Wonderworld

Maybe it's the time of the year.

(You know -- December -- the most wonderful time of the year)

Maybe it's the fact that school's out for a few weeks.

Maybe it's that I'm talking to you.

Whatever the reason, I can't help but think on how fantastic life is.
(after all, life IS beautiful)

Christmas cards
Holding hands in the snow
Dancing in the rain
Prayers
Classes never being too hard, provided you're willing to devote the time to them
Answers
Shampoo
Notes of thanks
The smell of the first boy you loved
Sweet dreams
Heartbeats
Hiccups
Eye contact with a cute stranger
Losing yourself in a good book
Finding the perfect present
Being truly surprised
Laughing until you cry
Finding yourself

Reads like a random compilation, but it was a list of all the things I was grateful for today; all the things that I could type in the space of thirty seconds that is.

It's that time of year, time for

Universal Truth Number Twenty Six
It's a Wonderful Life

Pause and reflect on the little things that have made your life beautiful today.
All the things that you've been grateful for this week, this month, this year.
For this year is almost over -- and you cannot let it pass you by, without you stopping to think on how yours is a wonderful life.

R-r-r-repeat

A few people have noticed that my last couple posts have a had a negative air about them.
Is that it? Has college life made me so jaded that even my musings have become dark?

Life changes, and that's beautiful. I wrote this two a little over two years ago.
Before I realized what changes life had in store for me, and before I realized just how beautiful life really is.
In two years time, my view of the truth has changed entirely. I once thought the world to be beautiful because, otherwise, what was the point? That we live each day to beautify who we are and to fall more in love with what we're doing.

I no longer see the world this way. Life is not some wonderland for us to skip merrily through. We cannot just choose to have lovely experiences, cannot just find the best in life.
Each of us will experience some darkness. There will be clouds overhead, and times where we have no umbrellas.
If life were beautiful in the way I described it two years ago -- I'd have summed up the rain with some cheesy analogy -- that you can share an umbrella with someone cute or find a tree.
In the world as I see it now, there is no umbrella, there are no trees. We are alone in an empty field, with nothing in sight to shield us from the rain.

Life is beautiful because we can get drenched and survive.
It's beautiful because no matter how dark and scary the storm, it cannot hurt us.
We can hurt because of the storm, we can cry because of the cold and pain that it causes us; but in the big scheme of things, it cannot touch us and that is beautiful.
We will wander home after getting drenched, where our mothers, boyfriends, sisters, friends will wrap us up in hypothetical blankets and soothe our aching, but still beating hearts.

There is nothing too dark, nothing too hard, nothing too dank and depressing for us to survive.
Push through the darkness long enough and you will emerge into the sunshine a far better, far stronger person ...with far better stories to tell at parties.

Universal Truth Number Twenty Four
Life is Beautiful. Regardless of darkness.

heart. beat. beat. beat. beat it.

It's some insane hour of the night, I'm exhausted because I've been prepping for finals... and yet here I am. Talking with you.
Why?
Well, because recently crawling into my bed at night hasn't even served as the refuge that it once did. I can't escape my worries in the unseen realms of sleep, even my dreams have been haunted by the nightmares that fill my waking hours.
Those I love most dealing with unreal stress.
Secrets I'm not allowed to tell.
Secrets others refuse to tell.
Heartbreak.
Sorrow.
and...
jaw lock.

Yeah, I'm a mess of stress and nerves in a tidy little package, tell you what.
But the sadness and stress I'm feeling right now have helped me to realize

Universal Truth Number Twenty Three
Heartbreak helps your heart grow stronger.

Perhaps this doesn't sound correct. When our hearts are broken, most of us feel that their heart has been permanently weakened, that it will never be the same again.
This is partially true. I'd agree that once a heart has been broken, it will never beat quite the same way again. The emotional scar tissue changes the way it pumps and thumps along.
But scar tissue thickens, and when dealing with your emotional heart (clearly not physical -- don't you worry, you pre-meds) scar tissue helps prevent further damage, and adds more depth.
More depth... to better love someone who truly deserves to hold your heart.
More depth for the person who will keep your heart safe.

Homegirl

There's something about moving out. Something about truly living on your own and being independent. Home is no longer home.
I can't explain it, am certain my family won't understand it, and yet I can't deny it. There is nothing better than sharing my time with those I love most (ie my family) and Dorothy summed it up best when she said that there's no place like home. But like visiting a childhood haunt, you can't help but feel you've outgrown it.

Let me explain that thought very carefully.
I haven't outgrown my family or spending time with them. Instead, just as you don't properly fit into your old tree house or fictitious world of barbies, I sometimes feel I don't properly fit back into the role I last held within my family.
Whenever I go home there awaits the same role and the same expectations I left when I moved out three years ago. I'm still the eighteen-year-old who loves the same activities, conversations, and people... or at least that's what my family expects to be the case.

It doesn't matter how much I have changed. I still find myself party to

Universal Truth Twenty Two
Those you aren't around, never seem to age in your mind.

I can't begrudge others for doing something that I do myself. But I find myself wondering what I can do to change such perception. When do I bridge the gap? When do I leave behind childhood completely and enter adulthood? Am I ever to do that completely, or will I always be Daddy's little girl and a pain in my mother's side?

Just Perceive

My heart beat in my chest and there was a slow and automatic oxygen intake, so ultimately it was a moment not unlike every other moment I’ve ever lived through.

But it was different.
A best friend cried as she asked for my help. I was the first person she came to, the first person she trusted with her secret.
"I think I'm pregnant," came the words that afternoon at lunch.
As she shared her secret, I cried too.

I was a junior in high school - but time has dulled neither the memory or the lesson learned.
It's not your obvious lesson, that premarital sex is bad or that we can overcome poor choices.
Rather, it's a lesson that I continue to learn as I watch how our choices continue to pull us down different paths.

There was a time when my goals and choices mirrored hers, as much as hers mirrored mine.
But somewhere between barbie dolls and boyfriends, that began to change.
Her small differing choices lead her to larger ones, and soon her choices defined her.

She chooses today to live as she lived in high school, not really respecting herself enough to demand the treatment she deserves.
As one of the most beautiful and genuine people I know, I still hope that she'll apply

Universal Truth Number Twenty One
Never doubt your own worth.

As soon as you start doubting whether or not you're "good enough," As soon as you start thinking that he or she is "out of your league," you are doing yourself an injustice.
Nine-tenths of who we are, is who we think we are.
The rest of the world will perceive you as you see yourself.

Unleash the Power of the Sun

I was recently playing in the fun and the sun... causing my back and shoulders to burn to a red, crunchy crisp. Yum.
After the burn I was bound and determined to prevent my shoulders from peeling. I was liberal with the Aloe Vera, overly generous with the moisturizers and lotions, and ... well actually, there is no and. My list of preventative measures ends with moisturizers. I wasn't sure what else to do aside from lotioning and oiling.

While I was scheming for the preservation of my fried skin cells, I heard on every side that there would be no avoiding the inevitable. That I would shed my skin like a scaly snake.
(which, believe you me, I surely did.)

At first I thought the universal truth I'd glean from this would be the power of positive thinking. That each of us can improve our situation with determined optimism and a little aloe.
You know, unleash your inner sunshine, and let it shine out to make better each day.
I believe this to be true, but it wasn't the universal truth that I actually gained from the whole experience. Instead I gained

Universal Truth Number Twenty
Always wear sunscreen. Always.

Seriously. My tan lines are unreal.

The do-nots of I-do's

A good friend of mine was recently married. Being a part of her wedding party gave me a chance to reflect on

Universal Truth Number Nineteen
Weddings aren't very fun.

Weddings suck my soul out a little... and I don't understand it! It's supposed to be the happiest day of the happy couple's life... so why is it so dreadful for everyone else? Think about it, it's a combination of things that absolutely no one likes;
-throwing showers no one really wants to attend
-waiting in lines
-gross cake
-socializing with people from high school you'd rather not see
-wandering around a backyard in tuxes and formals
-buying a gift that probably isn't what the couple would have wanted for themselves

I've decided that my wedding will have blow up toys, a guitar hero tournament, truckloads of cake with the good kind of frosting, and maybe a little bull riding.
If anyone can see a problem with that plan, speak now or forever hold your peace.