More Sleep

            As I sit in my desk my eyes lids tend to slowly droop down to cover my big green eyes. I don’t know if it is because I decided it would be a good idea to play 18 holes of golf or that I am suffering from a tremendous lack of sleep.

 

The truth is I don’t get enough sleep. They say a person my age should be getting around eight or nine hours of sleep but I truly do not understand how that is possible.

 

Here’s how my day goes; my alarm goes off at 6:15 each morning after pressing the snooze button an unhealthy amount of times, I am finally out of bed by 6:20. After getting ready I am out of the door by 6:35 and on my way to school. I am at school from 6:45 to 1:45 each day. After this long laborious day of school I rush home in order to take a nap before my day really begins. I nap from three to five, and then hell begins. I have to finish my homework and eat before 8 when I go to late night practice. Not to mention some nights I have to work so I don’t get my nap or homework time in so I am up even later.

 

When joining the high school society they hound on you to be active in your school. I don’t think they really understand how hard it is to really be involved. Me personally, I’m not very involved and I still struggle to get the necessary hours of sleep. I don’t understand how the people who are actually involved in this school can literally survive.

 

It’s hard to stay involved and still stay healthy but overall I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth the extra cat naps to tell your grandkids what a wonderful time you had in high school.

One Moment

Do you ever feel like you wouldn’t be the same person if something hadn’t happened to you? I feel like certain things happen for a reason, either to teach you a lesson or to help you mature. I feel like if I had grown up in a super wealthy home I wouldn’t be the same person I am today. Things like that really transform a person.

The other day I was discussing this topic with my best friend, and she completely agrees with me. After her family had a house fire about 6 years ago, she had to quickly morph into a responsible young adult. They had lost a lot, but no fire could destroy how close knit that family is. The fire had just brought them closer. That’s why I wonder if that fire happened for a reason. Maybe her family was meant to get closer or maybe she was supposed to mature quickly and early.

What if the house fire never happened? Would she be the same person? Would I still have become best friends with her? Or would we have lived completely different lives? This is why I think things happen for a reason. I can’t imagine what life would be like without her being who she is.

Although the things that happen to us may be devastating, I think it’s important to remember some positive is going to come out of it. By growing up in a home wear money is tight, I have become liable and more down to earth. By experiencing a house fire, my friend had matured into a grateful, responsible, young lady.

So weather it’s something little like a rainy day, or something traumatic like a death in the family it all happens for a reason. Like they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Life isn’t going to always be cotton candy and rainbows, so turn those tough times into positives and let them help you grow into the person you’re meant to be in life. It all happens for a reason, so let it happen.

Siblings

As kids we could not stand each other we couldn’t even be in the same room for very long let alone live together without constant bickering. But as time has gone on my brother and I have become very close. While he was a senior and I was a sophomore was the year we really became close.

In this year he would walk with me to classes, he would say hi to me in the halls, and sometimes allow me to eat lunch with him. Because we were always together there have been many awkward comments towards us. Many times I would be walking through the hall and have a girl come up to me and ask if I was the girl who was dating Ben (my brother.) At first I wanted to puke that anyone would be jealous that someone was dating Ben because ew that’s my brother. And then I gaged again to think EW THAT’S MY BROTHER I’m not dating my brother!? After this had gone on for a while we had kind of gotten used to the comments that we were close.

Yes we are close but we still argue a lot, just not to the extent that we did years ago. This weekend when he came home for Easter we experienced both the love and the hate of our relationship. He surprised me by picking me up at my soccer practice so of course there is the love part when I run and jump on him with a big hug. But just hours later the hate came along, but its all out of fun. I know my brother doesn’t like to be bothered, so what do I do … Bother him. I’ll reach for his beard and pull on his little whiskers making him a little flustered. Enough to make him agitated to start to pick on me. We then begin to wrestle each other which always ends up with me sitting on top of him and him tickling me to get off.

Although this is a fun type of hate, it also gets ugly. Like today we got in an argument about god knows what. We should not be allowed to argue with each other because we are both way to head strong to give up on our own opinions. We are both also very good arguers so we both bring to the table very interesting points that are pretty valid.

I love my brother to death, but boy, sometimes I can’t stand him. I believe our love hate relationship makes us closer creating a stronger bond between us.

Ware

                As Louisville continues their run in the tournament, there is one name you cannot miss. Kevin Ware, the player that literally snapped his shin in front of millions. As gruesome as an injury it is, I think the media is over playing the whole situation.

                Yes, I feel bad for Ware to an extent. Remember this is a 20ish year old that is going to school for free and is a king on campus. To be honest this doesn’t directly affect the team in any way. It might help them physiologically since they watched as a teammates leg came out of his skin. But as I watched their game against Wichita State, the announcers kept saying “this is where not having Ware will hurt them” and honestly it frustrated me. He was there 8^th man. Yes, 8^th, so there were 2 others to come off the bench before him and he averaged 2 points a game. He honestly didn’t contribute to the team that much. Also I don’t like how Coach P. is handling it. In an interview he said “now we have to play a walk on”. That is stupid, you are a number one seed you have a good team. And imagine how that kid feels when you refer to him as a walk on. And the best part is that the walk on had 6 points compared to Ware’s averaged 2 points.

                The thing that really bothered me was Twitter. Everyone was tweeting “#pray4ware” which is so stupid. He is an athlete that got injured, it happens. Meanwhile soldiers fighting for our freedom day daily but we don’t every pray for them. I think we need to get our priorities straight.

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Harmony Hippy

There is just something about a perfect harmony that just gives me chills all the way down my back. When two peoples flawlessly pitched voices just match together it’s like mash potatoes and gravy, peanut butter and jelly, peas and carrots you just know that those voices go together.

While listening to the band called First Aid Kit, you get those chills and you know these two singers were born to sing together. An example of this would be in their cover of Tiger Mountain Peasant Song by the Fleet Foxes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMrqBldlqzA. For one these young ladies voices are fantastic on their own, but as they collide together the chills begin.

As their voices creep together, you can feel every little hair stand up on your neck. It sends a burst of nerves to your heart warming it with every note. For me it’s my comfort zone. When I am feeling down in the dumps, it’s my go to thing to listen to some high quality music. No, not the regular stuff you hear on the radio. There is so much more talent out there than what is over played on the radio.

First Aid Kit is a fabulous example of these unrecognized artists. Not a lot of people know who they are but after you listen to them, you won’t be able to stop. You become addicted to the sweet harmonies of these two sisters voices becoming one. You can hear so much passion in their voices along with the harmonies, and the uniqueness of their voices gives you that sort of comforting feeling. It has the uniqueness that you can’t hear on the radio, it won’t be on the billboards, they are much underrated for the talent they have. I feel like they are doing so much more than singing a song, they are telling a story. The passion in their voices, gives you a much more sophisticated professional feel then songs on the radio rapping about drugs and booty.

Not only do these underrated artists have higher quality voices than most of the artists on the radio, I feel like they put a lot more meaning behind what they singing. Yes, they are higher quality voices and on top of that they aren’t over played. People don’t hear them every day. When you listen to music that is off the pop-charts you get the opportunity to introduce these feel-good voices to people who wouldn’t normally listen to this unappreciated music.

So the next time you are feeling down and you just need something heartwarming. Tune into some music that’s of the mainstream. You may find that the secret harmonies could really turn your day around, get those chills and enjoy that feel good music.

Golf

                With spring finally starting to come through I want to spend more time outside. My favorite way to enjoy the nice weather is golfing. Nothing is better than playing a round with some of your friends on a nice day. Even though it hasn’t been the best weather, the snow is gone at least so I have been able to go every day since they opened last Thursday. I am a decent golfer, almost a scratch player, I plan to get a lot better this summer.

                I started golfing at a very young age with my dad. I picked it up quickly and have been playing ever since. When I was 8 I played in some tournaments and I actually won 2 but as a got older and got more serious with baseball I couldn’t play golf as much. Even in high school the golf season is the same time as football so I couldn’t play for my high school team.

                Luckily, here in Iowa the public courses offer a season pass for about $200 to kids. I have had one ever since I can remember. Since golf is pretty expensive this is helpful in the summer. I play about 50 times a year so the pass saves me a lot of money

                The best part about golf is it is a hobby that will last for a long time. Once I retire in the far future I will probably be on the course every day.