Everyone Needs Pep Talks

          So I am a sucker for adorable children. Something about kids just makes my me happy and brings a smile to my face, it is why I work with them in the at a summer camp and hope to work in pediatrics one day. The past few days a youtube video has been popping up on my Newsfeed, which you may or may not have seen called, "Pep Talk from Kid President to You," and the little kid in the video is beyond adorable, and he is giving a pep talk. Watch this:

          We all need a little encouragement sometimes, a pep talk. I'm no stranger to this. Being the naturally shy and nervous person that I am, I have received many pep talks in my life whether they were before a volleyball game, a presentation in class, a first date, or meeting new people. Pep talks give you a sense of support, the feeling that someone is there for you and cheering you on. They give you that little extra boost to either start something new or to not give up on something that seems to be impossible.

          Maybe it is how simply this little boys puts things, or the way that he is serious but not too serious but it has really made me think about things. He's up front and from the beginning tells us to stop being boring. We were made to be more than boring, we were made to be great, to do something great with our lives. There are so many different paths that we can take in life, and like this little boy, I want to be in the one that leads to awesome. Don't we all? Don't we want to choose a path in life the makes us feel happy, and important and like we are doing something great with our life? And the thing is, we have the power to choose that path, we can be whatever we decide to be! Each person chooses their actions, shapes their character. We all have dreams, what is stopping you from achieving that dream? We can't quit or give up on our dreams, our space jam! What will be your space jam, the thing that inspires others? Your space jam will be the thing that you create that makes the world a little more awesome. So, live a little, dance a lot, never stop laughing. 

Something Worth Fighting For!

          I want to take a minute or two to talk about how amazing my friends are here at SLU. I am not sure if you have heard about it, but there is a foundation called St. Baldrick's Foundation which is an organization that aims to raise money to find a cure for childhood cancer. The way that they raise money is that people become a shavee and pledge to shave have their head shaved and people pledge money for that person. Childhood cancer has always been an interest of mine, and is becoming a passion of mine. I babysit a little girl, Ari, who was diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma when she was only three years old. She is now 7 and still fighting after treating cancer and then going back into remission. She has gone through multiple rounds of chemo, and continues to fight her battle with a smile on her face and a laugh that fills the room the joy. Her positivity and determination amazes me everyday and has really made me begin to look at life differently. It is partially because of her that I am thinking of becoming a pediatric oncology nurse after I graduate, and I am hoping to be on an Oncology Unit at Children's Hospital later this semester for clinicals, but I guess we will have to just wait and see. I know that people believe that it will be an emotionally and mentally hard field to go into, but I know that I am the type of person who could do it. I know there would be times that it will be really hard and sad, but there will also be some very rewarding times, and just knowing that I could help these little children with their fight, nothing sounds more amazing and rewarding to me. Here is a picture of me and the sweet little girl I get to babysit for! Please send some prayers up for her as she continues to fight her battle!

         

          We need to do something about this! That is one of the things St. Baldrick's is trying to do. They are raising money to help find a cure and begin the ripple effect. This year my friends Dede and Audrey are both going to be shavees at the St. Baldrick's event on March 9th. (I couldn't work up the courage to do it this year, but maybe next year, who know...) Even though I won't be shaving my head, I will be there cheering them on!! I am so incredibly proud of both of them and their courage and willpower inspire me! 

Dede's statement on her Donation Page:

"I am so excited to be joining the St. Baldrick's Foundation! I have known about the               foundation for three years now, but I never once believed I could have the strength to shave my head. I gladly join the list of shavees now, knowing that the action of shaving my head has the potential to instill hope in the hearts of cancer patients and inspire others to donate and fight for a cure to childhood cancer. My internship at the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children's Medical Center in Dallas and my Student Nurse Clinicals on the Hematology/Oncology floor at Cardinal Glennon here in St. Louis gave me first hand experience with cancer patients and their struggles. I want to honor their battles through my participation. As this experience will definitely challenge myself, I am glad my beautiful friend Audrey will be a shavee as well. I cannot wait to see the benefits of this event!"

 -Deirdre Harvey

Audrey's statement on her Donation Page:

"Cancer is one of the worst things that could happen to a family. However, in the past few years, I have seen so many AMAZING people knock the socks off of cancer. First, from my friend Bucky in high school, who wasn't content just to beat the disease himself; now he is an inspiration to kids from all over with his fundraising and awareness building. My friends Hannah and Lionel (a cancer survivor herself), who shaved their heads for cancer led the way. Finally, with my time at Camp For All, I was able to meet and hang out with a ton of inspiring kids with cancer and their siblings. Those kids were unstoppable--they are fighting with everything that they have in them, and they still have the energy and positivity to laugh, smile, and be goofy. These kids, and all of the people at camp, are really the reason why I am trying to raise money for childhood cancer."

-Audrey Von Borstel

           If you are wondering if you can help, YOU CAN!!! You can pledge to Dede and Audrey!! I know that you may not know them, but that shouldn't matter. I promise you that they are both such amazing and generous and courageous young women!! Any amount of money will help!!! Please please please help fight the fight against childhood cancer and help find a cure! Below are the links to both Audrey and Dede's St. Baldrick's Profile. If you feel like you can donate, please do!!!

Dede's Profile: http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/dharvey5

Audrey's Profile: http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/586850/2013

New:

My roommate Emily O'Brien is also shaving her head for St. Baldrick's and letting us do it!! I am super proud of her!! Meet Emily.

Emily's statement on her Donation Page:

"I've answered the call to be a hero! I'm letting my 12 wonderful housemates shave my head to stand in solidarity with kids fighting cancer, but more importantly, to raise money to find cures. I may be a one-shavee show, but I'll be just as bald – and I hope you'll cheer me on with a donation! The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity that funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U. S. government. Your gift will give hope to infants, children, teens and young adults fighting childhood cancers. So when I ask for your support, I'm really asking you to support these kids. Thank you! Click "Make a donation" to give online, or donate by phone or mail."

-Emily O'Brien

Emily's Profile: http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/589335

Oh the places I'll go

          11 days. This is the longest I have gone without posting a blog post ever! To be honest, I've hated going so long without writing a post, but I guess I can't complain, since it is completely my fault for not writing a post sooner... This past week and a half since I got back to Saint Louis and started the semester has been extremely crazy and really busy. The past week and a half was filled with classes and day long orientations, visiting family and tons and tons of reading and studying already for classes. I have hated not taking time for myself to just calm down and write and just take time for me. Oh also this week, my friends and I found a yoga studio really close to campus, so I have been going there during a lot of my free time too and doing hot yoga, and hopefully will be able to continue going to classes throughout the semester. I forgot how much I like yoga and how good I feel physically, mentally and emotionally after taking a yoga class. It is very relaxing and de-stressing for me which is definitely something that I need more of in my life, especially this semester.

          I am still in shock that it is already the second semester of my junior year!!! Where has all of the time gone?? #butreally

          I have always love the Dr. Seuss book Oh, The Places You'll Go. I read this book a lot growing up, and they read it at our eighth grade graduation and our senior chapel. " This book is kinda my inspiration for the next semester, and I guess really the rest of my college career.

          "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”

          I have been thinking about that quote from the book as well as a few others when I look towards an upcoming adventure that I am going on. I haven't really written about this yet, because I didn't finalize everything until the end of Christmas Break, and the past week has been so busy that I haven't been able to tell you about it. Over Spring Break, I have decided to go on a Mission Trip through Campus Ministry to El Salvador!!! I had thought about going on a Mission Trip over break and Stewart, who is one of the leaders, somehow convince me to get over my fears and apply to go on the trip, and a few weeks later I got my acceptance email. I am so excited to say the least. This is a really big thing for me. Stepping a good bit out of my comfort zone. I am homebody, I really enjoy being home, which is where I usually am over spring break. However, since I am going to El Salvador, I am obviously not going home of Spring Break, and won't be home until the middle of May. 4 and 1/2 months without going home! That is the longest I have ever been away from home in my whole life, it's going to be really hard for me. I am excited nonetheless for this adventure that I am going to go on!

         Over the past few month I have had this feeling that I just need to do something different, something eye opening, and something out of my comfort zone. I prayed about it a lot and have done a lot of thinking about it and this trip just kind of fell into my lap. I think this will be really good for me. I think that I will learn a lot about myself on this trip and from what Estewart has told me about it and what we are doing, I think that it will really open my eyes and learn to appreciate the little things in life.  

          I wish I could write more tonight, but thanks to clinicals tomorrow I have to get up at 5:30 am.... I am certainly positive that there will be more posts to come about El Salvador as it get closer and I get more nervous about going :) Good night!

“So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you'll move mountains.” 

Be kind

Up in the Air

It’s that time again. All breaks eventually come to and end. Christmas Break is over and it is time to head back to the world of studying, 8 am classes, and 12-hour clinicals. At the moment though, there are a bunch of mixed feelings going through my head. I am excited to go back to school, but not excited to leave home. I’m ready to get back to school, see all my friends and get back into the swing of things, but on the other hand, I’m not quite ready to leave home. I think part of the reason that it’s harder for me to leave this break is that I won’t be home again until summer time, 5 months from now. That’s the longest I’ve ever gone without going home at all! I am excited to get back though, and spring semester always does seem to fly by so much quicker than fall semester. I feel like it will be summer time before I know it.

I could not have imagined a more perfect Christmas Break. Unless, maybe if I was actually 21 like most of my friends from high school… However, that did not stop us from having a fun time J My Christmas break was well spent at the Debutante Ball, Dinner Parties, going downtown with friends, hanging out with my little sister, New Years Eve Bowling and Fireworks with Bex, going to the shooting range with my parents and a lot of reading books and watching movies/TV shows. I can’t believe that this month of break is already over.  However, I have so many exciting things in store for this coming semester, which I am sure you hear all about in due time! Until then, I sit here waiting for a plane back to St. Louis, day dreaming about what is yet to come, and slightly dreading the 45 degree drop in temperature from Greenville to St. Louis.

            After all that I finally get to what I actually wanted to write about. Airports. I absolutely love airports. This is fitting since I am writing this blog partially during a layover in the Charlotte, NC airport and partially thousands of feet up in the air on my way back to St. Louis. It really seems not to long ago that I was writing about last semester in this airport on my way back to Greenville. Anyways, I absolutely love airports, especially the Charlotte airport. I have been through a lot of airports since I was younger and since going off to college and the Charlotte airport is by far my favorite airport. If you ask my sister though, she has a special place in her heart for the San Juan, Puerto Rico airport. Why? I do not know, but that is her favorite airport of all time. The Charlotte airport is big, but not too big and such a pretty airport. It’s familiar; I’ve flown in and out of, and through this airport too many times to count in the past 20 years of my life. All of the 5 concourses branch off of one main terminal that has huge windows that look out over the tarmac. Suspended from the ceiling in the atrium are different airplane models and along the windows, and all through out the concourses there are blue rocking chairs where you can sit and admire the planes coming and going. Another perk about the Charlotte airport is that there are many Starbucks spread throughout the airport, so I will never be far from a coffee fix.

            Ever since a young age, I have always had a love of airports for multiple reasons. For some reason I love people watching. I mean who doesn’t? And what better place to people watch than an airport? You can never expect anything less than eclectic when people watching at the airport. There are businessmen and women, families, young couples, old married couples, preps, hippies, and the list goes on. Really you can see any type of person at the airport. Each person has their own story and is coming from somewhere and going somewhere different. The whole concept of the airport is fascinating to me, that may sound weird but it is. You are in one place and the whole world is within reach. You literally have the option of going anywhere in the world.  I could probably pass the whole day sitting and watching planes take off and land. It is calming in a way to me, I’m not sure why but it is. It still amazes me watching planes take off. They are basically huge piece of metal that fly into the sky and drift to another destination. Probably the most entrancing moment of this for me was when I first saw the plane that we flew on from LA to Melbourne, Australia. We flew on the Airbus A380, and it was absolutely MASSIVE, a double decker the entire length of the plane and held over 400 passengers. Now tell me it is not amazing and fascinating how that large of a plane can fly thousands of feet up in the air over an ocean, halfway around the world, without stopping. Up in the air, the feeling is just the same. I love flying. It’s a different world in the air. It is so peaceful looking out on the blanket of clouds below that are a mixture or yellow, orange and pink from a setting sun.

            Some people may hate flying and say that it is a hassle, but I beg to differ. It is a pleasure.

Happy 2013

Visual Poetry

          So, I watched a movie the other day that was absolutely beautiful and just had to write something about it, even if it is a short post. I had read a little about the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild, and yesterday morning my mom and I were watching the reveal of the Oscar nominations and low and behold, Beasts of the Southern Wild was nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress (the little girl who is now 9, was only 6 years old during filming. She is the youngest nomination for Best Actress ever.), and it is also up for the big one, Best Picture. The movie debuted at Sundance Film Festival and from that moment began to captivate individuals with its beauty and intriguing story.

          The movie, which is more like visual poetry, follows a young girl named Hushpuppy who lives in "The Bathtub" of southern Louisiana with her father. Hushpuppy is heartened by a sense of childish optimism and extraordinary imagination and is convince that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm that forces her to change her reality. Hushpuppy is faced with many adversities such as the deterioration of her father's health, her father's hot-temper, a storm that devastates her home and leaves her on the brink on orphanage. Desperate to repair the structure of her world to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny (literally tiny!!!) hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions. Hushpuppy has a smile so entrancing, yet a scowl that no creature would dare cross. On the outside, Hushpuppy may look small and vulnerable, but in her eyes she is strong and powerful and will do anything to prove that. Beasts of the Southern Wild, is a work of magic realism as well as an exercise of wishful thinking. The movie combines crawfish boils, cold beer, a grand imagination of the cutest little girl who gives the most powerful performances you could ever wish to see. The movie is beautiful and enchanting and will make you smile and laugh and cry all in the span of an hour and a half. Watch the movie, trust me it is worth it.

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