VOW: Jeans Backflip

TOW: Could vs. Should

These last couple weeks have been fairly pivotal for me because I have been given a lot of opportunities, a lot of chances for activities that I don't normally have. It's funny because I have been invited to parties I wouldn't normally attend, and even gone on a few dates, which is pretty irregular for me. I'm starting to feel more popular than usual. And, as far as I can tell, I'm already too popular. *Sigh* It's a hard life.

;)

The point is, there are a lot of things I 'could' do. I could be a musician, I could be a comedian, I could be a politician. I could be many things, I could do many things with my life, great things, in their own respective ways. I could.

But I won't do those things.

I could be a film star, I could be a reporter, or even an editor of a fancy magazine, heck, I might even be an engineer! (Ha, ha, maybe that's a bit of a stretch.) I could be any of these things.

But I won't be these things.

And that's not sad. The point of life is to find a life that aligns with your values. And, strangely, this relates to my day-to-day life, as well. There are many things I could do. There are many things. But I won't do all of those things I could do. And the reason is not because I am incapable--the reason is because I know the difference between what I should and shouldn't do.

And there are things I should be doing, and there is a kind of person I need to be. And if I'm not working, honestly working, towards the kind of person that I want to be, I'm going to fail. And worse, I'm going to be lost while I try to remember the kind of person I was trying to be. And there's a kind of person we're all trying to be.

I've learned my lesson over the last few weeks. There are many things we could do. But we won't be happy unless we do what we should do, versus what we could.

And that's the way it should be.

Just Booked My Trip Home For Christmas

Have to say, pretty excited. I'm going to be gone for two whole weeks! =D =D =D

TOW: New Paths

I just returned home from a very fun evening with PR student friends. It's interesting because we all discuss our prior lives, where we participated in something other than PR, and we have so many experiences that aren't even 'shareable' across our different paths. And as all of us start to grow up, my other non-school related friends are transistioning into what will be, for some of them, their careers.

These new paths are still fresh to us. Being a young adult *or in my case, just an adult, sigh* menas that we have to make hard choices, and live with them. We have to experience pain, and move on. We're not allowed, like in earlier days, to let that pain swallow us whole anymore...we have bills to pay, commitments to keep, and no one is going to wash our laundry for us unless we're paying them.

But there are beautiful things we get to experience. Being an adult, a real adult, is fresh to us. We're not bored of office gossip and break-ups, pregnancies or holiday visits. We're still traveling the world, and racking up debt and making bad financial, romantic and personal decisions. And we kinda like it. It doesn't make us tired yet. It's still exciting.

Probably the most interesting thing I am learning, as a 'mature' student, is that starting a new path as an adult means that we don't change our personalities, we don't wear masks in the same way that we did when we were kids--those were emotional masks, masks to hold in all of our overflowing feelings that keep changing who we are, every minute. Now the masks we wear are for protection, to help us stand in the midst of all our personal crises, because it's not our emotions that are overflowing, but often our lonliness, lost in the world by ourselves on our new, often separate paths. Before, it was too much to just be us, to keep changing. Now we don't want to change anymore, but stop the world from always trying to change us into something we don't want to be, on a path we don't want to take.

What we all need to remember, is that we're never really alone, even when we feel that we are, because all of us know the feeling of walking for miles, we just don't always share it. And while some of us show more fatigue on the road than others, it's possible to share, and still cross that divide. And sometimes, even a little bit of an echo of what security, happiness and safety is like, is enough to carry onwards. Some of us need less, and some of us need more, but all of us need reasons to keep walking into the horizon that will become our future selves.

VOW: Economic Crisis

This is how I feel about the recession, at times.

Interesting...

Experienced my first bomb threat at my school.


Hilariously, I kept saying, "I bet it's a bomb, y'all," and well, it almost WAS a bomb, y'all!


Lame.

But I got to miss half a day of classes for it!

Also lame because I'm paying for it. =/

TOW: Thanksgiving

This week's thought is brought to you by the number 4. And not just because this week's VOW is Sesame Street inspired. No, it's brought to you by the number four because I'm thinking about the four things that really matter, in anyone's life, and that they need, regardless of who they are.

We all have four basic things to be thankful for: friends, family, mental and physical health. Friends because they make us feel like the world is a safe place, family because they keep us safe when it's not, and our health needs to be good so that we can enjoy our lives and the company of friends and family to the fullest, and so that we can pursue our dreams.

I know that this weekend, I am very thankful for the people that help keep me balanced, and help me remember what is important in my life. I am happy to be spending time in the right kind of way, and I am very happy that I can remember to be thankful for the things that matter.

If we are missing one of those 4 necessary things, somehow life seems a little more bleak, a little less interesting. What I sometimes need to remember, in all the hustle, is that life is meant to be fun, to be enjoyed, and to be spent loving other people. Any other form is simply a shadow of what should be.

So, look for things in the day to be thankful for. Happiness is on the rise, as long as you let it be.

VOW: Feist sings on Sesame Street

Some of you might not know who Feist is (Canadian folk singer), but this video made me feel good over the last couple weeks. It's really cute.

I'M GOING HOME TOMORROW!

WELL TECHNICALLY TODAY.


I WILL SEE MY FAMILY FOR-THE-FIRST-TIME-IN-NINE-MONTHS


*HAPPY SINGING HAPPY SINGING*

IT IS TWO IN THE MOOOORRRNINGGGGG

Videogames are the bane of my existence

I accidentally let a friend in my class send me a video game called Plants vs. Zombies last week and IT TOOK OVER my life. Smiling plants and zombies are clearly my Achilles heel for time wasting.

But I love this game.

TOW: Never Sleeping

I'm sorry I haven't been able to post regularly, you guys. I've just been so busy with my classes, and once one of them finishes in a week and half, I'll have at least part of my sanity back. And I won't be sacrificing sleep for powerpoint presentations.

What I've learned, however, is that I can be a normal, happy, functioning human being on so little sleep I wonder if anyone except me even notices the fact that I'm ab-so-lute-ly losing my mind with tired.

And tonight was supposed to be a night when I got a really, really good nights rest. Thanks, Powerpoint, for freezing on me several times. You really upped my productivity at two in the morning.

VOW: When Life Gives Me Lemons, I Make Lemonade

This video is courtesy of Ginny! Thanks Ginny, for a wonderful example of good children's music!

Night Sky

Found this on Slashdot, where basically 2 scientists travelled on volcano tops and deserts to produce a 360 rotatable, zoomable, 800 megapixel of the night sky. It's all part of the GigaGalaxyZoom project. This should appeal to anyone who wants to treat the night sky like a roller-coaster ride.