What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

Despite the fact that this sounds like a second-grader’s back-to-school report, I promise you that it will be full of deep insights and life lessons.

Or maybe not. But it should be entertaining at least.

Tomorrow is my last day at my Focus on the Family internship. It’s been a great seven weeks, partially because of the cool stuff I learned. Here are some of the individual stuffs, broken down into bullet points to distract you from the fact that I just used the word “stuffs.”

• The quickest way to the heart of a conservative Christian ministry is by distributing free cinnamon rolls along with extra cream cheese icing to spread on them. I have no idea why people promoting a credit union were doing this. But I am fully in support of it.
• I used up two full pens writing letters and journaling, and one red pen editing. That means that I’m twice as creative as I am critical.
• The following conversation was great: “What’d you do this morning?” “Fought Nazis. You?” “Oh, I crushed children’s hopes and dreams.” (Referring to fixing plot flaws in a kids’ book about WWII and judging entries for Odyssey’s “Get in the Show” contest, respectively.)
• If you get super excited about an intern party where you play with three new extensions to the “Battlestar Galactica” board game (which makes the game so complicated that it comes with multiple warnings not to add them all at once) you are officially a nerd.
• When one unnamed fellow intern lobs a stress ball into your cubicle, make sure he is the only one in his cubicle before you chuck it back. So you don’t hit an innocent bystander or something.
• Height limits on kids’ play areas can be construed as suggestions.
• I don’t like vanilla yogurt, blueberries, bananas, or spinach, but when you combine them all into a smoothie, it’s not that bad. Especially when you have to drink it in front of the three kids who you’re supposed to be an good example for.
• It’s much harder to hide on the floor between your desk and cubicle wall when you’re wearing a skirt. (Long story—ask me about it sometime.)
• I will officially be the best mom ever after editing three books on parenting (and contributing to one). Because it’s always as easy as they make it seem in books, right?
• Rodeo. Not a hobby I’m going to take up any time soon.
• You’re not supposed to open the top-secret envelopes (with different cover options for upcoming books) until the meeting starts.
• Some editors cannot help themselves and open the envelopes anyway.
• However, since the designers are attending the meeting via speaker phone, you can fool them by rustling the envelope around while everyone else snickers in the background.
• Kids who are six, seven, and eight probably have no idea what Mr. Tumnus is talking about because he so delightfully British.
• Mountains aren’t really as ho-hum as I’ve always thought of them. (First week in Colorado: “Yeah, I guess it’s a cool view. But I could just go home, cut an outline from construction paper, and tape it in my window and it would be pretty much the same thing.”)

These aren’t the most important things I learned, of course. Those will probably be rattling around in my processing center for a few weeks after this and leak out into future posts. Here’s a brief teaser: God thinks the limits we put on Him are pretty pathetic (and maybe even funny). Big churches can follow Jesus too. Hospitality isn’t about having a house to invite people into, it’s about a constant attitude of putting others first. Be careful not to know your strengths and weaknesses so well that you don’t think you can (or should) change.

That’s just about it.

It’s been a good summer.