A life of excitement

A lot of people ask me how I am able to wake up excited every morning, even though I know I will be doing the same thing.

NEWS FLASH: I never do the same thing twice, I never have the same day. It doesn't matter if I fill today's hours the same as I did yesterdays, there is always something new and exciting about it. New faces, new worlds. Maybe its the same words repeated, but the influx in the voice was different. To me, life is new, every day.

Maybe you're thinking that I don't understand, and maybe I don't. From the same perspective, maybe you don't understand.

What are your first thoughts when you wake up? Are they positive? Are they negative?

"I don't wanna get upppppppp"

Yeahhhh girl, SAAAMMMEEEE.

Instead though, I hop out of bed and I'm like "YYYEEESSSS I GET TO LISTEN TO THAT SONG I'VE BEEN DIGGING"

Its small, its weird, but it actually really excites me and all of and sudden I'm out of bed and turning on my speaker and dancing my way to the bathroom. It SUCKS that I just got out of bed and I'm already tired, but I refuse to allow myself to be discouraged.

I understand that I don't always have to be at 100, I also understand that things are sometimes really bad. Like when you wake up and realize that you're gonna be late, or you're half way to school and you get dizzy and remember you forgot breakfast, or you forgot your backpack or your homework and all of a sudden your perfect day that was mapped out perfectly is officially ruined because you can't go to school without your backpack and now you have to legally drive a little faster so you're not late and its the second week of classes and your teacher is gonna think you're a slacker and that will be your reputation for the rest of college.

My typing got progressively faster as I thought about that scenario, which has yet to happen, because I make lists (thank you, mom)

Anyways. Why look at that as something negative? That's an adventure. Like, you're some top-secret spy, racing against the clock to get a bomb to a safe shelter and the clock is ticking, and all these roadblocks keep popping up and you gotta be all ninja and get them out of the way. BOOM. UPGRADE. That little $3000 beater you bought used from your neighbor for college, just became a little Italian car. SLIDE YO SHADES ON AND OWN THE DAY.

I mean, I could be crazy. Maybe that's why my days are so interesting. Or maybe I'm just really optimistic and I refuse to let life get me down. Its life, man. Things are gonna happen. Its your attitude that is going to determine the outcome. Maybe you weigh your options and you really can't go back for your homework, so you walk into class and you have two options. You can pretend like "oh shucks, I just had it, I swear" or you could explain to your teacher what happened. Maybe you didn't even do your homework. Like, that's bad. Please do your homework.

My point is, you are not in control of what happens today. You really aren't, no matter how hard you try. What you are in control of, though, is how you react to it. Life doesn't have to be obligatory, it doesn't have to be boring. Yes, I am young. I'm young mentally, I'm young physically. My scenarios are different from my moms. Different form my host sisters or brothers, my circumstance is different from the neighbors and the kids who live in medical lake and just came here for a football game.

Responsibility changes, obligation, priorities, ideas, believes... All of that changes. Some of it changes daily. Life is about perspective. You cant choose whats going to happen, but you do choose if you're going to let it be a growing opportunity, or just another thing you have to deal with.

So tell me, are you going to wake up tomorrow morning, and groan that you have another work meeting? Or are you going to wake up and listen to that song that has been stuck in your head? MAybe all you need is a kitchen dance session.....

Who are you when no one is watching?

Just Another Day in the Life

I'm currently sitting on the couch in the living room, the fresh light of day seeping through the sheer window covers. No classes on Wednesday :)

All my homework is done, the only thing I need to finish, is my cocoa before it gets too cold. My weighted blanket is keeping me warm in the brisk fall air, and I've got on thick crew socks. Tonight, I will be going out to a fancy restaurant, playing dress up, with my boyfriend of 8 1/2 months.

Wow. What a perfect life.

Which actually is kinda true. My life is perfect, but not because there is no bad things. Classes started a couple weeks ago, and let me tell you. I feel like everything I learned in school, is wrong. One of our most recent assignments was to write a thesis on why education is good, so I wrote a thesis like all of my teachers have taught me. It was clear, my view was evident, I used adequate vocabulary, I had three solid, provable points. I was glowing as I turned it in.

Later, in class, he gave us our papers back and asked us if anyone had a non-debatable thesis. Upon closer inspection, I realized that you really couldn't debate my thesis. I raised my hand and read it to the class. There were lots of head nods, everyone was in agreement with my thesis. That, in itself, was the issue.

Now, don't get me wrong. I cam to college because I know I'm not the best writer, I'm not a perfect writer, and I haven't explored writing to the full extent that I am so eager to do. I am loving having direction, being challenged. It would be boring if my professor just told me that it was perfect and that I didn't need to change anything. What would even be the point of college?

Humbled, is genuinely what I felt when he told me, in front of the whole class, that I need to be more assertive in making a point. That I needed to be more controversial.

I'm too agreeable? Since when was that a bad thing???????

I saw that I had two options. I could feel hurt, talk to my professor about how he must have made a mistake or maybe I didn't hear him right, or I could take that criticism and go with it. I chose the latter. How can I make my writing more assertive? How can I write something that people are going to disagree with? How do you combine facts and opinion so that you're writing a factual paper that gets across your point in a debatable manner????????? Guess I get to learn!!!!

He told us that the point of an essay is to explore a question, or a solution... Basically an idea that you develop through your paper. Challenge yourself, and your own idea. Investigate, ask questions, become an expert on what you're writing about. Once you understand the rules of the game, you can play it a little different.

SO today, I'm challenging you, maybe you're good at what you do, but how can you be better? Are your eyes open to opportunities to grow? Life is school. Everyday you wake up and you get ready for school, even if you're going to stay on the couch and binge Netflix. You're learning something, be it about yourself and your behavior, others and their behaviors, or maybe you're going to watch a two hour documentary on killer whales at sea world. If you're open to it and willing to find it, there are learning opportunities everywhere. 

So keep growing! There has never been a better day to begin a life of discovery, than today!!