Surviving with Ashley

8
Mar

The endless abyss

Today, I made a conscious decision to start paying attention to my Twitter account. After a long tug-of-war between being told that blogging and tweeting were good for me and my head telling me that I’m too serious of a writer for such things, I’ve given in. I’m going to try to keep up with the endless stream of information and sift through the never-ending sea of electronic communication. This shouldn’t be too hard considering I have an iPhone…I just have to find the time to remember to do all of these things.

I remember making the tough transition from Xanga to Myspace, and then Myspace to Facebook. I juggled Myspace and Facebook for a while before deciding that it was too stressful for me to post the same exact thing in two different locations every time I wanted to communicate with the web world. Now, I have a Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. How will I ever balance all three? Oh, and e-mail. And text messages. And phone calls. Is there even a need for such lines of communication anymore?

I think the trick to this is going to be finding fresh information to post in every place. That way, the four or five people (is it really even that many?) who actually read them all will not get bored. We’ll see how that works out.

For now, my advice for everyone is to try really hard to not get lost in the endless abyss of social networking and communication technology and remember that there is such a thing as the United States Postal Service (which I LOVE by the way), not to mention this archaic thing called face to face communication.
5
Mar

Too good to be true

Last night, after a long, grueling day, I couldn’t force my mind to shut off to sleep, so I decided to roll over, pick up my handy dandy Kindle and read a few chapters of a book I started at the beginning of the week. According to Kindle, I’m 41% finished with Off The Record by Elizabeth White. Amazon readers have given Off The Record an average of four out of five stars so far, and I can already see why. (See for yourself here)

Although I am very in tune to the plot line (which features a young Alabama judge with strict moral and political values running for a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court, who re-connects with a former college flame turned New York religion reporter), one cliche line from an obscure, almost un-related (at this point in time) scene in the book caught my attention last night and caused me to put down my Kindle, grab a pen and decorative sticky note, copy the line onto said sticky note, proceed to make notes about how to blog about the line and fall into a deep sleep. (Success! Sleep!)

The line, “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

Two words that stuck out to me in this line were ‘seems’ and ‘probably’. The uncertain nature of both words does not ring true to the overall message it’s meant to convey. The advice here is that something which is real and good in life will never be perfect, if it is, then it is not real. However, by using the words ‘seems’ and ‘probably’, the line makes the reader question whether or not they are the exception rather than the rule. Maybe something does ‘seem’ too good to be true, but what if that’s just one person’s perception…does that then make it unreal in all cases, or just in that case?

For those of you who prefer to learn by example, here’s one. The current estimated jackpot for March 6 for the Texas Lotto is $55 million. The estimated cash value of this prize is $35 million. So after the necessary taxes and fees have been taken out of the money, the winner will end up with $35 million dollars if they chose at the time of purchase of their ticket that they do not wish to receive annual payments (that’s an entirely different ballgame, folks!). Now, with all of that said, the chances of winning the jackpot prize is actually 1:25,827,165. To you does that make the odds of ending up with $35 million bucks in the bank seem too good to be true?

If your answer is yes, then you probably think that winning the Texas Lottery is too good to be true. But what about past winners? The people in the Texas Lottery winners gallery would probably tell you differently. Although many of them have not won jackpot prizes, the prizes they have won have probably convinced them that winning big is NOT too good to be true.

As much as I hold to the fact that there has to be something out there that too good to be true for me that really isn’t, in my own life, I cannot think of one thing that I thought was too good to be true which didn’t eventually let me down. I believe that’s just the nature of our society, though. Society forces people to change their perception of things that they want to perceive to be perfect, therefore setting every situation up to end in heartbreak. That really reinforces my point of yesterday’s blog…don’t listen to what other people say or think, it really can only lead to bad things.

It’s all a matter of perception. Choose yours.
10640
4
Mar

"Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans."

- John Lennon
4
Mar

Surviving Yourself

Last night, or I should really say this morning, around midnight (by the way, why do they call it midnight when it’s truly morning?), Taylor Cammack and I had a heart to heart conversation about blogging in the Flare lab. He told me that I am capable of blogging, I just needed to find a good topic. Today, it hit me like a Mac truck right in the middle of my work out.

Quit worrying about other people. What they say, do, think or act like is their problem.

By surviving yourself, I only mean overcoming the internal issues we all face in our minds about conflicts we have with ourselves. The biggest example I can think of at the moment concerns weight and body image (it’s the one that hit me so hard today during my session with Vic, the Rangerette personal trainer). As a Rangerette, I am constantly surrounded by girls who worry about gaining an extra ounce because they splurged on a sugar cookie for dessert during lunch. What if we get weighed in at practice? Is that one sugar cookie really going to make that much of a difference? To one weight conscious young woman, it just might. That one sugar cookie can cause her to believe that the one extra number showing on the scale was due to her bad decision, impacting the way she then thinks about the decisions she makes in life, causing her to believe that she is, indeed, a fat and terrible person.

I realize that this snowball effect may seem like quite the exaggeration to you, but if you lived with the 72 girls that I do, you would know that it is not. How each girl in this dorm perceives each other is how they perceive themselves. The number on their weight contract defines who they are. It’s a vicious cycle of self destruction that can only be stopped when people stop caring about what others think and start caring about how they feel about themselves.

On the flip side, when one girl stands up and says “Screw my weight contract, I want a honey butter chicken biscuit!” 15 other girls skip merrily along with her to the nearest Whataburger at 3 a.m. It’s all about following the crowd. Doing what someone else is doing, thinking what they think can be a dangerous trap to fall into.

While there are many examples that come to mind when I think about the true trash talk that occurs when 73 girls live in one place, out of courtesy to the organization, I will refrain from posting any here. However, that is also part of the problem. When all you hear are negative things about yourself and other people, you start to believe them. The only true frame of reference one can use to judge yourself on is what you see when you look in the mirror and what you know in your head.

When people say things that are totally out of line (it happens here on a daily basis), sometimes it’s best to just let it be. Sing it with me now, “Speaking words of wisdom, let it be” (http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/let-it-be-long-version/id263358079?i=263358119 <it’s the Across the Universe version :)>) OK, enough Beatles tunes, but you get my point…don’t sweat the small stuff. I know I’m not very good at taking my own advice, but for this one, I’m making an exception!

I know that these are only mere rantings from a disgruntled 21-year-old, but I truly believe that after living through almost two years of dramatic encounters, useless arguments, countless sleepless nights and many, many talks with fellow disgruntled classmates (Oh, did I mention attending school and dancing for hours upon end?) I feel more than qualified to suggest that you should stop listening to all of the negativity and judgement and start focusing on what you want out of life and what you can do to make yourself the you you want to be. I’m not talking about a total life makeover– I’m just talking about tuning out the drama and taking the initiative to be constructive with your thoughts.

If you promise to do it, I’ll try too.
2
Feb

Making the Most

As I’m sure most students are aware of by now, KC is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. As students during this special year, we are experiencing history in the making. Being a part of such a historical year is something we can all look back on years from now and remember fondly, but only if we choose to act now and make the best of the time we have here.

A wide variety of types of college students make up the student body at KC. Everyone is here to learn, but our intentions and directions vary. Some may be returning to college to earn an additional degree, some may be interested in learning a new trade and some may be entering college for the first time.

Regardless of why we are here, here we are. Making the best of the time you have at KC is essential to getting the most out of your college experience. Get involved on campus. There is at least one organization for every interest group represented at KC. If you spend all of your time studying and never step outside of the classroom, you may be missing out on a great opportunity to know great people who share your same interests.

Take advantage of special events and participate. Go to football games and support the football team, band, cheerleaders and Rangerettes. Get pumped for pep rallies and participate in the games and activities planned.

Support those who spend so much time to prepare for these events by showing up and participating. When you look back at KC yearbook and newspaper photos years from now, wouldn’t you like to see yourself captured forever enjoying these activities?

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