February 16, 2007

This is a brief synopsis of a day in my life as an AE girl.

My heart thumps. I feel a cramp coming in my side and remind myself to take deeper breaths. I hear the pounding of Paige and Emily’s feet. Only five more laps to go and I'll have run a mile and a half. There is fog over Dallas, covering the skyline. The air has a refreshing chill, a great thing for an early morning jog. As I round the last lap, Paige goes sprinting by. She can run her long distance; I'd rather run suicide sprints up and back to the volleyball net. At 6:30 am, we head inside for 15 minutes of power Pilates before Bible study. We keep pushing ourselves, waiting until everyone is down in the AE room. It is painful, but you get that wonderful feeling of sore muscles.

After the Bible study, we all sprint up stairs to do our "presto-chango". Elisabeth tells me of all the excitement I missed when they killed “Frankie” the roach. 45 minutes later, we all look professional and put together, ready to tackle our day. Well, that is after we have breakfast. The first class on our schedule is speech [groan]. To get us all in the mood, Gina encouraged us by showing how she avoids speeches by jumping out of planes. Just kidding! She used the skydiving analogy as an illustration of an adrenaline rush. She explained how it is normal to get a small one while speaking in front of an audience. I would rather jump out of the plane. Our moment finally came, one at a time we would take our place and deliver the 5-10 minute speech on how God brought us to Advanced EXCEL. With sweaty palms and nervous looks we would step up to the podium and …..scream!!! Oh, never mind, that only happened to Sarah. We all survived, did wonderful, and will give another speech on another day.

After lunch is my favorite part of the day- my date with God. If I were to tell you all that I learned, I would fill up page upon page. Today I was getting a hand cramp I was writing so much and so fast. In four verses God was able to answers so many questions. How can I ever doubt Him?

I never thought of my self as a leader, but today I learned I am an influencer. Mr. Bell spoke on the power of influence for our afternoon session. He was able to tell us stories in his own life how others had influenced him through words, actions, and even looks. I am an influencer and I need to embrace that fact. If I want to affect the world, I need to be a woman of influence.


After working on assignments in the afternoon, we met for dinner, then headed off to team meeting- a great time to give back rubs, do nails, and bond with each other. By the time 9:30 pm rolls around I am ready for sleep to surround me. I have to get up and teach Pilates tomorrow at 6 am. I need something creative and challenging. Maybe, some army drills…



Grace Gallagher