fräulein nethercutt!

I'm Amanda Nethercutt. I have seen a lot in my seemingly long but short 17 years, but it hasn't been enough to say I know much about anything, except that I can do the math they teach me in school and write a perfectly structured essay with five paragraphs and a good enough thesis to entertain a boring group of people. I know a little something about hurt, but I'm not selfish enough to say I'm the only one or that I've hurt more than others. If there's one good thing I've learned in all these years, it's that I am never the only one hurting. There is always someone hurting more than me, always someone with more on their shoulders than I am strong enough to carry. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I don't always realize that.
I like to think and I like to ramble, more to myself than anyone because I'm usually the only one to put up with it for the ridiculously long periods of time that thought swallows me whole. I like paper. Anyone who's been in my room knows this because I have paper bursting out just about anywhere paper could. A lot of those papers have nonsense written on them, things I scribbled 5 years ago or two days ago. I like notebooks mostly, and I have a lot them. Nonsense in them, too. I like to observe people. I'm no stalker, I just like to learn things from them, or I like the amusement I get from it. The best place for that sort of thing is in restaurants. And beware; I like conversation, so if you get into it with me, expect a lot of it back.
I happen to believe a great deal in love because it happens to believe in me, even when I throw it out the window or use the word more loosely than the emotion cares for. I love to meet people who have soul; the kind of people who look and find peace in a time of war, the kind of people who find a place for love where there had been hate, the kind of people who believe so strongly that they feel no need to explain themselves to anyone. I want to meet people who are willing to search for the things they aren't even sure they'll find. I want to meet people who see the true beauty in life and won't accept anything less.
I am interested in meeting my brothers and sisters all around the world. I want to go to Africa, India, Russia, Ireland... anywhere. But the place that stole my heart from right inside my chest, even before I realized it or knew what was happening, was Africa. Africa is my dream. I can't wait to be there, on the front lines, fighting AIDS, genocide, poverty, and debt. I want to give them fresh water to drink and clean places to learn and get medical help. I want to spend time with the sick and the old, with the orphans and the hurting. I know these people can give us more than we could ever give them.
I really love being out on the road, looking out the windows with music screaming in my ears. The kind of music that opens your eyes up all over again to the things you missed when you didn't take the time to notice them before. I love the ocean and any place where there are no lights around and you can see the stars. You forget how many are up there. But when I see the stars, or I listen to the ocean, or I see a sun set, something wakes up inside of me that only true beauty, only life in its purest form, could awaken in me. Technology doesn't do it, the television doesn't do it, good food doesn't do it. Only life wakes up the deadness in me because God is life.
You can't know someone from reading a few sentences about them. Hell, you can't know someone by reading a book about them. But you can know someone if you take the time to get to know them, and that's always worth it, even if that person is so different from you that you don't [i]want[/i] to know them. It's worth it, trust me. The things you can learn from other people...
"...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." 1 Cor. 13:7-8
MY LINKS
deviant//art
flickr
JOLLY GNOME
CHECK OUT:
(RED)
Lowercase People
DATA
The One Campaign
SaveDarfur
Invisible Children
World/African Trade
Film Aid International
War Child Canada
To Write Love on Her Arms
Project Africa
Youth Against Poverty
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