#19 Watched the Sunrise

People who wake up late miss one of the greatest feats of nature. It happens each and every day and is one of the most magical things on earth. The sunrise. There is something beautiful about the day slowly getting brighter - from the midnight blue to a lighter blue - and going dark once again. It's a comfort to know that whatever happens, the sun will always rise. There is always tomorrow. Who would've known the sunrise could have such great life lessons behind it? Getting up in the morning to watch the sunrise sounds great in theory, but it's a lot more difficult in practice. Personally, I've never done it. As a teenager, it's a struggle to get up at 7:00 AM and make it to school by 8:00 AM, let alone get up earlier than that to watch the sunrise. Although, with the time change, the sun rises between seven and eight here in my time zone, so that could make it a little easier. During the school week, it's virtually impossible to sit down and watch it. At 7:30 AM, I'm rushing out of my house to make it to school on time, not making a cup of tea to pair with my morning paper out on the patio. My suggestion would be to try it on the weekend. I know, I know, it's the weekend. Why would you want to voluntarily get up at 7:30 AM on the weekend when you could be in bed sleeping like a baby? To experience the magic of the sunrise. To see the beautiful colors. To ponder the thought of a new day, a clean slate. Getting up early does have its benefits. While I would call myself an early riser, I've never sat down and watched the sunrise, and I'm not sure why. Of course, sometimes I miss it, but other times I simply don't go outside and watch it. I should. There's a great significance to the whole thing. They don't call it the dawn of a new day for nothing. Watching a sunset is like saying hello to a new day. And it's the perfect time to be thankful for your many blessings. The Dalai Lama once said, "Everyday, think as you wake up, 'Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.'" Nothing like the Dalai Lama to make waking up sound like the most spiritual experience in the world. What better way to greet the day than to watch the sunrise and experience its beauty? So when your parents ask you what you're doing awake at 7:30 AM, just tell them the Dalai Lama said it would be good for your soul.

P.S. Just out of curiosity, how many of you actually do the things I'm writing about? If you have done some of it, tell me about it! If not, I'll keep writing anyway! 

#18 Realized

When I started the whole college process, saying I was stressed was the understatement of the century. I'd always seen past seniors and wondered why they were literally going crazy over it. All applying to college is is filling out some electronic forms, writing an essay, and pressing submit, right? Wrong. It's endless stress. It's filling out electronic forms, writing tons of essays trying to figure out which one is going to make you look the best to an admissions board, filling out scholarship and financial aid information so that your parents don't freak out about money, taking standardized tests, finding people to write you a letter of recommendation, and about a million other things. And then pressing submit - which was probably the hardest part for me. Oh and did I mention that you have to do all this and maintain your life outside of college applications? Yeah. And then, even when you submit your applications, the stress continues. You're playing The Waiting Game - arguably the most daunting game ever. And then when you get your acceptances or rejections, the stress continues. Where do you go? What do you do next? Seeing a trend here? Yeah, stress. This whole college application process is all about doing something bigger with your life. About figuring out what you're going to do with the rest of your life. Trying to decide your path at 17 or 18 is one of the toughest things in the world. What I should've realized earlier is that you don't need to know exactly what you're going to do when you're applying for college. I should've realized that it's really rare to know what you want to do with your life when you're 17. The most I think about is what I have due for homework the next day or what my mom is making for dinner. Some people have their entire lives mapped out, career included, but that certainly is not the norm. Knowing exactly what you want to do is not normal. And not "not normal" in a bad way, but "not normal" in the sense that it's extremely rare. I've realized that it's okay not to know. I'm okay with not knowing what job I'm going to have when I'm an adult. I know what I like and I know what I'll study in college, but I don't know how I'll parlay that into a career. I think part of what makes the pre-college process so stressful is that we're expected to decide our paths. People expect that we'll know exactly what to do, but the reality is that we don't. The idea of trying to decide the rest of my life right now is the scariest thing in the world. Applying to college is not the last step in deciding your future. It is merely the beginning of your discovery of yourself. Lewis Carroll once said, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there," so remember that when you're freaking out about not knowing exactly what you're going to do in college.

This post is dedicated to my lovely friend, Elizabeth, who is one of those rare people who knows what she wants to do and where she wants to do it. I aspire to be like you in more ways than one. Happy birthday love.

#17 Celebrated Nonconformity

Conformity (n.) - action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, practices, etc. In simple terms, conformity is to go with the flow or to follow the crowd. I think conformity is a combination of personality and societal demands. Our society as a whole rewards conformity. It wants us to all be the same because we fear the unknown and things we do not understand. Look at society's reaction to homosexuality. It's not the norm so it must be evil, right? While I don't personally agree with this assertion, a lot of people do because that's what society tells them. High school is the perfect example of the issues that come with conformity. You're shunned if you don't follow the latest fashion trend (even if you go to Catholic school and have to wear a uniform), you're weird if you don't like going to football games on Friday night, or people think you're crazy if you don't care to go to the Homecoming Dance. People are accepted when they conform - and thus are rewarded - and ridiculed when they don't conform - and thus are punished. If this is how the world works, what do you think people are going to do? It's a sad reality, but the majority of us spend our time in high school trying to fit in. All people want is acceptance. Who wants to feel unwanted? It's easy to conform when we haven't yet developed an identity. It's easier to be told who you are than to have the courage to make your own choices about yourself. While there are times when conformity is not necessarily a bad thing - like when you're picking what color nail polish to wear or what basketball shoes to buy - it is when we become "okay" with things that we really aren't that conformity starts to harm us. So what if you buy the same kind of dress that everyone else has? It won't change your life in the slightest. It's okay. What's not okay is being okay with things you really aren't. We don't say anything to our friend who is making bad decisions because we don't want to lose them or we don't want them to be mad at us. We don't say anything when the people closest to us start to change before our very eyes. Conformity comes in many forms. The word conformity itself says so. It comes in many degrees. Some conformity is okay. Follow the leader if you so choose. But we should never sacrifice what we believe in order to fit in. I know every single one of us has heard this a million times, but it's true. We overlook some of the biggest issues life could possibly hand us in the name of conformity. I know I've acted like I was totally cool with things that I wasn't. Recently, though, I've started avoiding these situations. I know it's a cop-out, but I would rather avoid a situation than act like I was okay with it. At this point in our lives, all we're looking for is approval. It's our way of trying to find ourselves. What we don't realize is that we're forming a broken version of the person we really are - which is probably part of the reason being a teenager seems so hard. We're lost. And it isn't until we stop needing to be handed answers or stop thinking that the answers we're given are illogical or lacking substance that we start looking for our own way through life. It is then that we don't see a need to conform. Nonconformists may look like most people on the outside, but on the inside they have the courage to speak their mind, the ability to learn from their mistakes, and the desire to take the road less traveled, and that's something that should be celebrated.

This post is dedicated to Laurette who had the courage to ask me to write it. I hope it lived up to your expectations! (I'm a little scared it didn't!) Your comment restored my faith in myself and in my blog. I hope you're keeping up with making your new friend. It means the world that you were willing to take my advice. One of the things I wish I'd known earlier is that you can get all the good advice in the world, but it's useless unless you act on it. Thanks for the suggestion!

#16 Told Them What They Mean to Me

You know, they always say that we should never take things for granted in this life. We're only given so much time on this earth, and we should cherish everything and every person that we are blessed enough to have in our lives. Of course this is true. I would be lying if I said I didn't believe it. We have to take every opportunity to tell the people in our lives how much we love them and how much we appreciate them. Even the people we don't like are there for a reason. Think of the people you don't like as foil characters in the story of your life (shout-out to all my English teachers) who are there to make you the best possible version of yourself. Every person you are ever around has shaped you in some way. I mean, is there really such a thing as being original? Is who you say you are really you? They say you are the combination of the five people you're around the most. So are you really you or are you the people around you? Even though all of us would like to think we're a completely new person, I don't think we are. If I can't be totally unique, I'd like to think that I've taken the best of people. I'm happy having my mother's eyes and my father's sense of humor. My best friend's passion, my favorite teacher's heart, my sister's energy. If we really are the product of our environment, let's at least try to make it a good one. Tell the people who have shaped you how much they mean to you. Don't take them for granted. My suggestion to you on how to do this is to write a letter. For my 18th birthday, the people closest to me wrote me letters that did just that. It was the best gift I could've ever received. Sometimes it's a saving grace to know that you are loved and that someone thinks you're important. Give that gift to someone. And it doesn't have to be in the form of a letter. Write them a Facebook wall post (or whatever they're calling it right now. It seems to change a lot...), mention them on Twitter, hire one of those plane writers, or maybe even just tell them face to face. Whatever works. Let someone know they're important to you. It really is the best gift you can give someone. In order to put this suggestion into practice, I'm going to write a letter below that tells someone how much they mean to me.

Dear Amanda Rae, 


I don't know if I've ever told you this, but you really do mean a lot to me as a friend. We see each other everyday and we talk all the time, but I don't think I've ever expressed to you (adequately, at least) how much I value the friendship we have. It means the world to me that you really are there for me no matter what. I know I can always come to you with anything - whether it be news that probably shouldn't be considered news since I think everything is a bigger deal than it is, or if I'm just complaining about something, or if I just want a friend to talk to. You're always there to listen to my "news" and share in the excitement or disappointment. You're always there to listen to me complain about the silliest things. You're always there when I need you. You've been one of my biggest supporters in more ways than one, and I really can't thank you enough for that. I've always admired your spirit. You are one of the kindest hearts I know and I've always wished I was more like that. You've taught me that there is something to be said for mild-mannered people. I know plenty of people with big personalities, and I admire you for being different. Not to mention the fact that you're beautiful. Inside and out. And while we may be on different paths for our futures, I know our paths will cross plenty of times. You're one of the best friends I have, and I'm sorry that I've never told you that before. I hope this makes up for it. Stay beautiful lovely.


Love always, 


Morgan


Don't take people for granted - tell them what they mean to you. Simple as that.