Nature

For all technical purposes there is nothing out of the ordinary in these pictures. They are just two photos I look in my grandmas backyard. I don't know what it is, but there is something I love about her backyard. I think it's because no matter what direction you look, you are surrounded by so much green. You feel as if you have stepped out of the world and into nature, even though its not really located in a place full of nature. Even the sky is full of blue and green, and be it a rabbit, a squirrel, or a stray dog or cat, there is always some type of random animal around. It's so peaceful.

Hair!

Relaxers had damaged my hair, so last summer, I cut it all off. There was probably about less than half an inch of hair on my head. And even now, I'm still trying to figure out how to manage my natural hair texture.

This is how my hair looks right after I wash it. In this photo, It's still wet.





When it dries, and i sometimes starts to do really weird and awkward things.

I may THINK my hair looks like this.





But it really looks crazy and like this.





Annoyed with the way it get's tangled and becomes hard to manage, I sometimes straighten it and it looks like this.



But I honestly don't like the way it looks straight anymore. Since I was about four my hair has always fallen past my shoudlers, so maybe I will like it straightened again when it's longer (no relaxer ever again though). But for now, I'll just keep fighting with it and trying to figure out how to manage it.

Art and Fashion

There is this really cool local artiest that I had the opportunity to Interview for The Indianapolis Recorder. Not only are his paintings amazing, but he turns the scraps of his canvases into purses and other assessors.

This is Kevin West, owner of Gifted Custom Arts.




And these are his accessories , which can be purchased at Roqstars Boutique. Check it out



I kind of want one of those pocketbooks.

Stories

I asked our internship coordinator about her tattoo today, which launched us into her telling us about her mentor and childhood, and it got me thinking about story.

She was saying how that if she didn’t meet her mentor she would be a completely different person. And I was thinking of the people I met through out my life that if I didn’t meet I would be a completely different person.

I thought of my 8-13 year old self, when during which I was suspended from school at least three times for “fighting” with people who bullied me. I thought of the fourth-grade friend who told me about God and showed me there were more important things than hating and fighting. I thought of that one substitute teacher I had that day in the fifth grade that took me and two of my friends told us about “lines” and why we shouldn’t walk on them. In the end, he was teaching us to decide who we would become. I thought of the many who never cared, or the people who I thought cared but didn’t, and how even they played a part of shaping who I am.

I think that even as a writer I get impatient with words sometimes. I get tired of sentences, especially the commas in them. The only thing I hate more than commas is when you get to the end of the line, see the period and you still have to write a whole other sentence after it. I always want to get to the ending without trudging through all the mess.

But there is something beautiful about adverbs and adjectives and commas and even question marks. There is something about the pause there in between two lines. It’s important.


To the people who cared, even offering the smallest smile on a cloudy day. Thank you thank you thank you. I hope your story turns out as beautiful as your heart.


And to the people who keep trying to make me punch them in the face, shame on you. shame, shame, shame on you. punching people hurts, and none of you would have ever been worth me not being able to grip my pen.

Keep going Forward

So last week I went to a Indiana Fever game with Erica, the new newsroom manager at The Recorder, and Rachel, the other intern. While I was there I ran into a past teacher of mine from elementary school, Miss. Cain.

It’s hard to believe that she even spotted me, a girl who is barley five feet tall among the sea of people that were inside Lucus Oil Stadium. (Mabye it was because I was awkwardly sitting at a table reserved for the media, surround by mostly 40-year-old white men in suites, with big curly hair and a purple dress.) I think its good for teachers to see past students, and for students to see past teachers, because it causes you to remember things you might have forgotten.

She said it was good to see that I was still writing, obviously remembering how I use to write little fiction stories and that my favorite time of the year was when we wrote “young author books” and put them on display for our parents to read during the school choir show. (I wonder what happened to all of those books?). I remember writing a story about four girls with a magical map who saw the Loch Ness Monster, and a story about Author from the TV show.

The next day she had sent me a facebook message, telling me she had read some of the articles I had written for The Recorder online, and that she really liked the one about family togetherness and summer reading, and that she was glad I doing well. (I’m glad I’m doing well two. I’m sure she wasn’t sure with 11-year-old me. How 11-year-old me evolved into 21-year-old me is beyond me. But I know that, even at 21, I’m not even halfway there yet)

I think it kind of messes with your sense of time to see someone from awhile ago, but in a good way because it pushes you forward. I told my friend Kate, who I knew since elementary school, that I saw Miss. Cane because she knew her too. I don’t really know where I’m going with this post, but its getting lengthy so I’ll stop now.

We all float on

“I will breath poetry into her lungs,
and it will be good”

strengths and weaknesses

Our new internship coordinator Erica was talking to us about overcoming obstacles and just growing as a person professional and one of the things she said she really had to learn was how to be nice to people. She kept emphasizing the importance of being nice, and I was stumped at this because in my mind I was thinking, ‘How can it be so hard to just be nice?’ But everyone is different, and everyone has to learn different things and overcome different things. And I think its good to know what your strengths and weaknesses are.

So I just wanted to share something that I think could help with that, the knowing what you are good at and knowing what you still need to work on.




The MBIT personality typing test gives you a lovely list of your own personal strengths and weekends. As in INFP, these are mine, copied from the internet.

Nearly all INFPs will recognize the following characteristics in themselves. They should embrace and nourish these strengths:

Highly creative, artistic and spiritual, they can produce wonderful works of art, music and literature
They're more spiritually aware than most people, and are more in touch with their soul than others.
INFPs are very aware of social injustice, and empathize with the underdog. They may be teachers, ministers, writers, counsellors or psychologists, but they will most likely all spend extra time trying to help people with special problems.
They're usually good listeners who genuinely want to hear about someone's problems, and genuinely want to help them.
They accept and value people as individuals, and are strongly egalitarian.
Usually deep and intelligent, they're able to grasp difficult concepts with relative ease.
Warmly concerned and caring towards others
Deep capacity for love and caring
Driven to meet other's needs
Able to express themselves well
can be somewhat spontaneous and impulsive (strength or weakness)
Has high standards and are perfectionist (strength or weakness)
Flexible, laid-back and diverse

INFP may show some or all of the following weaknesses in varying degrees:
May tend to be shy
Don't like to have their "space" invaded
Extreme dislike of conflict
Extreme dislike of criticism
Strong need to receive praise and positive affirmation
May react very emotionally to stressful situations
Have difficulty leaving a bad relationship
Have difficulty scolding or punishing others
Tend to be reserved about expressing their feelings
Perfectionistic tendancies may cause them to not give themselves enough credit
Tendency to blame themselves for problems.