12/30/2015 0 Comments Thoughts About You Part IIII'm done trying to transform feelings Of loneliness and defeat Into your favorite sweet-smelling flowers You should know I'm done wrapping up my pain In a pretty pink bow I won't give you the satisfaction and ego-inflation Of knowing your name has been permanently entered Into the "Heartbreaker Hall of Fame" I will not, Write about you
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12/30/2015 0 Comments Poem: The TowerI was climbing to you Digging my sweaty palms into your life I thought your hands looked like half-moons and detectives Who have been on desk duty for the past five months I planned to be the biggest case you had ever seen So I cooked up tornadoes in metropolises And dropped off incident reports on your desk Hoping that you'd grab that dusty brown jacket off your chair And come chasing after me I was reaching for you Looking down at each step I'd taken, Looking past your ugly features, Looking up towards a gleaming shadow that blew smoke in my face I was gripping onto you with all I had Letting a finger slip every once in a while Just so you would know I wasn't afraid of death I was afraid of you 12/24/2015 0 Comments The Breakfast Club of ChristianityThe Breakfast Club is one of my favorite movies. It serves as a reminder that we are all more alike than we realize...not to mention that it has Judd Nelson in it (swoons). But the premise of this film is something that is relevant to all aspects of our lives. It reminds us that we are not above any of our peers and helps us to break down any barriers that we've created between ourselves and the rest of society. That cute guy has had his heart broken too, he's not perfect. That girl who seems to have her life together has felt the pain of hitting rock bottom too. We are all the same. The problem is that we fail to remember this lesson as it relates to our life. One example of this is the divisions in Christianity. I was born and baptized a Catholic, basically coming out of the womb with my hands in the praying position. Both sides of my family were strong Roman Catholics and that tradition traced back for decades. So I went to Catholic church every Sunday, I memorized the creeds, I said grace before dinner. But while I was doing this it all felt like a chore and I didn't really feel like I was forming a relationship with God or even any of the people who attended the same service as me. In high school I started attending a non-denominational Christian church called New Hope. It was life changing. As the band started the service with loud worship music that brought teenagers down to their knees, I could feel the power of God in that small room. I finally felt God's presence. When I went home and told my family the great news I thought they would be ecstatic. Instead they were aloof and simply commented on how I should really come back to Catholic Church. I was faced with questions of "But did they have communion?" and statements of comparison that left me upset and confused. Although I didn't get the reaction I had hoped for, I continued my journey of the Christian church without labels. I didn't feel the need anymore to squeeze myself into the constricting ties of a certain sect of Christianity. All that mattered to me was that I was following God. Who cares how I did it? I expected my family to have the same mindset. I could've been spending my time doing drugs in parked cars but I spent it worshipping God and still I was met with adversity that told me I was doing something wrong. In the Bible it is written: Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body...God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12) It shouldn't matter how we worship God. He is what should bring us together. Some might even argue that what matters is that you believe in something. Technicalities such as whether you call your superior God, Yahweh, Allah, or something else are not something to lose sleep and lose relationships over. God is everywhere and he is with all of us. We must allow ourselves to reconnect with each other and stop fighting over labels and other trivial things that won't matter in the long run. We must remember how similar we are to each other and remember what really matters: God.
12/24/2015 0 Comments Defining Real FeminismWhen a woman decides to share with her peers that she is a feminist, they usually respond with something casual and noncommittal like "that's cool" and pray to God that she won't start on one of her long rants. The word feminist is now associated with angry women who hate men and consider themselves superior since they carry a 5-10 pound mass in them for 9 months and not only deliver that mass to the world, but sequentially raise it. Women are strong. We all know that. But that doesn't mean that men are not. In a society driven by men, some women feel the need to combat superior thinking with superior thinking. But we all know that fighting fire with fire never works. Replacing the unbalanced social scale of men above women with women above men accomplishes nothing. All it does is defeat the true purpose of feminism and characterize feminists as people they really aren't. Feminism is about equality. It's not "I can do this. Can you do this?" It's not a competition. It's about changing the societal norms that have for ages placed women below men. It's about finally being able to walk into a workplace knowing that you're going to be treated exactly the same as your coworker Alex. It's knowing that you won't be subjected to lower pay for the same job and knowing that you won't be seen as weak and in need of assistance when lifting weights at the gym. Women who elevate other women are role models. Women who elevate other women to bring down men are not. We have to stop this mentality of "We're better than you" if we ever want to work together. Creating these boundaries and divisions between genders is moving us further and further away from the mantra we are trying to represent. So as true feminists we have to stop this negative speech and lift each other up, man and woman. We have to show the world what feminists are truly about, because if we don't then we're left with true feminists being too scared to speak their minds in fear of being labeled as the "angry, feminist chick." Feminism rocks...if you do it right.
12/9/2015 0 Comments Short Film: 123456For my Intro to Creative Writing class, I wrote a poem and then directed a short film based off of it. This was an amazing experience and helped me to grow in my creativity, my writing, my filming, my leadership, and more. Check it out! 12/8/2015 0 Comments What It's Like To Have The Flu1. Body aches that are so bad, you can't even get out of bed and walk to the kitchen 2. You are sweating but have goosebumps at the same time so you start a cycle of kicking the blankets off and then putting them back on 3. You want to eat normal food but can't keep any of it down 4. You're too exhausted to do anything so you end up finishing an entire season in one day 5. You feel so weak you end up asking your roommates to do everything for you Having the flu sucks. Please pray for me as my birthday is coming up...and so are finals...and I really need to stop skipping classes...and work...and life. Thanks fam! :-)
12/6/2015 0 Comments New Girl Is So Relevant1. When you create really strange analogies that you hope your friends will think are funny 2. When you recognize how your life may appear and try to quickly justify it 3. When you're constantly waiting for it to be an appropriate time to eat 4. When your coping methods are a little questionable 5. When you break up with your boyfriend and then suddenly your bed feels 10 times bigger 6. When drinking allows you to be more straightforward 7. When you embrace aging because you are mentally already a grandmother 8. When your friends tell you about their latest sex-capades 9. When you give your new S.O. a warning for any potential anxiety attacks and trust issues 10. When you try to explain to your friends that you just need some "me time"
12/5/2015 0 Comments After The Fight (Short Story)
12/3/2015 0 Comments The Problem With Texting AdviceIn today's world (for some reason), people feel the need to flock to their friends when they receive a text message. Most of the times these instances occur when said person is trying to impress a boy or girl they consider a potential suitor. We go to our friends with pleading eyes and desperate hands, shaking in an addiction, craving some sort of guidance while counting down the minutes it's been since we've received their last message. It's all about impressing this person and forming ourselves into our best possible versions...kind of like constantly being on an interview. We send our best selfies, we proofread messages, and we decipher messages as if we work for the CIA instead of the CPK. The problem with having others determine your conversation is that this new person that you're talking to will never really get to meet the real you. Or when they do, you'll be very different than they expected. If in texts, you come off as cool as nonchalant, what is going to happen when you meet for a date and they realize you're anxious and needy? By not texting as you, you are lying to this potential boyfriend/girlfriend, but worst of all you are lying to yourself. Think of it as being in school. Remember how teachers always tell you not to cheat? Because it's bad. Yeah yeah, we all know that. But also because, in the end, cheating is going to be more problematic for you. During the beginning of the semester you'll be getting A's because you can just copy off of your friends. But what happens when finals occur? Now you'll have to scramble to learn months worth of material over the span of maybe a few weeks. Likewise, texting through friends might be beneficial early on, but will end up being problematic later. "But what if they don't like the real me?" Then you shouldn't be pursuing them in the first place. Don't you want to be with someone who loves you for exactly who you are? Sure, you don't need to be so honest that you reveal the time that you peed your pants in middle school or that you cry to Justin Bieber songs every night. Being honest does not mean divulging every element of your life to this person. It just means not pretending to be someone who you're not. At the end of the day, you'll recognize that it's better to stay true to yourself and hold out for a person who will love you, quirks, flaws, and all, because the person that you're texting isn't perfect either. And it'll be so much nicer to know that you hooked this amazing person all by yourself. And THAT is something that you can discuss with your girls.
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