Author: Emily Martin

Last weekend, our family got the opportunity to sing for East District Mennonite Church at their church retreat.

I wasn’t really expecting much. After all, I barely knew anyone, and the people I did “know” were just faces I had seen at quiz meets or at summer camp–no one I really knew well.

But I have to say, it really was a good weekend. Not necessarily because of one big, climactic thing that made it all worth it, but rather, a collection of little things constantly making me smile.

It rained Sunday afternoon, which of course didn’t stop East District’s youth group from playing Spikeball or volleyball and offered the exciting opportunity of sliding down a hill in the slippery mud (I was boring and just watched them, and spent most of the rainy time in the pavilion babysitting Gabriel (see adorable picture above)).

Sara and Callie, on the other hand, got absolutely drenched and really didn’t seem to mind. The rain did give the weekend a cozy feel, so I appreciated that 🙂

The church had a talent show on Monday morning. We got to do a demonstration Bible quiz meet with some of the Shade Valley and Maranatha quizzers, which was definitely a lot of fun. At the end my dad gave his signature performance of The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, which was a highlight of my weekend ?

Below are a few more fun pics from the weekend–snapshots of the little things that made this trip special 🙂

Beyond that, I got to have several excellent quizzing conversations (which got me hyped up for the practice season to start again), renewed some old friendships (from the last time I went to East District’s church retreat at age 8) and got to play some sports (which stretched me out of my comfort zone … scary but a lot of fun).

Overall it was a great weekend, and thanks to those little things, I almost always had something to smile about 🙂

This weekend, I got the chance to hang out with my youth group at the cabin. It wasn’t a very structured event, which was pretty nice because it gave me the chance to step back from the pressure of everyday life and just enjoy myself.

Right off the bat, our youth leader told us we couldn’t have our phones in our rooms but had to keep them downstairs on the table. Even though not everybody was happy about this, it definitely made it easier to build relationships.

Saturday was a relaxed day – we played sports, some people went swimming in the pond, and we ate lots of junk food 🙂

In the evening a guest speaker came and gave a talk, which was followed by our annual cake bake-off. My team lost horrendously with a sad attempt at chocolate cake that we named the Mudslide (don’t think too hard about that one), but it was a lot of fun. Yes, I ended up covered with cocoa powder and with a bit of a stomach ache, but I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.

Sunday morning we watched an inspiring message by a Christian comedian for church (probably the only thing capable of keeping us awake all the way through the service — most of us were up until one or two both nights).

Afterwards some of us helped make lunch, then we cleaned up and headed home.

If I were to choose a theme for this weekend, though, it wouldn’t’ve had to do with the activities we had or the emotions that ran high sometimes or even the friendships I built.

One thing that kept on striking me this weekend is the idea of growing up. I’ve only been to the cabin with our youth group once before, over a year ago. Because of that, everything seems to have a memory attached to it. I remember last year’s conversations in the dark, last year’s cake bake, last year’s group games and sports.

And the truth is, things have changed since then. Maybe everyone else is different, or maybe I’m different. I guess we’ve all grown up since then, learned a little about ourselves and a little about God and a lot about what it means to grow up. It’s amazing how much changes in a year.

Growing up is weird. In so many ways I still feel like a little kid, telling myself stories and being awkward in conversation and struggling at sports.

And yet I look back and I wonder where the twelve-year-old me went, because whether or not I like it … I’m changing. And it’s good, even when it hurts a little bit.

This weekend was really good for me. It was relaxing, it was good to step back from life and, in a way, take a deep breath before the craziness of the school year kicks in. But it also gave me a lot to think about, and I’m grateful for that.

Hey there!

This is my first ever blog post *confetti* I’m not really sure how to do this, but I thought I’d start with a little introduction to my blog.

Anyway. I’m Emily. I’m a Christian, I love music (as you probably already guessed :p) and I love to write.

This post is mostly just to give you an idea of what to expect from my personal blog posts. I’ll probably do some life updates, a few book or movie reviews, random thoughts, and hopefully at some point in the future, I’ll also be posting chapters from some of the stories I’ve written. (At the moment they’re all kind of a mess but… you know … someday)

And I’m going to try really hard not to let this thing die right away, either 🙂

So that’s what you can expect from my blog. I’m sure writing this will be a learning experience for me, but I’m also really excited about this new opportunity 🙂