I...

I don't mind sitting in silence.

I like laying on the beach at night. 

I like to ride my bike around my town with my sunglasses on.

I don't mind re - explaining something if someone doesn't understand.

I love making someone laugh.

I think the little things are the most important.
I like singing at the top of my lungs, no matter how off-key.

I know that everyone can draw something.
I love when someone remembers what I said and brings it up again.

I believe in second chances, but not everyone deserves one.

I love listening to music.
I love the smell of an old bookstore.
I think it's very important to try something new.

I like the feeling of rain on my face.
I believe in karma.

I love when someone hugs you goodbye, or hello.

I love being silly.
I know that no one is perfect.
I think we should take every chance we get.

I think reading is important for your soul.

I know that everyone knows something I don't.

I love surprise parties.
I like both sending and receiving good morning texts.
I think that you should be polite and nice to everyone, no matter who they are.

I love playing the piano.

I know that getting a bad grade isn't the end of the world, and grades are not the most important thing.

I like how quiet it is when the snow falls.

I love the way colors mix together when I paint.

I think it's fascinating how we can't see wind. 

I like to climb trees.

I like how every scar has a story.

I know I can't do everything, but I can do anything.

I love the smell of the ocean.

I like not wearing shoes in the summer.

I like bonfires and s'mores in the summer with my best friends.

I don't believe in bedtimes.

I like to leave my phone behind.
I know that our past has made us who we are, but it does not define our future.

I love movie marathons.
I love playful kittens who snuggle.

I am mesmerized by sunsets.

I think it would be cool to skydive, even though it sounds terrifying.

I want to learn how to surf.
I love how an old book feels in your hands.

I never want to look back in regret.

I like how the classics never get old.

I love backyard barbecues.

I like thunderstorms.

I love a good comeback story.
I like to clap along with the FRIENDS theme song.
I like how we have the power to change anything, at any time.

I love how inspiring photography is, but

I know that you can't capture every moment through a lens.

I never want to lose my imagination.

I love a great beach day.

I think there is nothing like a good drive, with that perfect song, and those perfect people.

I like how lightning looks when it strikes.

I love to cook.

I want to own a huge sailboat one day.

I believe in the power of the ocean.

I love the colors of the fall and the smell of spring flowers.

I think a day is never wasted if you're happy with what you're doing.

I love how extraordinary people can be.

I love how many things we can enjoy.

That's Life.

Change.

I'm beginning to realize the true value of family and friends. I know that I talk about how much I value my friends and family, but recently I have seen the REAL value. It's hard to explain. Maybe it's the fact that they have never left my side, always there in the background, always cheering me on, always supporting me. I've seen people come and go, but these people, they don't forget about me, they don't ignore me. They truly, truly love me. I can be my silly, weird self around these people. These are the people who have been here all along and always will be. Whether it's been recently, or for as long as I can remember. People need other people, and these are the people I need, the ones I'm going to hold on to.

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in over a month, but, as I've said before, I've been so busy participating. There has been so much that has happened. It's been up, down, around in circles and zig-zagged all over the place. And that's okay. I don't think a straight line for a life is much of a life at all.

Did you know that the average person has about 50,000 thoughts per day? Around 70,000 if they are a deep thinker? So, you could imagine that I have thought about a lot of things in a month. I've started a quote book, read The Book Thief(highly recommend), and I'm still managing to get good grades and have a social life! So I guess you could say that things are going well. I'm really looking forward to this summer. I've made some great plans with Laura and my friends and it's just going to be so fun. I can hardly wait until finals are over.

It's going to be a transformation summer. Things are going to change for me. I'm going to make them change, I'm ready for it. I think I've just been feeling stuck for a while, and it's time to do something about it. It's time to let go of the things that have been holding me back and really jump back into life again. Clean my room, paint the walls, get a job, buy new clothes, anything. I'm excited.

I've been really into hand lettering quotes now, so here's just a fewwwww:

Annnnnd some fun pictures with some great people:

With finals just around the corner, I'd better get back to studying.

That's Life.

Hakuna Matata.

Why are we always trying to impress other people? I hate when I go onto Twitter or Instagram and see how much people are trying to impress others. They show off their social life with posed pictures and constantly updating their statuses that they are so glued to the Internet and completely forgetting about the friends that are sitting right next to them waiting to have a real conversation. They stress themselves out trying to impress others that they miss the vacation that they are on and once they get back they complain how it was "too short." I just don't understand how things have gotten to this point. It all seems so meaningless. I'm not even really sure if people notice that they are doing it either.

I don't know about all of you, but with every single one of my friends I would not ask them to be anything but themselves. They don't need the top name brands, or fancy vacations to impress me. I just like them for well..as cliche as it sounds....them. They are loyal and considerate and make me laugh all of the time. If they listen to what I have to say and make me smile when I'm about to cry, I couldn't ask for anything else.

This weekend I went to see the musical 'Meet Me in St. Louis' and when we got back something just hit me. All of the adults (I, of course, do not consider myself an adult yet...) were talking about how much construction was on the road, and how many potholes were in the road and I realized how silly it sounded. Why are we concerning ourselves with this? I don't want to grow up to talk about how the economy is failing or complain about politics...why can't we still act like children and be completely enthralled in what the clouds look like, or how beautiful the stars look on a clear night.

Based on my previous blog posts, I realize how frequently I talk about why we shouldn't be in such a rush to grow up. Maybe it's not so much about not growing up but more that we shouldn't rush through things. I mean, think about it. We have instant access to Internet in our pockets, tablets and computers. We can call anyone in the world in three seconds. Everything is moving so quickly, but would it really hurt to turn that all off and go take a walk? Really people, why do we always have to move so fast?

Just a few more thoughts for you....

I want to be a strong person. A mentally and physically strong person. I've struggled in the past, and I'll struggle in the future, and I may be struggling now, but I'm determined not to give up this time. I think that once I don't care about impressing people, or rushing through everything, or growing up to fast, that I can finally be happy and free from everything that once held me back.

I have recently been inspired to gain all kinds of knowledge. Knowledge of any kind too: vocabulary, random facts, learning a language, learning all kinds of instruments, just....everything. And I know that "everything" is a HUGE term. And yes, of course I know that I won't be able to know everything but I will never push away something new to learn.

A feel good song to end the day:

And how I think that everyday should be spent. 

Well,

That's Life.

Participate.

Hellooooo! Sorry that I haven't posted anything in a month but I've been so busy participating. On the weekend of my birthday one of my friends from one of my first classes freshman year convinced me to go out with her and a bunch of friends. Ironically, this was the weekend that formal recruitment started and I still wasn't sure if I made the right decision to not join a sorority. Well, thanks to that night I've made some awesome new friends, I have a gym buddy now that motivates me to go to the gym everyday, and I haven't laughed as much as I have these past two weeks in a while. Along with all of that, we just got housing for next year and I'm in a townhouse with all of these great people and  we know every person on all three floors of the building. Next year is going to be epic and I am SO excited. #themagictownhouseisreal

So, you know how my last post was about making your own happy? Well, since then I have been thinking about that, and I don't think that you can do that all on your own. I think that you always need a little help, whether your friends are sitting with you at the table making you laugh so hard until you cry, or if you know that they are just a phone call away. But either way, you can't be all alone all of the time. Last semester I focused on school work and got good grades, but I didn't do much else. But already this semester I've started to break out of that cycle, and it's been fantastic. I feel so much better. I feel like I belong somewhere concrete now, not just "at school."

Well, anyways, how many of you watched the Olympics?? I think I'm going through withdrawal from not having them on every night but it's gotten me so excited for my snowboarding trip this weekendddddd. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! AND. Laura's coming this time. We gonna have funnn. I will try not to fall on my head so much but I'm determined to land a jump this time, and I will get it on video. :{D

Other than that, I have an MRI sometime over spring break to check on my hip to see what's going on with that, my french teacher told me that my accent is getting very good, I got most of my homework for the break done so I don't have to worry about it, and I don't have so much of a grudge towards sororities. I don't hate them, but I'm just glad that I didn't join one.

I started to reread Divergent before I lent it to someone to read so we could go see the movie together, but while I was reading the first couple of chapters, I started to think of a list of all of the qualities that I hope to have someday. Here it goes:

1. Selflessness.

2. Have courage.

3. Listen with the intent to understand, not to reply.

4. Always be kind.

5. Give everyone an equal chance.

6. Be silly.

7. Be grateful.

8. Have confidence.

On that note, I found this great video on YouTube the other day, and I highly recommend that you watch it:

SPRING BREAK WOOOOO!!

So,

That's Life. 

Make Your Own Happy.

Well, this was the last day that I was 19 years old. Even though I have Wednesdays off to begin with, we had the day off from school because of ice and really bad weather...but tomorrow is my birthday!!!!!! I'm kind of scared for this one actually. Of course, I'm bringing in the day while watching Friends. favorite. I haven't got too much planned, except that my mom and sister are supposed to come on Sunday to go to a movie and lunch, and I'm really excited about that. Other than that, I'll see how the day goes.

Other than that, we are in the middle of week two where every girl in a sorority cannot talk to me, look at me, even say hello. I'm not kidding either, I say hi to them and they just stare at me. It's...what's that word, the one that there are entire movements dedicated to stop it...oh yeah, bullying. This is legitimate bullying and I'm just about sick of it. You would think after seeing all of the news about kids who are bullied and tortured in schools that people would have enough sense to make a stand against it. So, ya know what, I'm going to take a stand. I don't care who I have to talk to or what I have to do but this will not happen again next year. What surprises me the most is that kids just say "oh yeah, it happens every year." And they just put up with it! These three weeks are termed "disaffiliation" by the panhellenic council(the greek life rulers). And I was thinking about the term and it is actually ridiculous. Instead of isolating the girls who aren't in a sorority the girls should instead "disaffiliate" themselves from the sorority they are in. Remove all letters from campus and have three greek - free weeks. Now, before all of you start a riot on me, I'm just saying, imagine that you are ignored for three weeks. You eat by yourself or pretend like you don't even know your friends...wouldn't feel so good now would it? No, I didn't think so. So why on Earth are we even putting ourselves through this?

Here comes another branch of the rant. Why put yourself through something that would make you, or someone that you care about, feel so awful? Why can't we just do what makes us happy, what puts a smile on someone's face, or a happy, grateful tear in their eye. I just don't understand why some people can be so selfish, or so mean in the first place. Just love where you are in this moment. And if you don't? You have the power to change it.

Well...this certainly took a turn on the unexpected rant side...

So on that note, and in the spirit of Nashville being on tonight:

A repeat but it's amazing.


A happy picture:

andddddd OLYMPICS TOMORROW!!! USA USA USA

I've got loads more to talk about, but that's for tomorrow. Until we meet again.

That's Life.

Follow Your Arrow.

Okay, I have a new obsession in country music. Kacey Musgraves. Yes, it is the girl who performed at the Grammy's, and her album is AMAZING. I'm completely obsessed and I listen to it nonstop. She's amazing. I mean, this girl speaks the truth.

So, speaking of Kacey Musgraves, one of her songs, Follow Your Arrow describes exactly how my week has been. When I first decided that I wanted to join a sorority every person that I told said "oh my god you're the last person I would expect that would do that," or "why would you do that?" or something of that sort. Now that I said that I didn't want to join one anymore the popular response is "why not just give it a shot," or "at least go and meet the girls and then decide, you're missing out on something so big." Hmmmm. Well, as the song would go,

"You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't so you might as well just do whatever you want."

And you know what, my arrow doesn't point to a sorority. It points somewhere else. You know I'm not quite sure where it's pointing to...but I've made my decision. And if you want to tell me that it's something so much bigger than myself and all of the amazing people that I meet, I will listen to you patiently without interruption. But I have met so many people doing what I truly love to do. I've met people in cross country and swimming and crew and classes and group and countless other places as well. I look forward to traveling and meeting so many other people and doing so many other things and although joining a sorority might be in so many other paths, I've decided that it is not in mine. 

Well, that felt really good. 

So I read an article online about how P!nk should be every girls role model, and she is one of mine now after reading it (after Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson of course...) 

Here's the article if you want to read it: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mackenziekruvant/pink-is-the-role-model-every-girl-should-have

Accompanied by an inspirational picture:

In other news....

I accidentally popped my shoulder out of it's socket by lifting a 12 - pound weight over my head while I was in the gym today....yes, yes I do realize that is pathetic...

I've gotten really into watercolors with pen and ink, seriously amazing. Pics to come.

I love surprising people. :) <3

Nashville was great as usual.

I eat lots of ice cream and I have no shame.

FlappyBird is ridiculous, addicting, frustrating, and I could barely put it down to write this. Get it. My record is 12, Laura's is 33. Mission accepted.

Beyonce is worth $350 million dollars.

And seriously...listen to Kacey Musgraves. serious.

Follow Your Arrow.

That's Life.

Invisible.

What a horrible day. First, I went to the gym. The gym wasn't bad, but I cannot run until I get an MRI. This is because I may have torn a ligament in my hip and it could require surgery to fix. This is because ligaments do not get enough blood flow to heal themselves like other muscles can. But I won't know until I get an MRI and I won't get one until the semester is over. So it's the elliptical and bike for me until then. It's strange that you could absolutely not want to do something(like run) until someone tells you "you cannot run." Then, all of a sudden it's the only thing that you want to do. C'est la vie.

Then I had class, which again wasn't horrible, just horribly boring. I guess that's what I get for reading ahead and coming to class prepared. LOL.

So I get back to my room and finish up my homework, waiting for Deanna and Dan to get back. Only to find out that I can't be seen with, talk to, or eat with her for THREE WEEKS because I'm a "potential new member" for sorority recruitment. It doesn't even matter if I'm not planning on rushing. Which is complete BS. She's my roommate for crying out loud!!!! That just got me so upset today. It's completely ridiculous and I don't understand the concept at all. These girls have to ignore you, and they won't talk to you or even say HELLO and then they expect you to want to be a "sister" to their sorority and do everything they tell you to do, make all of these crafts for them, and practically be a slave until you are in. It's actually absurd. Sorry to all of my friends in a sorority, not bashing you, but this is just insane, like I really need to feel like my friends don't want to talk to me. It makes you feel so invisible.

So, after asking several people if they had eaten (which all of them had...) I ventured to get some food on my own. But you know what they say, every cloud has a silver lining, and I found two of my crew teammates and caught up with them, and I didn't end up eating dinner alone. And there were Lucky Charms. :)


And so, after a hard day that makes me just want to cry, listening to country songs always makes me feel better.

My favorite line is "There's so much more to this life than you're feeling now."

And this song reminds me that we all have "a life that's good" if we can all find that silver lining.

That's Life.

Loud Minds.

Well, I'm back at school. Back to homework and reading and outlines and all of that crazy nonsense. Although I'm watching the Food Network/X Games right now and The Grammy's are on tonight so that's not too bad. And I haven't even been that slammed with work yet either! 

I love love lovveeeee LOVE my French class. I can't wait to go to every week. I love my teacher, the group I'm in, how the language sounds, just everything about it. I can't wait to go to France and talk to people and everything. All of my other classes are pretty average.

So, now you're updated. Here's what I've been thinking about this weekend...

1. People are loud. They can be very very loud. So connected to themselves that they cannot see something outside of the little world that they surround themselves in. And I think that the things that most people do not see can be some of the most important things in the world.

2. I want to practice animation. I want to get some practice in animation and on the computer. Creating moving things and work in animation when I get older. (in fact there is someone coming to talk TCNJ who is an animator!!) 

3. I love the snow. Love everything about it. It's beautiful and quiet and calm and I wish that I could go snowboarding, and it's been snowing here quite a bit!

4. I don't want to get older and look back in my life and say "you know, I regret that time that I...." I want to do what makes me happy. But right now, I think that is just working hard in school, meeting new people, practice drawing, going to the gym, etc etc....

Alright well, I'm starting to get a headache and I have to read a little, but here are some pictures to think about:

Well he just says it all...

I absolutely love this quote.

You should always have summer.

This picture just makes me happy. "Adventure is out there!"

That's Life.

Catch Up Post.

I can't believe that I haven't posted anything since Thanksgiving. THANKGIVING people!!! I apologize to those of you who may follow my blog, and I am going to try to post more often now. So I don't really want to bore you with the details of my winter break. I went to Florida to visit my grandparents, which was really fun! And then when Laura and I came back we went to see Annie on Broadway(with our cousin, or uncle...?..as Daddy Warbucks!), went to visit our cousins, and then I went to go see more adorable cousins and visit Rachel at school. After all that, I basically collapsed on the couch and didn't want to move anymore. So, with school in just a few days the textbooks have arrived, the school supplies have been purchased and it's time to get it together.

Over the past few days, I've really had quite a bit of time on my hands now that all of my friends are back at school. With this time I've been painting, dancing around the house, playing piano, packing things back up, and watching absurd amounts of Gossip Girl. I've been thinking about a lot too. Mostly about my dad, but also college, and sororities, and just everything. I'm pretty sure that I am not going to join a sorority. No specific reason except that I need to focus on my grades and doing just that during the past semester has been hard enough. It also just doesn't seem like...me. Although I have been on and off about it since break started...I just have to make a decision I guess.

So, a new year means a bunch of new resolutions. I've never been fantastic at keeping resolutions but I've made a few of them. The usual lose weight, go to the gym more, read more, get great grades, don't procrastinate my homework, eat healthy and all of that. But while I was making those resolutions, I had a thought about who I was right in that moment. I looked back at where I was last year and thought that I didn't need any resolutions to be where I am today, so why make more to tack up on the wall and look at everyday? I'll get where I need to be whether I have resolutions or not. So, as of right now I have decided to not put myself up to those resolutions and just live everyday as I want to, and for me, that should be enough.

Sorry that I don't have any pictures or songs up today, this post has been all over the place. Well, only one more day before I go back to school.


That's Life.