Well
then. This is the end.
It
has been a long journey with you all.
I
have made many friends. Rachel and Alli in particular, even though sometimes I
want to kill Alli and Raych wants to kill me. It's all great fun, mind you.
This
is my "Greatest Hits" blog post. Probably the last, maybe. Who knows.
Until
then let's sum up this Journey in a quick post.
Well
maybe not so quick ;)
1.)
"The week before I left my
little hometown of Leeds, AL it really struck me that I was leaving. I mean I
had known it for sometime but now it was so evident in the way people treated
me that I couldn't get past it. People didn't treat me badly, but they were all
acting so sad. "I'm gonna miss you!" and "Why do you have to
leave?!"
I'm not dying ya'll. Chill out."
I'm not dying ya'll. Chill out."
While
this is the beginning of my first blog post the journey started off in Memphis
really.
We
went to the Brooks museum of art, ate some really mediocre BBQ and went to the
zoo.
I
made friends there, and memories, maybe not super long memories, but memories
all the same. It was an experience to be sure. I won't soon forget it.
2.) "Creativity is what make us ourselves
Without creativity what are we really?"
Without creativity what are we really?"
This was the post about the values 'exercise' we
did. everyone chose things like love, and success. But I chose creativity. I won't
quote the entire blog post, but mostly I said that creativity makes 'me' and 'you'
different from all of 'them'. I have thought about it more and realized, while
I still agree with my choice, it is more like Individuality instead of
creativity. Over the semester I have been able to explore my creative mojo and
I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It is making me extra-ordinary compared to all
the other people who just go with the flow of life.
3.) "Anyways, Mr. Calhoun said not to take
our gifts for granted, and I think that is so true. So many people take the
gifts they are given and just throw them away in lieu of drugs or greed. People
like this don't really live."
This blog was titled 'Everybody dies but not
everyone lives' and I still agree with that. People can go day to day in a thoroughly
unimportant and irrelevant life if they let themselves. We all have gifts of
some sort, but some people just don't embrace those gifts. This is their great
downfall. Life is filled with so many great opportunities but many people let
them slip from their fingers because they refuse to leave their bed in the
morning and do something. I myself and guilty of that some days.
4.) "College is NOT a burden like so many students think it is. It
is an opportunity to do something greater, to be someone greater. "
So
many people go to college because "My mom made me!" and it is stupid.
College is an opportunity to weed out all the people who want to do something
more with their lives from the people who are contented with working at Wal-Mart
till they die. Yes, we need people at every job level. No, I am not saying that
if you don't go to college you are stupid. All I am saying is that college is
not an opportunity to be wasted, as so many people want it make it become.
5.)
"Don't sweat the small
stuff. <---Love that.
Don't worry if it won't matter in 5 years."
Don't worry if it won't matter in 5 years."
I love this. Just absolutely. I find myself
worrying about any and everything, I swear I am getting gray hairs. Well I
wouldn't be able to tell now. I just dyed it super dark :)
I go off on a bunch of random tangents.
Anyways, Many of the things I worry over won't matter
to me or anyone else in 5 years. That bad test grade? Won't matter. That
forgotten e-mail? Won't matter. But yet I worry and worry and worry over it for
days at a time. I lose sleep over so many trivial things! It is horrible!
6.) I really don't feel like summarizing this
post because All I would do is restate the same thing, again. So Copy and paste
:)
"I
don't wanna live that way! Believing every word they say!I just wanna live my
life the way I wanna live it. I want to make the decisions that will push my
future in a successful and positive way. Life is about living life to the
fullest. I need to plan where I want to go and what i want to do in order to
succeed. If you don't think about where you want your future to go then someone
else will make that decision for you. You don't get from point A to
point B without a plan to go where you are going. You will deal with many
issues between A and B that you must press through.
"If you can dream it, you can do it. -Walt
Disney"
People will also help
you get from point A to B if you help yourself. You have to be willing to do
what you need to do in order to get where you want to go. As you make your
journey through life you will carry your bad decisions along the ENTIRE
time. You can't make a lot of bad decisions and get where
you plan on going. And you can NEVER just get rid of your baggage. You know
when you see someone sitting alone, shoulders hunched, sad expression, they have
baggage. So much baggage that it physically weighs them down. Our bad decisions
through life can, not only, affect us in a negative way but can also affect
someone else in horrible ways. Maybe you make one bad decision and then the
next day wake up with a blood stain on your car and a dead man on
your conscience. Just because you are given a bottle doesn't mean you have
to drink yourself dumb. Just because you are given into
bad circumstances doesn't mean you have to follow them. 'Be the
change you want to see in the world.-Gandhi'
On another,
semi-relevant note. My rant of the day:
I have realized
something and I don't know why it has taken me so damn long to realize it. I
need to quit pleasing you and her and him and all of them and I need to start
pleasing myself. I need to wear what I want to wear because I like it, not
because you like it, or because it is the 'style'. I need to quit worrying
about what all of them think. So what if I play Pokémon, read Harry Potter, run
around barefoot, color in Disney Princess coloring books and like to lay in the
grass and converse with the squirrels. this is my life to live, not yours, not
hers, not his, and you all better damn well quit trying to run it. I will
do what I please, wear what I please and say what I please if only to please
me. Why in the world has it taken me so long to realize that I am here for
myself and myself alone. Maybe I want to wear a skirt with dirty and ripped
converse. Who's to say I can't just because the colors don't match. So what if
I want to roll out of bed and throw my hair up like it doesn't matter. Who do I
need to impress. Sure I'll need to impress others later, but right now, in this
moment I will do what I want with my life. I will pursue the dead-end major and
maybe fall on my ass while doing so. I will do what I want in order to get the
most please and joy out of my life. I won't go into some career that I hate
simply because the money is good. Money is not what drives me. What drives me
is smiling people and the warm feeling you get when you've done something
right, just for you. "
So yea. That was my
entire post, I know, it's like cheating or something. But oh freaking well. Do
you just want me to say the same thing again, just in a new way?
7.) "Something that did strike me was something he said in the
very beginning. Something along the line of prices of stuff are
directly related to supply and demand. "
So this post I talked about my old boss. I don't really care
to rewrite it. But I have realize that everything in life is so intertwined
that one strand of history affects another strand by the most minute change.
8.) "But one
thing that I did get out of it is that everyone needs a mentor. Someone they
can look up too no matter what and someone they can talk to in every situation.
And I agree. Everyone needs to always have someone that they can look up to, in
every situation. Mentor's can always help, through tough times and through
academic problems."
Again. It says everything for you. I haven't
found a mentor, though there are people I look up to. A mentor is something so
much deeper than that though.
9.) "Most people will do anything to save
their own butt even if it is completely and utterly wrong. I do not agree with
this standard of living. I believe that when someone is making a decision they
need to think about the people they will be affecting by this decision and
really REALLY think about what is ethical. Most people I see now-a-days do not
have a good base of ethics and I blame that on their parents. I grew up being
taught what was right and wrong and I still hold to that today."
This was a speaker who talked about standing up
for what you believe in. My post was about a fictional girl in a fictional
world, but this can be applied to everyday society as well. Many people just
don't care about right and wrong anymore. And that thoroughly sucks. But I
guess that is what life is now-a-days.
10.) "Costa Rica was the one that hit home
most for me. I have heard whispers of people saying it was their least favorite
but it was my most favorite. I intend to study abroad in Costa Rica one summer
and Puerto Rico the next. I would love that. I think being immersed into the
Spanish culture would be simply amazing."
These speakers, as well as many friends have made
me decide to minor in Spanish. I love love love the culture and would like to
know all their is to know about it. Plus the food would be pretty bomb ;)
11.) "I don't want to be the person who only
does something because it will make me successful and rich. All of that does
NOT matter to me. Maybe I am too free-spirited. Oh well. This post title is to
remind me not to say my 'goodbyes' to my child hood. Many things in my
childhood have made me who I am."
This was that "safari guy" better known
as Mr. Audwin. I think his words spurred most of us on more than any of the
others. He was the speaker that helped me the MOST with my decision to change
majors, and it also helped me decide on at least one major I wish to pursue.
Philosophy. The last sentence in the part that I pulled from the post can also
be related to what I am writing today. While this is the end, it is not time to
say goodbye yet.
12.) "I am proud to say that I had a hand in
the election. I got to vote for the FIRST freaking time!! That was exciting. And
I know many people had many VERY strong opinions on the election for both
sides. I had to deal with it. Trust me. But all in all I have decided that even
if you don't like the president, respect him. He did something right to get
where he is. Even if you don't agree with what Obama stands for, you should
respect him. Whichever candidate had won would have gotten my respect no matter
what."
This post was more about the election. I voted in
it. For the first time. It was great. I still have my sticker and everything! I
never thought I would enjoy expressing my freedom to vote, but I did. And it
wasn't about which candidate was right and which was wrong, because I believe
both would have been able to succeed in office one way or the other. I believe
this election was turned into something it should not have been. All in all, we
need to respect our authority.
13.) Last but not least.
"This is what we must do. We must jump out
of the boat and have the courage to do something greater than our employers
thought we were capable of."
I only said employers because that was who we were
talking about, but this should be applied to life as well. We should try our
hardest to do things that we are proud of and that are maybe not in our comfort
zone. If we constantly stay in our comfort zone we will never get anywhere in
life. We will just stay in a little bubble with nothing but what we are used
to.
Well, It has been fun. I have learned a lot about
all my classmates and I regret that I did not get to know some of them better.
I know I have kinda failed at being a part of the 'community' that Vince has
talked about. I know I should try harder. And maybe I will soon. But for now.
Ta-Ta
Adios
Adieu
And may the odds be ever in your favor
Love
C
Always.