Optimism: The Best Therapy

I'm not really a hateful person... but I have decided what I do hate: negative people. Lately I've been trying my hardest to always be positive. I was talking to my two friends Emily and Rachel the other day, and they said that it bugs them when people are always happy. (They were in bad moods.) They think that it's abnormal to always be happy. I disagreed with them at first, but then I started thinking... everyone goes through trials and feels sorrow, so no one can always be happy. But! Being happy and being positive are completely different things.

Positivity: having an attitude with which you always look for the best in everything, and try to focus on the happiness.

Happiness: actually being joyful and smiling and feeling like everything that actually matters in your life is going great.

I used to think that I'm always happy, but then I realized I'm not. Not really. I'm positive and that's all that matters. There are quite a few things in my life that could cause me to be so very upset and grumpy all the time, but instead I choose to be positive. Something that actually does cause me to become happy is service. I love bringing joy to other people. When Emily and Rachel were all sad and mad that one day, the next day I brought them "bricks of pudding." I totally made their weeks. :D It made me so happy to just see their faces light up when I gave them their bricks. (By the way, bricks of pudding are an inside joke between us, so the fact that I actually made some for them was pretty hilarious.) Service is incredible. Even just the little things. I think that when I serve I am touched more than those I serve.

~~~

Change of topic. Okay, so after Jive the other night the scariest thing happened. (Not to me, thankfully. I would have cried.) It was a living nightmare. There was a person in Kiefer's car. A random person. Hiding in his backseat. Thankfully he saw them, and was driving near a friend so he called them and they looked in his car and saw the person. Then Kiefer pulled over and was about to run out of his car when the person hopped out and ran down the street. CREEPY. I honestly have nightmares ALL THE TIME about people hiding in my car. I've always been so paranoid about it. But I always thought it was an irrational fear. I mean really. I always lock my car, and I live in Twin Falls, ID, where very little crime ever happens. Ever. And that guy could have very easily been in my car instead. Kiefer said his car had been locked (so honestly, how the heck'd that guy get in?), and my car had been parked in the exact same parking lot. If that guy had broken into my car I could have been killed. Because the way I drive home is mostly in the dark out in the middle of nowhere between a bunch of farming fields. Easy place for someone to hide a body. Hearing about what happened to Kiefer makes me so thankful for being safe that night. I am even more careful to check my car now than I was before. Eep.

Just a fantasy.

I enjoy nature. A lot more than I thought I did. I've always loved being in the outdoors while camping and such (excluding the bugs), but I never realized how peaceful it can be just in my backyard. Hearing the birds and the rustle of the trees in the wind. I wish I would spend more time outside surrounded by nature, but I guess bugs are just icky enough to keep me away. :/

~~~

Word of Advice: You know, people always say "don't judge a book by it's cover," but the same thing goes for first impressions. Even if you talk to someone and then decide that you don't like them, or whatever, you should still be kind and try to get to know them better. First impressions are rarely ever correct. I feel like I may have lost chances at many new friendships due to either my judging of others via first impressions or vice versa. Always give people a second chance. And a third. And fourth, and how ever many it may take for you to actually know them.

~~~

I always find myself daydreaming (so I guess it's a good thing that I can pay attention to things subconsciously while thinking of other things). I always fantasize about scenarios that honestly could happen... the likelihood of them occurring, however, is less than the chance of me marrying a Vietnamese hippopotamus. Unsurprisingly, these daydreams usually have to do with boys. I think "Well, today will be the day he talks to me." And then I go through an entire conversation in my head. Does it ever happen? No. Do I do the same thing the next day? Yes. That's what being hopeful is! Actually, I lied. It did happen once! Of course, it was a different person then I was imagining, but the concept is still the same! Being hopeful always pays off. :D

"You stood there in front of me

Just close enough to touch

Close enough to hope you couldn't

See what I was thinking of."

'Sparks Fly' - Taylor Swift

"This night is sparkling, don't you let it go

I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home

I'll spend forever wondering if you knew

This night is flawless, don't you let it go

I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone

I'll spend forever wondering if you knew

I was enchanted to meet you."

'Enchanted' - Taylor Swift

You know... there seems to be a Taylor Swift song for any situation a girl may be in. Do you think Taylor Swift does that on purpose? Or has she just been in all of those situations that girls are put in? Because if it's the latter, then Taylor is both a very fortunate and unfortunate girl. Actually, before she was famous she was kinda a loser in her school and stuff. It makes you think... what do the people who went to school with her think now? "Well, I was super stupid for being mean to her. And now there is a song (with my name included in it) that everyone in the country knows. Just swell."

~~~

Epic moment: First, understand that I absolutely love the Disney Channel show Phineas and Ferb. Go ahead and judge me, but it is a good show, and nothing you say will alter my opinion of it. So yesterday I was waiting to pick my little brother Danny up from school. I noticed a girl wearing a Perry the Platypus (my favorite character) t-shirt. I quickly grabbed my iPod, changed the song, and rolled down the windows of my car. As she walked by I blasted the Perry the Platypus theme song. At first I didn't think she noticed, but then I looked in the rearview mirror and saw her looking back at me like I was crazy. Needless to say, it made my day.

IGuessSomeThingsAreJustMeantToBe.

Will I ever change?! It's been nearly 7 months since I last posted and yet it seems like I'm doing the exact same thing: procrastinating the many homework assignments I need to do. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, will you ever learn? Okay, so I guess I'm kinda multitasking because I have my WebAssign Calculus homework open in another tab... but I'm obviously not doing that this very second because I am here typing this. I'll probably try to just switch back and forth in 5 minute intervals (hmmm... i wonder how well that will turn out. :P).

Fifth day of school. Already behind on homework. Not looking like a very promising year. Other than homework, and schoolwork, and any work that takes any unwanted effort on my part, school has been great! I have classes with friends, I have made new friends, I even kinda have fun. Fun? At school? I've never known that was possible! And this year (along with my newly found enjoyment of educational activities ((an enjoyment, I will mention, that I will most likely never admit outside of my blog (((not that I don't want people to know, just that I doubt I will ever take the effort to actually bring it up in a conversation))) )) ) I have also received great responsibilities. Taking 4 college credit courses (nice alliteration, huh?) I now must pay attention to deadlines. Crap. Well, there goes what's left of my GPA. (Just kidding. I've actually been doing pretty well these first few days!) More than school responsibilities, at home I'm now the oldest. With Rachel in Russia and Matt in Argentina I'm the 'oldest sibling.' I do what I can, but there are many times when my responsibilities are shirked. I know my mom gets annoyed at me at times, but hey, I'm a teenager; it's not my fault! (Okay, maybe it is. But I find pleasure in making up excuses and rationalizing things.)

Enough of all that responsibility crud, now onto fun! I finally made the show choir at Twin Falls High School, yay JIVE! I love it. Oh so much. And I'm also in Chamber Singers, the advanced concert choir. Also way fun. JIVE! is full of amazing, nice, crazy, talented people, and I feel honored to be part of that category! Although going to my home school's 'rival school' for half of the day is somewhat awkward, I like meeting new people and getting to know them. Being at TFHS also really makes me aware of how great a school Canyon Ridge really is. Go Riverhawks! More fun: Swim team. Okay, maybe I've just become boy-crazy or something, but I'm pretty sure there have never been so many attractive, nice guys on swim team before... like wow. I feel privileged to be on the same swim team as them. And some of the are doing water polo. I am proud. Water polo is da bomb. Speaking of, this year in water polo it's slightly strange because I'm actually an advanced player. I am picked on to be an example, and help with plays. Since sports aren't my forte I've always been in the background, but this year it's great! I just can't wait until next year to see if I'm promoted to hole-man (or in my case hole-woman) or something, maybe even safety valve! (For those of you unfamiliar with water polo, I'm sorry, but I'm to lazy to explain. If you really are curious enough, look it up. Don't you love my insensitivity?)

Random stupid moment that just happened to me (this will show everyone how much of a nerd I am): I was doing my Calculus homework, and I needed to graph 'tan^2(x),' I did that and everything, but my graph wasn't showing up right. I was like thinking, "What the heck?!" Then I asked a friend and it turned out my calculator was set to degrees instead of radians. Then I felt dumb. I always keep my calculator in radians, so I never check! But I forgot I lent my calculator to a friend. Well, I'm sure none of you even care about this 'cuz you are all no where near as nerdy as I am, but whatever. I just felt dumb for making that mistake, so I thought I'd share it.

Word of Advice:

S.M.I.L.E. - Showing Messages of Interest and Love Easily. (Sorry for the lame acronym. I came up with it in the spot. But at least it's better than the acronyms they give you here.) My acronym may be extraordinarily lame, but it's true and makes sense! Even don't know someone at all it's still good to smile at them. I honestly shows them that you are putting some interest in them, which for some people can make their day. If you smile at someone you mostly know it shows that you honestly love and care for them. Not to mention, smiling is so easy! Does it really take that much effort to slightly move the corners of your mouth? No. Come on! I can do it, and I'm the laziest person I know. It's a wordless message that conveys so much emotion with so little effort; why wouldn't you smile? Not to mention, everyone is more attractive with a smile on their face. Even if you don't think your smile is cute, or pretty, or anything; it brightens up your entire face and makes you shine. Never forget to smile. Even if you aren't smiling at anyone in particular. If you just walk down the hall with a smile on your face people will want to know you. Also, if someone smiles at you, smile back. It is so rude and obnoxious when you smile at someone and then they just look away or act like you're crazy or something. Smile.

Well, I honestly hope that reading my blog wasn't a totally complete waste of time and that you learned something, even if that something you learned was to never read one of my blog posts ever again. Then at least you gained that piece of knowledge. If you would like to read a blog of mine with more of a purpose there is always MuffinsForTheSoul. I know that I personally grow spiritually when I write it, so I hope I can help others grow when they read it. But if you'd rather not read it then oh well. It's your decision. It's your life. The end.