So tomorrow will be a day filled with snow tubing and fun galore, and that's because it's my older sister's 22nd birthday!!
That's her!!!
She's accomplished so much in the past few years and I will never stop looking to her as an inspiration. Here, look at this photo from her tumblr page lowcaloriemolly.tumblr.com: and you'll see what I mean:
My sister has lost over 60 pounds using nothing but sheer will power. She is the strongest person I know- you guys don't know hard until you start trying to lose weight- but she's strong in other ways too.
She's smart, and her determination led her to get an amazing job right out of college at an awesome insurance firm.
She's not afraid to take risks with fashion and show the world who she is.
She's far more spontaneous than I am- she just wants to make the world around her as fun and interesting as possible instead of accepting it for how boring and mundane it is.
Basically, she's my best friend, my biggest inspiration, by big sister. I LOVE YOU AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
So I'm incredibly proud of myself. My freshman year, I hardly read at all for fun because I was taking a bunch of lit courses and had to read for that class. Over the summer, I got lazy and read maybe one book a month. Lame. This semester, however, has been different.
I think it's the fact that I'm nannying now. When I pick up the kids, I read until they're out of class. While they're doing their homework, I read. While Meg's at soccer practice, I read.
I'm inhaling books like crazy and IT FEELS GOOD. It's the beginning of a good year, y'all.
What I've read: Summer to Now-
1. The Host- Stephanie Meyer (Stefanie? I don't know.) So anyone who knows me knows that I hate Twilight with a burning, fiery passion just because I feel like Meyer's writing is akin to a 4th grader's (harsh but true). However, my Swap.com profile kept telling me to read this and I did and it was surprisingly quite awesome. Cheesy, but awesome.
2. Looking for Alaska- John Green Tears. Tears everywhere. But JESUS CHRIST this man knows how to write a book. John Green is my writing idol and I strive to be just like him one day. Including the hilarious YouTube channel with his brother. BY THE WAY, for those of you who have read this book and want to know the background on the pranks, watch this video of a young college-age Green talking about his boarding school experience:
3. An Abundance of Katherines- John Green Yeah, I was having a Green phase during the summer. But he's just fantastic, and this book is my favorite of his just because it's so hilarious and good and I love road trip novels, I do.
4. Saving June- Hannah Harrington .....Meh.
5. Fireworks over Toccoa- Jeffer Stepakoff Okay, so this book is a little predictable and your basic love story, but damn if it isn't delicious. PLUS it's set in the '40s and the main guy is italian and it's in the South and it's just so lovely.
6. My Name is Memory- Ann Brashares This is another love story, and this one tackles reincarnation and past lives. It's pretty interesting, and I've read books like this before and this was far better than the others. That said, it wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be and I had a hard time getting through it.
I read others, I'm sure, but I can't remember the rest and also I'm tired and it's late and I have to read this stupid book that I don't want to read for history. Life is CRAZY. Not really. But I gotta go do that so that's what I'm gonna do.
I really have to stop blogging when I'm this tired. My paragraphs are such gibberish.
Something I've struggled with a lot as a college student is the notion of going home for the weekend. Social cues and media examples always show how teenagers are supposed to hate their parents and, once they fly the coop, never want to come home again. This, I say, is ridiculous.
I love my parents. My sister is my best friend. This is why last year, when I spent over three months at a time away from the people that I loved the most (I was in Colorado for school, my family in Texas- such is the life for any out-of-state student) it was a wake-up call for me, but a much needed one. I learned how to live by myself and I made a few close friends and basically, just kept myself busy. I got a job at the newspaper. I got involved around campus. I learned to love my school.
Now, though, it's so much different. My parents are here, and the friends I choose to spend time with these days are few and far between (don't pity me- I'm not spending my nights curled up on my bed alone, crying myself to sleep out of loneliness. I've got my people but just not as many as I would prefer). My weekends are a little bare, so lately, I've been taking the 2 hour trip between FoCo and Parker and using the weekends to spend time with my family.
I do this a lot, and one weekend, it really got to me. I stayed in my apartment and when my mom urged me to come spend the day with her and the family just for a Sunday, I felt wrong. I looked back on all the interactions I'd ever had with friends where they mentioned how terrible it was to constantly head home on the weekends, and what was 'normal' and 'right' and 'good'. Needless to say, I got in my own head.
This weekend, I may stay and I may go, the choice is kind of up in the air. But the fact of the matter is- I realized that the only person who really cares how often I go home on the weekends or not is me. I need to stop judging myself for things that, in the end, don't really matter at all. So I want to spent time with my family. Big whoop. I may be lame and the most nontraditional college student in the world for that reason but honestly, I don't really care.
This uncaring attitude of mine may not last for long and I may go back to my old ways of constantly self-judging, but the fact of the matter is is that right now I need to realize that nothing in today's society should be considered 'normal' or 'right'. Everyone is different and no one has the exact same college experience. Some people go home on the weekends, and some people party until their brain hurts.
