Goodbye, Social Life

Day ten: A picture of something you hate.

How fitting, as it is the first day of class and I already feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of homework that I am going to have this semester.  You know, some college professors can be absolutely ridiculous.  Rant rant rant.  I hate homework.  And yet I am of my own free will choosing to spend thousands of dollars just to be given this homework in the first place.  Talk about irony.

Life Ain't Life Without Laquisha

Day nine: A picture of the person you do the most messed up things with.

Dear Wendy Kimble,

Floating on logs, tin-foiling cars, sneaking pizzas into movie theaters, creating fake husbands, road trips, saran wrapping, making T-shirts with nail polish, laughing like ugly men, blanket fort sleepovers, water parks, Brandon Flowers, hair dying parties, car chases, concerts, chairs in the hot tub, Winger's chicken, wash-off wrist tattoos, the Killers, cardboard cut-outs....
Where would my life be without you?

Shaniqua and Laquisha, soul sisters forever!
Because I don't shine if you don't shine.  <3

There's Nothing Like A Fresh Breath of Demotivation

Day eight: A picture that makes you laugh.



Bahahahaha.  Let's be honest.



http://despair.com/viewall.html

The Iron Rod

Day seven: A picture of your most treasured item.

You know that question they always ask you in elementary school, "If your house were on fire and you could only grab three of your possessions, what would they be?"

                                 How do you really answer that at age 10?

Gameboy?  Favorite shirt?  Clumsily made scrapbook?  Wallet containing exactly seven dollars and 68 cents?

     Well, at age 19 I can finally answer that question with no doubt in my mind.  Amid clouds of smoke and rising flames, without a heartbeat going by I would grab my scriptures, my journal, and the stuffed animal I've had since I was a baby.  (I know, "ha ha--" okay, it means a lot to me!)  

This genuine leather, highlighted and underlined, glinting gold book means the world to me.  It couldn't be described better than as my most treasured item.

"...Come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul."  Jacob 2:8

My Alter-Ego

Day six: A picture of a person you’d love to trade places with for a day.

Emma Watson.  First, she's beyond gorgeous.  Second, she has a British accent.  Who wouldn't want to be beyond gorgeous and have a British accent?  Not to mention live in Europe, have huge piles of money, and have a second stage-identity as a witch at Hogwarts?  

Dear Emma,

Let's trade.  Just for one day.
Sincerely,

The person living an average life in Bountiful, Utah.  

The Love of Life Itself

Day five: A picture of your favorite memory.

Cousins, adventuring in caves, no make-up and no cares, sharing stories, laughs, and love on a bright spring-break day.  That sounds like favorite memory material.  :)

But how can you really choose a favorite memory?

                         Just one?

What would such a thing be made up of?

Family, friends, laughter,

             Excitement, adventure, fun,

                       Simplicity, happiness, meaning?

A favorite memory would be warm, nostalgic; a reminder of the good things in life, a thought that makes you smile and count your blessings.  Would it not?

              Or maybe it would be short, simple, like the moment you realized that you were really in love with your best friend, or the time you won your first medal for dance.

      Maybe it would be your first kiss, first sunrise, or first concert,        

               Or your last day of childish freedom, last bite of that heavenly dessert, last goodbye to an old friend.

The best thing about a memory is that it is yours--preserved in your mind, etched in your heart, told in your words.

My favorite memory is all-encompassing.  It is a combination of good food, good times, good music, and good company.  It is the evening fire with the family by the beach, the long talks with an old friend on the bench outside, the beauty of the view from the top of the mountain, the recognition of a love far greater than yourself.  It is powerful yet simple, exists all around yet solely in your heart.  It is love and acceptance, contentment and happiness.  My favorite memory is life itself.   

Further Improvement Needed

Day four: A picture of a habit you wish you didn’t have.

Consciously and unconsciously, day in and day out, I compare myself to others.  Almost a tragic habit--common yet unseen, unproductive, and unhealthy.

So, what shall we do?

Perfect advice from a Zen blog:

http://zenhabits.net/lifes-enough-stop-comparing-yourself-to-others/

Breaking the Habit of Comparing Yourself With Others

So how do you break this cycle of comparing yourself with others? Here are some tips I’ve found useful:

• Awareness. Most often we do these social comparisons without realizing we’re doing it. It’s a natural act, I suppose, and as a result it’s something that is done without consciousness. So the solution is to become conscious — bring these thoughts to the forefront of your consciousness by being on the lookout for them. If you focus on these thoughts for a few days, it gets much easier with practice, and soon it’ll be hard not to notice.
• Stop yourself. Once you realize you’re doing these comparisons, give yourself a pause. Don’t berate yourself or feel bad — just acknowledge the thought, and gently change focus.
• Count your blessings. A better focus is on what you do have, on what you are already blessed with. Count what you have, not what you don’t. Think about how lucky you are to have what you have, to have the people in your life who care about you, to be alive at all.
• Focus on your strengths. Instead of looking at your weaknesses, ask yourself what your strengths are. Celebrate them! Be proud of them. Don’t brag, but feel good about them and work on using them to your best advantage.
• Be OK with imperfection. No one is perfect — intellectually, we all know that, but emotionally we seem to feel bad when we don’t reach perfection. You aren’t perfect and you never will be. I certainly am not, and I’ve learned to be OK with that. Sure, keep trying to improve, but don’t think you’ll ever be the “perfect person”. If you look at it in a different way, that imperfection is what makes you who you are, you already are perfect.
• Don’t knock others down. Sometimes we try to criticize others just to make ourselves look or feel better. Taking someone else down for your benefit is destructive. It forms an enemy when you could be forming a friend. In the end, that hurts you as well. Instead, try to support others in their success — that will lead to more success on your part.
• Focus on the journey. Don’t focus on how you rank in comparison to others — life is not a competition. It’s a journey. We are all on a journey, to find something, to become something, to learn, to create. That journey has nothing to do with how well other people are doing, or what they have. It has everything to do with what we want to do, and where we want to go. That’s all you need to worry about.
• Learn to love enough. If you always want what others have, you will never have enough. You will always want more. That’s an endless cycle, and it will never lead to happiness. No matter how many clothes you buy, no matter how many houses you own (seven, in the case of one famous candidate), no matter how many fancy cars you acquire … you’ll never have enough. Instead, learn to realize that what you have is already enough. If you have shelter over your head, food on the table, clothes on your back, and people who love you, you are blessed. You have enough. Anything you have over and above that — and let’s admit that all of us reading this blog have more than that — is more than enough. Be good with that, and you’ll find contentment.
  

Patrick Jane, My Secret Love

Day three: A picture of the cast from your favorite show.

The Mentalist on CBS. It's the perfect combination of captivation, humor, drama, characters, ingenuity, and story. I started watching Season One at the end of May.  I'm almost finished with Season Three.  Enough said.