#26

26. Pave your own path. Write your own book. Share these ideas with everyone and advise them to do the same. You can't spend this time before college checking off a list. Do things for the memory, not because you wrote them down. Live fast and die young. Be wild and have fun. Leave no stone upturned and no door closed because these will be the best years of your life. Don't stop here. Live your life this way. Be the best person you can be. Feel love and heartbreak, anger and excitement. Rely on others but be independent. Every day is a new adventure, so grasp it. Open every book and look around every corner. You'll never look like this or move like this or think like this again. Love it or hate every second but feel. Feel every thing.

Live Life While You Can

19. Fall in love. Fall in love with people and ideas. Let them fill your thoughts all day everyday. These moments will fade but it's nice to hold on to them while you can.

20. Discover new locations. Explore tunnels and bridges. Find your own spot.

21. Take risks. Eat a new type of food and tell someone how you feel about them. Make your heart explode and your mind race.

22. Dance in the rain. Take that one friend who's just as crazy as you and make fools out of yourselves. Anyone who thinks that sunshine is pure happiness has never danced in the rain.

23. Write yourself a letter to open in ten years. Realize how you have changed and even what has stayed the same. What you promised yourself you would do and if ever did it.

24. Sleep under the stars. Just look at the stars. There the same stars as last week, last year, same as when we were kids. When we weren't even born. In a hundred years no one will ever know who we are, but they'll know those same stars.'

25. Seek Adventure. Never think you've lived life to its fullest if you've lived in the same place your whole life. Move. Travel. Compare different places, accents, cultures, people. It changes you. It's easy to stay with the ones you've always been with but those kind of lives lack adventure

Don't Wait. There Will Never Be A Perfect Time.

14. Embrace your inner child. Growing up is boring. Eat ice cream cones and go to the park. Tell someone you "like like" them. Sleep with a stuffed animal and eat microwave dinners on Saturday nights. Watch cartoons and don't be afraid to look like a fool. Never let your imagination cease. There's plenty of time to be an adult later, but you can only be a child for so long.

15. Have your heart broken. Give everything you have to one person and watch them throw it away. Lose yourself in their eyes and tell them you love them. Watch them break you to the point where you don't think you'll ever recover. Cry your eyes out. Find shelter in a friend. Get mad. Run down the street with tears stinging your eyes  screaming at the top of your lungs. Allow it to hurt. Become so depressed to the point where life seems pointless. But recover. It will only make you stronger.

15. Start writing. Write everything. Your feelings and thoughts. You'll look back on these journals and remember. You'll see the smudges and the creases how your handwriting flows when you're happy and sharpens when you're mad. Even the tiniest details will flood  your mind with images in the future. Trust me you will be grateful.

16. Keep in touch. Call up old friends from elementary school. Get together and go on a picnic. Tell them about your life and reconnect. Some of the most influential people in your life ate the ones you might have to let go.

17. Improve your talents. Find something you're passionate about and practice it. Share it with everyone.

18. Travel. Go as far and wide as you can. never pass up the opportunity to go somewhere new. Your idea of globalization will change and that's something you're going to want to experience.

The Bucket List Part 2

6. Get a job. Earn your own cash and feel proud of yourself. Love the people you work with and look forward to going there every day. You'll need the money and the experience so why not?

7. Take a stand for something you believe in. When half your school laughs at you, take it with pride. Someone agrees, even if they're too scared to say so.

8. Make enemies. Make the kind of mistakes that cause your life to implode. Loose everyone and everything to these mistakes. Only when you fall will you find that you can pick yourself up again.

9. Make wishes at 11:11. Wear your pajamas backwards in hope that your wishes will come true. Believe in anything. Believe in everything.

10. Do something good. Donate clothes or volunteer at a soup kitchen. Only in helping others can you truly help yourself.

11. Find your happy place. Find a coffee shop or a trail or anywhere that you can truly claim as yours. Go there when you're feeling down. Read a book. It's nice to have something to go back to.

12. Be a bad ass. Never turn down a dare, always be honest. Go skydiving and wake boarding. Jump of cliffs with your friends. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.

13. Be outgoing. If someone invites you to do something do it. You never know what memories might sprout from a simple drive to the grocery store. Accept every opportunity to get out.

A New Beginning

1. Start over. Forget the past and the people who have forgotten you. Donate your unwanted clothes, enhance your style. Start journaling and redecorate your room. Cut the toxic people out of your life. It's okay to leave someone behind if they don't need you anymore. Reconnect with old friends. Clean up your social networks. Forget the person you were and start new.

2. Learn. Teach yourself a new language or skill. Actually pay attention in class one day knowledge is beauty and there is nothing wrong with expanding your mind.

3. Go on a road trip. Take a handful of T-shirts, the change from atop your dresser, and the book with its spine worn to paleness by your fingers. Take the whole of your heart; it will keep you safe at 4 a.m. when they sky is cold and the neon signs are telling you that you are alone, alone, alone. Put on your favorite sweater, buy a coffee from the gas station, put your tired, frightened forehead against the steering wheel and breathe. This is when the magic happens. You are alone, but not lonely. You are a traveler, a wanderer, a being of infinite potential. This journey is yours, all yours. You are a god here. You choose your fate. You are free. Drive until the sun rises. Walk into the sea in your old clothes and lick the sadness from your lips...Stay as long as you like. Find sanctuaries in the mountains, the deserts, the hearts of the biggest cities. Rent apartments with skylights and broken tiles. Fall in love to teach yourself about vulnerability. Leave to teach yourself about loss. Keep your hope in your pockets and hold it tightly when the night gets too dark. This is when the magic happens. One morning you'll wake up and find that you aren't afraid anymore. Do it alone or do it with friends, but get out of this town. Plan it down to the tiniest detail and just leave.

4. Find people you will cherish forever. Find that group of friends who love you no matter what. Who will always have your back and will never talk behind it. Never forget these people because you will need them when the demons get too strong.

5. Go to concerts. Find artists you love and go see them live. Have an experience of a lifetime. There is nothing more magical than being in that place with a group of strangers who have the same interests as you.

Make It Count

At the start of this blogging project I chose to write about those moments that I'd never forget, the moments that changed my life, and all of those rare moments when I cherished my life. My hope was that through these experiences, you might cherish those little moments in your life too. I'd like to believe that my goal was achieved. I read some great comments and felt as if my words really influenced my fellow classmates and Mr.Wood. I would like to continue with this topic however due to senioritis I've gotten lazy and have been more focused on graduation and getting out of this school then my homework...

As all of you know graduation is right around the corner. It’s time for the official countdown to begin (if it hasn't already)...21 days *cough cough*. These are your last days of high school, and as annoying as this time period may have been in your life, it’s still a pretty big deal. You’re about to enter the real world, and things just won’t be the same next year.

I was never a big fan of high school, but Senior year will always stand out to me, especially the end of this year. This year was the first time during school that I was actually able to feel comfortable and happy with all of my classmates. This year I made new friends that I wish I had had all four years, and participated in school activities that I actually found enjoyable. If you're like me then this year is your favorite at St. Joseph; however Its not over yet. I want to make not only these last few weeks count, but also the summer before I start college.

This blogging project is almost over, but I feel like I should change my topic to something everyone can really relate to during this difficult stage of senioritis. We have just enough time left in the year to do everything that needs to be done before graduation. I'm not talking about getting good grades, doing well on finals, or even completing community service hours. I'm talking about the cliche high school bucket list. This is a list of everything that I personally believe should be completed before you start college. This list will be a combination of what I have already completed in high school and what I plan on completing before college next year.

Please leave in the comments some of your own high school experiences that you believe should be included in this list or what you plan on doing before college next year. I might add them on my bucket list which you can read in my next posts.

Which Second Will Be Your Last?

     So I know its kind of late to write my blog post, but I forgot last week and I decided to write it today before I completely forget...As it turns out today just wasn't one of my best days. *Fair warning this is probably going to be one of my more depressing posts...*

     Just today I got news that my friend Steve died and it really made me question whether or not I was a good friend. It's just a shock when someone so close to you is unexpectedly gone. It makes you question the last words you said to them or if they felt like you were really there for them...I'd like everyone to know that if you need me, you could call me. I don't care if I'm sleeping, if I'm having my own problems or if I'm angry at you. If you need me and if you need to talk to me. I'll always be there for you. No matter how big or small you problem is, I'll be there.

     You should live life while you can because you never know which second will be your last. Today I was fortunate to wake up and I don't want to waste this life arguing and fighting with the past. We were never given a good life nor a bad life. We are given a life, and It's up to us to make it good or bad.

     My biggest mistake in my long....long....18 years of life is that I did not realize how precious life is and did not live in the moment enough. This is even more clear now that the moment is gone, captured only by photographs...here are five rules to live by so that you might live in the moment not in the photograph:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

"Be grateful for every second of every day that you get to spend with the people you love. Life is so precious." -Many Hale