What's your Space Jam?

What's Your Space Jam?
A lesson from kid president:

The world needs you to stop being boring. Boring is easy. Everyone can be boring, but you’re gooder than that.
Life is not a game, people.
And if life is a game, aren’t we all on the same team? I mean, really, right. I’m on your team. Be on my team!
“Two roads diverged in the woods, and I took the one less traveled…and it hurt man! Really bad! Rocks! Thorns! And glass!" Not cool, Robert Frost.
But what if there really are two paths? I wanna be on the one that leads to awesome.
Like that dude from Journey said- “don’t stop believing…unless your dream is stupid. Then you should get a better dream.” I think that’s how it goes.
Get a better dream and then keep going. Keep going and going and going and going.
What if Michael Jordan had quit? Well, he did quit. Actually, he retired…but before that, in high school! What if he had quit when he didn’t make the team? He woulda never made Space Jam. And I love Space Jam.
What will be your Space Jam? What will you create that will make the world awesome?
Nothing if you keep sitting there! This is your time! This is my time! This is our time. We can make everyday better for each other. If we’re all on the same team, let’s start acting like it.
We got work to do. We can cry about it, or we can dance about it.
We were made to be awesome. Create something that will make the world awesome.

bELONg

Today I went back and visited my alma mater, Elon University. It was the epitome of bittersweet.

This campus. This is where I grew up. Physically, I did most of my growing up in Wilmington. But here on this campus, during those 4 years…that’s when I really did my growing. I laughed and cried and learned more in my four years here than in the rest of my years combined. I took some steps forward and I took some steps back. I met some temporary friends and some forever friends and I’ve learned from both. This is where I learned to be more independent. I learned the importance of good work ethic; how to face my fears and anxieties; how to trust in something bigger than myself; how to love harder and deeper; how to grow from the hard times, and how to appreciate the good times. I learned that your friends become your family. You eat together, take naps together, play, fight, laugh, cry, and do absolutely everything and nothing together until you can’t quite remember how you ever lived your life without them in the first place. I learned that I’m capable of far more than I ever imagined. “This is where it all happened for the first time. The heartache and the happiness. All of it. Being here, feels like it was yesterday. I wake up sometimes and I miss it. But this is good. It’s all still right here.”

Carolina Dorm. Where I met some of my best friends in life. 

My BEAUTIFUL alma mater

Long Live Elon

 

Babies and Weddings

I am 23 years old. I have been to 9 weddings in the past 2 years. I’m currently having a scheduling conflict because one of my friends is having her baby here in Charlotte on Friday and another friend is getting married in Elon on Saturday and I have a lunch date with a newly pregnant friend in Greensboro on Monday. I’m also trying to figure out how to plan a bridal shower and bachelorette party for my friend in June, while attending my best friend and my cousins weddings back to back in July.

In case you were wondering what it’s like to grow up, this is it. Babies and weddings ERRYWHERE.

Dear Beauty, 1 year later

 

One year ago tonight, I had the privilege of being in LA for the Team True Beauty 1 year anniversary event. It was an amazing night, and if you'd like to read the details of it, you can check out my post from that night here.
But one of the most memorable moments from the night came from Shantel VanSanten, one of the lovely ambassadors for the cause. She gave a speech that continues to move me every single time I hear it or read it. You can read and view her entire speech here.

Her letter to beauty states:
"Dear beauty, I don’t think we’ve formally met. I’m Shantel Van Santen. I’ve searched to find you for a while now. To find out how you define yourself. There are many others searching for you too. Some of us think you’re found in a number on a scale, or a muscle in our arm, the color of our skin, or our reflection in the mirror. We all struggle because we think you seek a perfect image, and we’ve become obsessed with the search. The idea that others might see us as a reflection of you or call us by your names makes us happy. So we look to the media and we look to mirrors, instead of turning our eyes inward. In the depths of our soul you wait. You wait for our search to end, because that’s where you are found. So we were wrong. Because you’re not an image of something that we can see. You’re a feeling. We define you by how we live our life, the kind of person we choose to be, and what’s in our hearts. Thank you for helping us find you. So that your reflection can be felt in others hearts, that they may know that they possess you too. And we can all unite to define you."

So in honor of the 2 year anniversary of Team True Beauty, and the 1 year anniversary of the event, I decided to write my own letter to beauty, 1 year later:
"Dear beauty, we’ve finally met. I suppose we met a long time ago, but I was never quite satisfied with our relationship. However I've also realized that while I don’t always see you in the mirror, I’ve seen you in the smiles of strangers, in the laughter of children, in the way people love and care for each other, and in the world all around me. I have come to realize that you really are more than a number. You aren’t a clothing size, a waist measurement, a height, or number on a scale. And while I now know this to be true, I can’t pretend that I don’t still struggle. Some days it seems impossible to find you in myself. And those are the days that I depend on my friends and support system the most. Those are the days that I am truly blessed, because I find beauty in relationships. I’ve realized that when you stop defining beauty based on numbers and you begin to define it based on what’s in the world around you and what’s in your heart, you, beauty, are much more prevalent. You are everywhere. Beauty, I am very much different than a year ago. I am older, and at times wiser, I have old friends who have stayed in my life and new friends who provide constant support and encouragement. And yet I am also very much the same. I find myself falling into my old ways of thinking. I find myself still trying to find you in a reflection in the mirror. I find myself weeping and falling apart when I think I’ll never find you in myself. And yet I find hope in the statement that “what you do with your life, how you live it, the things you accomplish, the mountains you climb, the struggles you work through, how you treat one another, the kindness you show, the people you inspire, the love that you give, that’s what defines your heart. And that’s what matters. Not what you look like when you do these things in life.”