Feeding Ambition

I know it's been forever since I've update the blog. I meant to get to it over Christmas break, and that didn't work out. But a quarter of the way through second semester pre-medicine, and there's so much to be thankful for. Though most days it's hard to see the JOY in it all. Because ambition isn't something that you feed once and it then it grows into a huge reality overnight. It starts out as a small dream. It becomes a reality over years of hard work. It's feeding the ambitions of yourself and feeding the ambitions of others.

Choosing Life, Love, and Joy

I wrote a blog post a few months ago titled, I Hope There are Days When... 

I've been thinking a lot about this concept of choosing to live life to its' fullest, choosing to love Jesus and yourself on a daily basis, and honestly, purely, and gracefully choosing joy. 

Empowered Women: The Lost Art of Feminism

I wrote this blog post a couple weeks ago, but have actually been afraid to post it. And honestly, I don't know why I was afraid. This is a huge part of everyone's life right now more than ever. And I want to share my perspective on it.

I had someone the other day call me a “self-proclaimed feminist”. And I had to contemplate that term for a second, because I didn’t realize until recently that I do indeed lean more towards being an active feminist than a neutral bystander. And while I definitely will never march for abortion, or for certain “women’s rights”, I do believe women are a powerful people who can make a huge difference in society. 

Living Aesthetically: New Path

I took a break from anything writing. It consumed my life during high school. Novels, poetry, forums, blog posts... It was almost all I ever did besides school. I still absolutely adore writing, and someday I would love to get a novel published. But it's been almost a year since I've touched any of my novels, and only occasionally do I write poetry. The inspiration and aspirations turned into something that was hard to find. And I found some purpose -- some solace -- in knowing what I wanted to do with my life. And it is indeed somewhat disappointing that my path didn't lead me to only writing novels, but in the end, I know exactly what I want to do with my life, and I'm excited and at peace with it. I know in my heart what God wants me to do right now, and I know I want to pursue it with passion and drive.

To Be the Best You || Pursuing Passions and Dreams

I honestly have been super lazy about posting on the blog. Mainly because I don't feel like I make that much of difference. But that's negative thoughts from the devil. So I just want to stop for a moment to tell you that you are special, and to encourage you to pursue passion. 

To be the best you, you have to let go. I have a problem with not doing this. I echo negative opinions from people over and over in my mind, thinking back, regretting... I wonder what I could have done to avoid those comments. And to be honest, most of the time I come to the conclusion that I did the best that I could. God never intends for us to dwell on all the negative. What's happened has happened, and sometimes you have to just let go... 

discovering hidden talents (it's not all about writing)

Right before heading off to college, I just finished the rough third draft of my novel Imperfect Utopia for a novel contest. Every time I finish large project like a novel I purpose to take a small break. Usually it's only a few weeks and I work on smaller projects. But this time was different. I had no ideas for a new novel, and all my previous WIPs weren't appealing to me. I couldn't make myself write. After two months of this block I finally had some ideas that I got excited about. 5,000 words and a pinterest board later, I lost inspiration. Everything I did to try and write the stupid book wasn't working.

nouveau départ -- hello and goodbye

Spiratic blog posts. Zero time writing. All time dedicated to school. Ugh. It's been a while. Hello my few faithful followers. I had every intention of making it through the semester and still posting. Yay for college, right?

Nouveau départ is French and literally translates to "fresh start". Each year we are given a fresh start; a clean slate of sorts. As the New Year approaches, each and every one of us look back and reflect on the good and bad things that have happened.

what would you do if you weren't afraid?

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

I write the words in sketch my book, making them look pretty. I trace over the letters with a blue sharpie, then color over them with colored pencils. I sit; I stare. What would I do? If there was no fear, if we all just embraced what came our way, if we all just chose joy instead of this bleak life we have before us, what would we do?

What would I do?

It Doesn't Matter What Others Think: Art is in Your Own Eyes

I decided to take a teaching art class this semester because I love artists and learning about art. I wanted to learn how to teach others how to do art. I can't art. I'm not good at drawing, or making my visions come to life on paper. I'm good with words, not crayons. Last week in art, I started to get a bit discouraged. I wasn't sure if I would get a good grade on that week's assignment because it honestly hadn't turned out good at all. I looked up at my teacher and said, "I think I failed. It doesn't look that good."  She shook her head, smiled and replied, "What may not look good to you, could possibly look good to someone else. It doesn't matter what others think, it just matters what you think. And you aren't allowed to think that your art is bad."

Reaching for Gold

These last few weeks you all have probably been watching the Olympics. You see tears, you see smiles, you see dreams coming true and dreams being crushed. However, those athletes never give up. They go until they are bending over, accepting the gold medal being placed around their neck, happy tears brimming in their eyes as the country's national anthem is played.

There are a lot of things you can you learn from these athletes.  The stress of what they do is high, the commitment even more. And sometimes I wonder if every one of us had their commitment for our dreams and for the things we love, if truly amazing and great things could happen. I believe so. 

The Art of Poetry

Poetry. I love poetry so much. All of it. One time I skimmed through a book of Italian poetry that had the English version on one side and the Italian version on the other. I could only pick out a few of the Italian words, but it was still beautiful. I tried with French poetry once too, but that didn't work out as well. I don't know French like at all.

No Service -- Don't Give Up

In long story short, I got to go to a writing workshop this past week. I had this long internal battle about whether or not to go for like six months. My mind and body were like "You can't do this." But I watched past workshop videos and looked at pictures. I wanted to grow as a person and as a writer. So I decided to go. Then when I got there, I wanted to go home. The first couple days were interesting. I had never experienced such a tight knit group of like-minded (but still very unique) individuals. To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed and just wanted to stay in my room. But I got out a little more. I met a few wonderful people and I loved the speakers and critique groups.

But instead of writing about writing, or writing about the workshop, I'm going to spew something else I learned there with you guys that has something to do with life and not just with writing.

The Power of You: Writing in Second Person

The power of you. Sounds like the beginning to a really inspirational post, doesn't it? Actually, I'm going to talk about second person point of view. Why? Because I like it and want to write about it. No other reason really.

The power of you.
It's a passing thought. You probably didn't think to write a whole novel in second person. You probably didn't even realize that there were hundreds of novels written in second person. You probably didn't even think twice about this last paragraph being written in second, did you? Second is more common than you probably realize.

God and Art: Are Christians Supposed to Create?

As a christian who greatly appreciates art, I tend to lean more towards the side that Art has a purpose. All art is meant to display a certain amount of feelings/emotions. All art is supposed to depict something; to be symbolic. I greatly enjoy looking at abstract and modern art that has a hidden meaning. I really enjoy trying to figure out what the artist meant when he painted that picture, or wrote that poem. I enjoy trying to find what emotion the writer and dancer and photographer were trying to portray.

But does God like art? Are we supposed to "create"? Are we supposed to "make"?

I recently saw a question asking about whether or not God liked art. There was a statement following the question about the Bible saying that we are not to make any graven images. Was this statement referring to paintings, drawings, sculptures, writings, and photography? Of course, photography wasn't around back in the Bible times, but could it apply now? Was God saying that we aren't supposed to "create"?

The Blur of Life: Growth, Comfort Zones and Goals

Life passes us by in a blur. It's shockingly fast and before we know it, we're grown up, fixing to move out. I'm graduating high school in a week and finalizing college plans. It's all gone by so fast. It's been a great school year, and I've grown and learned so much. My only regret is that I didn't take the time to do more of the things I love, but my focus is on the future, and I'm ready to plunge into it.

5 Reasons Why Social Media is a {G O O D} Thing

I see so many blog posts about breaking away from social media and why social media a bad thing. Often times these blog posts are telling people how lazy they are and why they should go get a life. But I think there is a nice in between. And the irony of the blog posts is that they are considered part of the "social media" now. Especially Tumblr blogs. So when bloggers tell how bad social media is, they are essentially saying bad things about their own work and their blogs. Stop and think for a second about all that.

So what's the in between? What's a good balance and does social media actually have good uses?

I agree that there probably is a lot of social media stuff going around and that it can be consuming. But it gets a little tiring when people that actually use a lot of social media write posts and tell others about how bad it is. There are a bunch of good and positive uses for your social media sites. Not everyone that uses social media doesn't have a life or is antisocial. And not everyone that uses social media is consumed by it and makes it their life. There is a healthy balance.

It's okay to be afraid. (Use the fear of being creative to your advantage.)

As I wrote my novel, coming close to the ending, I started to freeze. My fingers stopped typing the words out, an almost sick feeling coming into the pit of my stomach and I didn't want to finish. I didn't want to end the novel. Not because I don't like endings (well, I don't), not because I didn't know what to write (because I did -- all those lovely outlines we do, right?), but because I feared the ending would suck. I was afraid that it wouldn't be good enough or measure up to published authors endings. I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to make it tens of thousands of words in and mess up the lat five thousand words.

Failure. It's like every person's worst fear. We fear failing those we love, those we respect. We fear losing our inspiration and desire. We also fear being creative.

Well that seems odd, doesn't it?

Finding Light in the Dark: Embracing all of Life

What does it mean to "embrace life"? How does a person see the good in the bad? Are you so focused on your creativity that you lose sight of the things that really matter? Are you focused on your busy schedule that when beautiful things pass you by, you don't notice?

As soon as I walked into my favorite coffee shop, I knew that it wasn't going to be too quiet for me to work. No, problem, I thought. Ordering my coffee, I sat down next to a window and stuck in my earphones. A man in the room over took up the guitar that they have in the coffee shop and started playing, singing along to his tune. Annoyed, I turned my music up loudly in my ears so I could ignore the man. He wasn't a bad singer or guitar player, but I just didn't want to hear him. My coffee came and I sipped at the espresso, trying hard to force the creativity and inspiration.

//Static in Your Brain: When the Motivation is Gone//

Static. It's something I hear on the radio all the time. I live in the mid-western part of the US and just about everyone here will tell you that all the radio has is static. There is quite literally only three radio stations one can get in town. Even then, only the local radio station is clear.

But the point is, there is a lot of static. You can flip and flip and flip through the channels and you will never get anything else other than those three stations and a bunch of static. You can try and boost the signal, but until you head outside of town and over the hill, you won't get anything. 

"And?" you ask. "What's the point?" 

I like analogies, okay? 

How often do you tell yourself you will get something done, but then never do it? I do that often, actually. I tell myself I'll get up and go for a morning run....and then in the morning I convince myself that running is a really bad idea. Sleeping in is much more fun, right?

How often do you convince yourself that really important things actually aren't that important? Writing, drawing, reading, etc. All that good stuff that is actually important. There's a lack of motivation. There's a lack of 'wanting'. You have good intentions and you had planned on doing it, but... there is static in your brain.

//Complaint. Delete. Moving On.//

I get this message every once in a while in my inbox that says: "Sorry, we had to delete one of your pins[...] this complaint is not against you or anything you did, but we would like to let you know why your pin is gone."

I had to stop and think about that for a moment the other day. While the complaint was for a picture that a copyright owner didn't want on pinterest, I ended up having an epiphany... Weird right? Who knew...

We, as humans, as creative souls thriving in the world of color and aesthetics, have things in our life which should have been deleted a long time ago. While they might not be "harming" you directly, they are destroying you in some way or another. While the "complaint" might not be directed at you intentionally, it is still there...

The question is: what exactly are these things that are harming us? What exactly are the things in our life that we should be deleting because they are not supposed to be there?

I don't think it's social media like most people have the tendency to talk about a lot. Yes, we have a problem with people being on too much social media, but social media has good uses. Don't completely rid of it. I don't think it's necessarily the people in our lives, either... While there might be negative people in your life, there is probably a reason they are in your life. Get away from social media and negative people if need be.

But the problem isn't with others. It's not with our cell phones or with our laptops. It's within ourselves. The doubt, the negativity and the lies we choose to believe.