I make a lot of quick decisions in my life,
I think it's more fun that way. :) But one quick decision that changed my life was the decision to go to Haiti. My mom asked me around 2 weeks before we were supposed to leave. Right when she asked I said 'Yes!' I didn't even really think about it! The next couple weeks were a whirlwind as we were packing like madmen and going to meetings. Well, really one meeting. Isn't that crazy?! We met the people we were going to go to Haiti with for a week only one time before we left, after we met them we better have liked them because we didn't have a choice after that! Luckily, they were awesome. The whole experience was awesome and life changing. You can read all about it here. I was going through a really rough time in my life and it opened my eyes. Who cares what I'm going through. The people here are living in towns with tents as homes. With nothing to eat or drink. Not knowing if they would make it through the night. I had the amazing opportunity to build the first of many houses for a community near a school that the group we went with had previously built. It was July which means it was blazing. We had to take breaks mid-morning to mid-afternoon because it was just so blistering hot. The heat didn't matter though because we were changing people's lives! Families who had NEVER had a home, never even had a mattress to sleep on. Can you even imagine? I can barely imagine and I was there to see it with my own eyes! I was so happy I made the decision to go, even if I didn't think about it at all before I gave my answer. Sometimes you just have to follow your gut, you never know what you could end up achieving! ** In other news ** I just finished my last class of my JUNIOR year in college this afternoon. I still have to take finals but who cares! I did it! I finished my junior year! So happy! Have a good day!
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Such a touchy subject.
What do you think of when you see a homeless person? I wonder if they're really homeless? Ew, they look really dirty and gross. Why don't they just go and get a job? Homeless people are so lazy. Do they really mean it when they say 'God bless you'? I've thought some of those things, I admit it. Honestly, I don't give as much money to the homeless as I should. I do have those questions always seeming to nag my thoughts, I'll be honest with you. BUT I will tell you about the times that I would go out with my mom and hand out money to homeless people downtown. We went around the circle downtown and I ran around and handed out $20 bills to the homeless people sitting on the side of the road. It was so freeing. It felt good to help others in such a way that others didn't. I mean, admit it, 99% of people don't give the people on the side of the road money. Yeah, I worried. I worried they wouldn't use the money in a proper way but that didn't matter. I had given it to them and it was theirs to do with what they wanted. Now, if you want to help out the homeless but don't have the guts to give it to a random guy (who may or may not actually be homeless) which, trust me, it's hard to do! Then give to a homeless shelter or volunteer your time there! Ok, no, I didn't run out of questions to answer.
There are plenty more so don't worry. :) But, I want to give you guys the chance to ask me something. I mean, I answer all these questions from a website and yes, they make you think and are really good questions, but I'm going to have a little 'reader request' day. So, ask me anything! I'll then take the next days to dedicate my blog section to answer your questions. By the way, I didn't have the greatest weekend. Bleh. Just personal issues that seem to be cropping up a lot lately. Honestly, I don't see it getting any better and it's kind of hard to wrap my mind around it. All I want to do is take a bubble bath and read a good book, thank goodness summer is coming up and I have an awesome road trip with an awesome lady scheduled. Enough of my babbling, it's your turn to get to asking me anything! Ok, maybe not anything, my mom reads this blog, so keep it polite. Please and thanks. I love you faithful readers/stalkers. xox muah! xox I have a roof over my head, food in my fridge, money in my wallet,
and an education, I'm one of the luckiest people in the world! How could I not be happy given all of those things? So, yes, I'm extremely happy. Aside the fact that I am blessed with running water and knowing that I'm safe while I'm sleeping I am completely satisfied with where I am in life. No, I may not know what's around the corner, I may not have a job lined up for when I graduate, I may not know why I've been placed on this Earth, but I'm O.K. not knowing. It will all come in due time. Currently, I'm on top of the world, tomorrow I may feel like I'm down in the deepest canyon of sadness, or I may feel just as happy. I don't know what will happen tomorrow but I will live for today and soak up every opportunity to help someone in need. Ask me this question in a year and I bet you $100 the answer will be different. I can tell you right now I'd be writing about how scared I am to graduate and how I'm going to travel the world instead of get a job and start a family. Do you know how frightening not following the 'American life' is? Well, you should see the looks I get when I tell people what I'm going to be doing after I graduate. It's a look of 'Yeah, right. What a dreamer.' But anyways, the question was about my life now, not next year. So yes, I am very happy with where I am in life right now. I could be out volunteering around the world right now but my education is important to me and I have learned so much from going to college. Yes, most of my classes are pointless and boring and all I do is sit on facebook, but there are others I love going to. I hope you're happy with where you are in life right now. If you're not, smile. First off, sorry it's been so long, school has been eating away
all my time! Thankfully it's almost over with. Funny thing, this actually just happened to me on Friday! It was really awkward because I had to stop and pause for like 5 minutes to think of something, not that I'm perfect (not even close!!), but I just didn't even know what to say! A flaw, but it can't be any flaw, it has to sound professional and has to somehow tie into my work in a way? Wha? I ended up saying that my flaw is jumping into things without planning out the details or thinking about the end product. You know what I mean? You're so excited about something that you don't look at the big picture and then later down the road you realize 'oh crap, this isn't going to work out too well.' In my opinion, that isn't too big of a flaw. Of course, it would be a little more helpful to be more realistic but it's fun to dream, and lots of dreams are within your reach! That's not my biggest flaw but it was the one that tied into my interview, so I went with it. I think that my true biggest flaw is being controlling. Which, thank goodness, I've stopping doing almost completely. A friend of mine just told me 'Don't sweat the small stuff.' such a simple and common quote, but hearing it from someone who has been there and done that made it all the more clear. What is a flaw that you have? Better yet, what is a secret flaw that you have? What is a hero?
Superman? Batman? A firefighter? A police man? Those are the typical things anyone would say when asked what a hero is. Why not the little old man who makes sure his wife's nails are painted red and her blouse is free of wrinkles before he loads her up in her wheelchair on the way to the beauty salon to get her hair permed? Why not the teacher who stays after school with a kid to make sure he got all of his homework done so his dad didn't get mad at him when he got home. To me, what makes a hero is if they've got that spark inside them. What spark you ask? You know, that spark, that fire in their eyes, the burning in their hearts, the desire to inspire. The spark can be about anything, love, peace, happiness, rock and roll, making someone smile, helping others. A hero doesn't have to achieve something great or save a million people from a burning building. What is 'great' anyways? Who set the standards for such a word? Achieving something great in my eyes is getting a laugh out of my evil old teacher who never even cracks a smile. Achieving something great to someone else may just be getting out of bed that morning and barely making it to work on time. Did you achieve something great today? Of course you did. Think, there's gotta be something, anything! YOU make YOU a hero. It's what you do when no one is looking that makes someone a hero, it's that drive to do good and be good and know good when there is little good left in this dirty world. "The future is completely open,
and we are writing it moment to moment." -Pema Chodron Why? Why would you want to know everything, how everything works, the inner details to the secrets of life? Wouldn't that take away from some of life's most beautiful mysteries? Half the time I block out science and it's answers because I like to not know, I like to imagine how it works, the possibilities. Each time I go to the grocery store I walk up and down the produce aisle in awe, look at the colors, they're so vibrant and intense. How in the world did they get that way? How can you see that and tell me there is no God? Or all the intricate details of sea animals, their glowing colors and the way they gracefully move under the sea. I am completely content watching their unending beauty. Just accepting the way that things are, are the way that they should be. Of course, I would love to know some things, how men think, why some people are evil, why disasters occur, and why we can't live on forever. But I'm O.K. with not knowing, I'm O.K. dreaming up crazy answers for all of life's unknowns. Is knowing what's what important to you important? Or do you have the ability to embrace the mysteries of this Earth? I feel that you are either one or the other, neither bad, both good, just with different views. Enlighten me folks. How is someone supposed to pick one place?!
If I had to pick a location it would be Haiti, A country full the most beautiful people. Beautiful hearts, beautiful souls, and beautiful physically. I've only been there once and it was only for a short time but I left a big chunk of my heart there. I went to Haiti while I was in a really low point in mu life. I left Haiti feeling so blessed to have met all of the locals as well as the people that I went with. BUT for me a 'place' doesn't necessarily mean a specific 'location'. My favorite place on Earth is anywhere where I am helping someone else. Helping others is my passion in life and I live for the next moment to do a little something for someone. I am so excited for my internship because I will get the chance to change someone's life on a daily basis. The place doesn't have to be beautiful or warm or filled with shopping malls and art museums, it just has to be filled with people. People of any shape and size. People who need help with anything and everything, from cleaning their house to feeding starving children, I'll do it all for the love of love. Ok welllllllllll technically I got fired.
Here is the story: I used to work for this elderly lady, cleaning house, running errands, grocery shopping, the works. She was your typical old lady: mean. I stuck it out and some days she was actually nice to me. I really cared about her since she didn't have any family near by. She started calling me almost every day for errands of various sorts. Now keep in mind that this was a once a week gig. She would call me while I was working at Books-A-Million and tell me to come over after I got off work there (at 10PM!!). I started feeling used and not really appreciated and it was actually taking a toll on my life. I would always be feeling down and not really as happy as I used to be. She is a very negative person and I think it was wearing off on me. Anyways, I had to quit because I am moving back home after this semester to get an internship. I told her 2 months in advance so that she could find another housekeeper. She was upset that I was leaving but she didn't yell or anything. I thought she took it very well. The next day in History class I'm checking my email, I mean, paying attention, and I had an email from her. It was the meanest email I'd ever received from a person. She called me sloppy, sneaky, and offensive. ME?! Whaa?! I've never heard something so mean said about me! At the end of the email she said to never come back to her house and to never contact her again. Needless to say, I'm so glad that job left me. $1,000 a month.
I don't even think I would want it. It would effect me in a pretty negative way I suppose. I would have a lot more shoes that's for sure. What I would like to think would happen is that I would directly put the $1,000 into my savings account for when I graduate. That way I could have a decent amount of money to begin my world traveling. But, if we're trying to keep things real here, that would most likely not happen. Yeah, I might put some of that money into my savings account but the rest I would spend. A big chunk of the money I would end up giving away, and that I know is true. I actually don't spend that much money on myself. Let's just say that my friends/family would all get really nice birthday and Christmas gifts. That's my weakness, giving people gifts. It's one of my most favorite things to do. But back to the real question. I honestly don't think I would take the money. There is too much of a chance that I would do something negative with it and I don't want to risk that. Would you take the money? What would you do with it? p.s. go to Gmail today and check out Gmail Motion, its so awesome! Technology sure has advanced! |
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