Laugh Until It Hurts (Prompt 2)

Like I said in Prompt 1, I got started with #Trust30 a few days late, so this post isn't actually written for June 1, but rather June 4. Oops.

The Prompt:

Today by Liz Danzico

Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. The force of character is cumulative. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

If ‘the voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks,’ then it is more genuine to be present today than to recount yesterdays. How would you describe today using only one sentence? Tell today’s sentence to one other person. Repeat each day.

My Response:

Today I saw the Hangover 2. I am not going to claim it was a life-changing movie or really even blog-worthy if not for this prompt. What I can say is that in all of it's smoking monkey-same basic plot as the first movie-Bradley Cooper looks gorgeous even in a sweater vest-that could never happen in real life ridiculousness, it was laugh out loud funny. The kind of laughter that comes from your belly and makes you double over in glee.

My quote in my senior yearbook included that line from Billy Joel that says, "We might be laughing a bit too loud, but that never hurt no one." So that's it, that's my sentence for today.

Today I hung out with my friends and we laughed heartily out loud together at everything, and nothing, in particular.

And it was a good day.

#Trust30 is an online initiative and 30-day writing challenge that encourages you to look within and trust yourself. Use this as an opportunity to reflect on your now, and to create direction for your future. 30 prompts from inspiring thought-leaders will guide you on your writing journey.

Going For It: Trust30 Challenge (Prompt 1)

Since December I have self-admittedly been a pretty terrible blogger. The new-ness of Colombia has worn off and I just don't feel like things happen on a daily basis that I necessarily need to write about. However, on the other hand, my roommate Kelsi has gone the other way and is becoming a more impressive blogger with each new post.

I miss that. That feeling of just writing it all down, because let's face it, we all have something to say. Even if no one is reading.

So when I read this, I knew it would be an awesome way to kick start by blogging again.

"To celebrate Emerson's 208th birthday, The Domino Project is republishing a work of art that's especially relevant today. Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson urges readers to trust their intuition rather than conforming to the will of the majority. #Trust30 is an online initiative and 30-day writing challenge that encourages you to look within and trust yourself. Use this as an opportunity to reflect on your now, and to create direction for your future. 30 prompts from inspiring thought-leaders will guide you on your writing journey"

Although the challenge officially started on May 31, I am going to use this long weekend (yes, Monday is another of those oh so lovely Colombian holidays where I do not have to go to school!) to catch up.

Here is the first prompt with my response. Enjoy and think about doing this yourself - you don't have to have a blog; just jot down your thoughts in a journal, on a napkin or talk to someone about it. Happy writing! :)

Prompt:

Gwen Bell - 15 Minutes to Live

We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

You just discovered you have fifteen minutes to live.

1. Set a timer for fifteen minutes.

2. Write the story that has to be written.

Response:

Fifteen minutes, huh?

If I had fifteen minutes left to live, the story I have to write is not so much my story, because in the grand scheme of things I don't feel that important to the world as a whole.

No, the story that needs to be written is about something we spend hours thinking about, talking about, blogging about, obsessing about; that is --- what's the freaking point?

You know that quote, I don't know who said it and with fifteen minutes to live I am not spending time to look it up, but someone once said, "Life sucks and then you die." Sometimes life feels like that, you know? All of the thingsjust pile up and you have all of the feelings and it just seems like it shouldn't be quite so hard.

It's not.

Life isn't a crapshoot at all. Life is about the connections we make and the way we make them. Life is about the people in our lives for a moment, the people in our lives for a season and the people in our lives forever. So, with my last 8 minutes, here are my thoughts on the people who have been been the point, the ones who have made me stop wondering what the point is and instead, decide to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

1. To my parents for getting me here, literally and figuratively. The consistency of your love and support is unconditional. You taught me to find the very best things in myself, in others and in life, and then hold on to them.

2. To my brothers for teaching me what it is to care so much about another person's happiness and well-being that sometimes your heart breaks with the empathy you feel for another person. For making me into a better person simply because I am your big sister and I want you to be a person you can look up to.

3. For Ilse, for being my best friend, my better half, my sounding board for all of life's decision, my anytime & anywhere phone call, and a person who not only believes the world can be a better place, but a person who gets out there and makes. it. happen.

4. For Liz, Kate, Allison, Katie, Maria and Anna, who taught me that you can go anywhere in this world, but the people who truly get you, who can understand you, who don't need five different backstories in order to understand the current one, are few and far between, so find them and hold them as close to you as you can.

5. For Kelsi, who made me realize you will never be too far along in life to meet your once-in-a-lifetime friend.

6. For Alex, who inspires me to dream with an open heart and to go after what I want. And who taught me that some friendships are worth the growing pains to fight for.

It's minute 14 now, and you know the best part?I could keep going for another 15 hours with the people in my life who have made it all matter. That's something I don't think about everyday, but I should because it makes me realize that the emotions I express outwardly shouldn't be frustration with my students, sassiness with life, or anxiety about what happens next. No, the emotion I most feel looking back on 23 years and 10 months of life with 15 minutes to write about it is most certainly grateful.

I am grateful for all of it.

#Trust30 is an online initiative and 30-day writing challenge that encourages you to look within and trust yourself. Use this as an opportunity to reflect on your now, and to create direction for your future. 30 prompts from inspiring thought-leaders will guide you on your writing journey.

About Me

Recently I added some additional pages to my blog, one of them being an about me page. I sat down to write it this week in about ten minutes... thinking to myself, how hard can it be, after all, I know myself better than anyone, right?

Right.

Except an about me page is probably the weirdest thing ever to try to write. We aren't conditioned to write about ourselves, about what makes us tick inside, about what makes us unique, about why you should even read what I have to say in the first place.

I went over to my about me section on Facebook looking for some inspiration. Turns out that wasn't any help, because it was something I wrote during my senior year of college two years ago. I deleted it immediately and then realized I had two about me sections to fill in instead of just one.

I guess I could just leave them blank. Who needs an about me section anyway? Either read or don't read, right?

Then again, at some point, at some age, at some place in life, shouldn't you be able to define who you are without having to think about it for too long? I mean, what makes me ME, anyway?

There are some things I do know for certain:

• Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who had one specific group of friends that held together through all the chapters of life. But when I think about the friends I have from so many different places and times in life - and the way they all blend together seamlessly when I bring them together, I am so grateful.
• I am passionate. About living. About what I believe in. About the power of our choices. About being the best version of myself.
• I will never be someone who travels full time or indefinitely. Minnesota isn't just a place I want to call home from ages 2-22, I want to call it home forever.
• That said, travel will always be a part of my life. I never want to lose that sense of adventure or that awesome sense of excitement/fear that comes from going somewhere new.
• I work hard to maintain my relationships and I demand the same in return. Even though I know it makes me selfish sometimes.
• For all my skepticism and sarcasm, I want "real love, ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other-love" just like Carrie Bradshaw. ;)
• I make to do lists for the point of organization as much as I do for the feeling of being able to cross things off of them.
• Whether we have been friends for one year or 20, I will remember your birthday. I will most likely send you something in the mail if I cannot be there in person. And it will get there in time. In fact, probably early.
• I love my birthday just as much as I love everyone else's. So yes, if we are friends your calendar better have big circles around the date July 20. You don't need to plan me a party, buy me a present or do anything crazy, but you darn well better acknowledge it.
• I don't forgive and forget as easily as I wish I could.
• I have trouble showing people the side of me that doesn't have it all together.
• I look at each of my younger brothers with an overwhelming sense of pride and unconditional love. I will never stop striving to be the very best big sister I can be to them.
• I am scared of not having enough time with the people I love. If I could go back I would tell the 19-year-old me to call my grandma every single day I could have.
• I love math, but I am a teacher first and foremost because of the relationships I have with my students. Every kid needs to know that they matter and they need adults in their lives to remind them of that every day.
• That time when people are getting off work, heading home, going out to happy hour with friends, running errands, figuring out evening plans, putting some hot dogs on the grill with a beer in hand is my favorite time of day. It's like the "work hard" part of the day is ending, but the "play hard" part of the day is just beginning.
• I love quotes, dramatic television series and long conversations with old friends because the idea that someone else has been there is incredibly important to me.
• I want my relationships to mean something real, every day. Even if we don't talk every day or if we get busy and life happens. Even if we live in different places, I want it to mean something. I want it to mean that we will be there for each other, that we will support each other, that we will love each other.

Is this mess of haphazard bullet points everything you need to know about me? Is this what makes me ME?

In thinking about me here's the not-so-direct conclusion I came to. I will never be someone who can answer that question with the neat one paragraph answer I want for my blog. I am complicated in a million different ways. I am the sum (heyyyy math brain) of my experiences, my relationships, my parents, my choices and my life.

Going forward, I will change and stay the same in a million tiny ways every day, so here's what I know about me without a doubt.

Today matters. To me. For me. The choices, the attitude, the person I am. It matters. I matter.

...so who wants to write a one paragraph "about me" section for me?

Could you write one for yourself?