Looking In the Rear View Mirror

I'm moving on to greener pastures my friends. Image from Falsompastor.

As all of you may have noticed. This year is coming to a close, and fast. Not only am I required by my grade to write this post, but I feel like it's good way to close up this blog. I could make promises to keep writing, and to stay updated, but I feel like after this post, the magic will be lost. And let's all be honest, my readers and page views will go with it soon after. While I am definitely go to miss it, all things must end. Good things don't last forever, and they shouldn't, for that matter. The fact that they end is what makes them special and precious. I'm sure you will all forgive for getting all mushy right there, as it is the last time it will happen.

Looking back on my earlier post it's like I can feel myself holding back a little. I was afraid to share the personal little pieces of me that I give to you in my writing. Of course I was excited to write about things I thought could help people, but I was scared of making a fool of myself. In contrast, I am now a proud "goof up". This is because of you guys, my readers. I saw and heard my friends' interest in my posts and topics,  I realized I had slowly started accomplishing what I first set out to do. To have something so personal be the cause of someone else's joy created more fuzzy feelings than I can describe. And slowly over this year, I felt like I have opened up to you.

I keep talking about how personal this blog was to me, but how can that be? I am literally posting on the world wide web. Emphasis on world wide. Despite all that, my writing style is unique to me, and although I had not explored it very much at the beginning of this blog adventure, I was sure nobody was going to like it. Slowly as I gained more confidence, so did my writing. If you look back, you can start to see me bursting out of my bubble, and using more pop culture references, along with the always important figurative language.

I know I couldn't have done this without the inspiration provided from some other bloggers. Specifically Alexa, and my brother Charlie. I love all the blogs I read, but I always felt more creative, and determined after reading each and everyone of their posts. Speaking of creativity, I might have let mine run a little too free when it came to keeping to the theme of this blog. Originally, the majority of the posts I wanted to make were going to be about school, and balancing the different aspects of life as a teenager. Well, I did some of that, but I also spent a lot more time than I originally planned on the things I do to relax. In a way, I still accomplished my original goal. Through this blog I was able to relieve a lot of stress, and anxiety. So in the end, this blog helped at least one person balance their life.

For the last time, I wanted to say thank you, and good bye.

I've kept it PG all year, but just his once I thought it was okay. Image from QuotesBlog.

Throwing it All the Way Back

Recently I have been looking at old pictures from when I was younger. I'm going to say this in the most modest way possible, I was adorable. I honestly don't know what happened. Life was so simple and magical back then. I honestly believed in the mythical, spoiler alert, Santa, tooth fairy, and Easter bunny. Not only that, but it seems like I had no concept of embarrassment. Now I'm grown up, and am constantly feeling the reddening of my cheeks that occurs with an awkward moment. In this time of great stress and worry, I've decided to throw it back a little to some of my favorite memories of a simpler time. Besides, Thursday, as in throwback Thursday, is the fourth day of the week, and hey, it's fourth quarter!

Me running from a bear... probably

The first memory I'm going to share is of my family's so called "bear hunts." I have no idea how our parents thought of the idea, whether it was a tradition passed down from their childhoods, or we just had too much energy one night, but every once in a while all five of us would grab a flashlight, and head into our large yard at night to look for bears. We sing a stupid song that was both short and repetitive until we made it all the way around the house. Some nights we would even do multiple laps. Despite the lightness of it all, I was always certain that we were going to catch a bear. Even after an abundance of bear hunts where we came back empty handed, I felt there was no doubt that we would run into a bear in the middle of our yard. Looking back, a couple of questions come to mind. Specifically, Why did we want to catch a bear? When we were to encounter said bear, we would be empty handed, save for a flashlight. How were we going to capture/protect ourselves from this bear? Not once did we find a bear (thankfully), but I will always have fond memories my determination, and feeling of invincibility that came with hunting dangerous beasts with my family.

Second is another story from my backyard. After all,  backyards are places of infinite wonder and possibilities to younger kids. So in my backyard, we have a sand box. I'm almost debating putting that last statement into the past, because slowly it has become nothing more than a litter box for the neighborhood cats. Despite that, back in the glory days my siblings and I spent a lot of time there. And out favorite sand box activity? Flooding it. My brothers and I would build an elaborate kingdom, and then starting with just one small lake or river, we would start adding water features until it looked like the set from Water World. If you haven't purposely flooded, and in turn ruined, a small sandbox, I am tempted to say you haven't lived.

Lastly, I remember the nights I pretended to fall asleep at random locations in the house just so my mom or dad would carry me to my room. For example, one night I couldn't fall asleep and I heard my mom in the kitchen. I decided to get out of bed and lay on the kitchen floor with my eyes closed until someone carried me back to my room. All was going as planned, I was about to be picked up by my mom when Charlie (my twin brother with a most excellent blog) sleep walked his way to where we were standing. We asked him what he was doing, unaware that he was unconscious. He then turned around and walked right into our kitchen counter. Being young and short at the time, he hit his head pretty badly. I faintly remember him crying as my mom carried him back to bed, but by that time most of my surroundings were blacked out by my rage. I didn't care if my brother had hurt his head! I just wanted to be carried back to bed. Me being the ridiculous child I was, I stood there waiting for about another five minutes until I realized that my mom wasn't coming back for me. I still hold a grudge to this day. I'll never forget.

You think we are sleeping? Nope. Acting.

Sorry for the long post. I hope you make it through the large amount of stress these coming weeks. Just take deep breaths and try to remember a time when your biggest problem was getting the wrong flavor of popsicle.

Oridinary Miracles

This post may not be relevant to anything I originally set out to do in this blog, but I thought you might enjoy it. After all, laughing is the best form of therapy that doesn't cost ridiculous amounts of money. So to make you laugh today, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite ordinary miracles.

1.  Well, Maybe You Should've Looked Harder

How does she do it? Image courtesy of Elfarandi.

Everybody loses things, and when the time comes that you need them, a chaotic mess is created by your frenzied search. Even if you have checked every nook and cranny, no matter how improbable they may seem, some items may only be found by none other than your mother (take a moment to enjoy that rhyme). Some may say it's a keen eye that evolved through the process of being a mother, but I have a more simple theory, magic. It's the only reasonable explanation. This miracle does become a thing to keep in mind if you're mother, like mine, doesn't like to look for my things when I've lost them. That may be reasonable, but in my opinion, if your are granted such a gift as my mother's, you should use it for the good of others!

2.  Weight Lifting Wonder

While the title of this section may make this seem active, don't let it fool you. This phenomenon occurs in presence of extreme laziness. Picture this, your mom just got back to the store with a car full of groceries. She brings the majority in, but just asks you to take the remaining bags inside from the car. At this point it doesn't matter if there are two or twenty bags left, you are going to make only one trip to carry them in. You are never at a stronger point in your life than when you don't want to make more than one trip, which is generally always. While your at it, enter a weight lifting competition, or audition for superman before the adrenaline like feeling dissipates.

3.  First Try

My face every time. Image courtesy of BookBloggersInt.

Nothing makes you feel more like a boss (check out that hip vernacular yo) than turning to the right page in your textbook on the first try. If this isn't a miracle than I don't know what is. The only thing that may be more spectacular is if anyone witnesses the action happening. If so, be sure to revel in the widened eye contact that ensues because that my friend, is an improbable event. Although I wouldn't draw too much attention to it, or you may get a more common look from your teacher, the death stare.

If you want more miracles to brighten your everyday life, checkout my other posts (I flatter myself). Also, if you want to make my day better, comment or subscribe. Also, I have a page full small projects for you crafters to do in your free time (if there is such a thing). I hope you all have wonderful days and weeks to come, and I'll blog you later.

Two Points of View

Image courtesy of Twitter.

One thing that I have always found helpful in my life is changing my point of view. Seeing the "bright side" of a situation can change everything, but more than that, seeing the argument from the other side is extremely important. I have always prided myself in seeing from multiple perspectives, and now we are going to talk about that.

First, a little bit of back story to help you understand what I am talking about. Last year in my social studies class, we were waiting for class to start and had randomly started talking about marriage equality. The general theme of the conversation was that it was wrong to keep marriage just between a man and a woman. While I strongly agree with this, I also wanted to add more to the conversation. I suggested that we also see this argument from the side of those who oppose gay marriage. After all, if we want others to acknowledge our point of view, we need to offer them the same courtesy. I immediately regretted this sentence. Some my classmates started attacking me with their opinions (that I didn't disagree with), and calling me homophobic. While never stated that I agreed with those who opposed gay marriage, just recognizing their feelings and opinions made me a target.

Not to be rude, but what those classmates did was wrong in so many ways. In my own opinion, gay marriage should allowed mainly because we are all allowed to have our own beliefs. If we blatantly tell those who are against gay marriage that they are wrong, and can't have their own point of view, we give them the right to do the same. It is not about deciding what is right for everyone, but being given the right to decide for ourselves. We may never be rid of homophobia, but maybe everyone will begin to realize that we all have the right to our own principles.

If you give the other side of the argument some thought, you can better understand those who believe that. Creating peace isn't about agreeing with people, but understanding them. Spending time in a different way of thinking can only add to your personality, and intellectual depth. Now I understand that it was a good thing to have that experience in my social studies class. From it I was able to get a better outlook, and a way to hopefully help others gain the same thing.