TJM: Total Jo Jo Move

I've been wanting to write a Dance Marathon-specific post for awhile, and I've actually had this written down, but haven't gotten around to posting it.  Maybe that means I've been spending so much time doing other things, including fundraising and spending some time with the miracle families. Well, time has gone by waaaay too quickly this semester.  Here's my first post about DM, finally!  Hopefully this will give you some more insight into why I have an obsession with all things FTK. What is it? Dance Marathon is a huge year-long movement of college and high school students raising awareness and funds for local Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.  At USC, we have various events that lead up to "Main Event."  This year it's in February, featuring over a thousand students staying on their feet for 14 hours, fundraising, learning a mash-up dance to keep them motivated, and hearing unbelievable and heart-warming stories from "miracle chi...

Here's my State of the Union, Thanksgiving Edition.                                            IN                                                           OUT                                                                                 Chicken wings                                                Turkey                                ...

Because I honestly don't have time for a longer blog post, but I need to write just enough to let out my confusion and frustration and to express the few opinions I have on what in the world is going on in the world right now.                                                                            IN                                                     OUT SNL actors (esp. on Weekend Update)                                   Donald Trump (esp. on Twitter) Solidarity, and praying for the world                         ...

You know who said "Sleep is the best meditation"?  The Dalai Lama.  He's a SMART man.  This is one of the may invaluable lessons I think we can and should all learn from him. I could have chosen a lot of topics for this blog post, but this specific topic has been on my mind a lot because many of my friends, classmates, and students bring it up. All-nighters.  They’re SO STUPID.  Your opinion may be vastly different from mine, so feel free to share it, but this is my blog and I want to express my opinion on this very important subject as eloquently and convincingly as possible. The hours we spend sleeping, throughout our lives, is supposed to add up to about 1/3 of our time here on earth.  It makes sense that something so good and so essential to our health is an activity that takes up such a big chunk of time we are alive.  When people don’t sleep at all, or just not enough in general, it is very difficult for them to act like t...

Maybe now that I'm officially 21, I'm reminiscing on my childhood a little bit more than usual.  I used to read The Clique  series, and for some reason, I've been thinking about how Massie, the main character, used to write a State of the Union blog with her opinions on what was "In" and "Out" at the time based on her day to day experiences.  I'd like to do the same thing here because I love the concept of quickly getting out a list of concepts which are the surface level of personal experiences. The main differences between Massie and me are I have no power over my school, I'm not the most fashionable person around, and I'm really only writing for my own benefit and amusement :) Most likely nobody's behavior or opinions will change because of what I think is "In" or "Out" on any particular day, and they're not supposed to.  This is just a way to organize my thoughts.  There are more important things I'd lik...

When this one friend of mine tells me about a problem she just dealt with, she often ends it with, "But it's ok, everybody has their shit."  While that may not be my go-to description, it's so true.  Everybody has things they deal with, including me and you.  Not all of those things are bad, but we tend to compare our lives more when we're dealing with stressful situations. The very important thing to realize. One time I was talking to another girl friend I'm very close to. I told her about a tough situation my best friend was dealing with and then something else unrelated that I had going on. It basically came down to "I feel terrible that my friend had such a rough day and I'm over here complaining about a dumb boy or getting a bad grade on a test."  My good friend responded with "I'm sorry for your friend too, but you should never compare yourself to other people and think your problems don't matter."  Although I'm sure ...

Aside from my biological family, there are two specific groups of friends who I consider my family.  My camp family and my Gamma Phi family.  Of course, I can't leave out my best friend Andrew from grade school or Rachel and Claire, my 2 best friends from high school, but camp and college are two essential places in my life that have given me friends I never would've become close to anywhere else.  Camp people have an unspoken bond that is indescribable. We get paid to act like children while taking care of children, and nothing brings people together like 10 weeks of living together in a bubble so far removed from the real world.  I've learned more about life in 10 years of going to camp than I ever could have absorbed from school or home.  From living away from home to experiencing the politics and hierarchy behind a business to diving for a fake dead body in the lake and cleaning up children's poop weekly, I found people who I couldn't imagine living without...

This is part of a chapter of my autobiography for English 460, Advanced Writing.  As of now, it's in the style of a memoir.  I want it to have a vibe of giving advice and teaching other people (especially young adults in high school and college) from my own experience.  However, it's ultimately something I'm writing just for me.  Whenever I finish my autobiography, maybe some of you will read it.  Maybe some of you won't.  Either way, I'll keep writing, living, and writing some more. Chapter 2: You Can't Pick Your Family… or Can You? We've all heard the phrase, "You can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends." I know I’m “stuck” with the family I have, but I wouldn’t change it.  Almost everybody on my dad's side of the family lives in St. Louis.  We don't see each other very often, but when we do, I love catching up with all of Uncle Chris's kids and seeing what they're up to.  One recently got married, and...

Yesterday was a great day. I wish all stories started like this. That would be pretty boring though, wouldn’t it?   There’s a struggle within my head that can’t decide what would be better out of these two options. A perfect world where everybody does what they are supposed to do and is nice to each other, so they’re all happy and never argue or hurt people; downside: life is fair and people are content, but people are also bored A crazy world with lots of arguments, wrong decisions, and questionable people (sounds sort of like the world we live in) and a good amount of people are happy; downside: things get messy and people get hurt and things are not at all fair. I honestly don’t know which scenario I’d rather be living in, but the life I have is the only one I’ve got, so I might as well take the good with the bad and soak it all in as much as possible. Something good in my life currently is University 101.  It's my favorite class.  That doesn't ev...