to love another person is to see the face of God | happy sweet sixteen to my dearest friend in the whole world over

you know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful and then you actually talk to them and five minutes later they're dull as a brick? then there's other people, when you meet them you think, "not bad. they're okay." and then you get to know them and...and their face just sort of becomes them. like their personality's written all over it. and they just turn into something so beautiful. :: amelia pond, the girl who waited :: 

she's the most beautiful friend i've ever met....

there are people in life who are difficult to describe, to pin down with mere adjectives. however, when it comes to how they make you feel inside...that's a different story. these are the people who light up your world, who set it on fire with the simplest gesture, a smile, a chuckle over instant messaging, a sigh and who can turn your world upside down with a snap of their fingers.


Johanna 
(N.) Gift from God, Gracious
she possesses an intense love of and talent for words and uses them to make beautiful things whether it be written or spoken. she claims to be an introvert, but she's a speech-er. the art of rhetoric comes easy to her and the first time you meet her, you are instantly made comfortable. she simply has that way with people. but she never conforms to make you feel comfortable. she's always herself and has a love for honesty and authenticity. she's a novel writer and can easily write a novel-length of an email if you send her a few scribblings. she can't get enough of words {and apparently is very fond of participles}. she eats them like candy, and savors them like her favorite autumn season. she's incredibly well-rounded, patriotic, and fits the "typical" {although she's far from typical} potrait of a skirt-wearing homeschooler.
wearing skirts doesn't subtract from her style. heavens no! she's classy. her nails are almost always painted with pink and sparkles - the "girly" type, and goodness! - is she dexterous at painting the most darling of designs. her most becoming feature, though, is her Christian-femininity; and she possess all the graceful charm that comes with it. her wardrobe consists of vivid colors and pieces from tommy hilfiger, and somehow she always seems to fill it up with the cutest shoes.
along with her knowledge of words, she is grand at politics and of course, fangirling. don't even mention reichenbach to her or she'll burst into tears, and hobbit {specifically martin freeman} is a hot topic in case you should like to find any common ground with her {which isn't as hard as you would think}. she's quick at remembering all the right emicons on Skype and very generous at using them. throughout the years, she has collected a menagerie of nicknames: "jo-jo," "joge," "JW," "jo," recently adding "miss watson" to the list, but somehow her name just sticks. it becomes her like all the cutesy necklaces she wears everyday. her laugh is bubbly, sticky sweet with aliveness and is as joy-filled as her name; and sometimes her smiles twist into playful smirks - the darling signature of her whole family. 

she has a passionate love for her family and siblings that is so beautiful to see in a world that rarely nurtures that anymore. even if you only see her every so often, she's the one who you always trust will never go away. she's a hopeless romantic, but beware boys. not only does she have a legion of protective brothers, but she herself has a passion for purity and God-honoring relationships. she's not afraid to admit her struggles and has a tender heart for those in need. she wants to reach people. when you leave her, she's the one in the crowd who made the impression. simply put she is a beautiful soul with a likewise beautiful mind and a semi-empty journal that I hope to persuade her to fill more often with her beautiful thoughts.


this is johanna.
hopeless romantic, passionate, old-fashionedly modern, fangirl, writer, sister, vintage-lover, retired blogger, mr. thorton/hugh jackman/andrew garfield/martin freeman lover, STOA speech-er, swing dancer, disneyland adventurer, poetess, baker, ice skater, strawberries n' cream tea drinker, logophile {lover of words}, and dearest friend you could ever be blessed to have. you've heard a lot about her, but she's a fairy tale that never gets old telling. she's the one who proved to me that close-knit, long distant friendships were not paradoxes. she's the one who gave me hope there were still ladies set apart in the world like her. she's the one who taught me to love another person is to see the face of God. she's the one who makes it hard to believe you've only known her for such a short amount of time. she's the one who made me believe I wasn't alone. I'm the diana to her anne/she's the john to my sherlock. and she's the one who I am sincerely blessed to call my best friend.

happy sweet sixteen, to my dearest JW!!!

love you forever and a day, sweet friend!
your,
-MH