Bumming It

This week I flew to Denver for an International Ministries Information Weekend (IIW) through Young Life- my favorite thing in the world, tied for 1st with my dog. Before my trip, I may or may not have spent X-amount of money on silly things, like a birthday party with excessive decorations for my roommate. And by may or may not, I mean that I totally blew most of my money for the month. When I arrived in Denver I planned to wonder the city for 2 days before heading to the IIW. I was gong to spend minimal money (because I didn't have much) on food and such before the weekend started. I referred to myself as "kinda bumming around" to my friends and family who asked why I went 2 days early.

Things I spent money on: 
 


-Bus fare

-Coffee (a lot of coffee)

-2 beers

-1 banana

-1 bagel without cream cheese (that was extra $)

-Buffalo chicken egg rolls

-1 concert ticket

-1 t-shirt

-1 burrito bowl from Qdoba

And this was my idea of "bumming it."
As I wondered around, I walked past numerous homeless people. I'm not positive that they were homeless, but they fell under the homeless category based on their physical appearance. I judged them, I'm sorry. Most of them were begging for change at the 16th Street Mall or Coors Field, and I saw plenty of people sleeping in, what I assumed was, their only clothes.


And I am over here "bumming it" as the privileged white girl wearing the newest Patagonia and Marmot attire and sporting a sweet Dueter pack. What the heck is wrong with me? Bumming it? Hardly.

Background: currently I am being heavily influenced by my good friend Jen Hatmaker (never met her, but I have read a couple of her books and follow her on Insta), my hippie roommate Beckie, and Jesus. All three have been pointing out the excess in my life and in the lives around me. Jen wrote the book Seven, Beckie is mimicking Jen's experiment from her book, and Jesus is just pressing on my heart. As I stood in line at Qdoba with my last $12 in my pocket, I found myself thinking about how little money I currently had and was feeling bad for myself. How would I buy a 16oz Americano tomorrow morning? And then it hit me. I have become seriously consumed in my own excess that I could not even see past the end of my nose. I was having pity on myself for only having $12 and being one phone call away (on my iPhone 6s) from getting permission to use my parents’ credit card while people were sleeping on the streets of Denver around me. Not Texas, where it drops to a nice 75 degrees at night. Denver- 48 degrees. I have totally underestimated how blind I am to the world and the needs of the world. My heart deeply hurts for the poor, the lost, and the broken. But I'm sitting here poor in spirit, lost in this life, and broken for people that I don't know how to help.

Jen Hatmaker wrote in her book Seven,

"We cannot carry the gospel to the poor and lowly while emulating the practices of the rich and powerful. "

Beckie says everything I want to say a million times better than I could say it:

"Precious people, you have inspired me. I want to have a lesser connection to material possessions and a deeper connection to knowledge, wisdom, and our God. You are clarifying for me what a life that is not centered on how much [stuff] I have looks like. Precious people, I am praying for you. I miss you and I love you so much. Precious people, you are making a difference in the life of a twenty-something in Texas. I weep for you thinking your stomachs are growling, your heads are aching, your muscles are fatiguing, AND I WEEP BECAUSE ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT IS BINGE WATCHING NETFLIX. I want to be more like you, precious people." 

 (Beckie's amazing blog at: https://restlessandactuating.wordpress.com/category/4/)

Week 1: Hand Lettering & Caligraphy

Week 1 of hand-lettering and calligraphy turned into 2 weeks. I got really excited about all of it!

Beckie's t-shirt design for her Nepal fundraising. 

To preface, I have realized that I am totally addicted to social media. But who isn't in our generation? I deleted snapchat and within 36 hours re-downladed it. In the morning, I spend my time between snoozes mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. 7/8th of the posts on their aren't even from people I actually know. How silly. And just like Beckie in her (much larger) experiment, I realized the urge to look at social media in every empty moment of the day.

I started off really strong by learning how to draw new fonts, sketching mountains in my journal, and reading articles on how to improve my hand-lettering skills. It was fairly easy to turn to drawing rather than Facebook when it was fresh on my mind.

And then I discovered Adobe Illustrator. WHAT A COOL PROGRAM. I read an article about how to refine your drawings on the computer. I was so naive to think that people just had such steady hands to produce beautiful hand-lettering without the use of a computer. Come on , KB. It started with wanting to be able to put my drawings into Illustrator to clean them up and make them perfect. I downloaded the free 30-day-trail version because God knows I can't afford any version of Adobe Anything.
With the help of my dad and youtube tutorial videos, I have become a pro at Illustrator. NOT. I would say I am a little baby beginner; just on the cusp of learning to maneuver this thing. I struggle moving the mouse around without accidentally drawing lines everywhere. But! I have made some really cool things that I am proud of!

Random sketches and Illustrator things below. 

This sketch is one that I semi-copied.
I can't take credit for the idea.

These pictures are just of some of the goods drawings! 
There are so many more and there are some REALLY hideous ones. 

This one I am really proud of!
 I created this on Illustrator without a tutorial video.

Inspired by My Roommates

Let me tell you about the lovely ladies that I live with: Rebecca and Elizabeth.

Beckie, myself, and Hash road-tripping somewhere in
Florida during Spring Break 2015. 

Let's start with Rebecca, aka Beckie (on the left).
She "practices" yoga, whatever that means. She loves Jesus. She babysits a 17 year old girl with special needs and LOVES it. She leads backpacking trips in the Grand Canyon. She is doing this crazy awesome experiment where she doesn't use social media, doesn't watch tv, only wears 3 outfits, and prays more. FOR FOUR MONTHS. What the heck?! She is 20 years old and acts like the most responsible and organized adult around (for the most part). She writes a blog that blows this little thing out of the water. Beckie is a doer.

Then there is Elizabeth, aka Hash (right).
Hash is triple-majoring in English, Psychology, and Environmental Humanities, or something like that. She is the editor-in-chief of a magazine on campus. She is the rock wall manager at the Outdoor Pursuits Center. She drinks wine like a champ. She volunteers at a hospital in Lubbock to write stories with kids who are ill. She has a lovely (disgusting) pet snake named Monte. She hiked 420 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail- majority of it BY HERSELF. Hash is a doer.

Let me tell you why I am telling you about my roommates: my roommates are doers, and I'm not.
I always talk about doing this and that (getting rid of my stuff, going on spontaneous trips, volunteering at shelters, writing a blog, etc.), but never actually do anything about it! Even tonight, I told Beckie that I wanted to seriously minimize the amount of crap I have sitting in my apartment. Will that ever get done? Eh, probably not until I graduate.

So, as my first step to becoming a doer, I am going to minimize my social media use. Minimize- not eliminate. I am going to choose a topic that I want to learn more about each week, and fill my time with that instead. I'g going to start off with only 3 weeks and see how it goes from there.

• Week 1: Hand lettering & Calligraphy
• Week 2: Astronomy
• Week 3: Photography

Here's to the next 3 weeks of drawing more, looking at stars, and taking pictures!