Prayer Request -- updated

Hey y'all --

If you could keep me in prayer today, I would really appreciate it.

I have to make a 5-6 minute presentation tonight in my sign language class...on Alzheimer's.

This is a very difficult presentation for me on several levels. The signing, getting the point across, enough information to understand but not too much to go over my time limit. But especially since I will be talking some about my grandfather who has Alzheimer's, and what it's like living with that. Like I said, it's a difficult speech to make. I've already done some crying. I don't really want to break down in the middle of the presentation, but I can't distance myself from the emotions either, I want them to understand a little of what it's like. My Papa doesn't know my name or who I am, and it hurts to see him like that -- and I want my audience to feel a little bit of that. So I am not going to keep my distance and make it clinical and sterile...but I don't want to start crying either.

And, of course, I could really use a good grade in this presentation, and the next presentation and final test that we still have to do. If I do well I can probably pull a B in this class -- the first college-level B I've ever received. Yes, I'm a 4.o straight-A student (type-A, too), but this class has been very difficult and I do not think I will get an A. I just don't want a C, you know?

Please also keep my attitude in prayer, I have felt really discouraged about this class for the last couple of weeks. I have repented of that and am trying to just do my best and finish the class strong, but it's hard being the only one trying not to be discouraged when everyone else is. I'm just ready for this semester to be over, but I know there are much more difficult semesters ahead, especially after I transfer to the university, so........

Anyway, I need to get going, but if y'all would just keep me in prayer today, I would so appreciate it!! :)

UPDATE -- OK, so I did not do my presentation tonight. The class as a whole submitted to the teacher several concerns regarding this presentation, and he granted us all more time.

Our main concerns were 1. He had just taught the medical/body vocabulary last Thursday and last Tuesday, which was not enough time to learn it well enough to present it. 2. There had been no chance to ask questions regarding specific terminology related to our presentations. 3. A week is not very long to research a topic (which was not relevant to our class, and which most of us had little to no previous knowledge about), compose a 5-6 presentation, AND memorize the presentation as well. 4. Some of the students would've ended up doing it on Tuesday anyway, and some of us felt it wasn't fair that they got a week and a half, four extra days.

So, to shorten an already long story, we will all present on Tuesday, which means some people will not be presenting until pretty late at night, but such is life. It's better than having to do it today.

Part of me really wanted to just do it tonight anyway and get it over with (three people chose to do theirs tonight) instead of accepting the extra time, but.... The majority of the class tonight was spent in answering specific questions regarding the presentation vocab and terminology -- that took up an hour and a half!! Just the questions!! So I think that got the message across. Anyway, during that question/answer time, I asked a couple questions and found out I was doing some signs wrong, which would've messed things up. So I was very thankful that I'd gotten to ask questions, and I decided not to do it until Tuesday, after I can revise it a little to include what I now know to be the correct signs. Also, he announced that we are allowed to have a paper on the podium with us, but we are marked down a point if we look at it. I think in the next several days I can manage to have it down well enough to memorize and not need a paper. Hey, every point counts, especially now that I have more pressure to keep up a really good GPA...but that's another topic altogether.

In conclusion (this feels a little like a speech in and of itself!), I thank you all for your prayers for me today...and I ask that you continue to pray for me, just for next Tuesday! And please keep us in prayer, I and a couple other students are going to go to the department chair sometime in the next week or two with some of our major concerns about how the teacher has handled this class. She needs to know, from the students' perspective, how this has been. I don't blame him for most of what's been going on, because it is his first time to have taught this class, but some things definitely need to be changed before he teaches it again. So please keep us in prayer that our attitudes and motives be right, that we are not backed with any anger or frustration, but in honest openness wanting to make things better for the students coming after us. And please keep my own attitude in prayer, as I'm trying to be a light, be the one that's not discouraged, that's not participating in gossip, etc. It's tough being a Christian on a public campus, just being different is enough to make you stand out like a sore thumb. Anyway, I know that's a lot of prayer requests, but we have a big God. Which reminds me, please feel free to leave me comments at any time with your own prayer requests. There are few things more wonderful than the chance to intercede for a brother or sister!! I need to be off the computer and headed to bed, it's late and I'm tired, but I wanted to put on update on here and thank y'all for your prayers!!!

By the way, speaking of the difficulty of being a Christian on a public campus, did y'all notice today's verse?

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:1-2