Travelling

When I was younger, my sister and I would always talk about travelling the world together. Sadly she is 5 years older than me, which gives her more freedom than I have now. Recently, she went on a trip to Africa in the Congo and she also went on a road trip to San Francisco and Seattle and had the time of her life. These are just a couple of things she's experienced.

Just two days my sister took a trip along the pacific west coast and visited Vance Creek bridge in Washington. She said taking those first steps along the bridge was frightening but extremely exhilarating, not to mention, illegal! She sat side by side with her best friend and just soaked in the peace and beauty that they don't normally get to see on a daily basis while going to college.

My sister on Vance Creek Bridge

Next on her road trip, she stopped by Big Sur in central to Northern California. It was her first time there and she says she will definitely make an effort to go again. She was specifically taken away while driving along the coast of Big Sur in silence with her best friend. She described it as a never ending beauty. 

                                                         My sister looking over Big Sur

And last but not least, her most life changing trip to Africa. When I picked up my sister from the airport after returning from the Dominican Republic of Congo, I noticed a dramatic change in her eyes and the way she acted. She seemed extremely grateful to be standing with her family, but also forlorn because she had to part from the family she made there. She said she left her heart in the heart of Africa and she will return to work there as a nurse for a portion of her lifetime. 

Teen Dating

Teen dating is ridiculously popular. You'd be surprised by how many high schoolers, or even middle schoolers are in relationships these days. 89% of teens are reported to be in a relationship today and 37% of 11-12 year olds. OMG!!!!

Teen relationships almost always come to an end, except for those few exceptions of the whole "high school sweetheart" type of stuff. When teens first enter a relationship, they try to pretend that they know it won't end possibly terribly. Most of them are basically fooling themselves! I understand that it's nice to have a cute companion when you're going through high school but that's what friends and dogs are for!

What's the point? What I don't understand is why someone would want to invest their time into someone else during a key time in their life. Teen-hood is the time to focus on yourself and truly find who you are. How can you do that when you're trying to understand someone else who gives confusing signs and mixed signals and weird sad feelings. It's a big time suck and distracts you from the more important things that they could be going through during their teens. There probably are perks to teen relationships, like having experience for the future, but it seems that in most cases, the good outweighs the bad. Props to the teens who have discovered who they are and are in a healthy teen relationship.

Music is power. Music has the power to make people feel things. I find it strange how some noises can cause people to cry or be joyful. What is it with music that has this effect on people?

For me, music is life changing. From sitting in the band room early in the morning and making music, to listening to music in my room at midnight while taking a break from homework, I have never not enjoyed it. Music makes me feel what's going on around me, and it also takes me away from my surroundings and leads me into my dream world. It's indescribable.

I try to delve into each note I hear, or each beat or pitch. I think about why the composer or artist chose that specific note in that order. Each sound in a song is picked for a certain reason and what's interesting to me is why they chose it to be there. Each note plucked, plucks a string in my heart(cheesy i know).

Death by Finals

The school system is beyond frustrating. Feeling the heat, especially during finals week, I find it ludicrous how our 20+ weeks of hard work depends so heavily on an assignment or test given to us at the end of the semester. It's hard to maintain straight A's throughout the semester, and having one large assignment at the end of it that can determine whether you get an A or B is difficult to cope with.

Another fact that scares me is how well we do in these few years of our teenage lives will reflect on what the rest of our lives could possibly be like. If we don't  perform top notch during high school in this day and age, it's nearly impossible to compete with those who do when college application time comes.

I wish school was about genuinely learning new things and discovering yourself. But of course, we don't live in a perfect world so that's not the case. School is so heavily depended on numbers, memorization, scores, and exams that we forget the true meaning of school. I'm not saying that all we do is pointless and a waste of time, but more of that is going on than it should be.

Times a Tickin'

There's not a moment where we aren't aging. We don't think of our age growing throughout the seconds. minutes, hours, but it's happening. It's a constant thought that frightens me. I imagine myself growing wrinkles on my face as i'm staring at my phone screen and wasting precious time on social networking sites, or unnecessary extra sleep just because i'm too lazy to get out of bed.

I feel that if i'm not spending my time wisely, possibly studying or doing homework, then it's time wasted, and that's untrue. I, along with many others, need to understand that just because you aren't using all the time you have to be improving your grades or doing things along the lines of schoolwork, it doesn't mean you're wasting you're time.

In order to be happily sane, it's necessary to have some "you time". Understand that its not a waste of time because you're enjoying yourself in whatever you're doing, whether its sleeping, or exercising, or just doing nothing. Although one should use their time to it's full extent, how you choose to spend it is solely upon yourself, just keep in mind that time is of the essence.

How one wants to grow throughout the seconds of their lives should be thoughtful. One can never regain the seconds they've lost, all you can do is improve and learn to spend it more wisely for the future. Use your time to work on yourself, rather than watching upon others through a tiny screen.

Things Could be Worse

Often times when I'm in public, I hear complaints from people about this and that, but I never hear people expressing how thankful they are to be living. We live in a day and age where we constantly look at what we don't have rather than what we obtain and it's quite sad.

We could live in a world where freedom isn't free, or where segregation is popular, but we don't and I rarely see appreciation for how far we've come. Being unappreciative towards life causes depression, if only we could open people's eyes up to see what's truly in front of them. There's constant talk about how people not having the latest technology, or not having the best clothes. What I try to remind myself is if I have ever lived without it, I don't truly need it.

Teenagers are a huge advocate here, but so are adults. Adults should be paving the way to happiness for the younger society, but instead they're setting an example. Not all, but many. We all need to be reminded of the simple things in life that should give us immense pleasure, things such as:

• dogs
• trees and sunshine (typical, I know, but beautiful)
• beaches
• stars
• babys' laughter
• naps
• books
• good movies
• bouncy balls
• spicy food
• sweet food
• mountains
• snow
• cake
• butterflies
• LIVING 

We things that don't come so easy to others, and we need to use them to our advantage. It's important to be happy. Odds are, something one may be mad about today, might not matter to them in a year or even a week from now. Don't dwell on things that drag you down because it's nothing but a waste of thought when you could be HAPPY. Life is too short to have a long face.

Inevitability

The future is inevitable. For me, inevitable things are full of fear and anxiety because no matter what you do, it's going to happen and there's no way around that. You can take it in your direction but that doesn't mean it will end up where you wish. Quite terrifying if you ask me. 

I would say I'm the type of person to want to have control over most things. I want to know what I'm doing, where I'm going, and when. Of course things don't always work out that way, having everything planned out, but knowing my plan makes me feel secure and sure of things. A big part of what I'm talking about here is my plan for college. I don't know what I want to be or where I want to go, and this is my future here!

People often tell me that life will take me where it will, and for the best, but it's hard to put your faith in others words. What if I don't end up with a nice life? Or if I'm struggling with a job that I dislike? So many things can happen, way too many possibilities. I know that I'm the only one that has a hold of my life so I need to take action and discover. Discover things that I didn't know existed. Look for all the endless possibilities. 

Most importantly I need to remind myself that I'm just a teenager. I have time, although not too much, there is time. I need to take that time and use it to it's fullest to truly delve into what could be. I know I'll be amazed at what's out there for me to achieve. There's so many things out there that I can do  that will give me personal joy as well as joy to others but I just haven't found it yet, and I, as well as many others, need to realize that that's okay.