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:
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."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."
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:
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."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."
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."
