Jelly Bean Day

Even though I'm not a huge fan of jelly beans, I'm pretty excited that today is Jelly Bean Day!

A fun way you can celebrate Jelly Bean Day is by playing Bean Boozled - the awesome/kind of terrifying game from Jelly Belly where there are two different flavors, one good and one bad, that are the same color and you have to hope that you pick the better of the two. My friend Faith and I played this game last month for my YouTube channel, and my friend Emily and I played it today on our radio show.

In honor of the holiday, the Jelly Belly Candy Company announced their newest flavor, Pancakes & Maple Syrup. Plus, they had a pancake when they kicked off the new flavor this morning and the proceeds helped benefit an event for the American Diabetes Association (kind of ironic for a candy company...). You can read more about the new flavor over at the official Jelly Belly blog.

Whether you stuff your face with jelly beans or just watch my Bean Boozled challenge video on YouTube, make sure you celebrate Jelly Bean Day.

My Latest Creative Endeavor

For those of you who have been reading my posts for a while, you have probably realized that I'm not the most normal person. In fact, I tend to be far from it. After a lot of thinking, I have decided on a new way for me to share my weirdness with the world - vlogging!

I'll still be posting to here whenever I can, but I am going to try and post videos to YouTube at least once or twice a week. So, if you'd like to stay up to date with me via video, head on over to my YouTube channel.

My first video will take you just under a minute to watch, and it will take you even less time than that to like the video, share it with your friends, and subscribe to my channel.

My second video will hopefully be up sometime tomorrow or by Tuesday at the latest. I had originally planned on filming and editing it today, but I am very sick and my voice sounds even stranger than normal.

Thanks for reading and taking the time to support me in all of my creative endeavors! Also, don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram if you aren't already.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpEgpRBeqKAvhra1lJssYxg
First Vlog:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AafOC2npW1c
Twitter: @jessica_paige5
Instagram: @jesspaige5

No More Best Friends

I know it's been over a month since I've last posted, but I've been super busy with Christmas, work, and school, and am just now finding the time to post.

Disclaimer: I've been thinking about the statements in this post a lot and the entire thing really comes from my heart. This post is not meant to insult any of my friends, present or former. I'm just writing about my personal thoughts and feelings.
_______________________________________________________________________

Life is hard. Especially when you account for all of the weird drama that can arise from having friends. Specifically, best friends.

Throughout my life, I've had several different "best friends". We all have. That one friend to whom you devote most of your time and energy and feel as if you can share anything and everything with. Of course, as we get older, these friendships become significantly more complex, paralleling our ever-growing problems.

For me, these "best friend" relationships have never really lasted too long. It always seems that when I open up and become really close with one friend, after a little while they slowly start to ignore me or push me away, until I am eventually cut off.

At first, I thought that I was flawed and incapable of having close friends, but then I started to realize that I resent the concept of a "best friend".

Sometime during my freshman year of high school, I decided that it was easier to have several somewhat close friendships that just one or two "best friends". That's when I become the "floater" of my extended friend group.

I was, and still am, part of a group of about fifteen or so friends that would all collectively hang out often. Of course, there were a couple different smaller cliques within the group, and, being the floater, I never knew when, or if, I would be invited to a certain gathering or activity of a specific clique.

Being the floater, I did miss out on a lot. The main downside was that I would sometimes just feel alone because I didn't have one specific friend that I could open up to or always spend time with, and I still feel that way a lot, even with having a different friend group in college.

In the long run, I feel like it's better, at least for me, to devote my time to more people, as evenly as I can, than to spend all my energy on one or two specific friends, who are likely to end up not being there for me in the end.

I've kind of started to stray away from this philosophy the past few months or so, but I feel like it's something I need to focus on more, especially as I get older and accept the fact that I probably won't be in close contact with any of my current friends in a few years.

At this point in my life, I feel like it's more important to build several friendships that aren't as deep or exclusive as a "best friend" relationship, than to focus on just building one or two overly strong friendships.

Black Friday Haul

I know it's a little late, but I wanted to do a post about Black Friday. I had so much fun shopping until almost four in the morning with my sisters and cousins. In fact, we had so much fun that one of my sisters and I went back to the mall during the day on Friday to shop even more. 

Since I absolutely love Black Friday and I also love telling people about all the great deals I got, I decided I would do a Black Friday haul post. I bought a really nice DSLR camera bundle online before I even left my house on Thanksgiving, so that isn't being included in the list below. Also, I did buy a majority of the stuff for myself, but I have been working on my Christmas shopping since the beginning of the summer, so I was almost done by the time Black Friday rolled around.

Target: 

$22 for $45 worth of DVDs- Neighbors, Divergent (a gift for my sister), Bad Grandpa, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes

$15 for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nintendo 3DS game (not pictured- gift for my brother), originally priced $29.99

Kohl's: $3.22 total for a $39.99 Big One throw blanket and a $16 v-neck shirt

Hollister: $19.97 for a really nice flannel that was originally $39.95

Hot Topic: $10 for an Ed Sheeran shirt that was originally $20.50

Forever21: $8.49 for a sweater (gift for one of my friends) that was originally $24.80

Tilly's: This was one of the deals I was the most excited about. I got two pairs of Vans (bringing my collection up to 23 pairs) for a total of $29.96. One pair was originally $39.97 on sale for $17.48, and the other pair was only $12.48 marked down from $34.97

Bath & Body Works: $20 for $72.50 worth of lotion- 12 small lotions plus 1 full size. Everything in the store was buy 3, get 3 free, plus I had a coupon for $10 off a $30 purchase as well as one for a free item with any purchase over $10. 

My grand total ended up being $128.64 for $364.20 worth of merchandise, which was a 64.7% savings. Overall, I'd say it was a great Black Friday.  

Spreading Christmas Cheer

Christmas is quickly approaching, which means final exams are approaching even quicker. With finals starting in just two days, everyone all over campus has been studying like crazy and finishing all the papers and other assignments they procrastinated on the rest of the semester. 

Thursday night, I was feeling the holiday spirit and decided to spread some Christmas cheer. And by that, I mean I put on my elf costume - yes, I have an elf costume - and grabbed three dozen candy canes and some Bath & Body Works lotion I got for some of my friends on black Friday (I'll post more about black Friday later). 

I actually had decided late Wednesday night that I was going to pass out the gifts the following night, and I also had the GENIUS idea to plan a Cereal and Christmas Party (taking place this evening), which includes an array of cereals, some hot chocolate, the classic claymation Christmas movie "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" (one of my absolute favorites), and "sleighfuls of fun" (yes, I actually put that on the invitations). 

So, I went around to all of my friends' apartments all over campus, accompanied by two of my other friends who were both wearing penguin sweaters, and handed out candy canes, lotion, party invitations, and happiness. 

I think with all the craziness that comes along with the end of the semester, everyone needed a little laugh and some Christmas cheer this week, and I'm happy I could  help make that happen. 

 

Floating Lanterns of Death

My Thanksgiving break was filled with food, fun, family, and friends. One night that I spent with my friends resulted in a rather interesting experience. I technically did something that was on my bucket list, but it kind of went awry.

This past Saturday, some of us went out to eat to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends. Afterwards, we all went back to that friend's house because she had a surprise for us - floating lanterns. We were all really excited, so we quickly went outside and tried to send them off. That's where things got interesting. 

We couldn't get the lanterns to light with the lighter, so we made a torch with a paper plate and then tried to light the lanterns. The lanterns all just kept catching on fire and burning up before we could send them off. After four or so tries, we finally got one to fill up with enough air to let it go, so we sent in up into the sky. When it was about twenty or thirty feet in the air, someone in our group exclaimed how beautiful it was, and then a split second later it went up in flames.

We all immediately started freaking out about the flying ball of fire that was now swaying back and forth across the sky above our heads. We kept nervously waiting for it to land on one of the dozen cars that were parked up and down either side of the street, or to burn someone's yard or house. After dancing across the sky for what felt like forever, but in all reality was probably less than thirty seconds, the flaming remnants of the once beautiful lantern finally fell to the ground halfway down the street. Clearly, we sent the guys to go stomp out the flames while we all laughed and tried to process what had just happened. 

Even though the floating lanterns didn't work quite as planned, they definitely made for a memorable night and a great story. 

Mac & Cheese Pizza

 Oh, the joy that ends when the living nightmare of the two weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break begins. While I am not looking forward to the chaos of the next few days, I am extremely thankful for the short break I had. Among all the places I had to go and stuff I had to do, I still found some time to relax. And also completely avoid any schoolwork whatsoever, which I'm slightly regretting at this moment...
One of the nights I was home, I was able to finally make some macaroni and cheese pizza. I absolutely loved this kind of pizza when they had it at Cici's, but all of the restaurants near me are closed now. Needless to say, I have been craving this pizza for a VERY long time. I have seen several recipes all over Pinterest and decided I would go ahead and try to make one for myself. And I think it turned out great!

If you want to try to make your own, you'll need a pizza crust, half a box of squiggly noodles (their proper name is "cavatappi") and a jar of cheese pasta sauce. Follow the directions below:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2.  Boil the half box of squiggly noodles according to the directions on the box
3. Drain the noodles while warming the cheese sauce over low to medium heat
4. Cover the pizza crust with a layer of the cheese sauce
5. Stir the rest of the cheese sauce into the noodles
6. Cover the pizza crust with the macaroni and cheese (you'll have a small bowl of mac & cheese leftover)
7. Bake the pizza for approximately 17 minutes or until the crust is crispy
8. Enjoy the magnificent mac & cheese pizza you just made!

A Calm Saturday

Hot chocolate, Christmas movies, and Black Friday planning. That's what my Saturday has consisted of. Most of my friends are gone for the day and the ones who remain are watching football, so I decided to just sit inside and relax. Plus, this is the first Saturday I haven't had to work since the beginning of the semester, so I was pretty excited about that. I somehow accidentally slept in until about 12:30, which is the latest I've slept in probably well over two years, but I didn't go to bed until around 4 a.m., so really it's not THAT bad. After finally climbing out of bed, I came to the realization that I had absolutely nothing to do aside from waiting until tomorrow to finish the relatively small amount of homework I have to do before Thanksgiving break. So I put on some sweatpants, turned up the heater, and made myself a delicious cup of hot chocolate. I decided I'd finally make a shopping list from the Black Friday ads I've been looking at online for the past couple of weeks, because Black Friday is one of my favorite things and I am just way too excited that it's only a couple of days away. I also watched some of my favorite Christmas movies - The Year Without A Santa Claus, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. Overall, it was great just spending the day relaxing and getting into the Christmas spirit.

Why I'm Looking Forward To Thanksgiving Break

Exactly one week from today, I will be at home, enjoying the comfort of my own bed while eating a bowl of cereal and watching a rerun of some show within the Kardashian world. This is the excitement that awaits Thanksgiving break. Aside from the aforementioned relaxing evening I have to look forward to, there are a lot of things about break that I'm excited for (and not just the break from schoolwork). To show my excitement, I decided to compile a list of some of the things I'm most looking forward to about Thanksgiving Break.

Black Friday Thursday? - I always get super excited about Black Friday shopping (even though I'll probably be done by the time Friday actually hits since the stores are opening so early), but this year, I'm even more excited because I get to go shopping with my sisters and two cousins, which is sure to be a blast. Especially our mandatory IHOP stop :)

FOOOOD! - Basically everyone looks forward to this, but since I don't really get to spend Thanksgiving with any extended family, it's mostly about the food for me. And by food, I pretty much just mean cheesy potatoes. And mashed potatoes. Really, just any form of potatoes.

Goodwill trip - The city I'm from has this amazingly huge thrift store, which I haven't been to in a very long time, so I've already planned a trip there during break to hopefully expand my sweatshirt collection.

Baking - I absolutely love baking and I feel so deprived when I'm at school because I don't have the means (nor the time) to do it. So I will be baking up a storm while I'm home next week.

Target trips - Target's pretty much my favorite place ever, so I will be stopping there at least one other time aside from Black Friday.

Birthday dinners - Since I'll be at school for my birthday later this week, I get to go out to eat twice while I'm home during Thanksgiving break to celebrate a little late. And since both my mom and grandma take me out to eat, I get to hit up my two favorite restaurants without having to choose between them.

Relaxing - This will be my first complete break from both school and work this semester because I had to stay on campus and work during fall break, so I'm excited to go home and just have some time to myself to relax.

Christmas gifts - Since there's less than two weeks between the end of Thanksgiving break and the start of Christmas break, I'm going to have to have all my friends' Christmas presents ready when I come back from Thanksgiving break. I'm super excited about this because I love everything about giving gifts, especially when it comes to wrapping.

Cereal options - My house is always fully stocked with a plethora of cereal options, and since cereal is one of my favorite things, I'm looking forward to all the different cereals I can choose from while I'm home.

14 Times Lizzie McGuire Taught Us What Not To Wear

One of the greatest gifts that Disney Channel brought us was Lizzie McGuire. Back when Disney Channel was in its Golden Age, you could catch an episode of this magnificent show almost every day. And everyone knows that the only thing better than the show, was Lizzie's wardrobe. Some of my friends and I have been able to relive some of Lizzie's interesting fashion choices recently since I have several episodes on DVD. While we were discussing how strange some of her outfits were, I decided that I would make a list of some of her weirdest ones. And since it's Thursday, and Thursdays are for throwbacks, it only seems right that we would look at 14 times Lizzie McGuire taught us what not to wear.

Their faces here match my opinion of these outfits

I had to save the infamous unicorn sweater for last. 

I clearly didn't pay close enough attention to this episode...

Halloween Throwbacks

Since there are only a couple of days left until Halloween, I thought I would post about some of my past Halloween experiences.

My worst Halloween experience was, by far, when my dad took me to the Haunted Hoochie, one of the most horrifying haunted exhibits, at the tender age of seven. I won't go into the whole story since I posted it last year, so if you want to read about the most traumatic experience of my entire life, click here. Trust me, you definitely won't regret it.

Aside from that one terrible story, I have a lot of positive Halloween memories. Picking a costume was always my favorite part of Halloween, and I had a lot of awesome costumes when I was younger that I absolutely loved. My two absolute favorites have to be my 101 Dalmatians costume and my Dorothy costume, which my mother actually made because she's just that awesome. I loved the Dorothy costume so much that I wore it for various Halloween parties for almost three years. I was also Snow White one year, and that's near the top of the list because I looked quite adorable. Also, my cousin looks really cute in that honey pot costume.

When it came time to for me to decide on my costume when I was in fifth grade, I decided I wanted to be a little creative. After hours of brainstorming, I finally decided that I wanted to go as dogs playing poker, like in the famous painting. Yeah, I was (and still am) pretty strange... So my mother and I made my costume and I ended up getting tons of compliments on how creative and funny it was.



Growing up, I had some pretty great Halloween costumes that I loved, making for a lot of awesome memories. I feel like my favorite pictures of myself when I was a child are when I'm in Halloween costumes because I still love all the different costumes I had.

Also, I'd just like to point out how cool my mother's glasses are in that top picture :)

Weekend Adventures

It's a pretty busy time of the semester right now. I have four papers due within the next week (three of which I haven't started, and one of those has to be six-eight pages) and am quickly approaching the due date for a documentary that I don't even have a finalized idea for yet. Plus, I have two jobs and several other commitments this week to balance on top of all that schoolwork. Needless to say, this is going to be a pretty hectic week.

That's where weekends come in. This weekend, I had an immense amount of fun hanging out with some of my friends that I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with lately. Friday, it was one of our friends' birthdays, so we all went out to eat and had a swell time and lots of queso. 

Saturday, one of my friends and I started out our wild night by going to the craft store, Lowe's, Walmart, Tim Horton's, and the Red Box inside Kroger. After eating donuts and watching That Awkward Moment with another one of our friends, it was only 10 p.m. and we thought our night was ending. Then, a couple of our other friends came over and convinced us to go walk around Kenyon, another college campus about ten minutes away from ours. We ended up exploring the art gallery and the cemetery, which some of us decided was haunted. Also, our group had dwindled to half the size by Saturday night, because some of our friends aren't cool enough to go play in a cemetery at 11 p.m..  

All in all, it was a great weekend that included lots of food, friends, laughter, and memories, and I definitely feel prepared to face the week ahead. 

My New TrackIf Obsession

I recently stumbled across a website that has quickly become one of my new favorite things. It's called TrackIf, and it's absolutely magical. If you ever shop online, you really need to check out this website. Basically, it tracks the price of any item you want and then sends you an email when the price drops or increases.
TrackIf has tons of different ads for almost every store, like Target, Walmart, Kohl's, etc., that you can browse through to find items to track, or you can just copy and paste the URL from any item you find on any site and it'll track it for you. Not only does it notify you when the price on an item changes, but it also shows a graph of the recent price fluctuation of an item so you can see if there is any pattern and predict the next time it will go on sale. And it's completely free, which makes it even better.
TrackIf is seriously one of the coolest and most helpful websites I have found. I'm really looking forward to seeing how handy it comes in with Christmas shopping this year, and I definitely encourage you to do the same.

My Ranking of Every "High School Musical" Song

We have been on quite the High School Musical kick in our apartment lately, which is clearly never a bad thing. Last night, we decided to watch High School Musical 3, prompting me to look up articles on BuzzFeed about the trilogy. I stumbled across one titled A Definitive Ranking Of Every “High School Musical” Song Number. It was the most wrong thing I have ever seen. For starters, whoever wrote the article seemed to have a very bad attitude toward all of the High School Musical movies, insulting a good number of the songs. People who don't like High School Musical are what's wrong with world. Also, everyone knows that the third film has the best music, by far. On the aforementioned list, only one song from the final movie made it to the top ten. To make things worse, that song was "I Want It All". My personal favorite, "High School Musical", was number twenty-two out of thirty. I think it is a disgrace to put the final song of the final movie so far down on the list. After reading that abomination of a list, I decided I would make my own. I completely left out the graduation mix of "We're All In This Together" because it is barely even its own song, it's more of a background track. So, here's MY ranking of every "High School Musical" song:

1. High School Musical
2. Everyday
3. Breaking Free
4. I Just Wanna Be with You
5. Can I Have This Dance?
6. You Are The Music In Me
7. Now or Never
8. I Want It All
9. Right Here, Right Now
10. Scream
11. Bet On It
12. The Boys Are Back
13. What Time Is It?
14. Start Of Something New
15. What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)
16. All For One
17. A Night To Remember
18. We’re All In This Together
19. What I’ve Been Looking For
20. Gotta Go My Own Way
21. You Are The Music In Me (Reprise)
22. Just Walk Away
23. Get'cha Head In the Game
24. Work This Out
25. I Don’t Dance
26. Fabulous
27. When There Was Me and You
28. Stick To The Status Quo
29. Bop To The Top

Human Trafficking PSA

I recently had to do a video project for class that is being considered for submission in the Intercollegiate National Religious Broadcasters competition. One of the categories we could choose from for our video was a PSA, and based on being in an honors seminar on human trafficking this semester, I chose to make a video promoting an on-campus outreach group.

If you'd like to watch my video, you can follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQFLZy4jHU

Hot Chocolate and a Heart-to-Heart

I have consumed way too much hot chocolate this week. Mostly because I love it, but also because I think hot chocolate has the power to make people happy (or I could be crazy, but that's another story).

Our apartment has been rather emotional the past few weeks. One of my closest friends has been a little off lately, and I could tell she wasn't having the best day today, so after our last class I suggested we make some hot chocolate and have a nice discussion. And I honestly think the hot chocolate helped.

The most awkward part of our talk was before it even started. We were making our hot chocolate, and kind of setting up the discussion, when one of our apartment mates walked in with a guy and just stood in the living room. They're always awkward when they come in, but it was even more awkward because nobody wants to have any sort of emotional discussion when people you barely know are staring at you. Thankfully, they left after a few minutes and we were able to continue our discussion.

I'm normally extremely awkward when it comes to comforting people and dealing with their feelings, so I think the hot chocolate was helpful because anytime I didn't know how to respond, I could just casually take a sip of it while I thought about what to say. So the hot chocolate was like my awkward-buffer. But I also think it helped to comfort my friend. I mean, how can you be sad when you're drinking hot chocolate, especially when it's in a Disney mug?

Through our talk, we were able to establish and try to work through a lot of the problems she's facing. I think it's always hard to start conversations like that, especially when you're the one who's going through stuff and you may not necessarily want to talk about it. But I think those conversations are extremely important to have, because they help us to vent and try to come up with solutions, while also bringing us closer to our friends. Plus, hot chocolate definitely helps.

A Quote-Inspired Rainy Afternoon

Rainy fall afternoons hold a special place in my heart. I always just feel so relaxed when I can sit inside with the window open, feel the crisp fall air flowing in, and listen to the sound of a light drizzle. Today was exactly that.
Since it was one of our few completely free evenings, one of my friends and I decided we would finally work on the quote wall we wanted for our living room. So we made some hot chocolate and busted out the sharpies, neon note cards, and endless list of Pinterest quotes. Not only did we feel accomplished about decorating part of our prison-resembling living room, but it was a nice break from all the homework and projects we've had lately. Plus, now we'll have 48 little nuggets of inspiration to look at whenever we're feeling stressed.

Here's the list of quotes we used:

1. We need to remember what’s important in life… Friends, waffles, and work. Or waffles, friends, work… It doesn’t matter. But work is third. – Leslie Knope
2. The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.
3. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.
4. If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello. – Paulo Coehlo
5. Ask yourself if what you’re doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.
6. The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most out of everyday.
7. Whatever you are, be a good one
8. Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever – Walt Disney
9. All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them – Walt Disney
10. Do what you love, work as hard as you can, and make people happy. – Ed Sheeran
11. Be nice to everyone, always smile, and appreciate things because it could all be gone tomorrow – Ed Sheeran
12. The things you are passionate about are not random, they are your calling – Fabienne Fredrickson
13. Sometimes you have to just let go and see what happens
14. Sometimes life is about risking everything for a dream no once can see but you
15. Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory. – Dr. Suess
16. Never apologize for being sensitive or emotional. It’s a sign that you have a big heart, and that you aren’t afraid to let others see it. Showing your emotions is a sign of strength. – Brigette Nicole
17. There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. – C.S. Lewis
18. Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.
19. Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it – Bill Cosby
20. Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you
21. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will
22. Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing. – Hunter S. Thompson
23. If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough
24. One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change
25. Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.
26. It’s better to know and be disappointed than to never know and always wonder
27. Remember why you started
28. Take every chance you get in life, because some things only happen once
29. Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come.
30. The sign of a beautiful person is that they always see beauty in others
31. Take time to do what makes your soul happy
32. Be who you are, not who the world wants you want to be
33. Don’t let someone who has done nothing tell you how to do anything.
34. I don't know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. - Bill Cosby
35. As you climb the ladder of success, check occasionally to make sure it is leaning against the right wall.
36. Strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands- and then eat just one of those pieces.
37. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
38. Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what women are made of; the heck with sugar and spice. - Bethany Hamilton
39. Life is like a trampoline; if you want to reach the top, you have to experience hitting the bottom.
40. I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do - Helen Keller
41. Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." - Mary Anne Radmacher
42. Friends are like Peanut Butter... it sticks to the roof of your mouth, like a friend sticks to you... and it feels as if they never go away!
43. Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
44. Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting - Peter Pan
45. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself - Leo Tolstoy
46. In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma but never let him be the period - Harold Chadwick
47. Promise me you'll always remember; You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. Christopher Robin to Pooh
48. When I left that little bird with its broken leg to die – Ed Sheeran (This one is a hidden little joke, because I always talk about how it's my favorite Ed Sheeran lyric taken completely out of context. I just want to see how long it takes people to notice it when they look at our quote wall)

I'm pretty excited about the quote wall because it adds some color to our boring white-walled living area, while also providing several uplifting words of encouragement. The only thing I wouldn't mind changing is my poor handwriting.

Our Obsession With Fear

The recent Ebola outbreak has really gotten me thinking lately. Not about the Ebola virus, or anything health related in general, but rather about how our society reacts to this type of thing. I’m not trying to make light of the situation, as I do understand that it’s a very serious topic. What I am saying is that I think our society as a whole has this problem where it feels the need to fear something.

Whenever there is any type of outbreak, we tend to obsess over it. We automatically assume that every new disease is going to completely destroy the human race, so we freak out. I think that we as a people think that we always have to have something to fear. We like being scared. I mean, why do you think the horror industry is so big? We go see scary movies, we go to haunted houses, we read horror novels - we like fear. It’s almost as if it’s uncomfortable or unsettling if there isn’t anything to fear. We live in this fear-obsessed culture where everyone has a list of phobias, and if you don’t, you’re considered weird or completely emotionless.

We like to jump on the band-wagon and freak out about everything the media tells us to be afraid of, before we even really know what it is. And the weird part is, we’re okay with it. We’re completely accepting of being told we have to fear something, and that, I think, is the real thing we need to be afraid of.

My Favorite Things About Fall

Even though it's an extremely cliche thing to say, fall is one of my favorite times of the year (I still love Christmas-time better).
There are so many great things about fall that I don't understand how it isn't everyone's favorite season. Since it's finally fall, I thought I would make a list of some of the things I love about fall that make it my favorite.

• The sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet
• Drinking hot chocolate (and all the cool mugs I can drink it out of)
• My mom's homemade pumpkin rolls
• Getting to wear my Vans boots 
• Daylight saving time (November 2 this year), even though I always use it as an excuse to stay up later instead of taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep
• The vibrant colors of all the changing leaves
• All of the Halloween movies they play on Disney Channel- especially Hocus Pocus, all of the Halloweentown movies, and Phantom of the Megaplex
• The crisp, fall air
• Pumpkin flavored ice cream
• Creative Halloween costumes, especially ones that are puns
• Getting to comfortably wear sweatshirts and hoodies (I wear them when it's too warm because of how much I enjoy the coziness of them)
• Reese's Cups being shaped like pumpkins
• Thanksgiving and all the great food and family time that comes along with it
• Getting to bake a lot when I'm home
• All the bags of individualized packaged candy being on sale
• Black Friday shopping with my sisters and cousin
• And of course, this fall I'm looking forward to season 5 of The Walking Dead, which premieres on October 12

So there you have it, some of my favorite things about my favorite time of the year.

Stargazing and Deep Conversations

Sometimes, life can just be too much.
Last week wasn't the greatest for me. Overall, I just had a rough week and life in general was really weighing on me. A lot of my problem was just that I think about and over-analyze everything way too much. By Friday, I was so drained - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. But that's where having really great friends is truly a blessing. 
Friday night, my best friend at MVNU could tell that I wasn't really okay. She offered to do anything that would make me feel better, when I suggested we just go walk around Kenyon, another college campus about 10 minutes from ours. We went and ended up going to this little part of their campus we always go to where the sidewalk goes into a circle. That's probably one of my favorite places at night, just because it's away from the busy part of campus, and it's so peaceful and calming to me.
My friend and I laid on opposite sides of the circle, just staring up at the sky (don't worry - we had mace). We stargazed in silence for a good 15 minutes, just appreciating God's beautiful creation and not even thinking about all crazy the stuff going on in life. After a while, the silence was broken by what turned into a great conversation (lasting until after midnight) about everything going on and just life in general. It was a great heart-to-heart moment that I really appreciated and will look forward to experiencing again in the future.
That night really helped me to remember that no matter how overwhelming life can be at times, having truly great friends, who genuinely care about you, can make it a little more bearable.