Educating Yourself and Change Your Life

 

   We live in an era where it seems as if any information needed is accessible by the touch of a button. Why is it then that according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, that people are about as up to date with current events and world news as they were 20 years ago, even with the extensive advances in technology? Educating yourself is not simply what classes you took in high school or your intended major in college. Those things are important yes, but if those are the only sources you use to gain knowledge of the world around you then there is so much more to learn.
     To let one person tell you something and let that be the end all be all of your ideas on a subject is not the right way to approach education. Our minds are impressive especially when we are young and still learning. What people tell us might seem like the correct answer or way to view things, but until we gather information on our own, how can we truly know what we believe? A Gallup poll in 2005 suggests that 71% of our generation agree with their parents political beliefs. While that is not to say that what they think is wrong, it does raise the question of whether or not young people have those beliefs only due to parental influence or because of individual research and conclusions drawn on their own.
     One day I was with a friend and we randomly flipped on the news. Reporters were covering a huge protest that had already been occurring for several days. I had absolutely no idea what was going on but my friend knew almost everything. He made a joke about how poorly I keep up with my current events by how oblivious I was to something that was a major crisis in the south states. This made me consider how much I really don't know about the world. Sure, I know the things I've learned from listening to people talk, but how much do I actually know about the world?
     Being educated is a way of becoming aware of situations outside our own little bubbles. It gives us meaningful conversations to have and an overall maturity and increase in personal value that revolves around the acknowledgement of lives and cultures and ideas outside our own. By not accepting everything we hear without thinking for yourself first and by actively pursuing knowledge and information, we create a wealth of opportunities and gain so much in character. It is a privilege to know what is going on with our government and country while many other people around the world are prevented from that basic right by officials who blind them from the truth to keep them naïve and unthreatening. Knowledge is power and we need to take advantage of it in order to create the life we want and change the things we don't. If you don't like the president, vote. If you don't like the way LGTBQ people are treated, do something about it. If you don't like how women's rights are being handled by the government, protest. Stipulations don't change unless people take a stand. It all starts with taking time to learn what is going on in your world and then determining for yourself what you deem important.
     A great way to become more involved is just by doing little things. Watch a TedTalk once a week or read an online New York Times newspaper article. Go to Yahoo.com and click on one of their little news posts to get the scoop on something you find interesting. You can even just watch the Today Show while you eat breakfast. There are so many avenues that make it easy to access current events, we just have to pursue them. But while you are doing so, keep in mind that the news anchors and papers and blogs will report something how they view it and how they want you to interpret it too. Just because someone reports an event in a certain way doesn't make it absolute. You still have to determine for yourself what it is you will accept as your truth.
    
"Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family." - Kofi Annan


Credits:
http://worldaffairscharlotte.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/currentevents/
http://www.gallup.com/poll/14515/teens-stay-true-parents-political-perspectives.aspx

Online Journal Entry #2

  

      I really enjoyed the first online journal entry I did because I felt like I was getting out my true personality and coming off as more "human" than just a stranger over the internet. So I want to do it again. Today I am more feeling along the lines of nostalgic and sentimental, maybe even a little subdued? I am about to face one of the largest changes of my life thus far and while I have been excited for months anticipating this next step, many other feelings have surfaced within these last weeks.
     My large and exciting change is a move I am making five hours away from my hometown. I am going alone without family and friends to start a new chapter and "find myself". I didn't realize though that through this alteration in my life's path that my current friendships would morph or even be lost. I naively assumed that those I have been friends with for years would be ones I would keep for years in the future as well. Through this transition I have also learned that most of the hardships I face in my new home will be ones I will have to face alone until I develop new friendships there as well. I feel very singled out and almost as if I have already been forgotten though I haven't left yet. Amidst all of this excitement I didn't anticipate the loneliness I feel now as I approach my moving date. Given, there will be people I meet and relationships I establish that I will treasure for the rest of my life and my new home will provide extensive opportunities and memories for which I am looking forward too so incredibly much. But for right now as I am living in the grey area between new experiences and clinging to my past life, I just feel alone and scared.
      I think that the best advice for someone going through a life change is that you really need to get to know yourself first and throughout the process. You are about to spend a lot of time alone and dealing with feelings and situations that those close to you may or may not understand. Knowing yourself and being comfortable with who you are will help you to accept the inevitable moments where the only person who can help you is you. Becoming comfortable with yourself is also a process in which you truly evaluate what matters in your life and start to form the future you envision from that versus the future path you may be headed down otherwise. Sometimes it is better to walk alone through change than walk with people who will hold you back or keep you from where you should be. Even if you have loving family and friends, there are just certain things that one has to go through by themselves to build character and strength. That is perfectly alright. Those that you love will be waiting on the other side.
     Another huge idea to remember is that change doesn't last forever. This period of unstableness will end, just as everything does. This shifting in God's plan for your life is one that He will work for good just as He promises. The stress and worry that you may be experiencing with a large decision you are making will pass and your life will find itself on solid ground again. Thinking about this helps me push through the loneliness and worry I face because I know that I will once again find amazing people and an amazing atmosphere to thrive in.
     Hopefully this post related to some of you. I know that it felt good for me to get these words off my chest in a second online journal entry.
     Thankyou!
    

Losing Friends

    

 

 

 

     Friendships are tricky. And losing friends can be even worse. Sometimes it is a blatant cut of communication and other times the separation comes discretely until one day two friends are just as much strangers to each other as they are to people they've never even met. But the hardest part about losing friends can sometimes be the acceptance and realization that it is okay and the right thing to do to move on without them. It is hard to know that someone you have loved for whatever period of time no longer has a purpose in your life and that a new journey is beginning for you that they aren't included in. Lonely days ensue and there is always a little part of the heart that is empty without their presence. Regardless of the situation behind the fall out though, at one point they were the person you went to when you had relationship issues, happy news, and when you just needed them to hate someone for no reason except simply because you did.
     It's okay to acknowledge how much you cherished their friendship while also respecting and cherishing yourself enough to let them out of your life when their time is done. That definitely isn't to say that the friends you lose are terrible people, or that you are either. It's only to say that everyone goes through life developing differently and acquires multiple relationships along the way but not necessarily keeping them the whole way. If someone is the same person and 25 as they were at 17 then that is not something that is beneficial. The hope is that as you age, your maturity increases, your ideas expand, and your mindset grows while your experiences guide it. Sometimes unfortunately the same friends you had at 17 just don't make it to when you are 25.
     But it still sucks losing someone. A lot. The key thing I have found that helps me get through the pain of having to adjust to life without an old friend is to remember the reason they're gone. I just have to remind myself that I deserve a better friend and that they deserve that for themselves as well. And sometimes friendships rekindle and people make up and that is fantastic. But sometimes they don't, and that's okay too. And there are times when you lose friends for absolutely no reason and you may always be in the dark as to why they decided they were over it. In those cases keep in mind the saying "everything happens for a reason". The reason may not be clear now, but later it will be. Later you will make a friend that becomes the biggest blessing in your life and you will see why it never worked out.
     Not every friendship fails, this post is only about the ones that do. I know people that have been friends for 50 years and have both changed and grown but still stayed close. Those friendships are ones that we should thank God for everyday because to have a friend that loves you through all your ups and downs is a true gift. Friendships should never be taken for granted and never let someone have a place in your life that doesn't deserve to be there.
     "Friends are family that you get to choose."

Online Journal Entry #1

 

  Sometimes I just want to write about everything that comes to mind. Tonight I think I will treat this post as an "online diary entry". Just to talk about everything I am thinking right now.
     I want people to read this blog and be inspired to go out and follow their own dreams. Well for right now, I guess I just want people to actually find it on the internet and read it period.  I don't even know what this blog is supposed to accomplish in its lifetime, I just know that I started it for a reason and one day that reason will be clear. Don't get me wrong, hair masks and how to save money are fun things to write about but in ten years I see this blog having material that carries weight and forces debate. Someday what I write will effect how people think and view things in our lives and those of others. I don't even care if its lost right now in the universe with a thousand other blogs that are trying to be heard because everything has to start somewhere. But later there are going to be real life stories on here that will affect lives. At least I hope so.And I think that's how it should be with everyone. Everyone should have that something that they are so passionate about that even when it doesn't make sense, they just know that one day that dream of theirs will lead them to something great that they were meant to do. For me, I hope its writing, singing, and traveling. For someone else it may be their love for cooking, sports, or history. It can be anything. If you love something, go after it with everything you have. It doesn't matter how long it takes you to accomplish your goals, the point is that you are pursuing the life you want regardless of the time it takes to get there.
     There is nothing worse in my mind than to arrive at the end of my life and look back and wish I would have done something different to love my life more. I know that I am so young now and have so much time left to live and experience new things. But what if I don't. What if my days are shorter than I hope them to be and I don't get till I am ninety two to live. I want to live now. I want to travel around the world and live in the cheapest places and be broke for months because I chose to travel to Norway instead of pay my heat bill. To me that is exciting. I want to find my way into little coffee shops and play songs on the piano for extra money that goes towards my next adventure. I want to write about it too. I want to live now while I am young so I can have stories when I am old.
     Being young provides a world of possibilities and I hope that at the end of my days I know I spent them as best I could and with the best people I could. I hope this blog succeeds in challenging people and myself as well. And I hope this blog isn't conventional and that my life and those peoples lives around me aren't either. I hope everyone who ever reads this post or this blog has extraordinary lives that don't follow the typical path others pave. I hope we all find something that hooks us and draws us in and changes us for good. I hope that we can have the ability to fall in love many different times and with many different people and things. I want to fall in love with my favorite book and my favorite coffee shop. I want to love one country more than all the others I explore. I want one restaurant to always be my die hard favorite place in the whole city to go to and I want one dress that I love more than all the rest to put on when I go to eat there. Oh, and I guess I want someone to fall in love with once and for all. Or maybe a few someone's till I truly find who I was made to be with.   
     There is not one way to live life, there are many. And I want to live my life in all the different ways that I can find. I want this blog to be about something that impacts the world or at least stirs the minds of people who read it. As this blog clearly shows, I "want" many things. But I guess that's the joy of being young and having dreams. And I am just so excited for what my future holds.

Thanks,
Katy

Finding Yourself

    It is so difficult to be a teenager and young adult in this day of age. Our friends, peers, bosses, social media, magazines, TV, boyfriends, girlfriends, sisters, and enemies all influence who we think we should be. We rely on another persons opinion of us to dictate our actions or decisions. Have you ever thought about how much you actually allow someone else's, even a strangers,  opinion of what your doing cause you to stop or continue that action? Given, if it is something actually inappropriate then that is different, but we are talking about completely acceptable activities that are perceived as "weird" or "odd" or "stupid". Have you ever been completely rocking out in the car and had some stranger pull up next to you and look at you like you are from another planet? What did you do? Did you get embarrassed and stop or just continue doing what you were doing? What about bigger things? What about when you're friends make fun of you because you're the only one who hasn't slept with their boyfriend or you are the only one who doesn't drink on the weekends? Do you laugh and blow them off or do you take it to heart and then decide to make moves in your relationship that you aren't really ready for? If you allow others to decide who you are going to be that day or make choices for you, then you will grow up to be who everyone else wants you to be without ever really becoming the real you. You will become bits of pieces of everyone who influenced you. Now, that isn't all bad. Those who influence you for the better are a blessing, but in this post we aren't talking about those people.
     I have a friend who is like a little sister to me. I love her to pieces. But she has lost a lot of confidence because of how girls have hurt her in the past. She bought these adorable shoes and wore them to school one day but because of people lightly teasing her for standing out a little bit (they were cowgirl boots) for being the only one wearing them that day, she hasn't worn them since then because she was embarrassed. Its sad to see this girl who is absolutely gorgeous, she really is, and athletic, and sweet get so overwhelmed by what people had to say about her outfit. In a perfect world other people wouldn't drag her down like that, or at least if they did, she would blow off their opinions.
     As girls, we basically live to please and impress and be excepted, some more than others. Whether or not you agree that this is a true statement, I firmly believe it. We stop dancing and singing in our cars if we get weird looks, we don't wear that shirt again if the guy we like thinks its ugly, we cry when a mean girl says we are too fat or that we look anorexic, we stop trying as hard in class if someone calls us a goody two shoes. As older girls we let our bosses run us over because we are to scared to politely stand up for ourselves, we allow the men in our life take us for granted, we are to afraid to go to the gym without makeup because we will get judged. All our life we bow down to others opinions of us! If you allow yourself to get unjustly criticized by someone else then the message you are relaying to the person is that you don't value yourself enough to stand up for yourself and that that person is correct in the way that he or she is treating you. No! You deserve respect and the second you start letting people know that you wont sit here and let yourself be treated any less than you deserve, that is the second people start valuing and treating you that way too. It starts with you. When you portray that you deserve better you will slowly start to receive it. People will either see a strong girl or a meek one who is too afraid to tell people to treat her better than she has been.
     If you love yourself, then that's whose opinion really counts. It sounds insanely corny but its the truth. I didn't believe this quote until I forced myself to try to live it. I had a boyfriend who I thought considered me to the be the most amazing girl ever. Low and behold he had been cheating on me the entire relationship. I started to look at myself and think things like "if I had been more mysterious instead of weird and crazy he wouldn't have cheated" or "if I was skinnier" or "if my nose looked different". But in reality, it took until a good friend told me to get over myself that I realized that nothing I did could have prevented him from cheating on me. He's just a bad dude who can't hold on to the good things he has. His choice had nothing to do with me. I am pretty. And I am good enough. Once I finally realized how much I had to offer, I stopped letting other people dictate how I thought of myself that day. It so empowering to decide for yourself who you are instead of letting another person choose.
     I encourage you as a challenge to push your limits of comfort when it comes to building self confidence. Purposely dance and sing like a dork when a car pulls up next to you and sees. Where high heels even if you're already 6 feet tall. Order the regular coke when everyone else is getting diet. YOU are your own person and YOU are wonderful exactly how you are.



Picture: https://www.google.com/search?q=self+confidence

Easy Ways to Save a Little Money

Everybody loves to save a dollar or two in their daily life, but sometimes quality is sacrificed in return. My hope is that these tips I give you are ones that help you keep a buck in your wallet while still providing great ways to get the high quality you desire!

1. Instead of taking your car to the wash, do it yourself! It's super easy and is a great way to cool off now that it is summertime! The price of the supplies needed will easily cancel out after a few car wash trips are substituted for an at home clean. Tip: wash earlier in the morning to help minimize streaks caused by the direct sun hitting your windows.

2. Shop stores like TJ Max for high quality hair supplies. TJ Max sells brands like Bed Head, Big Sexy Hair, and others for a much cheaper price than stores like Ulta and Target.

3. Sandwich places like Jimmy Johns use fresh bread baked daily for their customers. Fortunately for you, they usually have tons of it left over at the end of the day that they give away for free at the beginning of each following morning! All you have to do is either call ahead about it or show up bright and early to snag the leftovers first. Everyone needs bread, and this is a great way to cut the cost of buying it at the store while also getting amazing freshness!

4. Online coupon shop before you go to the mall. I have saved an incredible amount of money by searching up coupons for my favorite stores before I leave my house. Sometimes I even find coupons for free things! My favorite coupon sight is mommysavesbig.com, but there a hundreds of other choices to  pick from. Its great to walk away knowing you got what you wanted without having to pay full price.

5. Ask for discounts at stores that aren't chains- chain stores aren't authorized to give individual discounts (so think local boutiques). If you find a hole you can easily stitch up or a little stain that you can fix, try taking the item to the counter and seeing if you could get 10% off due to the imperfection. I did this one time after I saw there was a tear in the sleeve of a blouse I wanted and they ended up just giving me the shirt for free because of it! So my advice is that it never hurts to ask cause you never know what you will get!

6. As far as cosmetics go, try searching the back shelves of stores like Ulta, Target and Sephora first. Many times they put clearance items in the back of the store that can end up saving you a lot of cash while still receiving stellar products! I have found 2 dollar O.P.I nail polishes in the back simply because the store had overstocked in that particular color.

Hopefully these few tips will help you become a better penny pincher without sacrificing the quality of the things you enjoy. Let me know of any other tips you love because I am always looking for new ways to save money!


Picture : http://www.harpergites.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/accro-shopping.jpg

20 Things Every Girl Should Know

Sometimes it's hard to be a girl. We are consistently judged and nit picked and held under a microscope by society. We work hard and sometimes it's all we can do to not crumble in front of our peers. Here are 20 things that every girl should know in order to be her best self.

1. It's okay to cry, as much as you need, and wherever you need.
2. It's amazing to feel confident with a bare face, but loving to wear makeup doesn't mean you hate your natural looks.
3. If you have an "iffy" feeling about a boy, shut him down, your instincts know best even if your heart doesn't quite yet.
4. Sometimes you may feel your best in yoga pants and a t-shirt and that's totally fine.
5. Let yourself splurge once in a while. You are worth it.
6. Comfort is worth the cost when it comes to a good pair of shoes.
7. Confront your loneliness head on when you break up, its better than ignoring it only to have a huge breakdown later.
8. Put your phone away when you are with friends. Twitter can wait.
9. Buy yourself flowers once in a while, who says you have to wait till a boy does it for you?
10. Work hard to make your dreams come true. Baby steps.
11. Have faith in God and yourself. Everything will come together in the end.
12. Sing and dance in your car. Who cares if an absolute stranger thinks your weird?
13. Smile at the cute boy who is looking at you, he's staring for a reason.
14. Take a selfie, not ten thousand.
15. Wear heels if you want to, it doesn't matter how tall you are in them.
16. If your nervous, count to three, take a deep breath and go for it!
17. Make a dream board to look at.
18. If you want something but aren't sure if you should spend the money, wait two days. If you still want it after two days then go back and buy it.
19. Slutty isn't Sexy. Slutty is Slutty.
20. Sometimes you gotta tell that mean girl how you really feel and that's okay. But stay classy.