A Novel Idea...

So I am very excited because I have finally come up with an idea for the book I have been thinking to write. However, I don't think I am quite ready to share it with the world. My main thoughts about writing is to typically "write what you know," so whatever novel I decide to produce will need to have hints of my life sprinkled throughout it. Yet, I feel no one could handle the real truth (haha) for now. I started writing a couple pages last night, so we will see where it takes me. The worse thing that could happen is absolutely nothing; I will simply write if for no other reason than for the book to be a form of self-accomplishment and fulfillment of one of my life goals. I already feel as if I have revealed too much, so I must sign off. Good night!

Peace & Love,

Allison

The End is Near

Graduation is one less than 1 month, and I feel as if I am in denial. It really has not hit me yet that my life is about to completely change. For the last four years, The University of Alabama has been my home. Tuscaloosa is very different from other places I have lived, but I will always love and remember it for all the amazing memories it has given me. My main goal now is to survive school and have some FUN. Finding a job is important to me, yet I don't want to lose my entire summer if I do find a job... so I am not working that hard to find one just yet. Just because the end is near for me here doesn't mean that I can't begin a new chapter of my life. There are just so many "what if's" that the possibilities are endless for me! It's exciting and scary all at the same time, but you just have to go with it!

Peace & Love,

Allison

Education in the Future

An in-class discussion really sparked my interest today about the world's education of the future. I took an educational psychology class last semester, so I feel a connection to this topic. The education of the future definitely worries me at times. I do plan on having children one day in my life, although not anytime soon. Yet, this is still a topic that will have an impact on our entire society in the future. 

Teachers really need to take an active roll in the learning process their students go through. As I mentioned in class, every student learns differently. The education of the future will depend on teachers to become more diverse and adapt to student's needs. 

In high school, I had a religion teacher who understood that people only have an attention span on 20 continuous minutes. So every 20 minutes we would either take a break to stretch, play a short game, or take a quick walk around the room. I'm not saying these ideas are the best, yet once we returned from our short break we could go back to concentrating on our work. Just some things to think about...

Peace & Love,

Allison

GRE jitters

I recently took the GRE for the third time, and I still have not gotten the exact score that I need for grad school. I have never been good at taking standardized tests, although I consider myself to be an intelligent person. I do not think that they are fair at all. I do appreciate that there is a writing section, since that is what I love to do, but I do not understand why finding the hypotenuse of a triangle will get me into the Advertising program I desire to be in. It is just frustrating that I try so hard, yet I am still unsuccessful in the eyes of the Institution. 

So this basically means I will not be getting into grad school, which is SO hard for me to admit but I can't be in denial about it. I will just have to start looking for jobs, so if you know of any please inform me, haha! 

Peace & Love,

Allison

Life Comes at You Fast

I regret that I have been unable to write from the past couple of weeks. Life has seemingly taken over, and I have been busier than ever! It is interesting how we can get so caught up in things that we rarely take a step back and just sit and think. For this time, I am going to keep it short and simple. Go and take some alone time for yourself and meditate on your day or life. 

Peace & Love,

Allison

Cupid Coma

Valentine's Day. Every year of my life, it has brought me mixed emotions. In the days prior to it, I find myself staring blankly in the card section and wondering what it's all about. I don't only buy a card for my significant other, but I purchase cards for my mother and my sister. They are two of my best friends, as well, and I feel that they deserve recognition on this heartwarming day. I feel that Valentine's Day is about letting all of our loved ones know that they are cared for. The day is only as special as we make it though.

My only concern with Valentine's Day is that we waste the other 364 days of the year. The truth is that one day is not long enough. We need to be spending our entire lives telling the people that we love how much they mean to us; not just one day. So this year, skip Valentine's Day and worry about the other days. The average, basic, monotonous days are the ones we need to fill with love.

Peace & Love,
Allison

Complications of the Real World

I feel that life has somehow grown increasingly more complicated recently. There are so many aspects to consider, that one always seems to be left out. If I am able to get good grades and be with my friends and family, I am probably not watching out what I am doing with my own body, such as eating poorly. If I work to eat well and exercise, I probably am not having fun with my loved ones and doing the things I want to. One part of my life always seems to fall flat, yet my goal is to do what I can and to not worry about everything.

I spend a lot of my time worrying, which I know is silly and stupid. My attempt now is to live my life to the best of my ability. I can't be concerned with what might have been or what may be any longer. I act as if writing this down will actually force me to do this, but anything is possible!

I can't make any promises, but I do believe we always need something to work on in our lives. We are NEVER perfect, that's for sure! But don't let anyone tell you that you can't be the best person you can be.

Peace & Love,
Allison

Never-ending Growth

If you want something bad enough, you must go for it with all of your might and heart. Although, the difficult aspect of this is if you want to learn anything in this world today, you must be the one to educate yourself. Even if a teacher is present, it is up to the learner to find the desire inside themselves to grasp the material. You must look inside yourself, listen to yourself, and begin your reflective thought process. In doing this, you have learned not only about the subject but also about yourself. If you have the strength, power and will in your heart to accomplish something, nothing will stop you in your determination.

This advice applies to every aspect of life. It works for love, academics, athletics, or the future in general. The key is to be true to yourself and what your desires are from life. If you go for it and fail, at least you will not always wonder what would have happened. Life is too short to be lived with nerve, so go for what means the most to you. I promise you won't be sorry.

Peace & Love,
Allison

The Fear of Unpredictablity

I truly despise thinking about the future sometimes. I wonder to myself why do I have to be graduating into this horrible economy? When, if ever, will things start getting better or at least back to normal? I have so many questions, yet I try to tell myself it is ultimately pointless to debate over it.

My dream now is to go to graduate school at The University of Alabama, but I know deep down this will probably not happen. I hate getting my hopes up about things and being let down, so perhaps I tend to be more pessimistic about certain things. Yet with Alabama only accepting 20-25 people, how could I possibly be 1 out of who knows how many to make it in?So if I don't attend graduate school, I must now put that in the back of my mind and look to finding a job. I don't think I can even get started on this depressing topic, so I won't bore you. All I know is I am going to be seeing a lot more of Alabama's Career Center in my near future.

To me, thinking about the future is like I stated earlier, ultimately pointless. Two years ago, I thought I had my entire summer planned out. I would be home in Atlanta for a couple weeks, work at Paper Affair, and then go off to spend three months with my father and his advertising agency. Yet, Memorial Day Weekend changed everything in my life --- everything. My mother and her fiance, John, who was basically my step-dad (they had been together for 11 years) were at home asleep, while I was out of town at the lake with my boyfriend. They awoke to the sounds of our dogs barking like crazy. When they went to go check on them, the touch of the door knob told them everything they needed to know. Our house was on fire. Even as I sit here and type, tears are running down my face. I'm not sure if I'll ever quite be able to think about it without getting a lump in my throat, but maybe one day.

The first likely move to make when you realize your house is on fire is to turn the faucet on, get a damp towel, put it over your mouth, and get out. Sadly, the fire had taken out our water system, so this was impossible. My mother has told me this story so many times, I feel as if I was there. Her and John finally opened the door to their bedroom (because their windows were too high to jump from) and were overtaken with smoke immediately. Not being able to breath in oxygen takes its toll extremely quickly. You can't see. You can't breath. You can't do anything but try to get out. 

You've thought of or played the game before of where you think of what one item you would take if your house was on fire. Well, most people don't have that luxury. It was enough to get out alive, but the worst part of everything was that only my mother survived. The minute her and John opened their bedroom door, they could not see anything. Struggling, my mother went halfway down the hallway to my bathroom and went out my bathroom window with glass dug into her entire body. She tells everyone she swears she saw John and heard him tell her to go and that he was right behind her, but they found his body all the way down the hallway in my sister's room.

We'll never know why it happened. Any of it. Why did my house burn down, and how could John not have gotten out? I haven't even told you yet that the firefighters arrived and tried to help us, yet that we lost the life of Felix Roberts as well.

I never thought any part of my life would be available to be read by anyone in the newspaper, but there it was. They couldn't even get the spelling of my mother's name right (it's Mardi). I couldn't believe the event that changed my entire life was fix perfectly into a one-page story in the paper. Yet, I read it from time to time just to never forget. The newspaper article is not the point though.

An electrical fire had taken almost everything away from my mother and me. I was home for the summer, so I lost everything I owned that I didn't have with my at the lake. My mother had been a pack-rat her entire life; saving everything from our baby teeth to her wedding dress. 

I hope I'm not depressing anyone (that is, if you have even been able to read all of this), but my goal is to get the story out there so people can take a new look on life. I know it changed my life, but not in a bad, terrible way because I know that's not what John would have wanted. He always taught me to look at different sides to a story. So I have learned that possessions are material items that we don't need. Our loved ones are the most important things in our lives and that's how it should be.  

I admire and cherish my mother everyday. I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't made it out. To finish the story, my mother climbed through our downstairs window and saved our dog, Eddie and her brother's dog, Lucy, who basically saved my mothers live as well.  It's a sad, true tale, but it also has taught me that you can't plan for the future and that you need to be thankful for everyone that is in your life now. I never did make it to Orlando that summer to work with my dad, but all I wanted to do was spend time with my mom anyway. I hope this can teach you, if anything, to not sweat the small stuff and to love unconditionally.

If there's anything I have left out, feel free to make a comment and I'll clear it up.

Peace & Love,

Allison

Adapting is Growing

As we grow older, the world around us keeps changing. Even if we believe we are remaining the same person, everything that surrounds us is transforming. To live in this world today though, we have to be able to adapt to our environment. Survival of the fittest roots out people who do not adjust to their surroundings. With technology and the fast-pace times today, we must be able to relate to whatever setting we are placed in. Understanding people around you and reforming your style to fit any situation may be necessary. We must change to conform to our surrounding, adapt, mature, and grow with our world, or else you will get left behind.

Peace & Love,

Allison

One Who Does, Learns

The main reason we, as humans, are placed on this Earth is to live our lives to the fullest. A wasted life is one where the person does not try to gain any knowledge or learn anything from their experiences. One cannot learn to ride a bicycle by simply watching someone else ride one. We must take the initiative to jump on the bike and try it ourselves; otherwise, you will never become skilled at anything. To learn, one must be active in the process. It is important to follow your heart in your dreams and desires, yet make sure that you are actively practicing the things you are studying.
Peace & Love,
Allison

Let Go To Grasp

One must let go to grasp. The above statement may sound confusing to some, yet after a clearer explanation, it may soon become your very own new, striking revelation. The mind needs to run wild to be able to understand exhaustive concepts. Letting go of one’s preconceived perceptions may allow one to be more open to new ideas. If all you ever did was staying the same and static, you would be unable to adapt to our changing world. If you cannot adjust, you will be left behind. Therefore, it is extremely important to be able to grow from your experiences throughout life. To be able to grasp a notion, you must leave your inhibitions at the door, so that you can take in the knowledge.

Peace & Love,

Allison

Reasoning with Responsibility

Responsibility. When does it actually come into play in our lives? Are we being responsible when we share our toys when we are little? Or, alternatively, is responsibility a much bigger matter? Would it be comparable to remembering all of our family member’s birthdays without being reminded by someone else? Is it cleaning up after our selves or taking the trash out without being told to do so? There’s no physical line we cross to become adults; it just rather happens somehow. College is the place where I have truly learned to be responsible for myself, as well as my actions. No one is telling you what to do all day. It is not even similar to going away camp, since they wake you up at a certain time and drag you out to do activities. No, responsibility is a personal decision that you take on. It comes at a wide variety of ages for different people, but at some point or another, we all need to be held accountable for what we say and do.

Being the youngest child, I have been called the “baby” my whole life, yet my parents tell me that I am the most conscientious and reliable child of all the three girls. I feel as if our responsibility is rooted deeply within us from the beginning of our lives. Growing up, my parents divorced when I was in the second grade. My mother ran her own business, while my father went from job to job. I was never oblivious to our money concerns, so perhaps I always felt a need to work and take care of other people in my family. No matter where our need to be responsible comes from, hopefully by the time we leave college we have become mature enough to handle the world. The key is not just to be able to take care of ourselves, but to have the maturity, wisdom, and intelligence to take care of the people around us. Selfishness is a quality we are all born with. When we are little, we truly believe the world revolves around us. Yet, growing up is realizing that there are many other people in this great, big world, and putting yourself as number one is not the way to true happiness.
My blog is not all about questions or even about finding answers. It is simply an outlet for thought.

Peace & Love,
Allison

The In-Between Years

My latest idea for a novel has sprung from my own experience.  We are so often told to write what we know... here is what I have come to know as true.  The four (or sometimes five or six, depending on who you are) years that we spend in college are unlike any other time in our lives. We are sometimes forced to inhabit substandard living conditions; not to mention dealing with annoying, loud, or even thieving roommates. Our class load is sometimes too difficult to handle at times, yet vacations such as Spring Break and the summer time calm our nerves.  Some experiences are better than others, but in the end, they all teach us something about our selves. In turn, we grow from adolescent high school students into knowledgeable young adults (well, most of us do). We develop our minds, bodies, and spirits in ways we could have never imagined possible. Individually, I have learned who I am as a person, friend, sister, daughter, and girlfriend. As a whole, I have learned who I want to be "when I grow up." 

Peace & Love,

Allison

Write Right Now

Lately my writing has become extremely important to me; it is my outlet for fun, anger, and boredom. I enjoy writing so much because it gives me a chance to let my feelings out. I know there must be a profitable way to live my life and do what I love at the same time. A dream of mine is to publish a book, although the ideas for this novel have yet to come to me (only in bits and pieces). Leo Babauta writes in his blog, freelanceswitch, that there are just a few steps to becoming a free lance blog writer. I had never really heard of this before, so I was extremely intrigued. He does note though to not quit your day job, yet that you can blog from basically anywhere at any time of the day. He said the first step is to create your own blog, which is what I am doing right now. Then the next part in the process is to get noticed and hopefully continue on to guest blog. I am not quite sure what the future holds for me quite yet, but I am hoping this will be the start I need.

Peace & Love,

Allison