D-R-A-M-A

I hate drama. It starts out innocently enough, with one person having a problem or being upset for some reason. In a quick span of time, however, it evolves into a large mass of confusion, frustration and hurt feelings. While I know that drama will never cease to exist, I sincerely wish it would. The world could go on, classes would still be taught, lives would still be led without it. But no, our society feels the need to be hurt or depressed because of whatever stupid comment or action someone else feels the need to say. From here on out, I plan on taking others' comments into my head to evaluate but not to heart right away. I don't want to add more drama to this theatre of life we all live in, so I'm officially refusing it:)

Daddy

I was talking to my dad today about, what else, college. It seems like everytime I talk to him now it's either about college or growing up or adjusting to a new life or something that follows that basic line of thought. Now I'm not complaining, because I really do like being able to talk to my parents about things which have more meaning than the latest movie or the score of the baseball game. I find it really interesting to hear my dad's perception of me- he has a very high opinion of the person I am. Obviously, I annoy and frustrate him at times, but overall I can tell that he's proud of who I'm becoming (abeit slowly). Knowing I have his hopes and support and belief in me means a lot to me. I know that wherever I go, I'll have a hand behind me in the shadows ready to hold me up if I start to fall. I know if I ever had a problem I needed help with, I could go to him. He's trusting me to move 10 hours away by car, and I appreciate the opportunity so much. I know if it weren't for him and my mom pushing me forward, I would be content to stay in Minnesota and not go far beyond my comfort zone. With them prodding me on, though, I'll be able to make my comfort zone a great deal larger than it now is. Rather than having one home, I'll have two, and one will be all my own. The people I know now won't have a large impact on it- I'll be relying on myself for meals, friendships, studying, doing the wash, everything. I'm excited, and though I'm scared I'm sitting here just waiting for August 16th to come so I can move on to this new life:)

Thanks daddy- I love you.

The Act of Being Pretty

Beauty, in a lot of ways, confuses me. There are so many people we, as a society, percieve as beautiful, and yet when you walk down the street these people aren't around. The Brad Pitts and Britney Spears' of the world are all sitting in California or New York somewhere while the rest of us wait in line at the grocery store, flipping through People. I want to know why we all stand outside looking at the stars, with wishes in our hearts to be somewhere else, somebody else. We may never express these wishes- maybe we never jump on a fast train to the west coast, and maybe we don't go to the hair salon to update our look- but every one of us wants to be more than we are. Is it inherent in humans to be unsatisfied? As babies, do we sit in our diapers wanting to be a better baby? Of course we do. When we're infants we learn so many things- walking, talking, sitting, standing- because these are things we see and hear around us, and we want to emulate the people we see doing them. So it's no wonder to me that the 12 year old girl goes on a diet or that the 15 year old boy works out every day for muscles like Moss. Maybe one day the Catherine Zeta-Jones' and Josh Hartnett's will give way to what we say is more "normal" standards. But that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing, either. Because then instead of pushing ourselves to be star-quality, we'd push ourselves to be standard, normal, plain. If we were able to achieve these things, than advancement in the world would stop until the tides of fashion and fame changed again.