Things I Learned My Sophomore Year, Part Two

I posted part one of things I learned this past year yesterday, so check that out here. Here's the rest of what I learned my sophomore year of college.

10. Finding a new study spot is refreshing and can increase productivity. Going along with not liking being comfortable, changing up the where you do your homework can make a mundane task a wee bit more exciting.

11. Sneaking into the dining hall whenever possible is always a great idea. I live in a sorority house and have my meal plan through that, so I wasn’t able to experience the greatness of the university dining hall this year (I'm being completely serious. I love Atherton). Towards the end of second semester, however, I snuck in several times and enjoyed some delicious soft serve ice cream.

12. If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try. I began a new minor this year in a subject I knew very little about, and changed my second minor at the end of the year to another subject I know very little about. I was quite terrified to do both things, but knew that doing so would ultimately challenge me and make me happier. *Again, note not liking feeling comfortable.

Reading my poetry at an open mic night. I was terrified.

13. You can do hard things. Just because you’ve never done something before and the challenge of breaking ground on it seems difficult, that doesn’t mean you aren’t capable. I discovered my love of writing poetry this year, something I never thought I could do in a million years. I also helped organize a protest. I never thought I’d do that either.

14. Now is the time to explore. When else in my life am I going to have the opportunity to learn so many different things from so many different people with little to no real-life responsibilities in one contained environment? Probably never, so if I want to take a philosophy class just for funzies, I should. If I want to road trip across state lines to see a concert when I have class the next morning, I should. If I want to eat nothing but ice cream all day long while my metabolism is still bumpin’, I should.

15. Now is the time to be selfish. Similar to the above point, now is the time to figure things out about myself and do stuff I won’t be able to do when I have a real-life job and other adult responsibilities. I should take advantage of this feeling of being suspended in time between having some freedom and responsibility without having to pay bills or mow the lawn or have a full time job.

16. Leaving people anonymous notes makes you feel as good as it makes them feel. Hardly anyone has even gotten upset for someone telling them how awesome they are. This year, I fell into the habit of telling the people I love what I love about them, whether that be by verbally telling them, or by leaving them an anonymous note. It made me feel good to outwardly express my love for the people in my life, and I hope it made them feel good hearing it.

17. Time is weird and will alter your relationships with others. If you go months without keeping in touch with your friends from home, your relationship with them will be different when you meet up again. If you are close with someone for a certain amount of time, but then go a while without speaking, they won’t seem like a real person when you talk to them again, rather an idea of the person you once knew. The way we measure time is essentially made up, but it still governs so much of our lives, and that is weird.

18. Do what feels right. Nothing really matters but doing things that make you happy, and doing things that make others happy. If happiness and avoiding being an asshole are really all that matters, ignore the small stresses and just do what feels right. Trust me, it will feel right.

This past school year was an incredible time for self-growth and reflection, and I am conscious of the new discoveries I made in others and in myself. Thanks to everybody who inspires me every day, and thanks for caring enough about what I have to say to read this. Y'all rock. 

Things I Learned My Sophomore Year, Part One

I did a lot of self-reflection this past year of school, and I feel I learned a lot about myself. To avoid losing your attention by making the list too long, here is part one of my discoveries. Check back tomorrow for part two!

1. It’s okay to feel how you feel without knowing why you feel it. If you can be happy for no reason, it’s okay to be sad for no reason too. Emotions are too powerful to be rationalized, so don’t try.

2. You choose who you’re friends with. You don’t have to be friends with someone just because you have class with them or because they live near you, or even because you've just always been friends. If they don’t inspire you or make you a better person, why bother?

3. Always welcome real talk from people, no matter how well you know them. If someone you don’t know super well feels comfortable telling you personal things, you should welcome it and take the opportunity to deepen your friendship with them. Plus, you can gain a new perspective and learn something.

4. Doing things on your own is sometimes better than in a group. Wandering on your own and experiencing things in solitude can be a lot better than doing things with others and having to keep up with the conversation of the group. Alone time rocks.

5. You can never get bored if you talk to your brain. If you allow your brain to speak to you and you observe things or talk out loud to yourself or just sit and doodle for hours, you can never be truly bored. Your brain and a pen and paper is all you need to keep yourself occupied.

#FannyPackFriday

6. If you are your authentically strange self, people will be excited about it. If you declare every Friday to be Fanny Pack Friday and you forget to wear a fanny one week, people will miss the fanny and encourage you to continue next week. Also, if you and your friend wear onesies to a party, you’ll make so many new friends. *Note: these are both known from real-life experience. 

7. I don’t like being comfortable. I’ve discovered that I thrive and feel more inspired and excited about life when I’m not doing the same thing over and over every day. Being in an environment where each encounter you have with someone varies drastically, and you can change the course of your day at the drop of a hat makes me excited. I’m an art major for goodness sake; nothing is comfortable or secure about that.

8. Coffee is actually really great, and so is tea. Few things are quite as comforting as a slightly caffeinated warm beverage.

9. Everyone else will freak out a lot more over you not shaving your legs than you will. If you want to go four months during the wintertime without shaving your legs, then by golly you should do it. Ignore the haters who will tell you you’re “gross,” or “look like a man,” or “really need to go shave.” Yeah right, nobody needs to shave.

Check back tomorrow for numbers 10-17. OOOH THE SUSPENSE! 

My Sunglass World

Today I woke up early to cheer on two of my friends as they ran a marathon through good ole Peoria, Illinois. Whilst outside playing my tambourine and cheering for the passing runners, I wore some sunglasses. I was outside all morning and the sun was out, so naturally I threw on some shades. Wearing sunglasses all morning reaffirmed something I’ve already thought before: whenever I wear sunglasses, I feel like I’m living in an alternate reality where nothing is actually real. (What?)

I’ve concluded that whenever my perception of reality is altered visually, I feel like everyone else’s visual perception is off too, so nothing is real and we don’t actually exist for a little while. I wear glasses/contacts, and whenever I meander about without my eyewear, everything is fuzzy and seems kind of distant. For whatever reason, I then think that everyone else sees me as I am seeing them, and since I’m seeing everything in a very muffled way and everyone else is too, we are actually not existing normally in the world. I have this same mindset when I wear sunglasses.

Since having colored lenses in front of my face makes me see the world differently than usual, my brain makes me feel very distant from everything, as if I am looking through a cardboard box with a hole cut in the middle with a panel of cellophane stretched over it. If normally I am 100% in every situation I’m in, wearing sunglasses makes me feel about 70% in it, and the other 30% is me in a dream world where nothing is actually happening for real.

I am incredibly aware that this is super strange, but I thought it, and I wanted to share it, so there it is. Have a wonderful week and visit your own dream world if you’d like.

Deuces gooses.

Complacency Does Not Yield Creativity

Joseph Chilton Pearce once said, “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” Now, I’m not sure who this Pearce character is, but I wholeheartedly agree with him. I’ve only been home for about a week now, but since I’ve been home, I’ve gotten so many rad ideas for art projects and things I want to write. I’ll think about starting a project, get really excited and inspired by the prospect of it and how I think people will react to it, then I will just leave it in my brain or half-assedly outlined in my sketchbook. I did this all last summer as well, and didn’t create anything until the last bit I was home. Last summer I told myself that I needed to take a break from making things since it is my major and I spent the past nine months doing nothing but letting my creative juices flow. Although taking a break from what you do all the time isn’t a bad thing, I think I used this mindset as an excuse.

Whenever I am home, I feel significantly less inspired than when I am at school. I get most inspired by people I’m around or cool things I observe, and when I’m home in a town where I’ve lived my whole life, surrounded by the people I’ve been around my whole life, I struggle to be wowed and find inspiration around me. Instead of recognizing this and challenging myself to seek out inspiring situations, I usually just accept it and go a few months without creating anything cool. Well, truthfully that feels really wrong and makes me feel anxious and kind of sad. Maybe I sound like an asshole, but so much of what makes me myself I’ve discovered through art and creating. Making art gives me a reason to be weird for no reason. I love that. Since art is something that is so essential to me functioning properly and feeling happiest, I can’t use my struggle for inspiration as an excuse. I need to work through that and seek inspiration in new places. Keeping Mr. Pearce’s words in mind, I must give up the fear of being wrong. Now, in this case I’m not exactly fearful of being wrong or making something I’m not proud of. I’m just blocking myself off from finding a creative routine at home since I’m so used to having a creative routine at school. I kind of view my life at school as something separate from my life at home, and I’m afraid to bridge the gap between those two worlds.

I was looking at a bunch of quotes and stuff on Pinterest last night, and it sparked several ideas for new projects I want to do. I went to Michael’s today and bought a bunch of stuff, and thought of about five or six projects that I could do with each supply I bought. Since I now have all of these cool ideas brewing in my brain, I need to actually execute them. Summer is good for lounging around doing nothing, but when creating is essential for your happiness you must toss the classic summer doings to the wayside and make stuff! Just play. Making things is playful and fun and about experimentation. Even if you make something you don’t like, you experimented with different techniques and ways of working to get there. And now you know a way of working that doesn’t jive with your aesthetic. It’s a win-win. 

#Supplies

I suppose I’m writing this out as a promise to myself that I will start making something every day. I either need to write every day or work on some of the projects brewing in my brain. I have also been working on updating my artist website, and I need to actually get that done too. I fall into the habit of starting a creative project, and without school to give me a deadline for its completion, I just let it drag on for as long as possible.

So here’s my game plan for the rest of the summer:

1. Finish my artist website and update my resume.

2. Write some poetry-I need to finish all of the poem nuggets I’ve begun and flesh them out into something magical.

3. Make some art- I have a bunch of ideas for paintings I want to do, and a huge four-foot by five-foot canvas that I’m itching to get my hands on. I need to stop itching and actually scratch it.

Now that I’ve addressed my complacency on the Internet, I have no choice but actually do something about it. Thanks Internet for letting me empty some of my brain pocket into your loving arms.

Stay cool friends, and don’t be afraid to make stuff.

Riptide

Happy Monday all. If you follow my Butler blog, you know that most Mondays are Music Mondays, which means I write about a band or song that I want you to know about. Well, today is unintentionally a Music Monday.

Last night I was writing a post for U lala about bands I’m excited to see at Lollapalooza, and one of those bands was Vance Joy. I stumbled upon some of their music videos and really liked them, so here we are now. Vance Joy is an Australian singer-songwriter who has released one EP entitled God Loves You When You’re Dancing. I saw Vance Joy over spring break when he opened for Young the Giant, and since then I've heard his music pretty frequently.

Vance Joy’s most popular song is called, “Riptide,” and I stumbled upon the music video for this song yesterday. For some reason, this video tickles my brain. I think the song is fun too, but the video makes me like the song so much more. I just really enjoy it and think it’s clever, strange, and intriguing, so you should check it out.

Have a great week and thanks for reading :) 

I'm Back

Hello dear readers! As you can see, I am back posting on this blog. This blog was previously known as "You Know What I Did This Summer...," but I decided that I don't want to limit it to just summer happenings, so I changed the title. Here I will post random thoughts and observations I have, thus allowing you a peek into my brain.

I'm back and ready to rock.

Catch up on past posts until I get something riveting up here. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy :)

P.S. You can also catch up on my posts on my Butler blog or my posts on U lala. Woo!