Who runs this world?

So a lot of you may know what this post is about if you have heard Beyonce's new song "Run the World (Girls)." Very few songs capture my full attention for the entire duration and after watching this music video I found myself in a daze over the awesomeness that is Beyonce. This girl never stops! I don't know why but my favorite part of the song is when she sings "My persuasion can rule a nation..."as creepy as that may sound I think I like that part so much because I was thinking, "How many girls would be courageous enough to say that? I know a few men out there who probably say that to themselves every night before they go to bed.  There is a female writing this blog so you had to expect I was going to slip a little "woman power" talk in here sometime. I don't call myself a feminist really but after I heard this incredible song I naturally thought of three of my closest friends that I would like to mention as the "I have friends who" part of this post.

So...I have three friends (you know who you are) who have amazed me (and still do) with their life adventures and have taken some pretty big risks without even blinking an eye. These three beautiful, young women have given me more courage and strength than I ever thought possible by showing me if they can accomplish these amazing tasks, surely I can. They may hate me for saying this but I think the four of us have had a little competitive streak between us over the many years that we have been friends, but it's a positive one. It is one that pushes us to better ourselves  and remind us that we have so much left to learn from each other and the world around us. We are all going in VERY different directions these days but I seriously believe these girls will run the world someday.


These wonderful friends of mine have given me sympathy when I need it, tough love when I don't want it, and laughter when I least expect it. I hope and pray everyone reading this blog has at least one friend like this to lean on and if you have not been fortunate enough to come across someone like that, lean on Beyonce. Cheesy I know, but her new song just made my night so she just might make yours. Live the dream.

Really?

I have a friend of mine who just recently got me addicted to Anderson Cooper 360. I swear I'm not kidding you but after watching his show tonight I googled him and found his live blogging page with this quote below that describes, to a T, what I've been trying to pinpoint in this blog and what he has been doing all along. Darn you Mr. Cooper.

"Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news."

Now I am NOWHERE near as good as Anderson Cooper in accomplishing this goal and I am certainly not striving for it but I just wanted to put this quote out there and let you know if you don't like the way this blog is going try out some Anderson Cooper because he is amazing at getting the word out without being overly critical.

The other reason I was inspired to write this post is to let you know what I learned from Mr. Cooper today during his "Ridicu-list" segment. Are you ready? Kim Kardashian's butt is real!!!!! No lie!!! It is definitely ridiculous to know that some people spend their time criticizing someone's butt so much that she finally gets a "butt x-ray."

Something to make you feel good.

If you were hoping for a youtube video of adorable puppies upon reading the title of this post, sorry to dissapoint you. But I have something wayyyy better! You may not think it is at first but try it out. It's a little something called volunteering...

I have a friend who is the perfect role model for volunteering. She volunteered once a week at a nursing home, making friends with those who lived there and doing things for them that they could no longer do for themselves. For example, she showed up at a meeting we had together with these bright, multi-colored fingernails and proceeded to tell me how much fun she had painting nails all afternoon with her ladies at the nursing home. She genuinely had a great time with them and was really really sad when she had to leave them after graduation.

Some people may volunteer to be one step ahead on their resume, which isn't all bad because volunteering can teach a person many many skills that will help them in his/her future career. My friend probably isn't even concerned with this little fact because you could tell by the big, humongous, genuine smile on her face after she's visited the nursing home that she truly loved spending time there, helping others.

Whatever your reason for volunteering, or even if you don't volunteer anywhere right now, trust me when I say this: It really does make you feel good about the blessings in your life. I will admit that I myself find it hard to find time to volunteer but with technology today it is almost impossible to have an excuse not to help your fellow friend. There's so many ways to volunteer these days and people need volunteers for everything. We all have some pretty sweet skills unique to our own personality and the handy-dandy websites below can help you match up your interests with the right organization.

Even if you only have time to volunteer once a month or you love planning special events and you're not necessarily free all year round, these websites will find a place for you. Or I also know multiple friends on summer internships right now(You know who you are people) so maybe it would be just a one day thing. With the words "budget cuts" being spoken more often than I blink my own eyes these days, more organizations are reaching out to people to utilize their services in computer technology, retail services, design, marketing, etc. You type in your skill and the website will hook you up. So try it out and just see what happens. Can't hurt right? I just moved to a different town and I may be using this post as self-motivation to find some new opportunities so I'm right at the start with ya!

http://www.volunteermatch.org/

http://www.volunteeriowa.org/

Keep the Faith.

I have a friend who is obsessed with her faith in God, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. (Warning: This topic will probably pop up  a lot because I have several friends who have opinions about this all over the spectrum). During the school year we used to meet once a week to just talk about God and we both had (and still do have) a lot of questions/ideas/beliefs that we bounced off each other. Some weeks, we would study books of the bible and others we would just talk about why some people believe this and why some people believe that, or don't even believe in anything at all. It was nice to talk to her because we are both Christian but we come from two different branches of Christianity and it's interesting to find the similarities as well as the differences. She even came to church with me one week to see how "we" do things on our side.

I have been thinking about her a lot lately because I have had some challenges to my faith recently, one big one being THE REAL WORLD. Phrases such as, "Why isn't this working?!" and "I've done everything I could and I still didn't succeed!" have popped into my brain recently. I expected to hit the ground running after graduating college but I think I finally had a break through today and made peace with where my life is at right now and I have my ever faithful, "Thursday night-Maucker Union-avoiding homework"  friend who has prepared me for this moment to thank. I believe I was meant to find a waitressing job so I can make new friends in a new city. I believe I should be thankful for this extra free time I have to plan a wedding that is just a few short months away. I believe that I haven't found that perfect "helping kids achieve their dreams" job because the one I'm supposed to have just isn't out there for me yet. I believe this quote (below) I found while skimming through the newspaper, waiting to get my hair cut, wasn't there by accident.You skeptics out there can call it what you want but I call it faith.

"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith no explanation is possible."
                 -St. Thomas Aquinas (who by the way, wasn't just a theologian but actually a pretty famous philosopher that ranks right up there with Aristotle, how cool is that?!)

2 Truths 1 Lie

So I have a friend who taught me this neat lil' ice breaker to meet new groups of people. It's called 2 truths 1 lie. You say 2 truths about yourself and 1 lie and the new people you just met have to figure out which one is the lie and they also get to know 2 new things about you! So here are mine:

I like the rain
I changed my argument for Nature vs. Nurture (last post)
I love red wine

Did ya figure it out? The last statement about loving red wine...so not a truth. I love wine but I'm too much of a whimp to endure the bitter tastes of reds. And I do love the rain because it gives me an excuse to curl up under a blanket and watch a couple episodes of Law & Order: SVU. Back to that in a moment....

I wanted to play this game because I realized after reading yesterday's blog post, I didn't put up a very strong argument for leaning towards the nature side of inheriting our parent's traits. Even though I said that my hard worker skills didn't kick in until after I left for college, I could have easily been using my high school years to soak up that behavior from my dad by watching him care for us (nurture justification). But I still stand on my unwillingness to inherit my mother's bad driving skills, so that has to be nature. So I guess I agree with psychology and say it's a little bit of both. I think I just wanted to be one of those smarty-pants bloggers who tries to go against the grain but it's kinda hard to fight science on your own.

Back to the wine. I have another friend who introduced me to "Two Buck Chuck" which is actually a pretty yummy tasting wine for, get this, $2.99! And since I loooove white wines I stock up regularly at Trader Joe's which is the only place it is sold. It's a little unfortunate that there is only one Trader Joe's in Iowa because they are a pretty awesome store. They buy directly from companies to avoid paying off the middle man and have even committed to getting rid of all trans-fats in their private label foods. How cool is that? So next time you're in West Des Moines, hit up Trader Joe's (near the Jordan Creek mall) and get some bang for your buck, and your health.

Nature or Nurture? Why neither is not so bad...

I have a friend who just told me "You are definetely your father's daughter," after having a small tiff about the types of food I eat (addiction to Hamburger Helper, Chicken Helper, Tuna Helper, any kind of Helper really). Hey, I'm broke right now and I know my dad definetely may not agree all the time, but I really have adopted  some of his many great money saving habits.

I also have several friends who absolutely dread becoming their parents one day and when I tell them that they are they give me a death stare that says "Did you really just say that and maybe this is a good thing but I'm not going to let  my mom or dad find out." With my background in psychology I have read many books about inheriting things from our parents, both genetically and by imitation, which then leads into the never ending argument of Nature vs. Nurture. Do we inherit most of our little quirks and behaviors by simply being from the same DNA strand or just by watching their every move when we're little trying to be just like them?

From what I have learned psychology says it is a little bit of both. But after 4 years of psychoanalysis papers, motivation and emotion tests and behavior studies I am kind of leaning towards the nature side. I believe my reasoning is just after all the things I have found out about myself and my similarities to my parents, which are findings I discovered after moving out of the house. For example, my mom's horrible driving skills. Put us two in the front seat of a car and you have a 99% chance of getting lost or hitting a curb. Why would I want to imitate that skill? It has to be genetics. We are also both a bit on the ditzy side but to be honest it's one of my favorite things about her because we can laugh and share our stories of how I ran into a door or driving through a McDonald's, paying for your food, and forgetting to pick it up at the second window (no joke, it actually happened! Not saying which one of us it was...) You can be in the worst mood ever and those stories will turn your whole week around.

And then there's my dad, which is who this post is dedicated to on the most obvious day to dedicate a post to a father. I have to admit I was a little bit on the lazy side when it came to working hard in high school (We all have our moments) but for some reason the awesome hard worker skills that my dad has always had came to me after I had moved out of the house and was living on my own, far from viewing his own skills that I could imitate. Sure I watched him working tirelessly to provide for us when I was younger but I have to admit I mostly just watched and thanked him for all the great things he could give us: a beautful house, a great education, and more than enough food on the table. I believe those hard worker skills have always been in me because I began to use them when I wasn't being nurtured by my dad to imitate them. So a big thanks to my dad for those great genes!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful dad and every dad who has cared for their children just as mine did. And friends, it's really not that bad to inherit some of your parents qualities. Whether in your own silence or straight to their faces, you'll thank them later.

Waiting for Superman

So I have this friend who loves helping children. I mean really looooves helping them achieve their dreams and being a friend to them when they may not have anyone else to turn to. She viewed this documentary called "Waiting for Superman." She thought, why would there be a documentary about how broken the education system in America is because after all, isn't American the best at everything? W-R-O-N-G.

She decided to watch it anyway. She was aware of what this documentary called a "lottery school," which is a school that allows students to learn at a charter school seperate from public schools, with great teachers and endless opportunities to excel. She believes these schools are a great idea but was shocked at the amount of students trying to get into them in dozens of locations across the country in order to avoid ineffective teachers and extremely high dropout rates at their local public schools. And the fact that America now ranks 25 in math and 21 in science across the globe is just a little depressing.

Now almost every documentary should be taken with a grain of salt because of the extreme views they take in order to get their point across. But this documentary has some VERY valid points. If you care about the future generations that will run our country, watch this trailer or rent it! And the best part about documentaries...they're usually only an hour or so long so turn off the crappy-yet-addicting (my guilty pleasure as well so don't feel bad) reality tv show you're watching and fill your brain with some knowledge.

Let's get serious.

So not doing so good on keeping up with the blog, I apologize. I think I have been avoiding it because part of the point of this blog is to talk about some really crazy theories or beliefs but I may be a bit afraid to post them. May be a little long today because of my efforts to try to make this as unbiased as possible.

So...I have a friend who is 100%, no argument, a Pro-life believer. Against the opinions of others as well as personal threats against her life, she had a beautiful baby girl and she is an absolute joy to be around. A few months ago, I went to a pro-life vigil with her during "40 days for life." During the season of lent, pro-life groups and individuals peacefully stand outside planned parenthoods and other abortion clinics and simply pray for those entering the clinic.

The event coordinators gave out copies of pregnancy resources to the women entering the clinic as well as the first chapter of "Unplanned" a book written by an ex-executive director of a Planned Parenthood. Keep in mind, I am merely an observer in this whole event because I am too scared to say or do anything, for or against abortion. So as an observer, I stood there and read the excerpt. Once again, it is difficult to write about these subjects because I do not want to be biased and give out my opinion, but whatever your opinion on abortion, read this if you get the chance.

Now I also have friends who would think all of this is just plain crazy and a woman should have the right to choose. So I decided to play devil's advocate with my pro-life friend (who has done some extensive research on this) and ask her some questions such as...

Me: What if a woman was raped and conceived?
Friend: When a woman is raped, something personal is taken away from them in that event and they can't ever get it back. It may be self esteem, loss of emotions, etc. They may think that having the abortion may help them get it back, but after the abortion is successful they then begin to feel as if the rape is happening all over again and once again, something is taken from them that they can't get back.

Me: What about those that say I don't want to give him/her up for adoption just for the child to grow up living in multiple foster homes?
Friend: Adoption agencies will allow you to choose a family to give your child to. A family that will provide the best care for your child. There are also all types of adoptions: open, closed, or maybe something in between.

Me: What if the woman is risking her own life because she chose to have a baby against the wishes of the father/ family?
Friend: There are so many pregnancy resources available for women in danger for their lives. These centers can provide safe housing, food, medical needs, etc.

Whether or not these answers are justified in the eyes of the people reading this blog, I am so blessed to have such strong and caring friends, both pro-life and pro-choice. They all have had different life experiences that have brought them to their decisions and they are every bit entitled to them.

The awesomeness of Randy Pausch

I have a friend who every so often would reference a certain man named Randy Pausch in class to either:
A) get us sidetracked from class
B) get us motivated to get back to class
     or
C) learn some awesome ways to better ourselves

For those of you who have not already heard this friend talk about him, Randy Pausch was a college professor who died from a long battle with cancer in 2008. At Carnegie Mellon University (where he taught at) every professor would give a "last lecture" upon retirement from their position. They are allowed to invite past and present students, family members, friends, etc.

Unfortunately, Randy Pausch's last lecture as a professor was actually one of his last living testimonies and he titled it "living out your childhood dreams." It seems like a crazy thing to do to actually pursue your childhood dreams. I mean, come on, didn't we all want to be ballerinas and astronauts? But Randy Pausch managed to pursue ALL of his childhood dreams in some way shape or form, including becoming a Disney Imagineer. Pretty cool, right? He was a living inspiration and the most memorable piece of advice I received from reading his book and watching his lecture online is this:

"Brick walls are meant for those who do not want their dreams bad enough."

I don't think that is the exact wording because I do not have the book in front of me but it is such a true and sometimes difficult concept to understand. There are many obstacles in life and sometimes we may feel like giving up. But those obstacles may make reaching our goal that much more rewarding in the end. Hey, if life was perfect, think of how boring it would be...

That is just one of the many things I have learned from this man and it is truly unfortunate that it took a life changing illness for so many to think about their own, including myself. The book is SUCH an easy read, for those who don't like to read a lot. It is also VERY cheap on Amazon (see lovely link below). Even if you don't think you can manage a few pages just click on the link above (in red) for the video of his last lecture.