I'm so glad we had this time together...

So, I lied.  That last blog was not in fact the last blog.  This is.

Ladies and gents it is now time for my "Greatest Hits," meaning I will now go through my previous blog posts, pick out what I find most insightful, and talk about a little bit.

PLOT TWIST!!!  Instead of just being bland and going week by week, we're getting crazy and doing a countdown.  Say what?!

Number 13:

 "Libbey Jordan works in tourism, therefore she knows advertising.  Her driving point throughout her lecture was to avoid false advertising at all costs.  While Abbie and I were hard at work on this masterpiece, I kept thinking how completely perfect this window painting describes HSO.  It's spirited, just as most of the members are.  It's creative, as all of the members are.  It's clever, as all members hope to be.  It is a perfect representation of Honors Student Organization."

This wins number 13 because it's stupid.  Like, really?  This is me filling space.  Kbye.

Number 12:

"What I really love about [my French class] is that I get an hour of credit for doing a language lab.  This entails me going to the Foreign Languages Computer Lab, signing in, picking out a French movie if I don't have any homework, and sitting and watching said French movie.  And let me tell you, the French know cinema."

This entire post was me being off topic because I had nothing to say about the speaker.  Honestly.  But yeah, I love French.  And movies.  So there ya go.

Number 11:

"The entire time we were [at the Memphis Zoo] I turned into an eight year old.  Everything is interesting and marvelous to me.  I love animals.  I mean, some of my favorite movies are Flipper and Alaska, you know those 90s movies about children saving these endangered animals from poachers and the like.  I especially love polar bears.  And I got to see polar bears, so I can honestly die happy."

I loved the Memphis trip and obviously the polar bears, but nothing insightful was said.  So yeah.  But here's a picture of me loving polar bears like I do.

Number 10:

"The song this guy chose to share with us, "You May Be Right," didn't really relate to his message which was to work to get along with everyone, especially those in charge, whether they are polite or rude, right or wrong.  This song is mainly about, let's be honest here, sex.  A dangerous guy is trying to seduce a cautious girl.  End of story."

I just like this because it shows how blunt I am.

Number 9:

"I know that sounds extreme and nearly impossible, changing the world.  I mean, the world is a really big place with billions of people and creatures and problems, and the thought of changing it is to large to grasp.  But you can.  Look at Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks.  All of these people changed the world.  All Rosa Parks did was keep her seat on a bus, but that one action set an entire tsunami of change in motion. "

Sometimes, I can be really idealistic.  This was one of those times.  I mean, I definitely think that everyone can and should do their part to make the world a better place; I've always thought that.  But sometimes I get carried away.

Number 8:

"People really should do their best every day to treat others with respect and kindness, and they should seriously think through the consequences of their actions and then take responsibility for them, and most of all, they should have opinions and thoughts and beliefs, even if those beliefs are entirely different from everyone around them.  Stick to your guns.  Put on a happy face.  Respect everyone.  Be prepared to fail, and all those other wise cliches." 

This was probably my most pessimistic post, and this conclusion here was the saving grace of it.  But I'm truly grateful for this downtrodden post because it really made grasp how undervalued cliches are and how much we should daily strive to keep them in mind.

Number 7:

"That's what I truly love the most about the holiday season.  Belief.  The Christmas season gives me more hope in humanity.  I believe that there are good people out there more around the holidays because you see more of them.  Belief is everything.  And Christmas just reiterates that for me."

Another rambling blog that has nothing at all to do with forum.  Oh well.  Sorry not sorry.  I love Christmas.  And believing in Santa and fairies and people and love and joy and hope and all things happy.  Except maybe unicorns.  Because they kinda freak me out.

Number 6:

"At this point, the passion at the forefront of my mind is adventure.   I want to go everywhere, see every monument, do every crazy once-in-a-lifetime thing. "

This leads me to something I'm starting to get excited about.  I'm going to Vegas for a little over a week at Christmas.  I love flying.  I love traveling.  Both of these are little adventures for me.  Yay for a mini-adventure!

Number 5:

"I hope to encourage, inspire, support, listen, and love someone so that they know that they can do whatever it is they set out to do because that's what these women have done for me.  They have instilled in me a confidence of heart and mind that I would otherwise be without." 

Mentorship has always been important to me, and this week really made me think about it more.  I love having someone that I can look up to, and I know that I have been that person for others in the past.  In realizing that, I've started to strive to be a better me so that I can be a better role model.

Number 4:

"Looking back on that year of dance-spite, I think that maybe my problem was that I honestly didn't know why I danced.  But now I know.  I dance because it's the closest to magic I've ever gotten.  The sounds of taps striking the floor, the cutesy sass of musical theatre, the indescribable elegance of a jete en pointe, the attitude of hip hop, all of it, every minute aspect is magic to me.  The ability to relay an entire story with nothing more than movement to express emotions that words and voices can't seem to support is pure magic - straight fairy dust.

It never ceases to amaze me how intense and powerful it can be.  Even without music, the choreography would still be there, creating and flowing and living for a few fleeting moments.  And honestly, that's the most important reason of all.  In the end, I dance to create, to share magic, to love, to breathe, to believe.  I dance to live."

I am a seriously longwinded person.  Like, I think I may rival Hawthorne in my wordiness.  This actually did kind of pertain to the speaker that week, since he spoke of passion.  The quote kind of speaks for itself.  But I must add, after months of not dancing, it dawned on me that there is a yoga studio that rarely gets used that I can dance in.  Life has gotten a lot better.

Number 3:

"Honestly, it's only fitting that I share my name with one of my favorite movie characters, Kathleen Kelly from You've Got Mail, who states, "When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your life does."

I fully believe this.  As a child, I read such books as Nancy Drew, Betsy-Tacy, The Witch Family, and the Little House series.  Those are just a few of my favorites, but they have shaped the person I've become.  From Nancy Drew, I gained curiosity and an urge to help others.  From Betsy-Tacy, I learned the need for friendship how imperative it is to nurture those friendships.  The Witch Familytaught me to have an imagination and be the best me I can be.  The Little House books taught me the importance of family."   

When I think about how much I love children's literature, I seriously consider being a children's librarian.  Kathleen Kelly hits the nail on the head with that quote.  That is one thing that's gone through my head repeatedly this semester whenever I start to worry about what I want to do with my life.  There honestly is nothing like the shining in a child's eye when he/she starts to read and use his/her imagination.

Number 2 (almost there!):

"You can meticulously and obsessively plan out any scenario, but things will almost always go differently than you expected because that's just life.  It happens, and it's fleeting.  When your plans change, the best thing you can do is just go with it and handle it the best way you know how.  Sometimes it's hard.  Sometimes it's easy.  Sometimes it's absolutely insane.  No matter what adjective matches with the situation at hand, you have to do the best with what you've been dealt and keep moving forward.  I think that Walt Disney said it best, 'Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long.  We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.'"

There are so many reasons I like this quote.  Mainly because I got to use my all time favorite Disney quote.  But also because this is something that I remind myself everyday.  No matter what I plan, things will almost always turn out differently.  So don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.

Number 1:
So this is really a tie between like three things I said in one post, so it counts, okay?

"Our values are the foundation of our very beliefs.  Without them, we have nothing because we have no basis for an opinion. "

This is so true.  Like, really.  Values shape our entire existences.  So choose them wisely.  And make sure they're values that you actually believe in, not just regurgitated ones that some "cool" person used.

"My grandfather drove me around in my middle school days when I was not capable of doing so.  He had lost his wife several years earlier, and he loved her with all his heart.  In a conversation he had with my dad once he stated that my brother and I were his reason for getting up every morning.  Driving us around meant the world to that man.  He'd lost the love of life, but the love of his grandchildren kept him going." 

This one just touched me because I really miss my grandfather.  My dad didn't tell me about his until about a week before I moved here.  Realizing how much I meant to that wonderful man really makes me rethink what it means to love.

"Through finding yourself, taking risks, loving others, striving to know more, creating through passion, and dedicating yourself to your cause you grow as a person.  And honestly that's when you know you've achieved your goals.  When you've grown enough to see that everything you've ever done has happened for a reason.  When you can look back on your life with no regrets, that's when you've grown to your potential." 

I feel like this is really what college is all about.  I know that all of these are goals I hope to achieve here.  And I know that I'm on my way to doing that.  I'm growing.  And it is such a magnificent thing.  I am such a different person now than who I was a year ago, even six months ago.  Every day has the ability to change my life, make me grow in ways I never thought plausible.  The key is to go out, seize the opportunities, and embrace life, warts and all.  (If you caught my obscure The Princess and the Frog reference there, we should be best friends.)

I will now bid you, my darling followers, adieu with an original Katie-ism that I hope you will all take to heart.

"Everything happens the way it should because it wouldn't happen the way shouldn't because then it wouldn't happen."

The Last Blog

It is surreal how quickly this semester passed.  I can't believe that it was actually around three months ago that I moved to this wonderful city and started a new life.  Throughout these past three months I have learned so much and made so many new friends, and though times have also been hard, I know that I am right where I belong.

Enough of the sappiness, though I will most likely bring it back at the end of this post.  What can I say?  I love being sentimental.

We had our last speaker this week, and I took more notes from this one guy than I have in any class, forum or otherwise, this entire semester.  But really.  Basically he read from a powerpoint about corporate values.  I really enjoyed his attempt to connect with us through a Billy Joel music video.

I love Billy Joel.  I grew up listening to him, and in my opinion, he's completely fabulous.  However, the song this guy chose to share with us, "You May Be Right," didn't really relate to his message which was to work to get along with everyone, especially those in charge, whether they are polite or rude, right or wrong.  This song is mainly about, let's be honest here, sex.  A dangerous guy is trying to seduce a cautious girl.  End of story.

Any way, he did have a good point.  Act with integrity, and don't worry if plans don't happen exactly the way they were intended.  Life goes on, and we all get through it the best way we know how.  After all, no one gets out alive.

Since this is the last blog for the semester, I feel I should leave you with some entertainment.  As I believe we've established, I am a dancer.  My favorite genre is tap because it doesn't require music.  And it's so difficult that most people on shows like So You Think You Can Dance don't do it.  And I'm actually pretty good at it.  So here is a really awesome tap number by the stupendous Melinda Sullivan to "Single Ladies" covered by the fabulous Sara Bareilles.

You have everything you need if you just believe!

Guys...  I have a confession to make.  I love Christmas.  I mean, it's kind of an obvious confession, but whatevs.  It's always been my favorite holiday.  Not because of the presents, although that is a very nice plus, but because of how cheerful it is.  Joy just fills the air at Christmas time.  I have warm fuzzies from Thanksgiving to New Year's because everyone's happier and nicer.  

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is Christmas music.  I start jamming out to holiday tunes about a week before Thanksgiving, and very rarely do I get tired of it.  It's the one time of year that I'm not a little odd for repeatedly listening to Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra, who are without a doubt my favorite singers of all time.  

I'm also mad about Christmas movies.  Even the absolutely horrid Hallmark, Lifetime, and ABCFamily original ones.  Because almost every Christmas movie, whether Blockbuster hit or made-for-tv, has the same message of love and cheer.  My favorite Christmas movie is Miracle on 34th Street, the one with Mara Wilson, not the old one.  Every time I watch this movie, I instantly wish that I could go back to being 5 years old when there wasn't a doubt in my mind that Santa was real.  This film makes me want to believe all over again.

And really that's what I truly love the most about the holiday season.  Belief.  The Christmas season gives me more hope in humanity.  I believe that there are good people out there more around the holidays because you see more of them.  Belief is everything.  And Christmas just reiterates that for me.

So here is a trailer that will hopefully make you believe too!

Also the part where he signs with the deaf girl is just too sweet!  Gets me every time...

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." - Carl Sagan

Audwin Pierre McGee is probably one of the coolest guys I've ever had the pleasure of hearing speak.  This man has done so many grand things in his life from being an artist to guiding safaris.  His main point during his lecture was to look at the dreams you had as a child to figure out where you genuinely want to go in life.  One piece of advice he gave that really connected with me was to look at what books made an impression on you as a child.

Here's where I turn into a complete literary nerd.  I love books.  I've loved books since I was born.  My parents read to me all the time, and once I started reading myself, I couldn't stop.  As a child, I read so many fabulous books that I can't even remember them all.  Honestly, it's only fitting that I share my name with one of my favorite movie characters, Kathleen Kelly from You've Got Mail, who states, "When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your life does."

I fully believe this.  As a child, I read such books as Nancy Drew, Betsy-Tacy, The Witch Family, and the Little House series.  Those are just a few of my favorites, but they have shaped the person I've become.  From Nancy Drew, I gained curiosity and an urge to help others.  From Betsy-Tacy, I learned the need for friendship how imperative it is to nurture those friendships.  The Witch Family taught me to have an imagination and be the best me I can be.  The Little House books taught me the importance of family.

Even now, I'll go back and reread these books.  One of the proudest moments of my life was introducing a young girl to the world of Nancy Drew.  These books empowered me as a child.  They taught me to go after my dreams.  They made me use my imagination.  They taught me how important it is to have imagination in this world.  And truth be told, I'm tempted to be a children's librarian just so I can give children the same comfort these wonderful works of art gave me.

Adventure is out there!

If you know me at all, you know that I love anything dealing with Disney.  Except maybe Star Wars.  But that's a different story.  I love Disney movies.  I love Walt Disney World.  I love the princesses.  I love the original characters.  I love what Disney Channel used to be.  And I especially love Pixar.

One of my favorite Disney-Pixar films is UP.  I love everything about it.  I love that they were able to have me in tears within the first ten minutes of the movie.  I love the humor.  I love the sentimentality of it.  But most of all, I love it's premise:  Adventure is out there!

When I was younger, my passion was being on a stage.  I thought that this would last for the rest of my life, and it still might, but it's not my biggest passion anymore.  At this point, the passion at the forefront of my mind is adventure.   I want to go everywhere, see every monument, do every crazy once-in-a-lifetime thing.

And this is why this week's lecture really hit home.  Study Abroad is something that I've been wanting to do since I was in middle school.  My entire life, all I've ever really wanted to do is travel, travel, travel, and studying abroad is a chance to do just that.  There isn't a doubt in my mind that at some point within the next four years I'll be on a plane to Europe, exploding with excitement.

  

Window Creations

I spent a few hours of my day on Tuesday painting HSO's preview day window.  Though it was bitingly cold outside, I had a blast.  I hadn't done something through a creative outlet such as that in several months, and it felt so good to focus on colors and lines and shapes for awhile rather than letters and writing.

"Bellow vociferously Panthera leo" is basically the nerdy way of saying "Roar lions!"  While I was painting this, I couldn't help but think about our speaker from last week.  Libbey Jordan works in tourism, therefore she knows advertising.  Her driving point throughout her lecture was to avoid false advertising at all costs.  While Abbie and I were hard at work on this masterpiece, I kept thinking how completely perfect this window painting describes HSO.  It's spirited, just as most of the members are.  It's creative, as all of the members are.  It's clever, as all members hope to be.  It is a perfect representation of Honors Student Organization.  I couldn't be happier with it.

The Importance of Being Encouraging

Mentorship.  It's something we all need, yet we rarely acknowledge that need.  This is a topic that Dr. Wesley Desselle emphasized at our forum last week.  His passion for mentorship got me to thinking about the mentors I've had throughout my life so far, and to be completely truthful, I'd be nowhere without them.

Let me start off with my dance teacher, Melissa.  She has been a role model for me for about ten years, and she inspires me to be a better dancer and a better person.  Melissa always handles herself in a polite and diplomatic way, and even when she is scolding her children or a student or confronting someone she never loses her cool.  She's always been there to help me through whatever problem I've had, and she was always patient with me when I had difficulty with certain steps.  Melissa is a humble teacher and fabulous person.  Even though we've had our ups and downs, she still cares about me and encourages me to do what is right for myself and for those around me.

During my junior year of high school, I had one of the best English teachers.  She is actually one of the big reasons I'm considering teaching English.  Mrs. McCoy is just a fun person.  She's really chill and laid back, and she has a real passion for teaching and sharing her love of literature.  She always encouraged me to think outside the box and push the limits with my writing.  My senior year I was her aide, and that gave me a look into being an English teacher.  She makes it fun; it is plain to see that she enjoys her job, and it's her joy that inspired me to go into that same field.  Mrs. McCoy takes a real interest in her students, and she is always there for anyone who needs a shoulder to cry on.

Seriously, my closest mentor would have to be my mom.  She's really my best friend.  I literally don't know where I'd be without her, and I don't misuse literally.  She has put up with so much drama from me, and yet, to this day, she is nothing but supportive of me.  From gymnastics to dance to theatre to cheering, she has always found a way for me to do whatever it is that I set my mind to do.  She has always encouraged me to be the best and most independent me that I can be.  She listens to all of my problems without complaint and always helps me figure out the most practical solution.  She gave me the best childhood I could ask for.  She gave me a love of reading.  She gave me imagination.  And to top it off, she gave me love.  That's the most precious thing I could ask for.

I hope that I can one day do all of these things for someone else.  I hope to encourage, inspire, support, listen, and love someone so that they know that they can do whatever it is they set out to do because that's what these women have done for me.  They have instilled in me a confidence of heart and mind that I would otherwise be without.  I am eternally grateful to these women, and I hope that by paying it forward down the line that they will somehow be repaid.

Paris holds the key to your heart!

Of all my classes here, my favorite is French.  Now, before you get all excited, it's introductory French.  So, now you ask, "Why is it your favorite, Katie?"  To which I could say, "Well, my professor is absolutely hilarious," or "The class is just really fun," or "The language is gorgeous," and all of these statements are true, and they really do make it my favorite.  But what I really love about it is that I get an hour of credit for doing a language lab.  This entails me going to the Foreign Languages Computer Lab, signing in, picking out a French movie if I don't have any homework, and sitting and watching said French movie.  And let me tell you, the French know cinema.

I am currently watching Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which is absolutely phenomenal.  If you've never seen this movie, I highly suggest you do.  It's the story of  a struggling novelist who has traveled to Paris with his terrifying fiancée and her family.  While in Paris, he finds the inspiration and hope he needs to finish novel, which subsequently helps him find who he is.  A lot of other stuff happens too, but I won't ruin it for you.  Go watch it.  Now.

Dancing Through Life

pas·sion

 [pash-uhn]  strong and barely controllable emotion.

What is my passion?  This question has been haunting me for the past week, and it's really hard for me to come up with the answer.  I can always come up with many things that I enjoy doing, but for some reason, I struggle with pinpointing the one about which I am passionate.  The one I love to do the most.  

There's a saying that if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life.  In thinking of what I want to do with my life, this saying plays on repeat in my head.  How do I choose something I love?  What do I love?  If I choose to do that for a living, will I still love it?  I mean, I don't want to end up resenting something that I once loved.

I started taking dance classes at the age of three.  About two years later, I quit dance to take gymnastics.  Then when I was eight years old, I went to a week long day camp where I took a simplified dance class.  And I fell in love.  I started dance again that fall and continued until this May.  Even now, I would give anything to be in a studio again.

For the longest time, I thought this was my passion.  I loved it with every fiber of my being, but after awhile I got burnt out on dancing.  I hated it for the better part of a year.  And it was scary.  For about five years, I was convinced that I would dance on Broadway or backup for Britney Spears while I was still young and then own a studio and help other young girls find themselves in the music and movement.  And then one day, I just couldn't stand it anymore.  And I'm afraid that if I pursue this as a career, it will happen again.  That's something that I really just couldn't stand to happen again.

Still, it is a passion of mine.  It is a driving force.  When I'm dancing in a studio, it's just me, the floor, the music, and the mirror.  The rest of the world fades away, and I'm left to dance out my anger, my fear, my joy, my sorrow, my ecstasy.  I've yet to find something so cleansing, so freeing.  When I'm dancing on a stage underneath the lights, I'm in a sanctuary.  Nothing can harm me there because I have a show to perform and an audience to experience it.  It's the one place where I feel completely at home, and even if I mess up, it's okay because I'm still bringing magic to the audience; they're still entranced by the story being portrayed.  

Looking back on that year of dance-spite, I think that maybe my problem was that I honestly didn't know why I danced.  But now I know.  I dance because it's the closest to magic I've ever gotten.  The sounds of taps striking the floor, the cutesy sass of musical theatre, the indescribable elegance of a jete en pointe, the attitude of hip hop, all of it, every minute aspect is magic to me.  The ability to relay an entire story with nothing more than movement to express emotions that words and voices can't seem to support is pure magic - straight fairy dust.

It never ceases to amaze me how intense and powerful it can be.  Even without music, the choreography would still be there, creating and flowing and living for a few fleeting moments.  And honestly, that's the most important reason of all.  In the end, I dance to create, to share magic, to love, to breathe, to believe.  I dance to live.

Cliche Your Life.

Treat others how you want to be treated.
Take responsibility for your actions.
Always do what's right, even if doing what's right is hard.
Be kind to everyone because you don't know what kind of battles they're fighting.
[Insert another wise cliche here]

All of these sayings are coined as cliches for a reason.  They are great rules of thumb for life, but that doesn't mean they are any less overused.  And when something becomes overused it loses its value.

The first listed, most commonly known as the "Golden Rule," is learned in Sunday School at the age of three.  I have heard this saying for most of my life, and while it is true, people should treat each other with the same love and respect they expect with which to be treated, I honestly don't know many people who actually live by this.  We try, yes, but inevitably, we treat others not with the respect we feel should be shown to us but with the respect we think the opposing party has earned or deserves.  And that's human nature, our race's fatal flaw.

Most people in my generation, myself included, don't take full responsibility for their actions.  In a lot of ways, we've been given almost everything on a silver platter, and because of that we don't worry about the consequences as much as we should.  Now, when it comes down to it, we take at least a little responsibility, but we often pawn the burden of the problem off on someone who is "more suited" to carry it.  And that's not okay.  Actions have consequences, and every person should be ready to face the consequences of his or her actions.  End of story.

Doing what's right even if it's hard?  How about we think about it and find an easy way out of being involved altogether?  Because that's what most people do.  Mostly, that involves not having an opinion on the subject to begin with, or shaping your own opinion to the most popular one.  And that last one is the one that kills me the most.  Think through things!  Don't let the greater population tell you what to think.  Figure out what you believe based your own values and morals, not society's.  And once you have that opinion, stick with it.  Don't let others tell you it's wrong because it's not.  It's just different.

Now, I realize that this entire post sounds extremely pessimistic, and truth be told, it kind of is.  But what I hope you take most from this is that these things, these cliches that have long been taught and ignored, shouldn't be happening this way.  People really should do their best every day to treat others with respect and kindness, and they should seriously think through the consequences of their actions and then take responsibility for them, and most of all, they should have opinions and thoughts and beliefs, even if those beliefs are entirely different from everyone around them.  Stick to your guns.  Put on a happy face.  Respect everyone.  Be prepared to fail, and all those other wise cliches.

What Do You Say to Taking Chances?

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered in failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer because they live in a gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." -- Teddy Roosevelt

In other words, don't play it safe.  That was Judge Gil Self's main message to us this past week.  Have the courage to step outside of your comfort zone.  Have the courage to be the person you were always meant to be.  Have the courage to do what's right, even if that means failure.  Have the courage to accept the talents with which you were blessed and change the world with them.

I know that sounds extreme and nearly impossible, changing the world.  I mean, the world is a really big place with billions of people and creatures and problems, and the thought of changing it is to large to grasp.  But you can.  Look at Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks.  All of these people changed the world.  All Rosa Parks did was keep her seat on a bus, but that one action set an entire tsunami of change in motion.

I guess what I'm really saying here is that no matter your background or plans or anything, you can change the world.  At least a little bit.  But you have to have the courage to do it.  You may not be the next Martin Luther King, Jr. or Bill Gates, but you can still make a difference in this world.  You can still have a positive effect.  You can still do what's right.

I've always said that I know that I've lived a successful life when I'm 95 years old with hundreds of amazingly adventurous stories to tell my grandchildren.  So, go out into the world.  Take advantage of the gifts with which you've been blessed.  Use them to be the best version of yourself.  Use them to make a difference.  Go out and have adventures.  Dream your big dreams, and then go out and take them and make them real.  Live life the best way you can so that when you're old and gray your grandkids will say that they have the coolest grandparent in the entire world.

Carpe Diem.

"Plans change sometimes."

"Don't talk yourself out of finding out who you are."

Both of these are quotes from our most recent speaker, Dr. Thomas J. Calhoun.  I couldn't agree with either more, and I love how much they relate to one another.  One of the biggest problems I think that we as college freshmen have is that we have decided what we should be, and that might not always be exactly what the universe thinks we should be.  We have this idea of what life is going to be like and what we'll do and who we'll be, but the whole point of college is to explore all the options and opportunities presented to us.  Because of these predisposed ideals we close our minds to whatever other options might be out there.  We talk ourselves out of exploring who it is we actually are, and then ten years from now when it is completely inopportune, we'll decide that who we've been pretending to be is not at all who we actually are.  So, we need to take the opportunity now to go out and have adventures and explore and create and live and discover who we are meant to be.

Honestly, plans change all the time, and there's a 99.9% chance that any given situation won't turn out as expected because it's practically impossible to predict what challenges, people, and manic things life will dish out.  You can meticulously and obsessively plan out any scenario, but things will almost always go differently than you expected because that's just life.  It happens, and it's fleeting.  When your plans change, the best thing you can do is just go with it and handle it the best way you know how.  Sometimes it's hard.  Sometimes it's easy.  Sometimes it's absolutely insane.  No matter what adjective matches with the situation at hand, you have to do the best with what you've been dealt and keep moving forward.  I think that Walt Disney said it best, "Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long.  We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

"Values aren't buses... They're not supposed to get you anywhere. They're supposed to define who you are." - Jennifer Crusie

Value:  relative worth, utility, or importance.

This is the definition of moral values according to Merriam Webster.  Or his dictionary anyway.  Values are often the motivations we as human beings have to go about our days, our reasons for living. I mean, think about it.  Our values are the foundation of our very beliefs.  Without them, we have nothing because we have no basis for an opinion.  Now, of course values vary from person to person.  Some people find religion or spirituality to be of great importance while others find knowledge or wisdom to be more prevalent.

So without further ado, I give you, my beloved readers, my top seven values (in no particular order) and my reasoning behind each of them.

1. Independence.  I am a very independent person.  I hate being ordered and bossed about without a say in the situation.  I feel that every person leads his or her own life, and independence is what makes that possible.  Without the ability to decide for yourself where your heart and soul lie in any aspect of your life, life simply isn't worth living.  Maybe that's too melodramatic, but what can I say?  I'm a pretty dramatic person.
2. Courage.  This one's a biggie.  I personally am not a big risk taker.  I want to be, but I often get scared and wimp out.  That's where this thing called courage steps in.  When you watch any movie with adventure in it, Harry Potter, The Pagemaster, The Sandlot, the hero has to have courage to go through with it all, to save everyone and live happily ever after.  That's really difficult.  To stand alone or even with others and fight for something, whether it's your life, the lives of others, or just a baseball that's gone over the fence.  It's such an admirable thing when someone takes that risk, that leap into the unknown solely because they have to.  Without that leap, everything would be lost.
3. Love.  Okay, so I'm a sucker for love.  Give me a love story, and I'm a happy camper.  I've often said that love makes life worth living.  Whether it's loving your soul mate, family, pets, or passions, it gives life meaning.  My grandfather drove me around in my middle school days when I was not capable of doing so.  He had lost his wife several years earlier, and he loved her with all his heart.  In a conversation he had with my dad once he stated that my brother and I were his reason for getting up every morning.  Driving us around meant the world to that man.  He'd lost the love of life, but the love of his grandchildren kept him going.  The Beatles say it best.  "All you need is love."
4. Knowledge.  I was raised on Schoolhouse Rock, so I am a firm believe in their mantra, "Knowledge is power."  Knowledge grants us the ability to question things and feed our curiosity.  In a way the gift of knowledge and the thirst for more keeps the earth turning.  It keeps life moving forward.
5. Creativity.  Passion.  To me these two values feed off of each other.  Passion fuels creativity.  Creativity discovers passion.  One does not exist without the other.  My passion for dance feeds the fire of creativity within so that I can create choreography, and this creation furthers my passion for dancing.  With the help of passion and creativity, I am able to express myself.
6. Dedication.  In order to achieve anything in this world, one must be dedicated.  This also ties into responsibility.  If you are dedicated to something, you are more likely to take responsibility for it. If you want to make it in the big time of whatever business in which you're interested, you have to dedicate yourself to it.  You have to sacrifice things to reach your goals.  
7. Growth.  This is something achieved through all the values listed above.  Through finding yourself, taking risks, loving others, striving to know more, creating through passion, and dedicating yourself to your cause you grow as a person.  And honestly that's when you know you've achieved your goals.  When you've grown enough to see that everything you've ever done has happened for a reason.  When you can look back on your life with no regrets, that's when you've grown to your potential.  

There you have it folks, an in depth look at the values of Katie Lindsay.  These are the motivations behind my actions; these are what define me.

Memphis - Where All the Streets Are Paved With Soul

To begin with, I must explain that I love musicals and music in general.  Earlier this summer, I found the musical Memphis, which is a fabulous tale of a dance and music television show in the 1960s and of course so much more.  While watching this show, I fell in love with the city of Memphis, even though I'd never set foot on Beale Street.  So, imagine my excitement when I was told that I would get to visit this amazing and unique city.

Roaming around Memphis our first night was incredible.  Beale Street with music floating around, conveying the entire spectrum of emotions, a trolley ride that stranded us ten blocks from our hotel, the coolest bridge in a quaint park.  The entire city mesmerized me.  Everything about it just made my heart sing.

And of course, how can I forget the Brooks Museum or the Memphis Zoo!  The Brooks Museum of Art was the most spectacular art museum I've attended.  It's collection The Soul of a City was so powerful and fascinating, and I loved the little exhibit in which patrons could create their own artwork.

The Memphis Zoo.  The entire time we were there I turned into an eight year old.  Everything is interesting and marvelous to me.  I love animals.  I mean, some of my favorite movies are Flipperand Alaska, you know those 90s movies about children saving these endangered animals from poachers and the like.  I especially love polar bears.  And I got to see polar bears, so I can honestly die happy.  But really the Memphis Zoo is such a good zoo.  It's well kept, and it has big habitats for its animals, which is something that most zoos don't have.

All in all, I love Memphis.  I will definitely be making many more trips to the River City throughout my lifetime.