A Soldier's Chistmas Poem

This poem was written by a Marine stationed in Okinawa Japan, at least thats what the newspaper my Papaw got it from said.


TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,
HE LIVED ALL ALONE,
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF
PLASTER AND STONE.

I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY
WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,
AND TO SEE JUST WHO
IN THIS HOME DID LIVE.

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT,
A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE,
NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS,
NOT EVEN A TREE.

NO STOCKING BY MANTLE,
JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES
OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES,
AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,
A SOBER THOUGHT
CAME THROUGH MY MIND.

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT,
IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,
I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER,
ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING,
SILENT, ALONE,
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR
IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,
THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER,
NOT HOW I PICTURED
A UNITED STATES SOLDIER.

WAS THIS THE HERO
OF WHOM I'D JUST READ?
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO,
THE FLOOR FOR A BED?

I REALIZED THE FAMILIES
THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS
WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

SOON ROUND THE WORLD,
THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY,
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE
A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM
EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR,
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS,
LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

I COULDN'T HELP WONDER
HOW MANY LAY ALONE,
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE
IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME

THE VERY THOUGHT
BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE,
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES
AND STARTED TO CRY.

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED
AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE,
"SANTA DON'T CRY,
THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;

I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM,
I DON'T ASK FOR MORE,
MY LIFE IS MY GOD,
MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS."

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER
AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP,
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT,
I CONTINUED TO WEEP.

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS,
SO SILENT AND STILL
AND WE BOTH SHIVERED
FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.

I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE
ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT,
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR
SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER,
WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE,
WHISPERED, "CARRY ON SANTA,
IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE."

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH,
AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND,
AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT."

The Marines' Hymn

So I've had this song stuck in my head all day long...and I don't know why..but whatever...hope it helps to write it down! Lol

The Marines' Hymn

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.


Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun.
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes
You will find us always on the job
The United States Marines.


Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

omgeez so much has happened lately...i dont even know where to start!!!! Okay, well lets start with the fact that me and my ex from freshman year are dating again...awesomeness right? It's like a good but then a bad thing at the same time...
Good: love him dearly and am seriously happy; he's amazing; i feel like i don't have to be anything i'm not with him; comfortable together because we dated for 9 months before; feels right after all the crap that happened between us, like a new new beginning!
Bad:He's in the Marines, and is leaving on Monday for training and will be gone for forever...but hey gotta get used to it right?
I know that I have GOT to get used to this, because its gonna be his life, and if I wanna be a part of it then I'd better suck it up and move on, you know? Plus when I do get to see him it'll be ten times better because we know that we only have a limited amount of time together so thats another good thing. omgeez...well thats my blogpost for this time, talk to you laters!

MARIAH

dude i so totally miss freshman year...its so sad, bc freshman year was so totally awesome...so mariah, u happy??

Does anybody else ever feel like the little lost and forgotten kid? I feel like that all of the time, OK, so maybe I'm not exactly little, and maybe I'm not exactly a "kid" anymore, but still. A lot of the time I feel lost, and forgotten. It's like I feel that I have to be good, no not good, the best at something, or people are going to forget I did it, or i feel like i have to be ditsy, and act like a blond for somebody to notice me, and I hate it. Because honestly, none of that is me. Sometimes I make myself sick with the way I act. I'm not nearly as unobservant, and naive, and kid like as everybody seems set on convincing themselves I am. My teachers are convinced that I'm not serious at anything that I do, and then they find out that I have a brain and they're like wow. And I know that a lot of that is my fault, I shouldn't act the part of the ditsy blond, but I've acted that part so long that now I have no idea who I am anymore. Am I the brainiac, the book worm who is so good at English, and is SUPPOSED to be amazing at everything else...Or am I the girl who doesn't give a flying flip about grades, who just wants to make it through high school in one piece? Somehow, I'm stuck in between these two people, and sometimes it feels like they're fighting within me, trying to find a place of their own. Is there room enough for both of them to be happy inside of me? Or will one have to live, and the other have to just give up? Because I really like both of those, and I really hope that someday I can find a way to be a combination of each of them, but who knows.
And on the subject of being naive, people hardly ever take me seriously, unless I get really upset about something, people think I'm kidding all of the time.I swear my math teacher thinks that I go home and sleep/talk on the phone/do nothing all day. It's like he thinks that I'm incompetent, and not capable of being a grown up or something. The ironic thing about all of that is that he's only 10 years older than our class is, he's only 2 years older than my favorite cousin, and he seems so much older, he seems like an old man. And I'm sad for him, because at 26 he shouldn't be teaching a bunch of 16 year old's something they don't even care about. He should be out having fun, at his first "real" job, not stuck in the boonies teachin a bunch of country kids Trig...

Going Away Parties :*(

So o Saturday I went to a going away for my favorite cousin. It didn't really bother me that she was moving to Hawaii until we were at the party and everybody was giving her money everything. I was like wait...NO!! Thsi chick has always been there for me, we've always been really close, and it really kills me that she's going SO ridiculously far away. So now its going to be like omg i don't have anyone to talk about everything to.
So anyways, stuff's been super busy lately, there's been such a hectic homework schedule and it's like WHOA where did all of this come from?? I think that teachers don't realize that we have lives outside of school and would really love to be able to live these lives and not being doing homework for so much of our lives...jeez...

Why is life in highschool so much harder than anyone tells you? You've got friends stabbing you in the back, you've got friends wanting to take "breaks" and then you've got guys. Which frankly I'm not too interested in right now. personally, I could care less about them at this point. My math grade is a D, one of the people who i thought of as my best friends, is wanting to take a "break" from our friendship. Honestly, I hate girls. I am aware that I am one, and that makes me hate me i guess you could say. Because I know how I think, and I know how my friends at school think, and we're all a big bunch of jerks. And on that note, how do you take a break from a friendship? Is that like no, I'm not your friend this week, maybe next week? Honestly, I dont really care about her. Because she's been in a mood for the past idk how long, and shes like i wanna take a break so i dont get tired of you and start snapping at you. If we were really friends, that wouldn't really be a problem, because she wouldn't care, I'd still be her friend, and she'd just not care. But whatever, I dont do stupid crap like that, because you can't take a break, you can just be like yeah we're not friends anymore. and i feel really bad for my third friend, cause she just wants all four of us to be close again. We can't though. the one gets in moods and hurts everybody's feelings and then expects us to laugh it off, the 2nd is probably the smartest, shes found a new group of friends. and the third is really a cool kid and i really wish we could all get along. I just always feel like the odd one out, they're all in band, and something happened at Friday's game, and since then they've all been treating me differently, they won't tell me things and crap. I mean, really, I wasn't there. Of course I'm gonna have questions about what happened, sorry. jeez. I really needed to get all of that out. It's been building up for the past idk how may days and weeks. Laters ya'll



TIFFANY, WHAT IS YOUR URL?? I KINDA LOST IT....LOL LOVE YA MCCARTY!

Dang

So...turns out...I wasn't NEARLY over Martini as much as i thot i was...not even close...i saw him at school the first day and it was like somebody slapped me in the face, and it sucked. Now, not only am I NOT over him, but turns out hes got a new gf as of this week. Kinda makes me feel like an idiot. SO...I have no clue what now. I guess I'm just gonna ignore him, and hope that it all goes away...yea...fat chance. For those who know me, they know that this is just the beginning...Would really help if my skool had more hot guys..all of the hot ones are gone, and I will NOT date a soph or freshman.
School is quickly becoming a struggle. I always laughed it off when ppl said that your Junior year was your hardest, but DANG. I believe it now. I guess its a good thing that I don't have a guy to distract me, if I did I wouldn't be able to do it.
No drama at school...so far. I feel like I'm doin a fairly good job at avoiding it...let's cross our fingers and hope I can keep it up shall we? While we're at it lets NOT hold our breath...that could get...bad.
Speaking of dating younger guys...My Nana tried to hook me up with her sophomore lawn mower...He's a cool kid and all, but me and him...how about not...kinda made me laff tho. He came in to get a drink and my nana was like oh! Have you met my granddaughter? Me and him kinda just looked at each other like yeah..hey...Then when he left nana was like OMG he looked twice at you! He looked at you then swung his head back around to look again! I was like oh Nana...She so enjoyed all of that...*sigh*
So anywhoozles g2g

Rambly like

So guy from Second Semester is no more. From now on he is Martini bc thats a feminine name for a lil bitty boy. Seriously, he tiny. but anyways im over him and I'm gonna start school tomorrow with fresh eyes and a new personality than last year. Who cares what ppl say ab me, they don't even know me. Haha omg PCUB has given me WAY too much confidence!! Lol then again im tired, im on 3 hrs of sleep for the last almost 48 hrs and im way too hyper for this but whatever. I GOT SUMMER READING DONE AND IM SO FRIGGIN HAPPY...ahem im done now...just got essay ?'s and vocab and im outta the woods SUCCESS. School is gonna feel like such a letdown after PCUB bc its not gonna be my pcub family and the ppl will be all weird and won't get the jokes...sigh...i really hate going to skool w ppl who've known me since like kindergarten, they judge way too much. "Hey, yeah sorry that I kicked over ur legos, we were 7 LET IT GO, and while you're at it, how ab we DONT tell ppl ab the time that i fell off the seesaw..."and so on and so forth. its hard to be friends w those people and then to not be friends for like 6 freakin years then all of a sudden omg its my buddy!! no fake biotch its not its ur exbuddy who you dissed for some other little girl. Dang, I miss Dillon. Me and him were like attached at the hip until about 6th grade. We were in all of our elementary classes together, K-5 no joke. Then poof I realized he was a boy, he realized I was a girl, and there it goes. Last time me and him talked it was Freshman Bio and we're ab to be Juniors :*(. but anyways that was long and rambly like lol later

Mariah Made Me Do It!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I don't really have anything to say, but I'm gonna try to think of something, so if this gets spastic, im sorry.

So there's been a lot of drama in my life lately, arguments with friends, and such. But I've decided that this school year, if someone decides that they're gonna come up to me with their problems, its gonna be like one of those times when i run away with my hands over my ears screaming "LALALALALA". Lol.

OMG so there's this guy from my school, and I've liked him since 2nd semester Sophomore year...and we talk every now and then, and everybody I talk to about it says that he likes me, but I don't know, because they're all my friends. You know how your friends are, they say stuff just because its what you want to hear, and I don't want that, I want the absolute truth, but I don't want it to hurt...wow...I told you it would be spastic...so I've been questioning myself on this, and I wish I could just have somebody take the decision away from me and be like "Do it" or "don't do it". If only our mommies could take the decision away from us...wait...no we don't want that...!!! So here's my blog post Mariah, happy????

Ugh

Okay really, all of this back and forth with a blog is getting old. I took offense at autumns, and she said that she wouldnt do it and then takes offense at mine. *sigh* Repeatedly this summer I've heard yeah I'm a hyprcrite *giggle* well usually thats something ppl try to CHANGE. and erin was in the right because she had a right to tell him bc she was worried about him getting hurt. Yes you're my friend and I love you but you were in the wrong, and I'm not going to support something that is so totally in the wrong. Love ya Autumn

VENT (none of this means that I dont love my friends with all of my heart, but this is my place to vent so i dont take it out on other ppl)

I really hate it when I try to be friends with people, and I think they're my best friend and then they say stuff like I feel like I dont have any friends...when they're the ones that don't tell anybody anything and they're the ones that WON'T tell anybody anything, and they put on a poor pitiful me act, that just pisses me off so bad that I want to beat them. I hate when my friends act like nobody likes them. They just conviently forget about the one friends that they do have...ahem me...and they go off on a poor pitiful me act!!!!! AGH!!!!!!!!! Frick!!!!! I just don't understand the mentality of some of the people I know. When somebody tries to get you to talk to them when you just listen to your iPod all of the time, DO NOT SAY THAT NOTHING IS WRONG WITH YOU BECAUSE THERE OBVIOUSLY IS. You know what? I'm tired of caring, it's just too hard. I'm not gonna reach out anymore, it just bites me in the back, and I care too much to be hurt again. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I DONT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT WHATS WRONG WITH YOU OR THAT I DONT CARE BUT I'M NOT GONNA STRAIGHT UP ASK ANYMORE BECAUSE NOBODY FEELS LIKE SAYING ANYTHING. I'm tired of getting jumped by the two people who I thought were my best friends, and being told that I care too much about what other people think when all I do is try to care about other people, I'm sorry that other people don't feel like being a bench at that time. STOP TAKING YOUR OTHER PROBLEMS OUT ON OTHER PEOPLE BECAUSE IT DRIVES PEOPLE AWAY AND MAKES YOU SEEM RETARDED. Everybody wonders what is wrong with me and you know what it is????? I keep all of this bottled up because I don't wanna hurt my friends.


And another thing, how come when I care so much about other people that care and concern is NOT returned? Why am I a better friend most of the time than others? I said most becuase of the fact that I am not always a happy happy person and sometimes I bottle unhappy feelings and it comes out on my friends, but really? When I try to tell you my problems when I've sat there and listened to yours, DONT YOU DARE TURN YOUR BACK AND START TALKING ABOUT YOUR DANG PROBLEMS AGAIN.


Oh, one more thing, when you're around me in private, don't be different than you are in public. Don't sit there and get on to me for cussing when you do it all of the time, and act like I'm horrible for it when you've done WAY WORSE THINGS. And nobody appreciates the little God speeches that some people have been giving around here. I believe in God, and He believes in me so how about we DONT have Bible study whenever I say a bad word.


But other than all of that I love my friends and I think that this whole experience has been fun and tiring.

BANDS!!!!

Ok, in my opinion, these bands are the awesomest in the whole entire fricking world, you dont have to agree, just dont down them near me....

omgez slipknot
breaking benjamin
skillet
godsmack
paramore
more later

First week of PCUB summer

OMG it has been totally beyond crazy this week!!! We moved in on Sunday, and that took for freakin ever, and then on monday we got our first taste of college life with classes and everything, and that was....interesting....to say the least. My legs hurt SO much for so long that today, Friday, when I woke up I was like, wow...my legs dont hurt at all!!! I was so stoked, it was crazy. So much drama has been happening between everybody in PCUB that its stupid. Theres rumors about girls being lesbians and liking their roommates...we all need to be apart from each other for the next 2 days to rest and stop bein so tired of each other. Monday everybody was all wantin to make friends and now its kinda like yeah....how bout not...its so STUPID and nobody seems to realize how ridiculous they're being, its kinda sad. Today the most dramatic thing happened of all. There was a big group of guys and they were like harrassing girls horribly, and me and some girls in the program were victims, and we had to go talk to campus police about it, and right as we were leaving, we saw 2 of the guys, it was completely scary, it was freaky. But I've gots to go now, later