Newness.

I think newness is important in life.
I think it's necessary.
Life would go on never changing if it didn't exist.
I have officially spent over one year purposefully changing my life.
-I no longer spend more than 10 minutes on styling my hair a day.
-I started getting up early on a regular basis.
-I made an effort to cross things off of my Life Goals List.
-I conciously spent my time making sure I was a positive influence on people.
-I now know one person better than anyone else does, and he knows me best too.
-I let myself get hurt. (Much different that 'i got hurt')

So now it's time for new goals. Time for new change. So what am I doing now?
I am...
-not letting one person be responsible for so much of my happiness.
-planning a future only for me
-training for a 5k, that I will complete
-committing myself to growth
-spend a little more time making sure I look presentable
-get rid of material things
-read more books

hope

Life has been so incredible as of lately. I'm not entirely sure if it's that life is great, or that I'm so surprised that I am happy almost constantly. A new friendship has bloomed, and it has made me feel so incredibly fulfilled. New opportunities have emerged, that just months ago I never would have thought possible. I am reminded in this moment that world keeps turning; life keep happening. It doesn't always happen how we think it will, but it happens nonetheless. And when things aren't the greatest, they have only the potential to get great, and that's something to hope for.

spanglish and salsa

Sometimes I forget that there are bigger things in life. I get caught up in my feelings, and let them distort the world around me. Today I had one of those humbling moments, or as I like to see it- one of God's subtle reminders that He should in fact be the center, not me. Tonight I spent over an hour hanging out with tons of Latinos. It was amazing to be caught up in the middle of Spanglish and Salsa. There was Puerto Rico, Panama, Peru, Cuba, Mexico and Chile all represented and it was amazing to me to see such a connection. I was thoroughly enjoying spending time struggling with what little spanish I know trying to communicate with them. When I got home I got a friend request from a young girl from Honduras. She's likely one of the girls I'll be working with when I move there in january, and this small little request made me remember; remember that there's more pressing things in the world than my own happiness.

A start

“While yet alive, before their tints had faded, they glistened like the fairest flowers, the product of primitive rivers; and he could hardly trust his senses, as he stood over them, that these jewels should have swam away.”

This a quote by Henry David Thoreau that I've been in love with the past year. It may not seem like much, because it doesn't give you a warm, fuzzy feeling deep down inside and its not incredibly thought-provoking and it doesn't change the way you look at life, but I think there's beauty in the fact that you have to search for it. For me, it is life. It's about how precious and short it is, but that there's beauty right up until the end. It's about how we change and learn and grow throughout our lives. And its about twilight, its about that magical moment that exists right before it ends, and so it only seems appropriate to start this blog here. For I am in the twilight, while yet alive...