Courage

“If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.”

-John Irwing

I have been thinking about this quote since the day we got the assignment and this made the most impact on me. This quote by John Irwing just hit me. I started young with my fear of singing. I was in choir in the 4^th grade when we all auditioned for singing the National Anthem. I got up because before then I would sing in front of everyone no matter how bad I sounded. I realized when I got up there that I knew the lyrics but I had no clue what the tune was. So I got there and strung the lyrics up to some horrible blah blah sound. My face got redder and I knew that I was totally butchering it. When voting time came I peeked and saw that only one hand went up when my name was called. To my horror I stopped singing in front of everyone unless I was in a group.  

During High School, I always loved to sing. Never in front of others, but, I would sing in the shower and around my house. I have always been one for theatrics and expression through any way possible. I chose this life lesson because even though I loved to sing so much, I had horrible stage-fright. Yes, I had stage fright, but only when it had to do with singing. And most of those that know me can probably find that hard to believe…because I’m a bit obnoxious at times.

Not only was I afraid but I also was being controlled by someone. During most of my 8^th grade year through my Sophomore I was never really living for myself. This person influenced a lot of my life and after my sophomore year I began to hate being so confined by this person. This person told me what to wear, how I should act, what classes I should take and even how to talk to my parents. This person was the reason for my rebellious streak and I know I learned from it I just hope they have. I learned a courageous way to live and I have been progressing through my fears. This year I helped a friend with a project and it required singing. I recorded my voice for their project and then took an even bigger step when I performed at the poetry café…several times. Soon after I joined the Jazz choir and much to my delight got my first ever solo.

So the most influential lesson I learned in High School was to live for yourself and any way that makes you happy. Be happy with your life! If you don’t, you are going to be miserable. Don’t be miserable. After you are happy, have or gain the courage to be the best you can be. Don’t hide behind silly fears like stage fright, because almost all the time you are way better than you think. So go out there and live your life with the courage to love it. (:  

Oh math.

One person I will never forget from High School… Well it all began with math. I was never a math person. For some reason my junior high teachers put me into the advanced math class in 7^th grade. I did okay in Pre-Algebra and Algebra. I got average grades but that wasn’t enough for my parents, so I was put into the regular class in 8^th grade. So my freshman year I took algebra and did average again. Then I was put into Geometry my sophomore year, and that is where I first met this teacher. My first impressions were that he was kinda old and crotchety. I came into class the first day and I realized for the first time ever that it was actually possible for me to understand math. He was my absolute hero, I continued the year as I usually did but on the final in his class I got an eighty-eight percent. And I finally passed my math AIMS. He was the absolute best math teacher that I ever had. He stayed after class some days just to make sure that I understood what we were learning in class and didn’t get as angry when I would talk in class. I happily passed my class with my first ever and best grade in math: a B+. The next year I was taking Topics and I had him for my Math Lab teacher. That was a fun class; I didn’t need help as much that year and passed that class with an A. This year I am taking Advanced Algebra and I have this teacher for my Math Lab teacher again.  Not only is he great at helping me understand everything in Math, my least favorite and worst subject; we also talk about all sorts of other things. Politics, books and pretty much anything. We talk about projects over the summer, what we plan to do with our lives and sometimes I can just vent to him when i am having a problem with a student or teacher.

This teacher is so much more than just a Math teacher to me; he is my oldest high school friend. He has been there for every year of my High School experience and I know that when I graduate he will be one of the people that I will be the most thankful for. He was there for me when I had fights with my parents even if he didn’t know it and when I was struggling to keep up with proofs. He may be old and crotchety sometimes and call me “Slime” when I am being distracting to my fellow classmates, but without a doubt when I graduate and he retires this year, I will leave knowing that he will have forever left an impression on my life. So on behalf of my brain dead math instincts and friendly attitude I want to send a shout out to Mr. Wehrman for being the one person that I will never forget from High School.

House M.D.

Recently I have begun watching House. M.D., which has been a blast. He reminds me so much of a mix of people in my life. He’s funny, blunt, selfish, cruel, and usually high on narcotics. He is kind of crazy but in a number of his episodes he says: “Everybody lies.” Now this statement can be offensive but about ninety-eight percent of the time he is right. One of his patients will give the team one bit of story, usually the bit that is the least embarrassing or maybe that were scared to admit before. They’ll lie, endanger their own lives and they’ll lie. After the truth comes House’s team cures them. This I find is quite a valid point. Not to make a generalization and say that everyone does fib every once in a while but the majority of people do. We lie to our children. We tell them yes, you will be okay. There isn’t anything under your bed. Well, we know there is nothing under their beds but it doesn’t mean that they are going to believe us anyway. So they won’t be okay. They may crawl into bed with you and your spouse because they didn’t believe the first lie you told them. The next day when they fall off the swing, you’ll tell them the same thing. You’ll be okay. Lying gives us and those around us comfort. It lulls us into a safe kind of world where it will be okay as long as we keep up the habit of lying. Honestly, we are all creatures of habit. We’ve been lying since we were little. When we told our parents that is wasn’t us that ate the last cookie or piece of cake, we lied. It’s something that seems to be built into all of us. To preserve ourselves and fib about things that are possibly harmful to us.

You can blame lying on so many things that is wrong with our world today. When politicians run for any type of office they all probably tell a little white lie or two to get the votes they need. If the president was completely honest about all the actual problems with the world and our country America would have probably already become a barren wasteland.

Another quote that I have found said by the people around me and on movies before is: ‘You don’t have to have a good memory if you tell the truth. Not only that but once we start down the oath of perpetual lying it’s so hard to find your way back. If you lie to your friends, parents, family, colleagues, and associates you find yourselves talking to people less because you can’t remember the lie you told him.

Lying is a horrible habit. Everyone does it but it doesn’t mean you should.

For movie ideas please leave a comment!

Wreck-It Ralph!

So I recently watched the movie Wreck-It Ralph. It is such a cute movie! And it has so many good things in it. For my quote this week I chose to do one between Ralph and Vanellope. Ralph is giving a sort of pep talk to Vanellope about her racing. He says:

Wreck-it Ralph: You're a winner!

Vanellope von Schweetz: I'm a winner...

Wreck-it Ralph: And you're adorable!
Vanellope von Schweetz: I'm ADORABLE!

This quote at first glance was just like any of the other quotes in this movie but upon further inspection I found the possibility for a much bigger story. I saw a pep talk in the lines of this movie. The world today is all rush, rush, rush. Stress, pressure, conflict, despair, standards, and so much more.

In the first part of this quote Ralph is telling Vanellope that she is a winner. We are all winners. There is a winner in every one of us! We all put so much pressure on ourselves in school, home or silly things like fashion. We worry, we stress ourselves, we freak out, break down and cry. We don’t see all the things that are going well for us because of all the things that we HAVE done. When we stop and think about all the things that we have already accomplished, we can realize amazing things. We are all on track to graduate after 13 years of school. Many of us have already received acceptance letters to the second parts of our lives. We are valedictorians and salutatorians. Brothers and sisters. Aunts and uncles. We have accomplished so much just by being. We have all done something that has made us winners!

The second part of this quote is Ralph telling Vanellope that she is adorable. A similar quote came to me when I thought about what this quote could mean on a deeper level.

“Make-up wasn’t invented and used like it is today until the early 1900’s and men still fell in love with the women in the world.”

It doesn’t matter how much make-up you put on, we are all beautiful. But it’s more than just that. We are all important to someone. We are someone’s little girl, mother, cousin, or best friend. We all have that one person out there that is going to see us for who we are no matter how much L’Oreal has helped us out today. They’ll see through all that and still see that beautiful person that means so much to them. Society has given us the image of tall, slim and beautiful people. Designer clothes, soft hair, and smooth skin. They have deluded us into a materialistic beauty, one that focuses on the outside and the shell. Not the inside that means the world.

So all in all we are honestly all winners and we have to remember that we have done good in the world and that we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves. But not only that we ALWAYS have to remember that we are all adorable too. We mean so much to the people around us that it would terrify those around us, who love us, if we weren’t there.

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment for movie ideas!

Star Wars episode 1

Star Wars Episode I

This series is one that one my family and I have loved for generations. When my mom and her brothers watcher this movie they would choose a character and quote the entire script while watching the movie on silent. So needless to say my family loves this show.

The quote that I chose from this movie is one said by Shmi Skywalker. Her son decides to leave after he is freed by Qui-Gon. Anakin stops while he is about to pack he turns to his mother and asks her is she was coming. His mother tells him no and talks about how important it I that he makes good decisions and leaves Tattoine.  His mother tells him:

Shmi Skywalker: You can't stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting.

Change. Change. Change. Change should be accepted. Every day we see people trying to fight change. We see protesters storming the front line of Washington D.C.  Politicians are cooping themselves up in offices trying to change the world. When change is right in front of them. You can’t decide to change the world in one big legislative suggestion. You have to start small.

It’s the same way with life. Usually people don’t wake up with the idea to get better grades. It starts very small. Instead of watching T.V., spend an hour studying for a test the next day. Start small. Take 20 minutes a day to study instead of reading or hanging out with friends. It doesn’t have to be huge. You don’t need to take monumental steps. I think that is the problem with our world today. Everyone wants to take huge life changing steps. Not small ones that actually make a difference.

Not to say that you need to make inconsequential steps the entire time. There are step that make a bigger impact on us even then we intend. Graduation. Obviously graduation is a big step that many of us can’t avoid. After graduation we move out. And move on with our lives.

 But with change comes decisions that aren’t easy to make. Graduation, college, and maybe one day marriage. This can be really scary thing to think about. It’s hard to remember life outside you home. But just like with Anakin Skywalker it’s a step that we all have to take. Our choices aren’t nearly as big as moving across the moving across the galaxy and forever leaving our families but our decisions can still have important consequences.

Seniors! It’s times to remember how important our decisions can be! And that change can be taken as good and bad. Especially so close to the beginning of our lives! Remember how good they can be and how amazing it can feel to be so sure and confident in yourselves. We will all make mistakes and it’s okay!  

For movie ideas please leave a comment!

 

The Lake House

In honor of Valentines day I chose a love story! The lake house is the movie that I am going to talk about today. A quote that I absolutely loved from this movie is one said by a patient that is talking to Kate. The patient says: there's always something better around the corner...

This quote is defiantly one that can relate to all of us. There will always be something better around the corner!! High school is really the only world that we are familiar with. And all the time you hear about horrible tragedies like suicides and school shootings.  This quote I really think can change the world if we take it and apply it to everything.

Tragedies strike every day. Family members pass, grades fall, dreams slip away.  But there are absolutely ways to see the bright side of things. There are great ways to help yourself through hard times.
1.  STOP!!! Take dime in your day just to remember the good things!!
2. THINK!! Maybe start a journal that you only put all the good things in.
3. WRITE!! Write in this journal every day no matter the time it takes!! There is always time in the world for good things and remembering them.

So I have a story that I can relate to this quote.  A young sophomore girl gets called out of her class and out to the parking lot.  The girl's mom was there.  The girl exclaimed:
"Mom I can't go anywhere I have a chemistry test."
The girls mother just looked at her with sad tearful eyes. Then the mother said:
"Listen honey, grandpas doctors say that he won't make it through the weekend."

The girl's life took a dip.  The trip to Phoenix was one full of tears and exclamations of anger. The family got down to Phoenix and watches the life drain out of their father, husband and grandfather.  He passed away on May 8, 2011 6:43 in the morning.  The children watched at the funeral as their parents sobbed.  The younger ones still didn't understand.


13 months later the wife of the late grandfather took a fall.  She lay on the floor for 6 hours before anyone found her.  The father of the children went down to Phoenix and stayed as he watched his mother die as well.  He father died of reoccurring leukemia.  The mother died of cervical cancer.  With in 13 months the girl lost both of her grandparents to cancer. The both died when they were 58. That's how my grandparents passed.

But let me show you the right side to this story.  My grandpa had been battling leukemia for 3 years. My grandma was lonely and sick.  But they aren't suffering anymore. They are at peace and there is nothing more I could as for.

The bright side is there my friends.  You just have to learn to look for it.

The Lorax!

When I first watched this movie I absolutely loved it! It made me laugh, cry and squeal in joy. This movie has some of the best quotes I have ever heard. My absolute favorite is this little scene between Ted and the Once-ler.

Ted: The last seed?
Once-ler: It's not about what it is. It's about what it can become. Just like... you're not just a boy.

This is a great quote that can mean so many different things to me. The first part of the quote is “The last seed?” This is a quote that I can relate to another quote from a Dr. Seuss book. “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.”

When Ted says what he says it reminds me that you can only be you. There is no one who can be you, which is what Dr. Seuss says in the earlier quote.” Remember who you are” is always something that my grandmother would tell me whenever I went on vacation away from home. I never really hit me until I saw what kind of influence society has on young people. Don’t be what society has influenced you to be. Do what you want if it’s what you would do.


The second part of the quote is “It’s not about what it is. It’s about what it can become.” This is where I see all of our potentials come into play. Just the other day I was recording a song with a few friends and a comment from one of my fellow students really showed me a different side. We should always realize that our paths may be few but we have to try and exercise as many of them as we can. When we were born we all had the potential to be almost anything. We just have to realize that it is within us to do all things with the right amount of dedication.

The last part of the quote is “Just like…you’re not a boy.” WE ARE ALL SPECIAL! There is not a one of us who is less than the other. Just because you get a big paycheck doesn’t mean you are better than the last hobo you saw. Seniors and freshman. Firefighter and teacher. Doctor and social worker. Linguist and physical therapist. Fitness director and president. There is no difference between us. Every one of us is human. And not a one of us is more important than the other. Sure, one of us may require the secret service for protection and the other may only need a stealthily concealed handgun. Circumstances don’t make importance.