Those are some of the books I’m reading in the next two weeks or so….so if you’ve read them, let me know you thought! And if there’s anything you want to discuss, of course I am completely open.

“Has our conscience shown?
Has the sweet breeze blown?
Has all kindness gone?
Hope still lingers on

I drink myself of newfound pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don’t know why, I don’t know why

1-So I walk upon high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself
While the tears roll down
‘Cause it’s the world I know
It’s the world I know”

Are we listening?
To hymns of offering?
Have we eyes to see?
Love that’s gathering?

All the words that I’ve been reading
Have now started the act of bleeding
Into one, into one

-Collective Soul, ‘World I Know’

There is something about the glow of a person’s face when they are around someone or something they love. This ‘glow’ (for lack of a better word) is, I think, the closest we as human beings can come to understanding just how wonderful (again, lack of a better word) love is. The start of the summer always makes me think of love because so many things I love I only get to experience in the sweetness of summer. Some of my loves include thunderstorms, the smell of rain, sunsets, parks, milkshakes, stars, laying out, beach towels, sunglasses, dresses, flip flops, barefeet, painted toenails, and the sound of the ice cream truck as it rolls down my street. Summer for me is the ultimate expression of freedom. If freedom was contained in a single season, summer is that season. Independence Day is July 4th…but there is something about getting out of school or even work early and still have the sky be a brilliant blue.

As of this point in my life, i’m in love with many things and people. i love anything eco-friendly. i love the colors green, purple, and blue. i love the ocean, where i’ll be going for a week this summer. these things keep me strong and believing that someday, i’ll find someone who loves similar things. lately, I’ve been on a huge soulmate thing. I don’t know if that’s because of the books I’ve been reading, or the free time I have now that classes aren’t in session….but something about this season makes me want to experience it with someone i really care about. there’s absolutely nothing better than dancing in the rain

so, enough with all this mumbo-jumbo about me. (what is it with me and rhyming words….amorous/glamorous and mumbo/jumbo??) I am really looking to make two points with this post. The first? Being in love makes people glow. More so than any amount of money could ever do. That’s why it just pays to be happy….no matter what it takes for you to be happy, you should do it. Find a passion. Do what makes you feel alive.

The second point I’d like to make with this post is: Travel to a foreign country is sooo important. I am a huge believer in the power humans have to connect with each other. It is so pertinant to society that we make connections with other cultures and realize how unique and beautiful everyone is. The picture I chose to include in this post I found on National Geographic’s website. It was taken in Rome…a beautiful, romantic city. As I mentioned in the caption, whenever I see pictures like this, I yearn to board a plane and fly to a foreign city, if only to get kissed like that. That is love. And it’s real life (not that an upside down kiss…from spiderman isn’t). Pictures like that create romantic images of foreign cities and people for me. And I believe these cities/people are romantic, but I also know that romance exists right here. I think sometimes I, and people in general quite possibly, get fascinated with foreign destinations because they are foreign. Unknown. It’s always easier to think that if you were somewhere else, your life would be more exciting and romantic. But I don’t think that’s the case. Your life is what you make it. Here or in Rome or wherever you are at this given point in your life. This doesn’t stop me from wanting to travel though. I am planning on seeing one of my best friends in Italy when she travels there in the spring. Two of my other best friends are traveling this year too…and what a good time to go! Truthfully, I’m jealous.

Amor. Love. Love yourself. Friends. Family. Boyfriends/girlfriends. Passions. Seasons. There is so much in this world to love.

Sometimes life’s little adventures are about the journey you take to get somewhere. But sometimes, they are all about the destination, the place of serenity and hope, where you end up after a tumultous 8 months of more emotion and feeling than you would have ever thought. As a wise person once told me, one that I am so proud to consider one of my great friends, God does not give you the people you want in your life, he gives you the people that will shape you into the person you want to be. (That isn’t exactly right, so don’t quote me.)
In my case, the destination is not where I thought it would be at first, but a place where I now feel the most comfortable. I can honestly say this is a completely new place for me, but it is so welcoming and familiar and wonderful that I can testify I am more than thrilled to be here.
This whole sophomore year of college thing passed in a blissful mess of meetings, classes, almost all-nighters, movies, walks, dancing, pizza, and more memories with more wonderful people than I could have hoped for. It’s hard for me now to consider myself a junior, because that means I am one step closer to becoming a ‘big kid’ and having to make some decisions about my life. I have to admit though that I am welcoming my newfound freedom of choice. I am excited to be a teacher and finally explore the world outside of Pennsylvania. I know other places exist, I’m just sure of it! And I have all these wild, crazy plans that I know will come true in one form or another. It’s just weird for me to think that college is halfway over….more on that later.
I’d like to leave all of my readers…maybe there are 4 of you?! with some of my thoughts. I would say ‘words of wisdom’, but that is too cliche and not even remotely true. In this past year, I have learned to trust my own instincts and follow my own heart. I have learned that you really can’t please everyone and life is all about having fun. If people love you, they will come back to you, even if it’s not in the way you want/expect. You can’t control how other people feel about you. You can only control how you feel about yourself and your environment. If you want something to happen, you have to make it happen. Sure, the people that care most about you will pick up the pieces of you when you fall, but ultimately that responsibility lies on you. It’s scary, but it’s truth and life and beauty and all those wonderful abstract concepts we try so hard to physically define. Life is a learning experience, a wild, crazy ride on a spinning top or a bouncy ball, or on the wings of a butterfly. My life is anyways. Because I want it to be. I want my life to be sunshine and rainbows and made up of a ton of itsy bitsy pieces of everything that is me. And you know what, after a year of wrestling with this idea, I LOVE ME. I’ll admit that I do still care if other people do too, but I know that I do love myself. Jewel’s new song has inspired me in all of this. She says, ‘I’m gonna love myself more than anyone else and believe in me, even though some can’t see the stronger woman in me.’ I am strong and I want to be where I’m at (and for those that know me, everywhere else too). I want to be a writer and some day that is going to happen to me.
Thanks for everything you guys have helped me with. It’s really more than I could ever, ever say.