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.

life IS beautiful

The past few weeks have been nothing to post about -- all the new things I've done and tried have taught me zero new universal truths.
That vacuum of new truths, however; taught me a truth that we all should know. (ironic, eh?)


My Dad had a recent health scare, which started me looking at life and each day in a different light. After the previously mentioned new light, came the everyday moments that I thought I was learning nothing from. Via that new light, and the vacuum of new knowledge, came

Universal Truth Number Eighteen
A life can pass unlived.


That sounds like a rather negative universal truth, but allow me to explain before you shut off your CPU and write off my blog entirely.
A life can be unlived. Days, weeks, years can pass without you taking notice or appreciating the potential that they hold.
We should be singing praises for the speeding ticket we have not yet received and never knew we narrowly escaped, we should smile at the dishes in the sink because someone we love is there to dirty them, and we should stop measuring each day in minutes that have to be endured and days that can be crossed off the calendar.
Our life shouldn't just be endured to the best of our ability. It should be embraced with the best of our passion.

Stop measuring life in minutes and waiting responsibilities.
Start measuring it in heartbeats and moments.

Operation Organize

Last week, the week commemorating my birth, I sat down and made myself a list. A list of fifty-two things that I plan to accomplish in my twentieth year of life. Fifty-two things that I plan to accomplish and keep you appraised of weekly.
This week's plan coordinated perfectly with the events of the week.
(Operation Organize my Life)

Life is too short to waste time digging around in your closet for the perfect top, or sifting through papers to find instructions for the next assignment. I've spent the last year fighting the evils of disorganization, so this week I decided to play hero and rescue myself from the clutter.
Moving home, which is what happened at the close of the preceding week, allowed the perfect opportunity for operation organization.
I found that there is a universal truth behind the mess we all constantly battle against:

Universal Truth Number Seventeen
Entropy (yeah, yeah. I know I didn't actually discover this one)
For those of you who aren't familiar with the second law of thermodynamics, or entropy, it essentially states that all systems move to their most disordered or chaotic states.

That's right, it's not my fault when finals consume my every waking moment and make it impossible to clean my messy room. Blame entropy. It's a LAW of NATURE.
Really, my realization was this: messes are worth fighting against, but not worth stressing over.

I'm just a Birthday Baby!

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm turning twenty. These are the last few hours of my life as a teenager. I'm not trying to be melodramatic, this isn't a bad thing. In fact, word on the street is that it's a good thing. I've been told more than once that 'once you've escaped the teen years you get your brain back.'
Perfect timing! I say. Just in time for finals!

But my brain is not what I'm here to blog about.
As the realization that another year had passed sunk in, I couldn't help but muse on what exactly that meant. It means I'm a year older, nothing exceptional at this point in my life. It means that I should be another year wiser, nothing novel or new there. I'm at college, I'm getting wiser by the minute. It also means that I'm twenty. (yes, yes, I've said it before) But the implications of that statement stuck me.
I'm twenty! What am I thinking of? Pushing off goals, new experiences, and expectations for myself. I'm twenty! Now is the time to look fantastic, try all those outrageous things that can be looked back on at the age of thirty as a 'youthful indiscretions,' and to live each day as if I truly could do and be anything I wanted. I looked at myself and my life, and realized I'm not fully living my life. I'm not the person I'd like to be. Hold the phone I! said to myself (I was talking a lot to myself apparently.) Nothing, I do mean nothing, could be more poignant than that. I'm not the person that I want to be.
And just like that, the age of twenty helped me to realize universal truth number sixteen.

Universal Truth Number Sixteen
The person we'd most like to be is just a change away.

That's what I've decided to use my twentieth year of life for -- living fantastically. I'm going to become the fantastic person I want to be, try all the fantastic things I've ever wanted to try, and don't even worry I'll keep fantastic you updated on every step of the process.

Jolly Giant Fifteen

It's funny how we search outside of ourselves for something to complete us -- to fill the empty spaces in our lives and make us whole.
I'm as guilty of this as the next girl. Look at how many blog postings have been on relationships. Now compare that to postings about family. (yeah, there aren't any)
We don't have empty spaces in our lives that need to be filled, so"our one true love" isn't needed to do that.
Yes, we can hope to someday find someone who will make our toes curl, our skin crawl, and our eyes widen in the best sort of way. But that someone is only there to compliment who we are and enable us to better become who we'd like to be.
But no person is needed to "complete you," nothing can be purchased to make you happy, and no party or club or sporting event can permanently change your mood.

Universal Truth Number Fifteen
Nothing outside yourself is needed for happiness.

We came into this world with everything we need: our fantastic personalities, our darling families, and the knowledge that whatever happens in this life - we'll always have those first two things.
Don't look for contentment outside of yourself, ultimately it can be found in the simplest parts of your life.

relationship rant

My thirteenth universal truth lead directly into the fourteenth.
When someone doesn't like you as more than a friend, be wary of allowing yourself to sink feelings of sorrow.

It's true that each of us will hurt someone else, break someone else's heart. There's no way to avoid it. Those feelings of sorrow then, are good to bear in mind. (so that you will be kinder in telling someone else that you don't like them like that - because you know how it feels)

But those feelings of sorrow are something you should never allow to get a hold on you. That feeling of sadness (regardless of whether it was caused by an uninterested guy or a messy breakup) is not your fault.

Sometimes it's easy to think the feelings of sadness are our fault -- some sort of failing in what we did or who we are. This simply is not the case. It's neither party's fault when something doesn't work out between a guy and a girl. It's simply that the two parties are in two different places in their lives... and what they want and feel they need is different than what would be possible through the combination of the two individuals.

Never let someone else make you feel that your worth is diminished. There's someone out there who will love you unendingly. Someone who will love you so intensely that not only will it make up for all the bad you've had to deal with, you'll forget about the bad completely.

Universal Truth Number Fourteen
Your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet

There's no reason to worry, as Death Cab once said, someday you will be loved.