50 Things Just Because

I found this blog post I had bookmarked on my compute a long time ago. It's always been sitting there, but I usually don't pay attention to my bookmarks unless I need to look for something specific that I know I saved. Not really sure why I happened to click on it and read it again, but I did.

The blog post was a list of fifty journal writing prompts. All of them on the list are very intriguing topics and they really dive deep into some things. I always have plenty to talk about regardless, but I've been thinking that maybe I should let my readers really get to know me. Some of you might already, but others of you may not. My written journals have always been very personal things and while I do believe I've already shared some personal things on this blog, I don't think those few things have really told who I am . . .

It's always been extremely important to me that people know who I am. I feel that if you're gonna know someone, you shouldn't just have assumptions of them and who they appear to be, but who they truly are. You should be able to answer anything about that person. Maybe not specific things like "what's their favorite color?" (For the record, it's purple.) But things generally. Granted my closest friends and family know all of those specific details about me, but my readers and I probably will not have the chance to be on that kind of personal level. However, I can at least let you into how I work and think. ;]

SO! I'm gonna go through this list of fifty prompts and topics and do every one of them. They may not all be in order, because there may be the occasional day I have something else I want to blog about, but for tonight I'm gonna start with prompt one.

Prompt One: Name one thing that has always fascinated you.

Hmm . . .

This one is a toughie. There have always been a great deal of things that have fascinated me. But I guess for this I'll just have to choose one. Lol.

Let's go with emotions. I will admit that I have more than once been called an emotional person. I really am. I just hide it very well from those who don't know me. Believe me. I have more than once gotten teary eyed and snot nosed from an emotional scene in a movie. (I just watched The Odd Life of Timothy Green and silently cried like a baby at the ending.)

But what really sets off our emotions like that? What triggers us to feel love towards a person? Or dislike? What makes us feel excited for things?

And before someone reading this scoffs and says something all smart like "it's a direct result of the human mind and endorphines and blah, blah, blah . . ." I kind of knew that already. :P

But it truly is interesting. Just the way we feel towards a person can affect an entire relationship. Or an entire part of our life. Certain places, events, or activities can even be tied to an emotion.

It's always been something I have had so many questions and wonders about. Maybe my psychology class next semester in college can enlighten me about some of those things. Haha.

Well, that's all for now. I think I'm going to enjoy this.

P.S. Here's the link to that list if anyone's interested.

Writing Offline

Last night I had a dream that gave me a really good idea for a book. I always think that sounds so cliche. Lol. But when I think that I always just remind myself that it's exactly how Stefanie Meyer got the idea for the Twilight saga. Of course I never really expect my books to get that huge. My writing is really more of a hobby than it is anything else. I've always enjoyed it, but lately I haven't been doing it as much as I used to.

So I decided to change that. I'm taking this idea from my dream and running with it. Granted it may be awful because I haven't written in quite some time, but who cares. This is just another one of those things that I'm doing for me. I will accept constructive criticism, but please no negative comments. You can keep those to yourself. I'm making it a New Year's Resolution to be more positive in the coming year and I don't need any negativity from others. :P

As far as the writing goes, I haven't gotten very far. I have the prologue down and a couple sentences into chapter one. Lol.

I'd really like to give my readers some insight to my progress though, so here's the prologue. Comments are welcome. I hope you enjoy it!

___________________________

Prologue

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Two weeks ago I thought my biggest worry in life would be making it to college graduation without going insane. However, since then I’ve had so many wake up calls my head is still spinning.

I’ve been kidnapped and I’m being held captive in my own home. My captors may be savages, but they sure aren’t stupid. They had everything planned in advance for my capture. Which makes me think, how long had they been watching me before I was whisked away from my slow and comfortable life? Obviously everything had been set into place long before now.

There are two excessively gorgeous men fighting for my hand, and that one I’m still trying to wrap my brain around. In school I was considered the shy, quiet one who had no intentions of spending her life with any man. So basically, my roommate and any other person I came in contact with had me labeled as the one who would be the lonely cat lady. I know I’m smart and I submersed myself in my studies, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want a little bit of a love life! Now, though, I’m thinking I may have wished for a boyfriend too many times and God is answering that request with a vengeance from the chaos these two guys have put me through.

As if all of that wasn’t too much thrown on me, the one who’s been put in charge of watching me while I’m held here has been briefing me on a history that I thought only existed in fantasy novels. It turns out that I was completely wrong there. A whole mess of people have been hidden from society for thousands of years and apparently I’m right in the center of all the mysterious madness.

All of these things are terribly confusing, but the worst of all the recent events in my life is a result of the one person I thought I could always trust and count on. I guess I was wrong about that one too . . .

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Well, that's about it I guess. I hope you all enjoyed it. If so, please let me know so I can post excerpts as I go. Thanks for reading again. :]

Contemplation on the Rise

Every time I think I've escaped my "what if" thoughts, they always come back. Most of the time they're about my future career prospects. This time is no exception . . .

Right now I'm set to start classes for the early childhood education/development program at college in January. However, I'm beginning to think that's really not what I want to do. It's not that I don't want to, though. I'd just much rather do OTHER things. I hope that makes sense . . . :P

The idea of a writing career has never went away. I think that just got put on hold for a while after having my dreams of MSA crushed and tossed on the ground. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn't need that place to tell me I was a good writer. I would love to pursue journalism, but I really don't think something as small as a newspaper in Columbia would sate my taste for that career path. If I did choose to do that I would almost definitely have to move somewhere like New York or California, and the more I think about it I'm not sure I'd want to move that far away from home. As far as writing goes though, there's other things I could do with it. I've written my share of short stories and even accomplished one novel on my own. So I know that isn't out of my reach. The only problem with that would be finding a publisher, and that really wouldn't be too tough.

I'd also really like to be a tattoo artist. After an awesome Christmas (and thanks to my wonderful mother) I now have my own tattoo machine. With a lot of practice I could get a lot better. I'm already an artist, I just need practice and experience as a tattoo artist. Of course at first I could only practice on fruit peels and practice skin, but maybe after college I could get someone to apprentice me and then I'd be certified to get a tattoo license. The ultimate goal would be to open up my own shop which would both be a gamble and expensive, but it would probably be worth it in the end. I'd definitely have to move or open a shop somewhere other than Columbia, but that would be better than having to move completely out of state.

So those are my options. Well, at least the ones I'm considering. Maybe it's time to take a gamble and do something that's not included in my "plan." I've never been one to operate inside of the box anyhow. ;]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Lol. If you're hoooked up with me on my Facebook then shoot me a message if you have any advice/input to give. But if it's anything negative, please don't tell me. I'm trying to do this new thing where I mostly look at the positive side of things. Constructive criticism or smart observations are different, but anything negative such as "oh, writing/tattooing/teaching is a HORRIBLE career field!" is not welcome or wanted. :P

A Break From Columbia

Oh yes. A very LONG needed break from Columbia. Not from the people or anything, but just from the town. I haven't left Columbia or the Columbia area for quite sometime now and it was about to drive me crazy. Lol.

I came with my mom, sisters, and grandma (my nanny<3) to my aunt's house in Louisiana. We're done here for five days which will be a nice little break. I'm not really sure what we have planned while we're here, but at least I'm not in Columbia. :P

Even if we'll be busy with doing whatever, I'll try to blog at least a couple more times after this once while I'm here. If anything interesting happens, you can be sure you'll all here about it! :]

Christmas is Here!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I hope everyone has had a great time with family and friends the past few days. It's truly a great time of the year. Family comes together to be happy and joyful and share gifts with each other. Even if some people only come to get rather than give. :P

But anyway, I for one am not one of those types. I'd rather give than get honestly. As I think I've previously said, I hate when people begin asking what I want for Christmas because it makes me feel selfish. Lol.

However, I am very thankful for the gifts I have gotten this year. I'm still not done opening them all yet, but thus far I have gotten so many great gifts. Tonight I have Christmas with Matt and his parents and brother. It'll be my last one and I've been warned that I have about 15 presents under the tree. (His mom ALWAYS goes crazy getting stuff for me at Christmas time because I'm the only girl in the family she gets to buy for.)

I just wanted to share good wishes with all of you before I settled in for the night. Haha. Oh, and if you live around here, STAY SAFE! All of this insane weather is nasty and quite dangerous. I just hope and pray that my house doesn't get struck by lightening again because that mess was some kinda scary this morning . . .

So It's The End of The World...And We're All Still Here.

Ahem.

Matthew 24:36.

CALM YO-SELVES!

That is all. :]

Some Interesting Thoughts and Prospects

Well, after my earlier entry I did two things that I feel are blog-worthy.

When I got off work I went and had lunch with a very nice lady named Mrs. Bonnie and her friend/boss Adam. She wanted me to have lunch with them because of my desire to possibly go into journalism. Adam has had A LOT of experience in the field and she thought it would help me to talk to him. He definitely did give me a lot answers to questions I had circling around in my brain, but I'm also a little confused now. Before I sat down with them I had a strong desire to chase after my dreams and I've even began making steps towards it, but I've always been worried about taking leaps that will put me somewhere I don't want to end up. I mean think about it, New York, New York and Columbia, Mississippi are polar opposites. And while I know I could handle big-city life after my adventures in Paris this past spring, it still scares me.

I have so many things here in this little town that I also want. My dreams are important, but there are things I don't want to let fall by the wayside while I'm off galavanting in the city. I have other dreams that involve the people and places here. I also want to be a mom, get married to the wonderful man I'm with right now, and I definitely want to work with children. Sure I'd love to be a journalist and write for a career, but I still want to be a realist about this . . .

After lunch, I went to see someone who has had a very big effect on my life since 8th grade. The people from my school/town who read this will know exactly who I'm talking about when I say I'm speaking of Mr. Rob White. :]

He is and always will be my favorite teacher in the Columbia school system. He's taught me a great deal of things. Not only about math (which he certainly helped me with because I'm COMPLETELY math retarded), but also about life. Now that he's the assistant principal, it's a lot easier to just go and talk to him whenever I please. I've been wanting to do so a lot, but today I actually had the chance. I feel very privileged, because Mr. White is not one to have open interaction with students. However, after five years he still greets me with a hug and a big smile every time I see him.

We had a very long and in depth conversation about some of the things I've been going through lately. One thing that I love about him is that he's a Christian. And I'm not talking about a Sunday Christian. I'm talking about a bonafide one. He actually played an indirect, but very influential, part in my salvation. He gave me not only advice and comfort from his heart, but also from the Bible, which really helped. I have to admit that I did come to tears once, but I'm so happy that he was there to hand me a tissue and make me feel better. He regretted that there was not much he could truly do to help, but whether or not he knows it, him just listening attentively and telling me many, many times that he was so proud of me and my accomplishments in life (and a couple hugs and laughs) were a huge help.

It's sometimes the little people who help in the biggest ways and make the biggest difference in one's life. Mr. White has definitely been one of those people in my life and I'm so grateful that God put him in it.

That's all I have for now, but I believe I have put a LOT of stuff on display for one day. Haha. Today has been a roller coaster for my emotions, but it's nice to know that I had my amazing Matthew waiting for me at the end of it. (Also another person I am DEFINITELY thankful to have in my life!) Thanks everyone for being there and reading all of this. I just hope I haven't run anyone off with the INSANE events of my life. :P