Thursday, July 3, 2014
The Calm Before the Storm
Hey everyone, it’s Catherine reporting live from hurricane central. That’s right, I’m at the Outer Banks anticipating the arrival of Hurricane Arthur. The TV and radio is filled with hurricane “breaking news” and evacuation notices for certain parts of the beach. As we were making our way in we saw about 20 to 30 cars leaving the beach, not because they have to but out of fear. Everyone has gotten so worked up over this hurricane, a storm that has yet to arrive.
The funny thing is, even though everyone is so worked up over this hurricane inside, if you were to walk outside you wouldn’t even know a storm was coming. The calm before the storm.
Don’t we see this a lot? I mean, it is so so so relevant in daily life. Before something big happens, no matter what it is, we always have this feeling of calm, peace, or serenity. Life always seems to be going well before the bad happens, the calm before the storm.
I try to revel in these peaceful moments, because they are usually pretty fleeting. It’s just great to sit during these peaceful moments and read, or spend time with a really good friend. No matter how long your “calm” lasts, whether it’s one day or one year, don’t take it for granted. Make the most of what little calm you have because a storm is coming.
So today, I am going to enjoy the heat, sun, and serenity of the Outer Banks, before the hurricane, because who knows when I’m going to get another day like this one.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Spring Fever
I can't believe it is spring already! It seems like just yesterday we were saying "Good-bye" to summer and pulling out our fall and winter coats. But that time is long gone and spring is here, at last!
Anyway, I love spring! Everyone is buzzing and happy and infected with the one illness we ALL want, Spring Fever! Spring Fever is the kind of illness that starts in your toes and fills your whole body with excitement. It infects your head giving you warm thoughts and filling your mind with memories of spring past. It infects your legs, causing them to ache for the outdoors, for the pavement of the road, for the trenches and dirt of the forest. It infects your feet, they begin to beg to be set free from boots and put into sandals and flip-flops. Spring Fever infects your ears by filling them with the sounds of baby birds and children playing and flowers rustling in the wind. It fills your nostrils with the fragrance of freshly cut grass, flowers, and dew. The fever causes every muscle to ache with excitement of being used and active outside. It causes your hands to become anxious for the touch of the flowers and your thighs to be liberated from your jeans. The fever invigorates your taste buds, having them lust over the syrupy flavors of fresh fruit. It causes your eyes to be overwhelmed with new sights and colors. Spring Fever infects the heart, filling it with excitement and causing it's rate to go up with every action and every sensation. It fills the heart with longing, memories, and peace.
Spring is here and the Spring Fever epidemic has just begun to spread. If it has not hit you yet I give you one word of advice: be open to the fever, it will allow for so many amazing things to happen to you! Enjoy the warmth and the sunshine while it is here and don't take it for granted!
I can't believe it is spring already! It seems like just yesterday we were saying "Good-bye" to summer and pulling out our fall and winter coats. But that time is long gone and spring is here, at last!
Anyway, I love spring! Everyone is buzzing and happy and infected with the one illness we ALL want, Spring Fever! Spring Fever is the kind of illness that starts in your toes and fills your whole body with excitement. It infects your head giving you warm thoughts and filling your mind with memories of spring past. It infects your legs, causing them to ache for the outdoors, for the pavement of the road, for the trenches and dirt of the forest. It infects your feet, they begin to beg to be set free from boots and put into sandals and flip-flops. Spring Fever infects your ears by filling them with the sounds of baby birds and children playing and flowers rustling in the wind. It fills your nostrils with the fragrance of freshly cut grass, flowers, and dew. The fever causes every muscle to ache with excitement of being used and active outside. It causes your hands to become anxious for the touch of the flowers and your thighs to be liberated from your jeans. The fever invigorates your taste buds, having them lust over the syrupy flavors of fresh fruit. It causes your eyes to be overwhelmed with new sights and colors. Spring Fever infects the heart, filling it with excitement and causing it's rate to go up with every action and every sensation. It fills the heart with longing, memories, and peace.
Anyway, I love spring! Everyone is buzzing and happy and infected with the one illness we ALL want, Spring Fever! Spring Fever is the kind of illness that starts in your toes and fills your whole body with excitement. It infects your head giving you warm thoughts and filling your mind with memories of spring past. It infects your legs, causing them to ache for the outdoors, for the pavement of the road, for the trenches and dirt of the forest. It infects your feet, they begin to beg to be set free from boots and put into sandals and flip-flops. Spring Fever infects your ears by filling them with the sounds of baby birds and children playing and flowers rustling in the wind. It fills your nostrils with the fragrance of freshly cut grass, flowers, and dew. The fever causes every muscle to ache with excitement of being used and active outside. It causes your hands to become anxious for the touch of the flowers and your thighs to be liberated from your jeans. The fever invigorates your taste buds, having them lust over the syrupy flavors of fresh fruit. It causes your eyes to be overwhelmed with new sights and colors. Spring Fever infects the heart, filling it with excitement and causing it's rate to go up with every action and every sensation. It fills the heart with longing, memories, and peace.
Spring is here and the Spring Fever epidemic has just begun to spread. If it has not hit you yet I give you one word of advice: be open to the fever, it will allow for so many amazing things to happen to you! Enjoy the warmth and the sunshine while it is here and don't take it for granted!
Friday, January 24, 2014
Good Thoughts
It's Friday, finally. I would be lying if I were to say that this week has been stress free because it most certainly has not! Not only was has TARZAN's opening been rescheduled . . . TWICE, I injured my knee again and have been struggling all week. I am just glad this week is over and I am excited to start anew with this upcoming week and have this weekend to just de-funk (and perform which will take away the majority of my stress).
Whenever I am in a funk like I have been in this week, I have a hard time finding seeing the good in the little things. Since I hurt my knee I have been pretty much confined to my home and haven't been out to get any fresh air. Therefore, I have spent a lot of time watching movies, reading, and on Pinterest and Tumblr. While on Pinterest I stumbled upon this that has helped me begin to beat my funk.
Just a little something to remember when you find yourself in a funk!
It's Friday, finally. I would be lying if I were to say that this week has been stress free because it most certainly has not! Not only was has TARZAN's opening been rescheduled . . . TWICE, I injured my knee again and have been struggling all week. I am just glad this week is over and I am excited to start anew with this upcoming week and have this weekend to just de-funk (and perform which will take away the majority of my stress).
Whenever I am in a funk like I have been in this week, I have a hard time finding seeing the good in the little things. Since I hurt my knee I have been pretty much confined to my home and haven't been out to get any fresh air. Therefore, I have spent a lot of time watching movies, reading, and on Pinterest and Tumblr. While on Pinterest I stumbled upon this that has helped me begin to beat my funk.
Just a little something to remember when you find yourself in a funk!
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Perfectionism
So my friend Emilie shared this quote on Goodreads and it really resonated with me and inspired me to share it with y'all.
"We are the girls with anxiety disorders, filled appointment books, five-year plans. We take ourselves very, very, seriously. We are the peacemakers, the do-gooders, the givers, the savers. We are on time, overly prepared, well read, and witty, intellectually curious, always moving . . . We pride ourselves on getting as little sleep as possible and thrive on self-deprivation. We drink coffee, a lot of it. We are on birth control, Prozac, and multivitamins . . . We are relentless, judgmental with ourselves, and forgiving to others. We never want to be as passive-aggressive are our mothers, never want to marry men as uninspired as our fathers . . . We are the daughters of the feminists who said, "You can be anything," and we heard, "You have to be everything." Courtney Martin
I know this is a long one but I feel it applies to the lives of most young women today. We always feel like we have to do everything, we can't say no, we must be absolutely perfect in every aspect of our lives and we beat ourselves up when we don't achieve that perfection. Pretty screwy isn't it.
Why are we the only one to get upset when we get a B on a test or don't make that sports team. Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to be and do everything and then convince ourselves that this is what society wants from us, this is what everyone expects. None of it makes sense but we still do it. The question is why?
Obviously, not all of Martin's quote applied to my life but the general gist of it really resonated with me on a personal level. Just Friday I was beating myself up because I have a B in my AP Government Class. Never mind the fact that it was still a really good grade, nor the fact that it is a AP course: it was a B, and I was better than that. I was freaking out and I was trying to figure out everything that I could do to bring my grade up because the fact that I had just B.S.ed my way through a pop quiz was not going to help that grade at all. I began to put a BUNCH of unnecessary pressure on myself because I was striving to reach perfection, something I subconsciously knew I was never going to reach. Why did I do this? Because I am a perfectionist. I must stay up as late as possible to get all of my work done - flawlessly - excel at every activity that I participate in and maintain an active, busy social life. No time for myself and definitely no time for imperfection.
I know I am not the only woman who does this. I know plenty of young women who deal with kind of self-inflicted pressure everyday only to gain nothing but additional, unneeded stress. We all strive to be perfect, we are all perfectionists.
So my friend Emilie shared this quote on Goodreads and it really resonated with me and inspired me to share it with y'all.
"We are the girls with anxiety disorders, filled appointment books, five-year plans. We take ourselves very, very, seriously. We are the peacemakers, the do-gooders, the givers, the savers. We are on time, overly prepared, well read, and witty, intellectually curious, always moving . . . We pride ourselves on getting as little sleep as possible and thrive on self-deprivation. We drink coffee, a lot of it. We are on birth control, Prozac, and multivitamins . . . We are relentless, judgmental with ourselves, and forgiving to others. We never want to be as passive-aggressive are our mothers, never want to marry men as uninspired as our fathers . . . We are the daughters of the feminists who said, "You can be anything," and we heard, "You have to be everything." Courtney Martin
I know this is a long one but I feel it applies to the lives of most young women today. We always feel like we have to do everything, we can't say no, we must be absolutely perfect in every aspect of our lives and we beat ourselves up when we don't achieve that perfection. Pretty screwy isn't it.
Why are we the only one to get upset when we get a B on a test or don't make that sports team. Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to be and do everything and then convince ourselves that this is what society wants from us, this is what everyone expects. None of it makes sense but we still do it. The question is why?
Obviously, not all of Martin's quote applied to my life but the general gist of it really resonated with me on a personal level. Just Friday I was beating myself up because I have a B in my AP Government Class. Never mind the fact that it was still a really good grade, nor the fact that it is a AP course: it was a B, and I was better than that. I was freaking out and I was trying to figure out everything that I could do to bring my grade up because the fact that I had just B.S.ed my way through a pop quiz was not going to help that grade at all. I began to put a BUNCH of unnecessary pressure on myself because I was striving to reach perfection, something I subconsciously knew I was never going to reach. Why did I do this? Because I am a perfectionist. I must stay up as late as possible to get all of my work done - flawlessly - excel at every activity that I participate in and maintain an active, busy social life. No time for myself and definitely no time for imperfection.
I know I am not the only woman who does this. I know plenty of young women who deal with kind of self-inflicted pressure everyday only to gain nothing but additional, unneeded stress. We all strive to be perfect, we are all perfectionists.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Masquerade!
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The masquerade ball, my favorite type of party! The beauty of the masquerade ball is that everyone looks fabulous yet you have no clue who the people around you are because everyone there is wearing a mask. Everyone hides behind something uniquely beautiful yet the same and it's the one night where doing that is acceptable.
Masquerades are fun (a lot of fun!) but they don't stop when you leave the ballroom. The truth is that we live in a constant masquerade, everyone around us is in a mask. Almost everyone (me included) is really afraid to show their true colors. In a society that thrives on judgement it is really hard to be proud of who we are as individuals. We all live with our faces under different masks - like a masquerade. The only difference is these masks are more difficult to remove.
Depending on where we are in our life depends on what mask we get to "show-off". Almost everyone puts up a face - the happy face when you are really sad or the "I don't care" face when you really do care . . . a lot - and each of these faces is a mask. This is something that society has built into our human nature; whether we like it or not it is there and there to stay.
The Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite musicals and my favorite song from it is titled "Masquerade"(coincidence, I think not!). This song takes place at a literal masquerade ball but, the lyrics of the chorus are applicable to everyday life.
"Masquerade! Paper faces on parade, masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you. Masquerade! Every face a different shade, masquerade! Look around there's another mask behind you"
I think my favorite line in this whole song is "Hide your face so the world will never find you," because it is so applicable to everyday life in the 21st century. Everyone, in some way, shape, form or fashion hides behind their masks so that the world won't find them, won't find out who they really are when their mask is off. Why do we hide behind these masks? This is a question that I feel I will never know the answer to, but it is good to get it out there anyway.
Life is like a massive masquerade ball and, just like a masquerade ball, is fun! At a masquerade ball it is fun not knowing who everyone is and just dancing and eating and drinking with everyone because when everyone looks the same we are all equals. But soon this equality gets old and we leave the ball. In life though, we don't have an option to leave the ball, instead we opt to change our masks just so we can shake things up a bit, and we do until everyone begins to look the same again. We are stuck in a masquerade that never ends and the only way to end it is for someone to rip off their mask and show who they really are. It just takes one person and others will soon follow behind.
So here are the questions I am asking myself and (since I am sharing it now) you: if you has to rip off your mask, would you be ready to show your true colors? Are confident enough with who you truly are with NO masks to be able to show the world?
I ask myself these questions everyday. I don't want to be just another "paper face" in a crowd. I want to be the person that sticks out from the rest for really being myself - no cover-ups, no masks. So everyday I challenge myself to remove my masks and be as authentic and genuine as I possibly can. It is hard but everyday I get better and better at it and, hopefully one day I won't even have to think about it and I will just naturally be my most genuine and authentic self.
So here is my challenge for you: figure out what mask you are wearing during this specific season in your life then, once you have that figured out, every morning - at some point and time - ask yourself the questions above and try to be as honest and genuine in your answers (you are the only person that is going to hear the answers so why not be honest with yourself) and then, throughout the day make a conscious effort (based on the answers to those questions of course) to be the most genuine, authentic version of yourself that you can be. By doing this everyday you will start the process of slowing ripping off your masks, one-by-one. Becoming your most authentic self is NOT going to be an easy overnight change and will require a lot of effort. In society it is really hard to show your true colors and you will probably be ridiculed for it but, there is nothing more liberating than realizing that, even for an hour, you can be the truest version of yourself around others with no masks. Once you have felt the feeling of being genuine and authentic it won't matter what people say because you will do everything in your power to be that person all the time, to be YOU all the time.
Breaking free from the masquerade will be difficult, but it is a challenge I am willing conquer.
I would much rather be extraordinary at a masquerade with no mask than ordinary with a mask on!
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