The Beautiful Tool of Language

After leaving class today, I have had some time to meditate on what was communicated about language. I do think that being multilingual is a huge advantage in this day and age and I would assume that many, if not most people do, especially companies who do business overseas. It seems to be such a key resource to have and beneficial not only in business, but potentially in everyday life or for vacation.

Considering the fact that my grandparents, my parents, my sister and I were raised in Italy, its culture has always been one of great importance to us. Every time our family gets together, it is inevitable that some Italian phrase or conversation will arise. Even more so now that my Italian cousin is living with my grandparents so he can attend a University in Chicago.

It pains me to say that I have forgotten most of my Italian and usually find myself lost in these conversations. Why did I have to be such a stubborn child? My parents were always trying to encourage me to speak in Italian with them at home once we moved to Illinois, but I was always afraid that one of my friends would show up at the door and hear me talking in a language they did not understand and be weirded out by what they heard. I was more caught up in what people thought of me at the time than what would be the best thing for me in my future years. That is probably one of my only regrets in life.

Speaking a different language is a beautiful thing in my eyes. I tend to find that English is such an ugly and absurd language at times and will resort to using an occasional word in Italian, Spanish or of my own creation. Sometimes other languages simply have a better way of saying things or certain phrases that cannot be expressed in English.

Not only is it unbelievably beneficial and beautiful, but it gives you a completely different outlook on the world. You really have the best of both worlds, as Miley Cirus would say. You are more cultured and are more appreciative and have a larger understanding of the world around you that most people do not possess. If you can sit down and take the time, patience, practice and the occasional moments of humility that it takes to learn a language (or more!) then I give you two thumbs up, and if I could give you more I would.

I hope to learn all of the “love languages” by the time I die. It is a bit of a lofty goal, but so worth it.

What Lurks Beneath

This is purely the reason I am afraid to go into the ocean. I love swimming and the water, but something about the unknown, deep dark waters of the world makes me uneasy. Not being able to see or control what is underneath me while in the water is one of my greatest fears. Even when I went on a cruise and saw some of the most beautiful and clear waters of the Caribbean, I still had a hard time swimming out past where I could no longer touch the sandy bottom. There is almost something about being able to see what is swimming around you that still manages to give me the heebee jeebees. So really, there is no winning situation for me…except for perhaps a swimming pool. *sigh*

I love to travel, but I am sad to say the beach is not my favorite vacation spot. I love the idea of it, but I cannot enjoy the beauty to its entirety if I am afraid of what is lurking beneath the water. Maybe that is why our family vacations do not typically consist of going to the shores of Aruba or parasailing in Bermuda. Yes, it is surely beautiful, but I have this knack for breaking out of the norm and the urge to go somewhere unusual, to do something that is outside of the stereotypical vacation. I just do not see the fun of lying on the beach all day. Sure you may not get the time to just sit around and relax very often, but you are on vacation! Go do something you have never done before! Fill your time with adventures. You do not get to do that very often either. You will have far more stories to tell and pictures to show if you go out and put your time and money to good use. I promise you. Take pleasure in the time you have been given here on this planet. You do not have much left, so take full advantage of it!

There is Joy, Not Happiness

Have you ever felt like everything is coming at you all at once from two thousand and twenty five different directions? Like your plate is flooding over with a multitude of different activities? That people are expecting so much out of you that you know you simply cannot give them, that you are being stretched in so many different directions, that you begin to feel faint from lack of sleep, have barely had time to catch up with friends even over lunch because you are eating in your room slaving away. But even with all of this going on, still find joy in the day to day moments? Little things such as feeling the warm sun in the morning or seeing a couple walking hand in hand purely enjoying the other’s presence (oh how I wish it was me at times) or hearing an upbeat song blaring from the speakers of a passing car. I am there. I hope whoever reads this finds themselves able to share in these sentiments in some way, shape or form or else this may appear like a bunch of jumbled words and rants that do not make cohesive sense.

The Art of Dumpster Diving

A once homeless man, Lars Eighner, formerly wandered the streets and learned to master the art of scavenging and enlightens us with the proper etiquette and techniques that he discovered in his essay, “On Dumpster Diving.”

Eighner tells us how to interpret if something scrounged from the pits of a dumpster is edible or not. Most of the determination process simply involves your common sense and the use of your eyes to see whether or not an item of food is contaminated in any fashion. He began figuring out over time which places contained the richest dumpsters and where to go if he needed any items in particular. Despite his caution and watchful eye along with the help of his dog Lizbeth’s heightened senses, there would still be times when all six of Eighner’s senses (the sixth being Lizbeth) would not work properly. About once a month he would get sick with dysentery, but he did not let keep him down.

He looked at items in ways a normal passerby would most likely not. He would frequently recycle things he found and turn them into gifts. The items he discovered in dumpsters often have a story to tell about the person who gave it up, but he tries to avoid making any sort of assumptions about them. He feels like it is a form of invasion on their privacy and because of that will tend to stay clear of household garbage cans. Also because while scavenging through the individual cans, it is near impossible to do without making a mess of yourself and the surrounding area.

There was nothing he hated more than can scroungers who consisted mostly of winos and drug addicts. They were self-seeking and would throw out and ruin many things that could have been beneficial to other scavengers. All in all, Lars Eighner had a good outlook on his life and ended up turning his circumstances into something positive. A trait we should all admire.

The Beauty of Simplicity

I have always been such a huge fan of simplicity. There is something about it, so natural and pure. I tend to try and achieve this in most everything whether that be in my wardrobe or my hair or design or makeup. Less is truly more in my book.

I have always wondered why women think it is beautiful to completely conceal their face in makeup and wear excessively gaudy clothing. Don’t try so hard! Really. If I am going to be honest, it comes across to me as an insecurity issue; that the explosion of chalk on someone’s face or ultra revealing clothing is only something to “hide” behind. No need to hide behind gobs of makeup and fancy hairdos. Be real to yourself and the rest of the world.

Your time can be spent doing more doing more productive things like homework, or socializing, or let’s be honest, sleep. Would that not be nice? Makeup may be able to cover up minor blemishes and hairspray may be able to help mask a bad hair day, but in the end, people do not really care what brand of eyeliner you use, it is the person underneath that people fall in love however cheesy or tacky that is, it is not the truth? If not, maybe you consider finding some more legitimate friends. Your personality will seep through no matter how much you are doing to cover it up. You might as well beat them to the chase and make the search a little less difficult.

I say try going without dolling yourself up for one day, see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised. It has a tendency to be kind of freeing. There is a chance you might even enjoy it enough to do it again. That is what happened to me. Hey, you might even be able to save a few dollars. You have yourself a win, win situation there. If you do take me up on the challenge, tell me about it. I will be curious to know. :)

Frenzied Creations of our Restless Minds

This morning I was rudely awoken by my alarm clock at 6:50. I am not so bitter with my clock at waking me up at such a dreadful time for a little rested college student, but more so because it abruptly ended my marvelous dream. I was simply lying in a field, listening to the breeze rustle the long grass and abnormally large trees surrounding me, soaking up the warm rays of the sun. That was it, but it felt so supernaturally real to me. It was a beautiful moment until I opened my eyes to the cold darkness and looked out of my window to find snow and only ordinary trees. Bummer.

It is such a rare occasion that I remember my dreams, I have to write them down because they are so monumental and rare. I love having dreams. They make such interesting stories because they have a tendency to be so bizarre and typically do not make a whole lot of sense, but they are nonetheless still fascinating.

I have always been intrigued by dreams, not only because they often times make peculiar and humorous stories, but because it makes me wonder if they are ever more than some frenzied creation of our restless minds. You hear about dream interpreters, but I am slightly skeptical in the same way I am with fortune tellers, even more so pet psychics (What?!). How can all dreams be generally interpreted? This just does not make any kind of sense to me. I would like to know how one would interpret this dream: One night many years ago I was in some strange fantasyland that was assembled only in the styrofoam puzzle pieces that you often see in children’s play areas. The only other person, if you wish to call it that, was Dee Dee’s imaginary friend from the old Cartoon Network show Dexter’s Laboratory, Koosalagoopagoop. He invited me to go up in a styrofoam made elevator that magically floated in mid-air and went nowhere. I gladly obliged. Once we reached approximately 3,000 feet, the little foamy puzzle pieces began falling out and declining to the ground below. Koosalagoopagoop told me it was soon my turn, then he fell laughing as I held on tightly to the edges of this hovering, pastel craft. Then I woke up. Now would someone please tell me what this is supposed to mean? I would really love to know.

In speculation of my dream last night, I am so looking forward to spring…

Four Little Letters That Changed My Life

It was towards the end of our Christmas dinner and we were eating our warm, homemade pecan pie and sipping away on our small glasses of espresso when a topic arose that would change my life. Not the most profound or inspiring thing to most, but for me, it was something that was far greater than any of the presents that I received that day. The Myers-Briggs Personality Test. It is so simple and yet I have been completely enthralled by it. Everyone at the table had already taken this test and were talking about it amongst themselves, but there was no way I could participate in the conversation and that frustrated me and intrigued me all at the same time. I had to know what my four letter combination this test would find in me.

Immediately after dinner, I scurried upstairs to the computer room and found the test online. It was a simple seventy two question test that would somehow tell me who I was. I have always had this fascination with tests, quizzes or surveys that reveal something about a person’s moral fiber. I was a little skeptical at first, but I knew that if my entire family was raving about it downstairs that it had to be something pretty spectacular. After about fifteen minutes of carefully contemplating the questions and making sure I answered them true to me, I nervously hit the “Score It!” button somewhat anxious about what it would tell me. Low and behold, I am an ENFP. Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving. The only thing I knew this meant was that I was like my dad. That did not scare me as much as you may think. I really look up to my dad and was pleased to know that I shared some of the same characteristics as him. I could not just stop there, I had this hunger to know more than that, to get to a deeper level and find out what this test really had to say about me.

I googled my outcome and clicked on the first result that came up. As I began reading, my mouth dropped farther the more I read. I was so astounded by how true to me it was. It nailed me to a T. I finally made sense to me. Who would have known that four little letters could tell you so much about yourself. After I finished reading that website, I could not help but go to another one and read it in a new way. I had to make sure that the first one was not just a spoof. The second one was even truer. I could not bear to keep this exciting news to myself. I had to share it with all of my friends.

Every time I would spend time with a new friend, I would have them take this test. I was curious to know what their four letters had to say about them. It has a way of explaining them in a way you could never come up with on your own and clarifies why they might be the way they are or why they might do things a certain way and because of that I was able to better understand them. By reading descriptions of themselves, my friends became enchanted by how eerily it pinpointed their personalities and they had to tell THEIR friends. They are simply paying it forward.

So if you want to know a little more about yourself on a more personal level, go to http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp. I doubt you will regret it. But I warn you, it is surely addicting.

The Basics of Me

All of my life I have been in a constant search of self. Who really am I? What really sparks my interest? What is unique about me? I cannot say that I have found absolute answers to these questions that have not been in a constant state of change, but there is one thing in my life has been never changing, that is a large part of what I stand for, something I do find a passion in, and that is my faith.

I was born and raised in Naples, Italy due to the fact that my parents were missionaries there for 12 years. I have been exposed to religion for as long as I can remember, but my parents were never pushy, it was something of my own mind and a decision I made on my own time. Even though I was only five years old, I made a choice to follow Jesus and that has made all the difference. My parents told me they noticed a difference in the way I acted and treated the people closest to me. Something inside of me changed. It has transformed me into an overall more optimistic and joyful person.

A new outlook on life has allowed me to see and undergo many remarkable experiences I would not have been able to otherwise. It brought me back to my birthplace of Naples to help at a festival that the church my father worked with put on and to the slums of Guatemala on three mission trips. It has put in me a love for people, traveling and language.

There have been many bumps in the road and there have been moments in my past that I am not particularly proud of, but my faith has kept me in line. I look to make it the basis of all of my decisions, however big or small, and therefore it is the foundation of who I am. Even though I fall sometimes, I have always been able to turn to the one who is forever faithful and full of love and grace. I have never been sorry I knocked.

The Complexities of Music

While I was in the backseat of my friend's car on the way to have lunch at Applebee’s, I realized how much I dislike country music. I never have, but for some reason today it seemed extra ugly to me. I was wondering as the music blared in my ear, how this stuff could really be pleasing to someone's ear. Its obnoxious lyrics about drinkin' and lovin' and fightin' and ridin' are definitely not for me. Where did the art of good lyrics go? Really, where did it?

As I was contemplating all of this, it struck me as fascinating how we can all have completely different tastes in music and how we can all be so strongly opinionated about what we like and dislike in terms of music. I admit I definitely have created my own thoughts on music and I will be flat out and say I really do not care for all of country and most of rap. Most everything else I can at least put up with or tolerate. But how is it that everyone’s musical taste can vary so much? This leads me to think that music is really one of the only things that every single person can relate to in some way shape or form? I have never heard of anyone who has something against music or who does not enjoy listening to it from time to time. It is not even a necessity in life, although some people may argue likewise.

I am being honest when I say that I am not sure what I would do if I could not listen to music. There are so many areas of my life that music absorbs. My free time usually involves looking up new bands and artists or lyrics of songs I like, my school work can often be found on the topic (like this blog post for example) and the men I tend to be drawn to are musically inclined. Sadly, many people will often look down on people for liking a certain genre of music, which frankly I think is just dim-witted. Music tends to be a way of self expression, and if you criticize their music taste, you will most likely be criticizing their character. That might explain why people can get so uptight when it comes to revealing their musical tastes to someone. It can expose a lot about who that person is. So if you ever want to get to know someone on a different level, be sure to ask them what sort of music they are into.