Procrastination is my favorite thing!

*This was suppose to be posted last Thursday, but my internet decided to stop working right when I wanted to post it...

Charm Used: Accio (Professor Trelawney)

To this point, at 9:54 pm, I have not started a wink of homework. Despite the mounting pressure and anxiety of the coming IB exams in less than seven days (holy crap), I still manage to be so unmotivated I neglect to start homework until nearly 10 pm. Shoot (and many other words).

I guess that's what caffeine is for.

That's a bad habit... Drinking caffeine at 10 at night.... I should stop..........Nahhhhh.

GPA > sleep

Anyway, the purpose of this post was to tell you all about my most recent, and ridiculous, dream. I realized that even after I set up my dream deciphering page months ago I never followed though with telling you about what my subconscious was trying to tell me via dreams.

So here we go.

Disclaimer: "I swear to you, before you read this next bit of information, that it is 100% true. I am not making this up. It really happened to me- despite how unrealistically awesome it sounds. Do not be fooled by its greatness."

This dream was about two weeks ago during a nap I took instead of studying for chemistry (what else).

It started off with me and a bunch of other people on Sophomore Street having some kind of lunch party. There was a Taco Cart ("Roach Coach" as my mom calls them) and a little plastic, blue kiddie pool parked in the middle of the road. We were all dancing, having fun doing whatever you do in dream Dance Parties. Then everyone decided that they wanted to go in the kiddie pool to cool off. Problem was, the pool was filled with pH 12 liquid (CHEMISTRY) and it would burn when it touched your skin. So they decided to compromise and only dunk their shoes in the liquid and then put them back on to "feel the burn". (I feel like this was a drug reference in my dreams, because I remember I felt bad about the whole thing and I didn't want to take part in the activities.... Maybe it had something to do with acids... DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ME, I AM NOT A DRUGGIE. I THINK DRUGS ARE STUPID AND PEOPLE WHO USE AND ABUSE ARE EVEN MORE STUPID.) Everyone was pressuring me to just put one of my boots in the liquid and nothing bad would happen. Of course, being awesome me, I said no and did not fold to the peer pressure. But right before I was going to walk away, this crazy Swiss lady came running up to the group and started screaming out for someone named "Methane" (CHEMISTRY). Accent and all, she kept screaming for "Methane" and that, who ever "Methane" was, needed to take a math test retake. She then proceeded to grab me and start yelling/scolding for not coming to take my math retake. I kept insisting that I really didn't have a math retake. She kept dragging me along saying it was imperative I take this test. I started to get heated with her saying, no, as a matter-o-fact, I was not. She kept calling me "Methane". I started to yell.

And then I woke up.

Deciphering:

Food- "Selling food is a dream of contrary and signifies a stroke of money luck; buying food predicts a happy family celebration."
Pool- "A swimming pool is a symbol of social gaiety, unless it was empty, dirty, or in poor condition, in which case it is a warning against gambling or speculation...To dream of playing in a pool suggests that you would benefit from cultivating new interests and new companions."
Exam (didn't have "test")- " The classic daddy of obstacle dreams with a classic simplicity of meaning. If you failed the examination, the dream is telling you that your ambitions are beyond your ability... If you passed the exam, it predicts comfortable achievement of all your hopes." (Not sure how to interpret this in regards to my 'non-existent retake'...)
Foreign- "A foreigner in your dream, whatever the nationality, is an auspicious omen if he or she was friendly." (NOT)
Boots- "If [the boots] were shabby and/or ill-fitting, you would be well advised to give more serious attention to your personal affairs."
Didn't have the meaning for "base" or "chemistry".
Didn't have the meaning for "math".

Thus, in conclusion, within the next month or so, I could possibly have a family celebration at which we may or may not go to a casino and gamble. If this were to happen, I should watch my money because I might loose everything. However, it being my lucky day, I will come into money luck because of my awesome skills at casino games (because I play them all the time............. *sarcasm*). This might piss someone off though because I am so inexperienced yet still manage to win money. This bad vibe between me and this "personal affair" person could end in a complete disaster.

Ohh, I'm good.

"Your voice is a resource."

Spell Used: Sonorus

Considering I only learned about Invisible Children's existence about a month ago, I am floored by how quickly I have become an advocate for their organization and a such a strong supporter of their ideals. It's an intangible quality, or power, that they possess over people, I swear! The news that they bring to us in the States is stuff I have never heard of before, and amazes me all the same because I haven't heard of these atrocities even though they've been going on for some 25 odd years. And better yet, they're appealing to the youth of today, the future leaders of our world to help stop these atrocities. Maybe the power they hold over me and the thousands of other supporters is the fact that they place responsibility and power in our hands- letting us run with it and see how far we can take it (the opposing of the mother who fears us to run with scissors, i.e THE MAN). Nevertheless, this binding power transfuses into inspiration. And of course, the inevitable, this inspiration drives us to do something crazy-- to "shut-up" for an entire 25 hours (in honor of an IC event). In a society where communication is the bread and butter of our life, this task seemed impossible; which it, unfortunately, proved to be.

Before I get going, I just need to make sure you know who the Invisible Children are and what they are doing.

"Invisible Children is a non-profit organization who is helping save children (and now the general public) in Uganda, Sudan, and Congo from being forced into a rebel army led by Joseph Kony. If abducted into the army, these children are forced to kill and inflict as much destruction on surrounding villages as possible... The premise behind 25 is that after signing up, you stay quiet for 25 hours (on April 25) representing the 25 years this war has been going on and also how children in that area don't have a voice to call for help when they need it.

"25's focus is to raise awareness for the next stage of the Invisible Children's mission called The Protection Plan. The purpose of this is to set up radio tower across the remote regions of Central Africa so that they can communicate with each other about the LRA's (Lord's Resistance Army, lead by Joseph Kony) movements and provide forewarning to these rural communities. The goal of this radio system is to allow people to escape from villages before the LRA attack and virtually save people's lives. The Protection Plan would also set up a rehabilitation center for children who have escaped from the LRA and provide the psychiatric help they need before reintegrating into society." (Directly from an email I sent to people in my address book informing them about 25 and ways they can help.)

The IC (Invisible Children) event that took place on April 25th, 2011 had many goals. First were for the people in the "developed" counties. The people who participated in 25 on the giving end were to:

1. Be silent for 25 hours
2. Raise $25
3. Spread the world about the event/IC

While numbers 2 and 3 were probably the most important overall for IC and the central African people, they were not the hardest. Number 1, if taken seriously, was in fact the most arduous task of them all. Metaphorically speaking, not speaking was representative of speaking in central Africa. Confused? This whole "not speaking thing" was the bases for 25. It acted as a silent manifestation of the repression people in areas such as Sudan, Uganda, DR Congo, and the Central African Republic suffer from every single day. Not being able to call for help when they need it, not being able to appeal to their government in resolution of their problems; the list goes on and on. When you dissect what you talk about on a day to day basis, you realize the degree to which you take advantage of this resource. As I thought this up last night,"Your voice is a resource." (And one that we often take for granted.) I actually had one person tell me yesterday when I wasn't responding to her that she thought when people don't respond to her, she perceives them as sad and empty. SO PERFECT. Do you see how in our culture when someone doesn't speak, their seen as disconnected and sad? So then why doesn't this strike the same nerve with the American people when we learn about people overseas who LITERALLY CANNOT SPEAK OUT IN FEAR OF DEATH? What possible factor continually inhibits the same empathy we show for our peers than those people in central Africa?

I will tell you.

Because we're stupid.

No, just kidding (haha, I'm hilarious).

But in all seriousness, why do we automatically turn off when we hear someone telling us about a charity that they're doing, or a event that their participating in to save babies in Mongolia? In response to the third item we were suppose to do as part of 25, I emailed nearly everyone in my address book, I asked my church elders if I could talk to the congregation about this event. You want to know what happened? Two out of the twenty odd people I emailed replied. None of the church elders responded to my email asking if I could share this with the church body. People who I repeatedly asked if they would donate or at least go the the IC website never did. So why is it that people are so concerned for you, here in America, when you don't speak, but not for a person who can't speak on a different continent WHEN THEIR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT? Ponder that.

But anyway, that little tangent leads me to me final point. While I did not manage to be silent for the full 25 hours (to my dismay), 25 has provided an eye-opening stepping stone to my participation as a global activist. Maybe not a super intense activist, but at least one who is doing what they can at home to make a difference in their community.

One step at a time my friend, one step at a time...

If you would like to learn more about Invisible children and what they are doing, go to:

http://www2.invisiblechildren.com/

I also highly encourage you to watch this video by Invisible Children. It explains what The Protection Plan is doing and how it will affect the lives of the African people, as well as our own, in the near future.

http://www2.invisiblechildren.com/videos/20031808

And last note, 25 raised just under $1.7 million for The Protection Plan (worldwide). The best part: 100% of the proceeds will go towards implementing this plan.

Booyah!