Announcement: New Blog

So I decided to create a new blog, called 365 days of Liz. It's one that I've attempted to do in the past, but this time I simplified it a lot.

I'll be posting daily, and I'll have a picture of myself (to see how I change throughout time) a description of important events during the day (to have something to look back on in the future) and other pictures that I might of taken of those events (for fun).

I'm not sure if it's something that will really interest my normal readers, but I'm announcing it anyways just in case.

Here's the link: http://365daysofliz.blogspot.com/

Three of the most important reasons.

Erika- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. We’ve been through hell and back, and that's putting it lightly. We don’t see each other nearly as often as we should but I don’t think our friendship has dwindled one bit even with our very different lives. We always mention to each other how very few real friends we have right now, but it means more than the world to me that I can put you at the very top of that short list no matter who the others are every single time. It seems like every time we have our differences we end up stronger than before. I can’t believe it’s almost been 6 years. I’ve never had a best friend for 6 years before. One of these days we’ll have to thank Mrs. leingang for making me move on that bus that started it all.

Anne- you never cease to surprise me, and throughout the past 5 or so months nothing has surprised me more than how you constantly teach me things about myself through your effortless observations. I tend to doubt myself more often than not and every time you notice that you give me ways to look positively at myself that I had never known before. We have more in common than most people realize, and its always fun to see how people react when they do realize our quirky similarities. I only we could have learned about this much sooner. I want thank you for giving me reason to really believe in myself, instead of telling me that there are parts of me that are good, you point them out and smack me in the face with them. If I can be half as great as you make me sound to myself I’d be set for life.

Tyler- I consider you to be one of my best friends, I have for quite some time, and I’m not sure if I’ve done a good job of showing that. You have no idea how glad I am that we were bus buddies throughout this season, since I’ve missed you for over a year. I mentioned at one point that you "know me too well" you can always seem to read my emotions, you read me like an open book. It’s a good thing. You’re one of the only people I’ve never been afraid to show my true self to or tell my secrets to. You’ve helped me through a significant number of tough times and I can always count on you to never judge me. We definitely hang out more often, you never fail to put me in an absolutely great mood, no matter what kind of day I’m having. I feel extremely blessed to have you as a friend.

The first letters in each of your names in the order you’re in spells EAT. So every time I feel like skipping a meal because I don’t think I’m good enough, I’ll remember three of the most important reasons why I’m wrong.

Up with People - My new goal.

Up with People. "Through international travel, community service and performing arts, Up with People offers its students an unparalleled global education and a unique passageway to experience the world."

I've been talking to my mom about wanting to do something meaningful, something that would be life-changing. I've wanted to be a part of something important, somewhere I could make life long friends.  I'm tired of sitting around at home and doing absolutely nothing for this world when I care so much about it. So after some research, we found this group. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with the idea of it. 


And I definitely want to do it. 


My goal: Summer of 2013. 

I think to me, it was never about the competition.

That's part of the reason it makes me so mad that it's so important to everyone else.

When it's enough for us to say that we just went out and had fun with it, and that we enjoyed ourselves and thought we did amazing and not doubt ourselves when others try to tell us otherwise... I think that makes us better. We might be a young group but we're definitely more mature than a lot of people give us credit for. And we're smart. The kids in this line come up with so many solutions if things are going wrong, and some clever visuals to help tell a story.

And I don't care what the judges say, our show makes sense, we tell a good story. Just because it's not a "concept" show doesn't mean it doesn't put a  point across. Besides, there is a concept in our story if you really cared enough to pay attention.

Plus, just because we don't care about the competition doesn't mean that we don't try. We do what we do because we love it, why would we only give half of our efforts toward it? I think because we have fun with it, because we love hearing that we have more fans because of the way we are, because our instructors say we can, we end up giving more to it than most groups. And by more, I mean not just the skill, not just the focus, not just the technical stuff. We have a passion, we've got humor, and more importantly, we have each other.

Yesterday was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for us. Our first show was the best show we had ever had. To hear that the judges didn't agree was tough. But we bounced back at an amazing rate, and didn't lose an ounce of motivation. We improved on a lot of things in a little amount of time, and then saw some improvement in our scores. I hope that proved to some people that we don't get beat down and discouraged too easy. I feel more accomplished about the fact that we moved up two points, even staying on the bottom.

We have two more competitions and a home show left. Honestly, I don't care if we medal at championships, I'm looking forward more to the home show than the championships anyways. 

First steps: complain and worry less.

I know I worry too much.

I think it's based on a few things. I've seen what can happen to people who don't care enough... things start falling apart for them and they lose grasp of what their life was, they end up having no real control. I've also seen what happens to people who have other people worry for them. They get trapped in a bubble, isolated from the rest of the world and don't get to live their own lives.

I've been too caught up in trying to make my life perfect lately. After losing a small amount of control last semester, I needed to regain my authority in my life and I ended up making things worse. At the same time, I was able to get parts of my life back into gear, instead of letting them spiral out of my sight. Almost a win-lose situation.

And I know I complain too much.

It just sort of comes out without me thinking and I always regret it. I always feel bad about it and wish that I didn't as much as I do. It's annoying. It's connected to my worrying about everything.

Maybe I need more yoga.

But seriously, I need a way to chill out and stop being so tense over every little thing. I would love to have a carefree attitude instead of being the bitch. I'm looking up ways to stop worrying and one of the things that has popped up is to stop trying to save the world. I think I need to figure out the difference between saving the world and making a difference.

This week my goal is to complain less. Even if I've got issues internally, maybe if I cease to express every little discomfort and argument I have, it will help me to quiet the complaints inside me as well.