beyond words amazed.

Then Amber said (and sorry for the language here, but it's kind of necessary.) "I'm sorry I was such a bitch."

I replied," You weren't a bitch."

We both sat there for a second.

Amber retaliated after considering that. "Yeah, I was."

I paused for a second. "Mm, yeah, you were."

Then we laughed. It felt so good to laugh with her. We had a great time together that night, it was like nothing had ever changed. I was just so happy and satisfied with my life because that was the major thing bringing me down all of the time. I loved that we were close again.

Holy crap, that was a freaking long post. Well, I don't think that was a very condensed version of my summer, more like the first week or so. More later, when I don't have SO much to say. Moral of the story? Never give up on true friendship. If it's true, it won't fail you.

Xoxo.

Jordan Elizabeth =]