In life you come across all sorts of people. You come across theditsy,the clever, the bright-color lovers,thedark-color lovers,themusic lovers, theliterature lovers,the jerks,theones who think they're cool but aren't, the nerds...and so on, and so on. The list off all the different types of people that you come across can go on and on. It's a never ending list, really, because every single person is different. We all come from different backgrounds, different regions,anddifferent lifestyles. No one person is like another becausenone of us go through the exact same things.We're all unique and its our uniqueness, our us-ness, that makes life so entertaining. Over the last two semesters, I've filled my note books with the random, clever, funny,and thought provoking things that my friends have said. One of them is always saying something and, as a writer, I take note of the brilliant way they say things. It started as a personal project, really. One of my Professors suggested that our Creative Writing class keep lists of things people say, and the things we see, that we think would be good lines or images for stories. I don't know if any of my classmates took that challenge seriously, but I decided to give it a go. I've gathered quite the collection and, today, I would like to share a few of them with you. I've mentioned a few times now that life is busy around here, where I am, and I'm sure some (if not all) of you reading this are feeling the same way. So, I want to give you a chance to smile.Here's just a chunk of the things that my classmates say that have brought smiles to mine and others' faces. I hope they do the same for you.
Guy:* walks into class where he's the only boy and every girl goes silent* What's going on in here? Girl:We're plotting your demise. Guy:That actually makes me feel pretty comfortable. I'm use to that.
Girl 1:It was flurrying this morning! Professor:It's just a reminder from God that you're the salt of the earth. Girl 2:It didn't please me. There was snow on my car...in the spring!
Girl 1: *notices friend wearing a lace shirt* It's so pretty! Girl 2: I know, right? You can even rub your face on it if you want!
Professor: * teaching about the place of curse words in the English language* Student 1:* Starts listing off examples of curse words.* Professor:No, no, no. This is an English class. You're English students. If we're going to curse, we should at least curse with class.
Student: *speaking about a professor* It's like sink or swim with her...except she ties something around your ankles so you fall right to the bottom.
Guy:*addresses class that's all girls, beside himself*Do any of you know how to tie a tie? Girls:Yeah. Girl 1:Do you know how to tie a tie? Guy:No. I feel like it should be required that for ministry majors to graduate we should all have to pass a class on tie tying.
Professor: Why are there still so many of you in this class? They told me that at least half of you would drop...but there's still twenty of you. Not that I don't like you...I just don't want to grade your papers.
Guy: *having a Christian-Pickup-lines contest with a friend*Is that your resurrection body? Because it's flawless. Girl:Do you need prayer? Because I'd love to lay my hands on you.
Professor: Put your hands on your neck like this*puts hand on neck*. Now saw Z-Z-Z. You feel that vibration? Now say s-s-s...don't do this in public. People will think you're crazy.
Guy: Fifty Shades of Grey is a bad influence on women. Girl 1:What's Fifty Shades of Grey? Guy: You haven't read it? How about you, have you read it? Girl 2: No, but my roommate has and she told me what it's about. Guy: You're not going to read it, are you? Girl 2: Not my type of literature. Guy: Good. Girl 1: What's it about. Guy: It's torture porn. And the lead female character falls in love with the guy torturing her. I don't see that as a good influence. As a guy, I wouldn't want my girlfriend to be like that chick. She allows someone to hurt her for love. Seriously, have some self-respect! Listen up you two, You should never let a guy hurt you. Even if you love him and hurting you gives him pleasure. If he really loves you he won't hurt you. Understand?
Professor: Think about this for a moment...God loves you so much that He would rather die than live without you.
Professor: Even the darkest corners of space aren't completely dark.
So, there you have it. A few quotes to hopefully brighten up your day. Like I said, I have more, but I don't want to make a freakishly long blog with all of them it it. Also, the Fifty Shades of Grey quote wasn't to offend anyone. If you like the book, good for you, but that was exactly what one of my guy friends said about it to me and another chick when we were working with him. Have a blessed day, lovely souls!
Rain is a glorious thing. Like most things in life, it has a duality to it. Every coin has two sides, and rain can symbolize both life and death. For the sake of this entry, however, let's focus on the positive side of rain. Perhaps at a later date, I'll write about the negative side. As it is, though, I've been pondering on the positive.
Life has been crazy lately. Theses last few weeks have been nothing but stress and insomnia. Almost all of my time has been dedicated to school, work, or preparation for the future. Free time has become something of a myth. Yet, I still find time to enjoy a few walks. If I didn't, I'd go crazy. It was on one of theses walks that I did something completely against my nature.
Before I go on, let me tell you that I love rain...but I hate to be in it. This has nothing to do with its temperature, or how its wet, its because I absolutely detest the feel of wet fabric. Seriously, I cant' stand it. Like some people can't stand eating rice because of it's texture, I can't stand wearing wet clothing for the same reason. There's just something about how it plasters itself to my form that irritates me. But, twice in three weeks, I have voluntary experienced the feeling.
The first was on that walk I was telling you about. It was misting that day and I knew there was a high chance of storms, but I was so stressed out that I needed to leave the dorm. To escape from the white walls and forget for a little while. The weather looked so inviting with its heavy clouds and lite fog. I grabbed my Ipod, my over-sized hoodie, and ventured on a walk. It started out nicely, the heaven's tears occasionally striking the surface of the river I walked beside, but grew to be something I needed. Something deep and meaningful.
It started pouring while I was walking the trail. My first thought was to turn back around. I was only about half way through with a mile. The walk back wouldn't be a long one. As thunder began to sound, I made up my mind to turn back. Music and solace weren't worth getting sick over...correction, I thought they were very much worth it, but I couldn't afford to become sick. My life was simply (is simply) too hectic for it.
When I was almost back to the dorms, I changed my mind. I remember pausing, looking at the river and unconsciously moving towards it. I could no longer bring myself to care that it was pouring, that I could get sick, or that I had a pile of work waiting for me back on my desk. I was captured by the beauty in front of me.
I honestly couldn't remember the last time I had 'danced' in the rain. I could recall a brief conversation I had with my mother about how cleansing rain was and how standing in it washed the dirt off the mind and soul...but that conversation had been over three years ago. I had still been in high school then, and no I'm only a few months away from my Senior year of college. I did something then, when I realized just how long it had been since I had actually been out in the rain and enjoyed it, that I normally wouldn't do. I turned off my Ipod, plucked the buds from my ears, and sat down on a rocky area I always walk by. It's more like a rocky cliff-side, but it's not too high up and over look a river. Granted, if you stumbled from it you would be injured. It may not be that far above the river, but there were enough jagged rocks at the bottom that a tumble could easily break a limb. I sat there, though, for almost an hour. I just sat there watching the rapids of the river. I saw ducks playing, robins bathing, and found myself entranced by floating leafs. I allowed myself to forget all my stress and to succumb to the beauty of the Lord's world.
After that walk, I felt alive. I felt as if I had been shut off from the world and -for the first time in forever -I was really feeling. That moment was more real to me than the paper waiting to be written. More important than the speech I needed to finish...more beautiful than the stack of precious literature I needed to read.
In the words of Stephen Chbosky (Have you ever realize how much I quote this guy?), "In that moment, I felt infinite." I felt like I actually understood the scenes in movies where people who have gone through so much suddenly dance int the rain. I'm a writer, and yet I fear that I can't possibly accurately describe that feeling to you. I think it's something that, to truly understand, one must feel for them self.
Today, I experience that awesomeness again...which is what really provoked me to write this blog. I was forced to walk to class in pouring rain, to talk about a poet that is more than a bit disturbed (Sylvia Plath, for any of those wanting to know. That's the poet's name). I must have looked like a drowned cat when I entered that classroom. I was soaked to the bone. So soaked that my clothes were dripping and my steps leaving puddles. Remember how I said that I hate the feel of wet fabric? For forty-five minutes I sat at my desk, fighting the urge to run back to my room and throw on some dry clothes. I paid attention to the discussion but it was difficult. Sitting as stiff and as still as a board, I forced myself through the class.
After class came to an end, I sat at my desk for a few moments longer. I didn't want to go back outside, but I didn't want to spend the next two hours, which I had as free time, there. So, I picked up my hoodie -intending to put it on -and discovered it was still just as wet as it was when I had peeled it off my body.
Taking one glance out the old window, at the pouring rain, I mentally said, "Forget it." I was soaked anyway. So, I gathered up my back pack, draped my hoodie over my arm, and made my way into the rain. I walked back to my dorm slower than I ever have before. I figured I might as well enjoy the walk since I couldn't temporarily halt the rain. I allowed the rain to finish its task of drenching me, had a conversation with a professor who was also venturing through heaven's wonderful tears, and was freezing by the time I made it back to my room. The three minute walk to my dorm was made in ten.
The rain's cold today -its drops are powerful, almost bruising as they strike at your flesh, but they are beautiful. I have said this multiple times in my life, but there is nothing as beautiful -as breath taking -as a storm. There is something so pure to it that nothing else can quite rival it. It's like...well, it's like God. It's powerful and strong, but nurturing at the same time. It's awe-inspiring. It's pure perfection. It's... indescribable.
In literature, rain -water -is used as a symbol. It can represent life, death, trials, and perseverance. It can be personified as mocking or nurturing...but the most common ways it is used is as a symbol of rebirth. It symbolizes the purification of the soul. The rebirth or resurrection of one's self.
In a spring that started off frozen, I am finding rain to be more beautiful by the day. Not only has it provided for me a few moments of extreme closeness to the Creator, but it has revived the world just as it has my soul.
For those of you who read my last blog post (entitle Soliloquy) you read a poem about myself wanting to be revived. I might had wrote it as a class assignment, but I wrote it about my inner struggle to rise above the dark and frozen state of the world. This is a struggle I think all can relate to. With the coming of the rain, I felt a weight being lifted from my shoulders. Its been as if the rain has washed the cares from me. I still have things to do, meetings to attend and grades to get, but the rain had brought a sense of peace and tranquility. It has been a reminder to me of the beauty that is in this busy life.
Some of you who had started reading this may have already left by now. I may have lost your attention long before this point, but -for those of you that are still here -if you take away anything from this post I hope it's that there is beauty in this world. Despite the darkness and the everyday struggles that try to bring us down, there is beauty. The Creator is an artist, and this world is a masterpiece.
I challenge you to take a few moments out of your busy schedule to enjoy the world around you. I realize it may not be raining at where every you are reading this, but still take time to look around you. Go outside and gaze up at the sky. Go to the park, lay down in the grass. Go on a walk. If there's a tornado, go watch it...from a safe distance...please, don't go injuring yourself. Tornado/storm watching is perfectly fine (I've done it myself), but be safe about it. That is my challenge to you. The Lord has packed this world full of beauty and just a moment's observation of it can change your whole day.
The following is a poem I wrote as assignment for my Introduction to Literature class. The assignment was for each student to write a poem, turn them in, and then explicate (write a paper about) another student's. Soliloquy is my poem for the assignment I did mean for the title of the poem to be important to the actual poem, but you can understand what's going on without looking up what the title means. For those of you that don't know, and are wondering, Soliloquy is an art of writing that normally appears in dramas. It is a section of lines -words -that the speaker/writer is saying to him or herself. To put it simply, a soliloquy is a letter to (or a conversation with) one's self. Without further ado, my poem...
Soliloquy
I want to write something sunny, Something bright and full of delight, But the world keeps spinning faster; It keeps spinning into the night. How do I write of butterflies When all I see are moths? How do I write of victory When all I see are sloths? Looking for the silver lining Is easier said than done. They say keep moving forward, But life weighs a ton. Doors keep getting closed, And their keys keep getting lost, And this just makes me wonder, What would giving up cost? My mind tells me it’s not worth it, My heart declares that isn’t so, And my soul just keeps on screaming; It keeps screaming Go! Go! Go! I’ve tied a knot around my wrist To remind me of my goal. I’ve changed all my radio stations So they sing the songs of the soul. How could I live with myself Upon giving up a dream? How could I think of backing down When things aren’t what they seem? So I’ll just keep on going, Keep looking towards the sun, For when all of this is over, I can rejoice that I’ve won my run.
1. Clean your room/house. 2. Make origami butterflies. 3. Turn a spork into Batman. 4. Give yourself a make over. 5. Create a list of ways to procrastinate. 6. Read blogs. 7. Check social sites. 8. Read the back of a shampoo bottle. 9. Write a story. 10. Write a poem. 11. Write a weird note and leave it for someone to find. 12. Blow up a friend's phone with text messages. 13. Do laundry. 14. Contemplate the meaning of life. 15. Watch cartoons. 16. Jam out to music. 17. Go driving. 18. Go for a walk. 19. Have a game night. 20. Go shopping. 21. Play video games. 22. Play Facebook games. 23. See how many words you can think of that start with 'M'. 24. Watch videos on YouTube. 25. Use a ball of yarn to turn your room into a human sized spider web. 26. Play catch. 27. Play Frisbee. 28. Have a Nerf war. 29. Have a lightsaber battle. 30. Draw. 31. Play tic-tac-toe. 32. Play hangman. 33. Play pick up sticks with pens. 34. Trace your hand and turn it into something. 35. Draw mustaches on people in magazines. 36. Watch a movie. 37. Stare at your pile of work and think about how you should be working on it. 38. Count ceiling tiles. 39. Play an instrument. 40. Count the bricks of a wall. 41. Journal. 42. Go to a coffee shop and stare at people. 43. Have a race. 44. Go on a scavenger hunt. 45. Cut out stick figures and leave them in random places. 46. Read Fanfiction. 47. Create a list of 'laundry room etiquette' . 48. Dance down the hall/street singing at the top of your lungs. 49. Read a book. 50. Take apart and clean a vacuum. 51. Alphabetize your movie collection. 52. Organize your books. 53. Make your bed until there are no creases. 54. Organize your music collection. 55. Go see a play. 56. Play Jenga with pens. 57. Lay in the grass and stare at the clouds. 58. Close your eyes and listen to the silence. 59. See ow many markers you can connect together. 60. Put a packet of cherry kool-aid behind the shower faucet. 61. Write a bunch of encouraging notes and leave them in random places for people to find. 62. Place fake bugs,rodents,reptiles in random places. 63. Organize your crayons and color pencils by shade. 64. Create a character. 65. Make a story about that character. 66. Make a comic about the character. 67. Play volley ball. 68. Play soccer. 69. Play basketball. 70. Play baseball. 71. Play softball. 72. Play tennis. 73. Blow bubbles. 74. Play with silly putty. 75. Solve a Rubix Cube. 76. Blow up a balloon and see how long you can keep it in the air by hitting it. 77. Scatter furniture, sofa cushions, pillows...etc...and make it across the room without touching the floor (The floor's lava, after all). 78. Sit out cups and see how many ping pong balls you can shoot in them (to make this more challenging, give specific tasks to do, like bounce the ball of the fridge and into the cup.) 79. Draw on the side walk with chalk. 80. Go for a run. 81. Go bird watching. 82. Sit somewhere. Just sit there. Don't do anything. Just. Sit. There. 83. Take a nap. 84. Take a shower. 85. Draw on yourself. 86. Draw on a friend. 87. Give all your friends code names. 88. Get crafty. 89. Use tape to outline someone's body on the floor. 90. Hide in a bush and talk to people as they walk by. 91. Wander around somewhere and when someone talks to you say, "You can see me?" 92. Run into a store and ask someone what year it is...when they tell you, yell, "It worked!" and run away. 93. Make a bucket list. 94. Re-write a popular song. 95. Go to the park. 96. Fly a kite. 97. Organize your game collection. 98. Break out an old board game. 99. Dance off anyone? 100. Sort your closet and dresser drawers by color. 101. Read this list on how to procrastinate.
Here's a video a classmate of mine showed in our Linguistics class a few weeks ago. It never ceases to bring a smile to my English-Nerd face. If you like English or Shakespeare you will love this video...if you don't, watch it anyway. It may just bring a smile to your face.
