I’m tired and I truly madly deeply feel exhaustion. I feel it all over my body. I’m tired of feeling tired… in every sense of the word. I want to do is go to bed, in a huge comfortable bed… I want to shower first, the urge to feel clean is strong and although the sheep I see grazing on the meadow through the car window are beyond adorable the only thing that I look forward to for the rest of the evening is a bed, a cup of tea, pyjamas, and maybe writing. (Fun fact, I don’t really enjoy the majority of Disney’s new movies. The Frozen soundtrack is too much for me, so currently I’m blasting a few Phony Ppl songs through my headphones.) So as I sit patiently in this school van that’s driving through the South English countryside, I’ll explain why some kinds of paleontology are not for some people yet not for everyone.
You see, Paleontology, (the science of the forms of life existing in former geologic periods, as represented by their fossils) is most appreciated when it is being examined by people who are passionate about it… obviously. I went for a History course I’m taking and the experience was fascinating. My shoes were quite uncomfortable and honestly, if they would have been more comfortable I would have had enjoyed the day a bit more. Still, it was an amazing day! Lyme Regis is 2.30 hours away from Newbold and prior to attending this trip, our favorite professor told us more than once in class that if we wanted to go on this field trip we would have to leave before 8:00 in the morning. This prevented one of my classmates from attending the field trip because Wednesdays are our days off from class. Wednesdays are one of my favorite days of the week. It’s smack dab in the middle of the week and since I’ve been here at Newbold, I have no classes here on Wednesdays so Wednesdays are even more exciting. Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England. Even though the weather hasn’t been exactly “beach weather” I told myself that I wasn’t going to miss to see the ocean on England’s shore. It has been a bit since I have been on a field trip or out of town per se. I have been a little low on some funds and therefore have just enjoyed relaxing on campus and taking walks around town. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to come again to this majestic country Who knows if I’ll never see the ocean on this continent again? So, yes… I went to Lyme Regis and I’ll come to all the rest of the field trips that I possibly can because being here is a blessing and regardless of my mood-swings, crankiness, and the dumb attitudes I have sometimes The last month that I have here, needs to be a month where I am a blessing too. Being out by the ocean shore alongside so many rocks made me smile inside and outside.
As I walked and walked with a kind Paleontologist who taught my friends and me about ammonites, Mary Anning, and other fossils I thought about evolutionists and creationists. Their beliefs are so incredibly different from each other and are polar opposites. Evolutionists believe that things we see here on earth slowly evolved into what they are now and that the earth is millions and millions of years old. Creationists believe in a higher being, God, who created the earth in 7 days and that our earth is much younger, some several thousand years old. That’s what I believe too, and when I look at the world around me, the majestic cliffs, beautiful meadows, and stilling rushing waves on the beach, I cannot imagine being anything other than a Creationist. We collected fossils, looked at bizarre and weird shaped rocks. I have a bad memory so when the lad told us what we were looking for, I forgot five minutes later when we were closer to the rocks and proceeded the spend the next 3 hours asking “Hey guys, do you think this is a fossil or a rock?” After 30 minutes everything looked like rocks… they’re all rocks!! Beautiful and old as they could be, they were all still rocks. Fossils were once animals, poop, eggs, you name it and well I was tricked into licking some fossilized ehh… never mind.
Oh, but I had so much fun. I tripped every other step I took, I had sand inside my boots and I couldn’t get it off, and it was cold. Our guide was so friendly and gave most of us ammonites to take home. He chipped off a bunch of fossils off of a big stone thing and it was cool. There was also a lot of Fools Gold! (Whoohoo), I had never seen any or really heard of it and it looked like gold, obviously… but pretty cool. After we spent a good while there on the rocks we finally went back to the bus and ate our packed lunches like good little children. I was famished and stuffed my esophagus with as much food as I possibly could. Alas, I needed to regain my energy for my subsequent walk into town with everyone else which by the way I was so stoked fo because I would get to wander around freely again and see new things… I’m easily amused. Anyhow, the town was so cute. I’m pretty sure I’ll live there too. We wandered around for a little over and hour, looking at shops and buying small amounts of fudge. The day got warmer and I grew more and more exhausted as the days went by. We walked back to the school van with the favorite teacher and on the way back to school we listened to some more Disney music and 80’s rock songs. I think I fell asleep shortly after writing the first few lines of this post on my phone. The trip I loved made me think long and hard of my beliefs and ideals for the remainder of the week. I want to fully understand and know what I believe. I want to fully be able to embrace it, explain it, and live it. I realized I was not cemented as I would like to be and it bothered me. This then inspired to spend more time journaling my thoughts, reading His words, and going for walks in nature (which I did today). I am far from where I would like to be in life, yet I know I’ll get there one day. This assurance I get from people who believe in me, I get it from God. If I want to be helpful, kind, and uplifting, making a difference in my world, I came to the conclusion that it would help by beginning to smile at nature. Instead of questioning it so much and the beginnings of it, it would be ideal just be content with it, it’s existence and the beauty of it. If there were an accurate word for the desire to be content and happy with yourself and the world around you, I would want to know it.
Los cielos cuentan la gloria de Dios, Y el irmamento anuncia la obra de sus manos. (Salmos 19:1)
Through My Specs 