Free Hugs

California Stars- Billy Bragg & Wilco

I chose this for my opening song for a few reasons. I love this song and listen to it all the time, so naturally I have to put it into a soundtrack about my life. In all honesty, I chose it mostly because of how it sounds rather than the lyrics. Even still, the lyrics are fitting. I think the line “I’d like to dream my troubles all away on a bed of California stars” applies to my life. Relaxing and forgetting about all the things I have to accomplish (mostly for school) seems like a wonderful idea.

Don’t Panic- Coldplay

I love Coldplay and thought it would be a good transition from a more upbeat, folk-sounding Wilco song to a relaxing Coldplay melody. I think the lyrics for Don’t Panic fit really nicely in my World stage. The most obvious line for this is “We live in a beautiful world, yeah we do, yeah we do.” Also, I love the last verse of the song: “Oh, all that I know; There’s nothing here to run from; And there, everybody here’s got somebody to lean on.” This shows how my World is full of people I can count on. It also shows how I feel safe in my world. Another reason I chose this particular Coldplay song is because it’s on the Garden State soundtrack, which is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Thirteen-Big Star

For some reason I always want to cry when I hear this. The lyrics are basically a story about someone’s life: going to school, talking to friends, discussing music. I think it fits well for my Call stage, because I talk about when I first started going to school. Also, this song makes me think of old fashioned music, so it works that I put it with pictures of me when I am younger.

Walk Away-Ben Harper

I chose this song by Ben Harper to go with the Belly of the Whale. When I was going through the Belly of the Whale, it was important for me to let go of the past and understand that changes are inevitable. More specifically, I had to realize that my relationships with my friends were changing. A verse in this song captures this feeling: “And it’s so hard to do and so easy to say. But sometimes- sometimes, you just have to walk away-walk away.”

Tear-Red Hot Chili Peppers

I put this song as the background music for my Road of Trials, Apotheosis, and Boon. I think the beginning of this song sounds like graduation music, which works perfectly because the picture that goes with my Road of Trials is my sister in her graduation outfit. I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers so I had to put them in here somewhere, and this song is perfect for these stages. This is the chorus:

All in all and I’m
Loving every rise and fall
The sun will make and I will take
Breath to be sure of this
In the end and then
All will be forgiven when
Surrender rises high and I
Gave what I came to give

In my journey, I am also “loving every rise and fall”, going from my Road of Trials to my Apotheosis and eventually to my Boon. The song also says that all will be forgiven when he gives what he came to give. Perhaps all the bad decisions or bad choices that I have made in my life will be forgiven once I give what I came to give, or in other words, my boon.

            I think that my beginning place within the Four Great Directions of the Medicine Wheel is the South, the place of Innocence and Trust. I think that I am a trusting and forgiving person, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. I also think that I am an innocent person, probably because of my lack of life experiences and because I am still young. I would guess that most of us start in the South, because who is born automatically wise (North), introspective (West), or in a place of illumination (East)?

From the list that we got of different qualities, I suppose I would pick perseverance, faith, and heart as my strengths. I picked perseverance because when I set a goal or a task that I want to accomplish, I am usually good about accomplishing it. I also picked perseverance because I am slightly competitive. I am mainly thinking of tennis, but really if I am playing any type of game, I want to win. I picked faith because like I said earlier, I have faith in myself and other people. I’m not sure if this directly applies, but one time I was talking to a friend and she said that I am optimistic about people but pessimistic about situations. I took that to mean that I try to see the best in people and trust them, but I’m not as optimistic about a situation. And then the last quality I picked was heart, because I feel like that’s something that I wouldn’t need to add to my “medicine bag” because I care about others.

These are the 7 medicines that I chose to take with me on my journey: strength, courage, patience, humor, joy, compassion and humility. If I am starting off my journey in the South, I would begin by going west towards the Looks-Within place. I think strength is a good medicine to have when going to the West, simply because it is important to be strong when starting off on any kind of journey. Also, I definitely need strength in the physical sense because it is a joke (except it’s true) that I am a wimp. I also chose courage because I think strength and courage go hand in hand and I need to make sure I have enough strength and courage as I can get. It’s funny that the clue for courage is “Here requires the courage to speak out, though fear may make your voice shake” because I hate public speaking and Speech class gave me panic attacks.

I chose patience because I am a naturally impatient person and hate waiting on anything. I think patience is an important quality to have that will come in handy in many situations in the future. Next I chose humor. Like the clue states, humor is a universal language that can get you through anything. I think an important thing when it comes to humor is to be able to laugh at yourself. I think this is especially important for me because I have a hard time doing that. Sometimes I need to just let things go and try not to dwell on a bad situation or problem. Again, along with humor comes joy, or joy is a result of humor. I liked how joy was found in the community service office, since joy comes from helping others. It’s definitely important to enjoy helping other people because that’s what you will do (or what you should do) throughout your life. I also chose compassion and humility, which were found in the religious studies office and the learning center.

On the handout we got, it says that the number seven is paradox, or a state of unrest because something cannot be solved in the usual way. I chose seven items for my medicine bag because I am unsure of my call or hero journey, so I think that seven was a good representation of that restlessness and uncertainty. I thought this activity was a fun idea and it was interesting to find out which teachers had certain qualities.

I am so excited for the tennis team to start soon! The weather is officially warmer and I really hope it stays that way! I remember last year, it was SO COLD during tennis season. We literally had these little pocket sized beanie bag things that you shake and then get warm (I forget what they’re called) and I would put them in my shirt during points and then take it out in between! So yeah, I am hoping for a warmer season. It is always so much fun, and this year is Brebeuf’s year!! (None of our seniors left, and two varsity players at Park Tudor left) People never come to matches and it makes me sad, so I am going to try and get people to come. You can’t yell very loudly or anything so I think that discourages attendance.

If you didn’t already know, I really like music. Some of these are really old, but here are some songs that I listened to recently:

• Liquid Dance-A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Soundtrack)
• In the Aeroplane Over the Sea-Neutral Milk Hotel
• Call it Off-Tegan & Sara
• 15 Steps-Radiohead
• Nothing Compares to You-Sinead O’Connor (this was on VH1’s greatest hits of the 90’s or whatever it’s called if you watched that)
• Kids-MGMT
• Maps-Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Ottoman-Vampire Weekend
• Human-The Killers
• Black Hole Sun-Soundgarden
• Ego-The Sounds
• Brighter than Sunshine-Aqualung
• Walk Away-Ben Harper

Ok I don’t know what to write about (once again) so I am just going to state random facts about my life currently.

1. Precalc Test on 7s. Going to fail.

2. I already miss my parents, who are on vacation. Instead of their supervision, my sister and her new punk BF are my temporary guardians. SIGH

3. If you have never been to pandora.com, you definitely need to discover it. It is this internet radio that can basically play anything you want. You can request an artist, song, or just a genre of music and then it plays that stuff and stuff that sounds like it. Quite handy.

4. BO BURNHAM. Even his name sounds hilarious.

5. I can’t think of a number 5.

Pretty much my favorite band. Here is my current favorite song, Nineteen. It’s even better from the CD but I couldn’t find an official music video, so this will have to do.

Ok are these posts seriously due on Saturday because I write them on Sunday EVERY SINGLE TIME. AH!! Anyways, lets just vaguely recap my fascinating Valentine’s Day weekend. By the way, I have noticed that my posts have been going downhill. I just never know what to say! I guess I am not meant for blogging or whatever you call it.

So on Friday I saw another movie (ha, again) called Confessions of a Shopaholic. Not going to lie, kind of a letdown just because I have read the books and it wasn’t as good (but what movie is ever better than the book?) Then after getting home fairly early, my parents were about to start a movie called Burn After Reading. Having nothing better to do, I decided to watch that too. Besides some violence/cussing, it was actually a good movie I thought. I would put the trailer up, but it’s rated R and kind of not appropriate…

Then yesterday on actual Valentine’s Day, I went shopping with my friend which was fun. I got this Vera Bradley wallet thing that goes on your key chain that I am now obsessed with haha. After that, my parents and I drove to Brownsburg to eat dinner with family friends. I am playing in a tennis tournament this weekend, so I had to leave after dinner to go play a match but then I came back and we watched Paris J’etaime (spelling?) because it was on TV. It was ok, but I didn’t like how the stories were so short and not even interconnected at all. Ok this is a really long post but that is basically it I guess. I still have to do practically all my homework and I am kind of freaking out.

This Friday I drove so much it was ridiculous!!! Here is what happened: I drove to Brebeuf in the morning for school. At the end of the day, I left Brebeuf and drove to Carmel Racquet Club. When I left there, I went back to Brebeuf to pick up a friend. Then I drove us back to my house, then to Puccinnis. Then I drove from Puccinnis to Brebeuf (basketball game) and someone else drove me to Trader’s Point. After the movie we went to pick up my car. Then from Brebeuf I drove a different friend home and got home at 1. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh. Even so, it was a fun night. I saw the movie called He’s Just Not that Into You. Even though it didn’t get very good reviews, I thought it was hilarious and made some very accurate points. Here is the trailer…enjoy!! And go see it.

It’s a SNOW DAYYY!! Too bad that I am literally like trapped in my house so I can’t actually do anything fun. So far I have basically just watched a movie, picked out my outfit for 80’s day, and tried to do homework. It is creepy that it’s a snow day because yesterday in Biblical Studies someone was doing reflection and we went around in a circle and said what makes us happy. I said when my sister comes home from college and when I get to sleep in like on a Snow Day. And then it happened!! Weirddddd.

Ahh ok so I always forget that a blog post is due every Sunday…oops. But better late than never, right? I’m just going to do a quick update on my life:

1. It’s Blue’s Week!! I am so excited for Hogwarts day and 80’s workout day. Twin day is tomorrow which is also very exciting. My concern for Hogwarts day is that I don’t have Harry Potter glasses.

2. COURSE REQUESTS. I am in a pickle. I am in the process of deciding what I should take and I am not getting anywhere, let me tell you. I have the main stuff picked out (Calculus, Enviornmental Science, English…) but I am having problems deciding between Newspaper, Painting, Print Making, and Sociology. Also, I am determined to have 2 breaks since I have never had that before. PLEASE 2 BREAKS PLEASEEE

3. SAT Prep Class!!! Ok so my Tuesdays just exploded from being the only day of the week where I have nothing to EVERYTHING (kind of).  After school I have to go do my volunteer hours for Religion at Fay Biccard Glick Community Center…cool name, I know. Then I have to go from there back to school for the prep class from 6:30-8:30 and then go home and do all my homework. Another major downside: you get homework from the SAT class!!!!! Boooooo

4. Australian Open. For those of you who are not aware, the Australian Open is currently going on. I should know since my mom has it on literally every time I am home. The best match I have seen so far was definitely Gasquet/Gonzalez. It went to 5 sets and Gonzalez won 12-10 in the 5th set!! wooowwwWW.

5. PRT Yoga! Today I went to the PRT yoga class for the first time and it was very relaxing. You should definitely go and get some good breathing exercises in (and more complicated stuff).