A Dream Is A Wish

I just got off the phone with one of my oldest and dearest friends. We both are recent grads, working full-time, and living with relatives. Our conversation was fantastic -- the kind that two people can have after not having been in touch for a couple of months only if they are "on that level." Whenever we speak it's like no time has passed at all, even though in the last two years we've only seen each other maybe four or five times. He's my brother, I'm his sister, and we have deepened our relationship through our common belief and trust in God. Through the course of our conversation, we talked a lot about our goals, dreams, aspirations, and what we really want to do with our lives. After, I went on Facebook, and in my water polo group from Chico, a former teammate had posted a video. It was an interview with the goalie from the USA Olympic women's water polo team, Betsey Armstrong about the upcoming summer games. This, in combination with my phone convo, led me to realize some of the things I wished I could, would, and had in life. Some are as follows:

• Play water polo in the Olympics (dream big, right?)
• Go to the Olympics (summer games, of course)
• Visit the most remote places in the world that very few have been before
• Walk a path that few steps have 
• Travel the world, meeting people along the way, and helping those that I can
• Another mission trip to another country
• Be proud of each moment
• Make something of myself
• Do what I can to bring the world to peace
• Time travel (good to have some "impossible" ones;)
• Always bring a positive light to those I encounter
• Touch them with my smile and kindness
• Make them believe that there is still good in the world
• And the final one I will include, which also happens to have been my No. 1 resolution of the new year, live with no regrets. Not regret not doing/saying something or doing/saying something. Take each moment for what it is, and maximize it. 

I will now begin a new bucket list, to be posted periodically. 

Although we cannot know how long we have on this planet, we can control how we spend our time. What we do with it, how we feel about it, and with whom we spend it. So avoid the bull shit. Stay away from those that will cause stress, frustration, and bring about negativity, and fill your time with people that love you for you, don't want you to be anything else, and that you love in return. If you're unhappy, do something about it. YOU ARE THE DIRECTOR OF YOUR OWN STORY, it's time to start acting as such!

Today's Quote: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." -Pierre Teilhard de Chardin -- LOVE IT!

Reflect Without Regret

Since we are in a new year, I find it only appropriate to look back on 2011 and compile a little list that explains why life is so good. I am sitting here, up way past my bedtime once more (but then again, can I really say I have a bedtime now that my life is "in my control" and no longer dictated by school, or much of a schedule at all for that matter?), and I can't help but be overwhelmed by joy and happiness about the things I have done, experienced, encountered, and what is to come. The future may be uncertain, but if the last 22+ years are any indication of what's to come, I know there is no reason to have any fears. And while we may be five days into the new year, I would like to take a moment to thank 2011 for being oh-so good to me :)


2011 started on a cruise ship for my family and I, and I would have had no way of knowing what this year would bring for me. Some things like my last season of water polo and graduating from college were sure to happen, but I could never have expected that I would enter into 2012 with such clarity and calmness. I started 2011 with a heart overflowing with love, in a place it might never have been before. And as the spring semester passed, it continued to fill with love and grow, and I entered 2012 with a heart overflowing with a different but equally as wonderful kind of love. Yes, graduating and completing my final season of polo are sad milestones to have passed, but it is because of the following reasons that I reflect on 2011 as being one of the best I've had yet!

• I learned to love again; to really open my heart and just let it in, and out, without holding back or fearing the outcome.
• The water polo season wasn't our most successful as far as our record is concerned, but our friendships grew so much and are running deeper than ever before.
• I rang in the new year (2011's) on a cruise ship with family that I love, and that can never be bad (unless of course it's the Titanic..).
• When I thought my summer would be spent in Chico working as a lifeguard, I ended up snagging an internship at Disney's ABC! It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and I was finally able to move down to LA, a dream I've had since I can remember. 
• Meeting some awesome Germans outside of a club, who ended up becoming my closest friends of the summer, and people I still plan to see in the near future.
• Getting to hang out with my SoCal family of friends, who are some of my dearest, and my uncles that I rarely see due to the distance.
• Expanding my family of friends through Mike CHEXXX
• Running off to EDC Las Vegas and having one of the best weekends of my life
• Random trip to San Diego with nothing but the clothes (swimsuits/cover-ups) we'd been wearing all day at Venice
• Going to the Music Box too many times ;)
• Learning about and growing to love an industry I had never considered before
• Figuring out a little more about the things I like, and those I don't
• Too many good times and so much love shared between new friends, who became the best of
• Kaitlyn Tolin (Toke) moved into our house in the fall, and it became a home.
• Ilona coming to visit from Finland
• Rhoan coming to visit, and bringing some new Aussies into our lives as well
• Arthur coming to visit from France with his luscious curly locks
• Last minute decision to go to San Bern for Halloween weekend and driving, literally, almost the whole Cali coast from SF to San Bern. --Family Reunion w/ the McGeekersons.
• Not getting worked up over school and studies, but instead investing my time in relationships and making memories that will prove to be more beneficial than any lesson they try and teach in a classroom.
• Beginning a blog, that I will use to guide me through the rest of my days

And while there are so many other things, the one that stands out most (possibly because it is the freshest in my mind) is New Year's weekend. I still cannot get over how great it was and how much love continues to flow through our group (via Facebook groups, obviously;). It makes me think, if I feel this kind of love from my friends, then the love that God has for me must be the most overpowering thing in the world. I feel crushed its weight, but lifted up by its greatness all at the same time. And if a group of people can make me feel this way, I have nothing to fear because the love my God has for me is even greater and will carry me through everything! 


Now that I have, once again, released the positive energy and love that is within me out into the universe, I hope it finds its way to you and can help carry you through any hard time you might be facing! When things start to feel hard, just stop moving for a moment, take a deep breath, and say, "We can do it." It is something I have been practicing with vigor the last few weeks, and I have never felt more stable or guided. Sleep well my little loves, we will meet again soon :)


Today's Quote: "All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on." -Henry Ellis

Word.

I'm On A High

Welcome to the dawn of the dead dear friends! We have made it into the talked-about 2012!! I hope that everyone out there had as lovely and memorable a new year's as I did. I spent my NYE in Lake Tahoe in the South Shore, where I attended Snow Globe Music Festival with some of the most incredible people ever to find their ways into my life! Overall, we had a group of about 20 of us that passed the love and caring on to one another the whole weekend. And while they may never see this, I have to take a moment to give a HUGE shout-out to those people who have taken control of my heart and entered into the new year with me, in only a way that this group can together!! 

The festival was out of this world, to say the least. Having a music festival of this sort in Tahoe is ingenious and I am thrilled to see it happen more often. The setting was incredible; the Lake Tahoe Community College provided us with amazing grounds to dance, frolic, and play around on. The main stage was idyllic on the football field, and at any given moment if you were to look around you would see the beautiful, tall trees surrounding you in the clearing (the field), and straight above was the night sky. Now, if you've never seen the night sky in Tahoe or any other place with a higher elevation, I suggest you put it on your bucket list and do not pass before you have seen it! The sky is so dark and lovely, and the stars shine brighter than you've ever seen them before. It will literally take your breath away and cause you to stare in awe and wonder at its beauty. 

But not only was the setting absolutely wonderful, the people were of the highest caliber. Especially those from our very own Don't Mind If I Do Krew and Team Take It Eacy. It gets increasingly harder to say good-bye and live my life without these people as the years pass, but when we gather, the most incredible things happen. Never have I found myself in a group of people who are so intent on positive thinking, positive vibes, and passing the love through oneself and onto others. The level of caring and consideration in this group is a rare treasure. Each one of us is a gem in our own way, and we all bring some element of life to the group as a whole. We are a group of people who may not see each other but a few times a year, but during the times we are together, the love you feel is incomparable to any other time. We are all such positive thinking people who like to release positive vibes into the universe, as well as listen to the world and let it take us where we are supposed to be. We would leave the group and wander around, just knowing that we would find each other again. And we always did :)

One of the most ultimate highlights of the festival for me was Bassnectar's set on Friday night. He absolutely KILLED IT!!! His set was so sexual and incredible that I thought I had about died and gone to Heaven. The beats he was throwing our way were fresh to death and channeled all the way through my body to move me in a way that has not happened [in public] ever before! I hope I can get my hands on that live set from some where, because I want nothing more than to blast it on repeat until I see him again! I am not sure I saw a single set that didn't melt my face off in some way, and was so happy to see some people that I'd never even heard of before. Other sets that I saw included: Thievery Corporation, Emancipator, Yacht, Kraddy, Run DMT, Big Gigantic, Porter Robinson, NastyNasty, Pretty Lights, Tipper, Fish Bone, Datsik, Eliot Lipp, Heyoka, Hottub, Star Slinger, Dilated Peoples, B. Bravo, Samples, Two Fresh, Paper Diamond, and The Glitch Mob. WOW, what an amazing weekend of music!!! And just an amazing weekend overall!


By far the best new year's I have ever have, and it will be a struggle to surpass the greatness in the coming years. But I gladly accept the challenge ;D

And now that the new year has begun, I am making it my goal to actually continue this blog in a consistent fashion! The resolutions are in the working, and I would love to know what yours are, so please share!


Enjoy your third day of the new year my friends, and let's make this year even better than those passed!