No Such Thing as Ordinary

So I'm into photography. If you've read some of my other posts, you'd know that. But if you're new here, I'll say it again:
I'm into photography.

My absolute favorite thing about it is that I can use my photos to show others how I see the world. We all look at things a little differently, so we experience things a little differently. For example, the other day I was driving with a friend (I think we were getting dinner or something) and the sunset was stunning. So I got all excited and mentioned it to him, and he responded with "What? It's just a normal sunset."

NO. No sir. Normal sunsets do not exist. Each one is different, each one has its own gorgeous blend of different colors that paint the clouds and the sky. Each one is exquisite. (Kind of like people, eh?)

See, both gorgeous, yet so different :)


Anyway, times like these make me realize that I see things differently than a lot of people. And for me, there is no such thing as "ordinary." Everything is extraordinary! (Though that word doesn't make much sense, does it? Extra ordinary... whatever.) And there is so much beauty in the smallest everyday things.

That's why I love photography :) I can show people that simple things we often overlook can be just as beautiful as the most breathtaking sights.

This week I took a trip to Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah. It's in the absolute middle of nowhere, but it's the darkest place in the US, which makes it perfect for stargazing. And you can get gorgeous photos, like this one.
Stunning, right? And most people can appreciate the beauty of a sight like that. But what about something less obviously beautiful?

This, friends, is a rock. Just a big ol' rock. But I think it's really interesting, with the crooked lines and the contrasting colors... And a lot of people wouldn't ever think to take a picture of something like that because it's just a rock. And yet I see so much more, so much potential to be more than just another run-of-the-mill rock.

Whether it's a puddle, a car, a lil bug, your baby cousin, anything you think is extraordinary is extraordinary :)

It's amazing, how we see life in so many varying ways. And it's even neater that combining our different views can create a new idea that's so much greater than any one of us could've imagined :) So friends, share your view with the world, through writing, photography, whatever. Find a way to express how you see this wonderful earth. You never know who will be inspired by what you see :)

You Have to Love You

Today's lesson, kiddos, is about loving yourself.

Society is brutal sometimes, especially when it comes to how you look. Looks are a big deal in this messed up world of ours, and people like to convince you that if you don't look exactly perfect, that makes you fat or ugly or whatever. But you know what? That's all a fat load of crap.

So I'm a 19-year-old girl, and for the most part my self esteem is (more or less) through the roof. I know I'm a pretty neat gal and I can admit that sometimes I look really dang cute. But then sometimes society's weird, skewed standards of "beauty" get to me. Like today, for example, my mom was getting me new jeans and needed to know what size. I'm like a 6 usually, which is just fine, right? But I caught myself wishing I were a few sizes smaller.

That's not cool.

Our standards of beauty shouldn't make someone feel bad for not being a couple sizes smaller than they are. When that happens, you know something is seriously wrong.

It shouldn't matter what other people think, yet for so many of us it does. Society is teaching us we can't love ourselves if we don't look a certain way, which is utter garbage. If you're a size 4, awesome! If you're a size 14, fantastic! It doesn't matter, as long as you love yourself.

When you love yourself, it's so much easier to ignore what other people think. It's easy to see yourself for what you're really worth. It's easy to be confident in yourself no matter what lies the media is trying to tell you. There is no such thing as a perfect body--remember that.

Remember that it's okay to be confident with who you are and how you are :) Remember that it's okay to love yourself (until you cross over into narcissism, at which point it gets a little weird). If you're healthy and happy with your own body, then who cares what anyone else thinks?? People can be mean and judgmental; don't let them get to you.

I know this has been more geared towards girls, but dear boys, this definitely applies to you too. I don't know if you face the same pressure to look a certain way, but either way it doesn't matter one bit.
Everyone is beautiful in their own way and we all deserve to be able to love ourselves :) 

Let the Happy In

You're magic. Did you know?

You might not believe me, but it's true.

The things you can do are absolutely astounding, and all it takes is a thought.

Story time: Sometime last week (I'm not sure when--my memory struggles, poor thing) I was standing in my kitchen. I don't know what I was doing... Probably bugging my family members to make me some food. But I was in a lousy mood. I was being Mr. Grumpygills for one reason or another and it sucked. So I was staring at the microwave (hoping for food to magically appear I'm sure) when I had a thought. I remember thinking to myself, "Crin, you don't have to be grumpy. There's no reason for it." It came out of nowhere. And then ya know what I did?
I slapped myself in the face! Guys, I literally hit myself as I stood there staring at my microwave. Who does that?? And I said to myself, "Self, (oh and this was out loud) snap the heck out of it and just be happy already." So I forced a smile, found a snack, and everything was perfectly peachy a few minutes later.

Crazy, right? One simple thought made my whole day not suck.

A lot of the time I find that I let my circumstances control my moods and actions. But that's really not how it should work. No, how it should work is quite the opposite: your thoughts and attitude and actions should change your circumstances. We've got it backwards people! No wonder we're not always as happy as we could be.

Your happiness is up to you :) it always has been. No matter what your situation, no matter how dark things may seem, no matter how impossible smiling may be, it is always in your power to be happy. You just need one thought. Just one :) It's all it takes really. One thought to remind you that the world isn't ending. One thought to remind you that there are people who care about you. One thought to remind you that you have countless reasons to smile.
So find one! Think of a wonderful thought; any happy little thought :) Take hold of it, and pretty soon I think you'll find that you'll feel like you can fly. (Of course faith, trust, and pixie dust are also needed for actual flying, so don't try jumping off your roof or anything.) It feels good guys, to know that you're in control. It's freeing and fascinating and fantastic (bonus points: alliteration is awesome).

So just give it a try guys, let yourselves be happy. Take a risk and allow yourselves to kick the bad moods out and let the happy in. I think you'll like what you find :)

Make Everything OK

One day, a couple months ago (I think it was October), I was alone in my dorm, feeling kind of lonely and sad. I was done with my homework and didn't have any midterms to study for, so I did what most teenagers would do: I wandered around the internet looking for something mildly entertaining that wasn't complete garbage.

That's when I stumbled upon a magic button. The Make Everything OK button (yes that's a link to said button; feel free to click it). And as silly as it might sound, that imaginary button on the internet saved me countless times from utter meltdowns.

So here's how it works. You click the button, a little box pops up, informing you that "making everything ok is in progress" and a little green progress bar makes it's way across the box. And then it lets you know that everything is okay now.

Once I found that little gem, I went back to it every single time life got me down. And every time, without fail, it helped cheer me up. It became a big part of my outlook on life, so much so that I have it engraved on the inside of a ring I wear everyday. Everything is OK. 

I never realized it in the moments I needed it, but looking back, that simple button helped me shift my perspective on life at the time. I think it helped remind me that life isn't about the bad days. It isn't about the failed midterms or the bad weather or the loneliness when you're best friend isn't talking to you for a while. It's not about feeling inferior or worthless or inadequate. At least, it isn't for me. Life is about finding joy, making memories with people who matter, doing things to better yourself, and finding the good in every day. That's life :) And keeping that in mind, it really does make everything feel OK, even when it sucks sometimes.

Three words was all it took to permanently change my perspective about every aspect of my life. I mean, I still have crappy days, but I don't let those crappy days consume me and put out the little sparks of good that turn into the blazing bonfires of happiness that light up my life :)

Right now I'm sitting on my balcony, watching fireworks go off all across our little valley, and you know what? Everything is OK :)

Art.

I heard once, somewhere, that you're supposed to feel something when you look at art, not understand it. Understanding what you're seeing isn't the point. The point is finding some emotional connection with the art. Or at least that's how I understand it.

I think poetry's a form of art. I've read poems that make me sad, that make me happy, that make me long for a place I've never been. I love poetry and gosh dang it I wish I were any good at it. Unfortunately, I just don't really understand language well enough to have a string of words turn out so beautifully. I wish I could take the experiences I've had and put them into the right sort of words so that others can feel how I did.

But alas, that's not an innate talent I possess. I suppose my lot in life is not to be a poet. Oh well.

Buuut I do wanna share one of my favorite poems with y'all :) I don't understand it, really. And I don't understand why it gives me goosebumps or butterflies--especially since it's a love poem and I'm not in love with anyone. I just know that it does.

So yeah, here goes. (It's kinda long, but it's good, I promise.)

"Peel back my skin and it won't be bones you will find. Hiding under the muscles the tissues the scars and the freckles are decaying timbers washed ashore. I am a sinking ship made of unsinkable parts. I am an old boat, built without a rudder, a tattered sheet for a sail. Can you see what I've been trying to show you, that I go where the breeze decides to carry me and you, my love, are a hurricane.

I am made from the creaking beams and rusted nails of a lonely vessel on a lonely sea. I am covered and coated, dusted with old salt water and the frail residue of moonlight. The oars and the compass, the anchor and the wheel, have long since abandoned me. Can you hear what I've longed to tell you, that I go where the waves wish to deliver me and you, my love, are the tide.

 Press your ear to my chest and listen, where a heartbeat should sing you will hear the melancholy songs of tired whales. The unsettled sigh and explosion of breath as they find the surface once again. Can you taste the salt on my lips? Can you listen to the words I've been aching to say, that I go where the lights pull me and you, my love, are the stars. 

Stare through the portholes of my eyes across the grey blue and green they float upon. Hold tight to the timbers hiding under this flesh and fill the empty sail with your grace. I am the fragments of a shattered ship filled with ancient songs sung by ancient souls. Can you feel me falling into you as you leak into me, that I am a sinking ship made from sinking parts and you, my love, are the sea."

-Tyler Knott Gregson

Yeah, so that's it. I like that it doesn't have to make perfect sense. I like that I don't have to know exactly what the author was thinking when he wrote it to understand it. I like that it sparks my imagination and makes me feel all these crazy emotions. I just like it :) 

Anyway, that's all that's on my mind. Nothing deep or profound, nothing life-changing, nothing mind-blowing or awe-inspiring; just something that makes me happy :)

Why So Negative?

Dear internet goers,

WE HAVE A PROBLEM. I REPEAT, WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

So my last post, if you haven't read it (and you really don't need to if you haven't) was a 2 AM rant full of depressing, negative nastiness. Doesn't really fit with my theme here, does it?
Well guess what? That post has the most views of any of my posts (well except for one, but that doesn't count because it was for a class so obviously a lot of my classmates read it), which means those negative thoughts are the kind of thing people on the interwebs are looking for the most.

You know, if I really wanted to have a popular blog, I could just post a whole lot of negative, unhappy, yucky stuff like my last post. People seem to love that (why that is is completely beyond me). But ya know what I'm here for? I want to try to make peoples' days a tad brighter when, or if, they find this blog.

Now it's okay to have nasty feelings and be sad and whatnot. Heck, that's just a part of life! Everyone has crappy days. And crappy days seem even worse at 2 AM. But that's not really the point. The point is that our society today is far too focused on the unfortunate, negative things that happen in life. How often do you turn on the news and hear a majority of positive, uplifting stories? Like, never. It's always sad, depressing stuff.

Peoples. Come on.

When we focus on the blackness that always surrounds us in life, it tends to shut out the light that's there as well.

"Always Living Life Happy." That's the point of this, right? To point out the bright little gems of ordinary life that make me happy? To find "the miracle in the mundane" (as one of my new favorite authors Tyler Knott Gregson so nicely said). I'm certainly no poet, but I like to think that these little thoughts I post on here somehow brighten at least one person's day, somewhere. Maybe someone in, like, Belgium, or something. That would be neat.

So, dear friends, might we all focus more on the light, the happiness, the little wonders that fill our lives? Wouldn't that help us all to live life a little happier?

I certainly think so. :)

When One Door Closes

We've all heard that phrase. When one door closes, another opens. What does that actually mean though?

Recently I've had the opportunity to really see this in my life, although I honestly wish I hadn't. That's because watching the door close hurts sometimes.

So I did a lil' bit of research and, fun fact, the whole quote is "When one door closes, another opens; but often we look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." -Alexander Graham Bell. Mr. Bell definitely has a point. It becomes so easy to focus on the pain of having that door shut on you that you fail to realize what good might've come of it. 

Let me share the experience I've had with this recently. 

So there's this boy I know. He's adorable and I really, really like him. Frankly, I would love to date him. But here's the problem: I thought he felt the same, but it turns out he doesn't. He just got a girlfriend a few days ago, actually (some girl I don't even know). I know, it's a bit of a silly problem, but it hurts, guys. I assume it feels something like breaking up (I wouldn't know, as I've never had a boyfriend before). But, dear friends, it's okay.

Yes, I cried when I found out. I'm a crier. I tend to cry a lot, though that's really beside the point.

Life is hitting me hard right now by slamming some pretty heavy doors in my face. It's really a terrible feeling, and when I go sit in front of those now locked doors and think about what's behind them, I get pretty sad and start to feel sorry for myself.

Here's the silver lining to this though: other doors have opened up for me all of a sudden.

Storytime. Once upon a time, I turned 16. Now I'm almost 19. And I have not been on very many dates, which is totally okay by me. I've never felt I needed a boyfriend before. But in the last three days alone, I've been asked on four different dates. That's almost as many as I went on during my junior year of high school (I'm not actually kidding here).

What the nuggets is happening.

I think this is a door opening. I think this is my Heavenly Father saying "Crin, you don't need him, and dang it you should be happy even though he's a bum!" Okay actually I doubt He would put it that way, but that's the feeling I'm getting here.

Now I don't know what all might come of this. I don't know why that door had to shut. But I do know that there is most definitely a reason :) There's always a reason. 

So I'm not too worried, honestly. I know that if I turn my back on that closed door, never looking back, and walk through one of the newly opened doors, I'll find something so much better than I ever could've imagined :) The key is leaving the old door in the past. I can't revisit it, I can't try to slide notes under the crack at the bottom or pick the lock. If I keep bringing myself back to it, I'll never be able to really explore what's beyond the many other doors that lay before me.

Anyway, I suppose this is me, turning my face toward the sun. This is my way of embracing the unknown world that lies beyond these newly unlocked doors. This is me, letting the old key to the last door slip between my fingers. I want these shadows behind me. I don't want them filling up my future with darkness. And so I'll leave them behind me, hopefully for good :)

So let's go explore all of these new doors before us :) Who knows what wonders we'll find waiting behind them, if only we'll have to courage to move on :)

All In Favor, Say "ARGH!"

Captain Jack Sparrow is a pretty cool pirate.

So guys. Pirates are pretty cool.

People should be more like pirates.

When I say that though, I don't mean we should all take to sailing around, blowing up other peoples' ships with our cannons and plundering and whatnot.

That is not cool.

But guys. Guys. You know what is so flippin' cool about pirates? They totally accept anyone! Here's what I mean: if you have a dude who maybe lost part of a leg somehow, does that mean he can't be a pirate? Heck no! Just stick a peg leg on there! If you've got your deaf friend Phil, let the guy man the cannons! One of your eyes doesn't work? Well heck, just throw an eyepatch on that thing!

Also here's a pirate kitty. #supercool

Really, the only thing pirates care about is whether or not you can efficiently mess things up for other people. (That's not what we should do though.)

What we should do is be more accepting of everyone, no matter how different they may be! And I don't just mean physically different, like if they happen to be deaf or only have one arm. Of course we ought to accept them, but also people who are just different personality-wise, who like different things, who think differently.

Our differences are what make us unique! Everyone has little quirks, and that is beautiful. We should embrace those. You know what else pirates do that is super duper neat-o? They go give themselves a cool pirate name based off of those things that make them stand out, like Captain Hook or Blind Beard the Pirate (that's from Spongebob, but it's applicable nonetheless). They take their differences and embrace them. They use them to become even cooler. Why don't we do that? Why do we try to hide the little things that make us unique? Why do we try to act "normal"?
I think a lot of it is we're worried about being judged or treated differently. And that's stupid.

We really should all be like pirates. I think the world would be a better place :) So mateys, whether ye be agreein' with me or not is up ter you. But I be here, wearin' me eyepatch and usin' me mom's dough hook from her electric mixer as me hook. ARGH!

Dear 2014

Okay, this is long overdue (I meant to finish this a month ago), but better late than never, right? What matters is that I'm finally posting it ;)

Dear 2014,

Now that you've come to a close and a new year is just beginning, I think it's time to look back on all that's happened.

It's been a roller coaster ride of craziness, with breathtaking highs and depressing lows, and I'm hoping 2015 is the same way :) Your highs were amazing: touring Thailand, sending my big brother and a bunch of friends off to serve missions, starting at BYU, being a princess both for senior prom (I actually wore a tiara. It was dang sweet) and Halloween. And the lows... Well, they were lows for a reason. They hurt and they were hard, but hey--they taught me far more than the highs ever did.

I'll admit that you were tough. I had to worry about whether or not I'd get accepted to BYU (I did, obviously), I had to worry about passing AP tests and finishing out my senior year of high school strong, I had to worry about living on my own (more or less). You were full of changes, and I, like many people, avoided them as much as possible (change sucks, am I right?). But you know what I've realized? I'm gonna experience so much change this year too. I mean, I want to leave to serve a mission this year, and heck! that's 18 months of being thrown into a different place, whether foreign or not, and dedicating my life completely to the spreading the gospel. How's that for change? Goodness! Anywho... So yeah 2014, you had your rough patches. But they're done! :) I learned a different lesson from each of the hardships I had to go through, and each one helped me become a bit stronger. I'm still happy they're over with though ;)

When I look back at the beginning of last year (that feels weird to say--it doesn't feel far enough away to be considered "last year" yet) and compare it to where I am now, I've really changed quite a bit. I'm more sure of myself (I'm comfortable wearing a cat-patterened dress, for one) and I have a much better idea of what I want from life. I'm so much happier with life in general. Life just feels better now :) and I know it will only get better (and harder, but better nonetheless) from here. I can't wait for more adventures to come, like when I go to Harry Potter World in Florida ;) But for real, I know this year's got a lot in store for me and I'm so dang excited! Good heck there's a lot to look forward to :)

And yeah, when I think of all the challenges I'll have to face this year, it kinda freaks me out a bit (actually a lot). But I know I've got amazing friends and family to help me through anything 2015 decides to throw at me. I got this! ;)

So now some advice for you, 2015, from yours truly: you have the chance to be as awesome as you want to be! If you want to be great, then make it so! People are awesome and are capable of so much. So go on and make 2015 the best year you've ever had, and let the adventures begin :)