Miss Representation

Something needs to happen about the way the media portrays women. With summer here, I highly recommend you watch this film during your free time. It can be very exploiting at times but the statistics and facts will shock you and will change the way you filter the culture around you: Miss Representation.

"Women saying,  'I'm not a feminist' is my greatest pet peeve. Do you believe that women should be paid the same for doing the same jobs? Do you believe that women should be allowed to leave the house? Do you think that women and men both deserve equal rights? Great, then you're a feminist. People think there is something taboo about speaking up for feminism. I know for a long time that I was embarrassed to call out misogyny because I was then going to be that complaining girl who can't let it go. But the fact is, we can't let it go - not until we feel like we have been heard." 

-Lena Dunham  

To my father.

 Marque M Jensen, my father, thank you for being all that you have been in my life.

Thank you for your hard work and many jobs. Thank you for not being stagnent in life. Thank you for standing up for what is right, even if you get crap for it. Thank you for being a speaker, mentor, teacher, pastor, and friend to many. Thank you for your commitment to get jobs done. Thank you for the long hours you spend to support our family. Thank you for the positive outlook you have on life, knowing that God can bring light out of any situation.

Thank you for your appreciate of cultures. Thank you for not letting your skin color define who you are. Thank you for being too hard to label. Thank you for your respect of all people, your love, and kindness shown. Thank you for your many friends of many background and the many times they have come to share their stories to our family  Thank you for not letting history define us. Thank you for helping liberate people.

 Thank you for being a godly role model in our families life. Thank you for loving mom as Christ loves the Church. Thank you for the 30 plus years of commitment you have with her. Thank you for raising my two crazy brothers, Jared and Tyler, and for showing them what a true man is. Thank you for being the greatest grandpa to Vivvi and for caring and playing with her even after a long day of work.

 Thank you for teaching me that I can chase after my dreams and go against the current of life. Thanks for letting me join football, fly alone to Poland, and go to college young. Thanks for supporting me in all my activities and encouraging me to do my best. I also thank you for the times when I quit things or when I can't quite measure up because I know you love me just the same. I thank God for the fights that we have had because I know that in the end in has made our relationship and communication better. Thank you for letting Josh into the family and being a role model to him. Thank you for modeling to us what a God-centered relationship is.

Thank, and thanks again. I'm sorry for times when I am short with you or am stand offish. I love you so much even if I can't or don't always display it I know that I wouldn't be the girl I am today if it wasn't for having you as a father.

Thank you for writing and encouraging me to write. Thank you for running and biking and encouraging me to do the same. Thank you for speaking, encouraging me to do it as well  Thanks for going out of your comfort zone and going on adventures and which has encouraging. Thank you for being genuine, real, and intentional and giving me and many others the encouragement to be so as well.

You're the greatest, dad

&

 I thank God for you.

And They Will Move Mountains

Give me faith to move mountains

Give me the courage to speak

I desire joy and love, a flowing fountain

Humble me to reach your peek

Day after day

Help me not to fade away.

Peace, is what I’d rather pray for

So that it’s not me but it’s you that they can see more

Give me faith to move mountains

Give me the courage to speak

Why oh why Lord have I become so meek?

New friends, old friends, routines becomes the same

Why is it then that they see my face, they know me now

But they don’t call upon your name

If my identity has been lost and I was crucified with you…

Give me the faith to say that what you are doing then is true

Give me faith to move mountains

Give me the courage to speak

You’ve given me your identity

You’ve have called me daughter, one and only, unique.

You’ve given me a purpose and a reason to survive

It’s the fine print I can’t read right now

But it’s only by my faith in you that I’m still here and alive

So once again I pray

Give me faith to move mountains

And give me the courage to speak

That by being your vessel

Others can find the love that they seek

That they may know they are one and only, unique

I pray they will realize the purpose you’ve given them

And that they themselves can have faith to move mountains

And the courage to speak

The Option of a Gap Year

The push for being college ready started my freshman year. Everything at my high school seemed to promote college as the only choice us students had. The stakes were high and so was the stress. SATs, ACTs, scholarships, good grades, volunteer hours, and extra curricular actives were all motived by the push for college. During my sophomore year, my duty was to choose between taking International Baccalaureate (IB) classes or taking post secondary education classes (PSEO) for our junior and senior years.  They described IB classes as rigorous college preparatory classes, which you could receive some college credit for if taking the final test and passing.  On the other hand, PSEO classes were actual college classes where students would take the classes on a college campus. To receive college credit, you just had to pass the class with a B or A. Credit for credit. I went with option two, PSEO. I thought, why bother taking college prep classes when I can take actually college classes, receive college credits, and gain college experience all for free.

Junior year; exploring the world of PSEO.   I turned myself into my own guinea pig, by stepping foot onto the University of Minnesota’s campus as a 16 year old. I took my morning classes at the University and my afternoon classes at Washburn. In the evenings, I had sports. I learned a lot in that first semester. I learned I hated Poli Sci and I never want to memorize another Supreme Court decision ever again. I learned that I did not want to attend a college with a population more than 5,000, where I feel like just a number.  I discovered my love of sociology. But the most importantly I learned that college itself is freeing. There is more time, independence and a lot of maturing that goes on during those years. I noticed a mix of kids though,  some knew exactly what they were there for while others were only attending because their parents made them. The kids who were there by their own choosing were wise with their time and highly self motivated because it’s what they wanted for themselves. The kids there because they felt obligated, slacked in their classes, were all over the board with their majors, and spent their free time out at parties. When one of my friends, Emily, came back from partipating with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) during the end of my junior year, I started to sense that going directly to college wasn’t what I wanted.  

Senior year, I transitioned to full time PSEO, meaning no classes at Washburn. I also made the switch from the U of MN to North Central University. I decided that if I was to do full time PSEO, I wanted a place with a smaller student body. My senior year was the best I could ask for. Entering my senior year, I prayed for a best friend. Two of my closest girlfriends graduated before me the previous year. I wanted a girlfriend who would challenge me spiritually, physically, and would be a friend to confide in. I was confused and slightly upset when I started planning events and the only people who were free to hang out from North Central where a group of guys. One persistently would always come to everything even when plans fell through. He was looking for a tour guide of the cities and like I said, I was looking for a best friend. Three months later the tour guide and the best friend became boyfriend and girlfriend but that is a whole different story. (Josh)  My circle of close friends has grown intentionally deeper and I am closer with my family as a result of this year. I still have felt connected to my high school by being captain of cross country and cross country skiing and being the first person in the past 6 years making it to state in skiing.

Choosing a gap year was harder than I planned it to be. However, whenever I looked into a college it just made me feel uneasy.  At times, during my senior year I began to question if YWAM was really the direction God wanted for me. The choice not to go directly to college would be to go against what our culture has set as the norm.  I was really torn. Yet, the more I prayed about it the more God gave me peace. Although it would be deviant to my culture's behavior to take a gap year, and I knew I would have to leave my family and friends as well as delay a year of college. I knew it was what I should do.

As my gap year began to unfold, it would have three main purposes; to work, serve, and mature. God provided me with the job that was on the top of my list for places to work - French MeadowBakery. I made the decision to work there until December to earn money for YWAM and for college. He also has surrounded me with a community of people to possibly live with in the fall to serve under YWAM Minnesota in uptown. YWAM starts in January where I will be living in San Juan, Costa Rica for the next 5 months. Part of the time is spent growing in my faith and understanding of the gospel and the other part is spent serving in the community. My biggest prayer for this year is that God will break my heart for what breaks his heart.  In doing this I pray that my security in him will strengthen and that I will learn to trust him in each step in my life. A verse I have found key for this year is James 4:13-15-“Come now you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’

Last Friday, I officially graduated from high school, along with completing a little over a year in college.

When talking to some friends about their college plans I wonder why some don’t choose gap years. Why is so looked down upon? So many of my friends are going to college with no idea how to pay for college along with no idea of a major or what they want to do yet they go because they feel like they should and it’s the next thing in life. I write this to encourage those who don’t feel like they want to go to college to take an intentional gap year to learn more about themselves, to save money for college or the future, to pick up a trade, or to travel. College is a good thing but I believe everything has a proper time. High schools and families I believe should be more open to a gap year and the growth of maturity it gives.

Tell me what you think. This is open for discussion. 

Articles for Gap Years: 

• 7 Questions to Ask When Considering a Gap Year 
• If Employment Game Has Changed, Who's Teaching the Rules? 
• Students Take Intentional Gap Year