Evidently I'm One of Those Political People

   

     As I approach the end of my first two decades, I have been realizing many things about myself, things that, previously, I would not have correlated to my being. And as the days go by, and I dwell on these realizations, I had another one: that I really just ought to embrace it. While there have been little realizations, middle realizations, and one or two bigger ones, I feel as though one takes precedence.

I am a really awful speller. 

     Just joking. I mean I really am, (you would have never known, thank you spell-check) but that is not the one that takes precedence. It is that I am extremely opinionated, involved in politics, and really enjoy spreading ideas around and vocally suggesting that while you may think you are right, really, because we are disagreeing, you are in fact wrong. WRONG! There, I said it.
     I know I have a determination to be right, to produce the correct answers, to solve the problem correctly,  but I had previously never ascribed these tendencies to having any sort of political or societal commentary. However as of late, as I read about policies that may or may not come to pass in our government, or our reactions as a society to a certain event or advertisement (here's looking at you Cheerios) I find my head abuzz with a chatter, all of my opinions and comments swarming, positioning to escape my head and flow freely out into the world. But before they are released, some part of me yells, "Wait! What are you doing? You are not that person! You do not go around spouting your opinions on how such and such ought to be done because of x, y, and z! You are not that old person at get-togethers who opens with their opinion on something and makes everyone else uncomfortable!" Well yes, I am realizing, I am this person. I do have these opinions, I am very involved (emotionally, it's not as though I have the power to call Barry O and suggest some changes and then have them happen) with what is happening in the world, I am concerned, I am passionate, sometimes frustrated, and I want to add my voice to the chorus.
     Previous to me embracing this, was me denying this, after having realized this, after living with this desire and honestly believing I didn't have it. Lets just say that some events in my life became painfully obvious as to why they turned out the way they did, because at some point along the way I was just spewing these opinions out while being in complete denial that I was, in fact, that kind of opinion-spewing person. For everyone who came into contact with the contents of my spewing, I really am sorry if you have been sprayed on. I know it exists now, so now I am channeling it wisely.
   In partnership with the need to spew opinions is the need of a venue to commence spewing. Weirdly enough I have my own blog where I have been commencing the spew of my opinions already. This works out for me because I really didn't know where to take this blog. I wanted it to be of my travels and adventures but as I haven't been able to get up and go anywhere, which is really boring, I didn't have much to write about. Instead, I will focus my spewing tendencies here, where I can project them into the world, continue writing, and save my Facebook friends the constant bombardment of my opinions and links to various topics with a political interest.Huzzah!
I will work to improve my spelling as well, as an aside. 

Steve The All Knowing Cabby

    

     Let me begin with this: this week, has not been my week. It is not that anything bad has happened exactly, I was just faced with a singular difficult decision, on top of building stressors, and I broke. When I break, I feel such endless despair. Not that anything wont be right again, it's just that I can't do anything to further the process to making things better. Everything makes me cry, and I feel like there are at least three dementors hovering around my head, constantly sucking my happiness. It becomes too easy for my inner voice to become lashing, and point out all of my faults and shortcomings, furthering my spiral into misery. In short, it has not been my week.
     In a crazy turn of events, I found myself packing a suitcase and taking off for a place that had never given me much happiness, but is full of people who do: home. Right now that isn't important, what is, is what I learned from Steve.
    Steve, is my worldly cabby driver from Greece who drove me to the airport this evening. He is a fun, kooky-looking, old man who maintained a constant stream of chatter the whole drive over, which I greatly appreciated. Beginning the conversation, was talk about the most obvious: School. He then dove into, what I assume, was a well rehearsed schpeal about how important school is. The difference being one million dollars. He said that over my lifetime as a college graduate I will make a million more dollars than a non-grad. Alright, I've heard it before.
     He then dove into a narration about a fellow he drove to the airport fifteen years ago, whom he ran into recently and was reminded of. Evidently, this fellow needed a ride to the airport from school, as did I, and Steve told him what he told me tonight, and the fellow listened, worked, graduated, and now owns two law firms and is extremely successful. When he ran into Steve, he reminded him who he was, and how Steve's advice to push through and graduate helped him to go pursue his dreams. Steve said that no, this fellow did is of his own accord, all that Steve did, was show him that a door could be opened, it was the fellow who opened it, and went through to the other side.  Door metaphor, heard it, but it was especially well done by Steve. What he then imparted on me next, is more of what is important.
     Perhaps I just looked troubled, but he told me about this saying that is popular amongst the Greek (according to Steve). That phrase being, "it is better to sleep worry, than to sleep sorry" it doesn't quite rhyme in my American accent, but in his Greek one, it has a perfect rhythm. This means, that when making a decision, there is no need to rush; you must slow down, think it over, and come to a decision thoughtfully, no matter how simple the question. He said the Greeks thought it was better to fall asleep worrying about what do to about a decision, than to fall asleep sorry you made the wrong one. Well, let me tell you, that is exactly what I needed to hear. Steve, you are the all knowing cabby, and I hope that one day I do meet you again so I can tell you successful I have become, and how much I needed to hear that.

...But Is It Worth The Effort?

  

    I fondly remember a day in my high school economics class where the teacher asked us a rather simple question: Is it worth it to put 100% of your effort in, all of the time? Of course we were supposed to look at this through an economists eyes, nothing is free, your time costs you something, and on... We thought unanimous answer was yes, and as we walked to the designated side of the room for "yes" we turned around to see that one student had firmly plopped himself down on the side of "no." The debate that ensued is one I continually go over in my head as I try to apply the principle to my everyday life.
   On the "yes" side, was myself, several of our would-be valedictorians, salutatorians, the winner of the county's student of the year award, and a general slew of high-achievers and bright minds. Not to say the singular "no" crusader was not amongst this crowd, in fact he was extremely bright, but did he know something all of us didn't? I think for the majority of us, being told putting 100% effort in, all of the time was folly and a waste of our time and energy, was rather upsetting. As the debate opened, a wave of reasons the "yes" side was correct came crashing down upon the singular "no" defender. The yeses argued that giving 100 percent of your effort enables you to always succeed, because you will continually push to understand what you are learning or working on, and then you can't ever feel like there was more you can do, because you gave it your all, and on and on. 100 percent effort means good, successful results, every time. That is how all of us had gotten through school, and for the majority of us it worked out very well. Now for defense of the no. Mr. No, argued that it is not efficient to give 100 percent all of the time, and it is not sustainable. He argued that it isn't worth our time to put 100 percent effort in, lets say a paper, when 70 or 80 percent effort will get the job satisfactorily done (for us, some shade of "A"). If you can get away with putting less effort in, and still get the same results as 100 percent, isn't it more efficient? Wouldn't that save you time, and the energy you must exert in order to focus in on that task one hundred percent? This internal dialogue has plagued me since its occurrence, and I think I have finally found a response that is realistic, and I have found useful in my everyday living.
     I have decided it really isn't worth it to put 100 percent of my effort into everything I must do (Mr. No would be proud.) Some things just aren't worth it, as I have been finding out in a certain class I am currently enrolled for. This class, is interesting in subject matter but the teacher is quite bad at delivering her lectures. Until right before the first test, I attended all of her lectures, took notes, did the homework, and when the test came about, I scored slightly higher than the class average, but quite low for my standards. Clearly, traditional methods were not to be trusted in this instance, so I stopped going to class. Instead, I continued doing the assigned readings at home, doing the homework, and only attended the test review a few days before the test (done by the TA) and I scored a 95 on the next test. In this scenario, my effort was not to be clocked at 100 percent, I wasn't even going to class for goodness sakes, but the results were far more impressive this way. This made me realize that being smart with my efforts and not blindingly giving them to all projects, is more worthwhile. In both scenarios I did give the same amount of effort, but in such a way that it was more valuable to the task at hand, which worked out better for me in the end.
     When I now approach a task, the question of "is it worth my best?" no longer floats around in my brain. Instead, I think to myself, "is this the best method to maximize my efforts?" And see what my brain can come up with from there.

Currently Listening To: Crystallize by Lindsey Stirling

Using My "Adult Discipline"

    

     Last year, while I was signing up for my classes for my current semester, I signed up for Spanish 102. It is the second part of the intro course to Spanish, and I was pretty psyched to continue learning a language that I could actually use (as opposed to Latin, which is really cool, but unless I learn how to time travel, rather useless). The first day of class, was met with utter disappointment. My teacher looked to be only a few years older than me, was clearly not a native speaker, and didn't even have a copy of his own syllabus. He might have also been high, but that one is up for debate.
     I decided to give him a chance, and stayed in the class for about two weeks, by which point I could not take the pain anymore, the pain being watching Will Ferrel's "In the House of my Father" with English subtitles. So I switched to a class with a teacher I had heard good things about. Why the long prelude? My point is coming, I swear. The first day of this new class, I learned twice as much as I had in the several weeks of the old one, and it was such a sigh of relief for my developing Spanish-brain. Perhaps the most important piece I remember learning that day, is when we had to write down a whole list of vocab words to be tested on next class. They were all obscure words that we as a class thought would be good to have in our vocabulary. Anyway, he was explaining to everyone, that in language, the general philosophy is if you are constantly bombarded with all of these words and phrases, some of them will sink in, eventually. He then told us, while that is fine and dandy, a more efficient way of learning this vocab, is to sit down, use our "adult discipline" and learn it.
     For some reason, this really struck a chord with me. No one, at least not for a very long time, has told me to just sit down, use some discipline and just get my work done. It is usually more along the lines of "well of course you'll do it, you always end up doing it" and while this is true, it really doesn't motivate me, or help me in any way, because usually just "getting things done" translates to staying up until all hours of the night trying to not fail, but not necessarily get 100 percent out of it.
     It struck me as of late, that not failing, is really quite different than thoroughly succeeding, and actually learning deeply from my studies. This may seem obvious to most everyone, but to me it was a different way of looking at what I am learning in school, and how I am learning it. Until recently, my philosophy had been to get the work done in a way that gets me a good grade (A-B range) with the absolute minimal effort put in. It was an exaggerated efficiency system, designed to work by producing an acceptable result with the lowest possible input, and while I thought it seemed like a good idea, I am really disappointed in it.
     I kept finding myself looking at a grade, that was just shy of what I wanted, and thinking, "well that isn't bad for only studying for 15 minutes." Sure, it's not bad based on that frame, but imagine what I could achieve if I had actually put my best effort in? I don't know where in my life I lost this will to not simply avoid failing, but to pursue excellence, but I want it back. I miss those 100 percents, I miss that conquering feeling you get when you put in your all and you achieve marvelous results. I miss actually learning my material, not simply cramming it in for the singular purpose of an exam. So, in the spirit of this blog, where I am trying to stop dreaming about my "adult life" and actually try and live it day to day, I am invoking my "adult discipline."I know it probably doesn't have much strength right now, but I think if I work on it little by little, day to day, it will soon become a force to be reckoned with. How's your "adult discipline"?
xoxo

P.S. Still going strong with my morning yoga. 
Currently Listening To: Booty Swing by Parov Stelar

Morning Yoga

   
   

 
     Another successful morning of yoga for me. I know it is only day two, but I really can't see myself stopping. Yoga, to me, was always something so strong and serene. I love seeing pictures of people in their poses, perfectly calm, so strong, and balanced. I thought to myself, what excellent control of not only their bodies, but their minds. They must be so peaceful inside. I think what draws me so much to yoga is the inner peace you can see radiating out of their bodies. I want that inner peace. I want to feel so complete, and content in only myself that I can control, yet release my mind at the same time. At the same time, they are so strong, these yoga people I watch. Not talking about their muscles, they are all relatively lean people, but even in the stillness of their poses, you can see energy shooting out of their outstretched fingertips, their reaching toes. It seems so powerful, but a controlled kind of power, over yourself, I think that is ultimately what I long for, what I am seeking whilst doing these poses. I hope I can soon achieve this inner peace, I think that is what I long for more than anything.
xoxo



Currently listening to: Princess of China by Coldplay & Rihanna

The Lovely Books

In an effort to try and read more books in my free time, I thought I would begin to post what I'm currently reading and what I think of it. I just finished Sahara by Clive Cussler two nights ago, and am having a hard time picking what I want to read next on my list. I will be sure to post a review of it later today, but mostly I wanted to use this graphic quote because I thought it was wonderful.
xoxo

Morning Yoga

 Lately I have been in a pattern of going to bed early (eleven is early in college) which means I have also begun to wake up at hours of the morning which I could have sworn do not exist, like seven and eight o'clock. What do I do with all this free time I have magically acquired? Besides blogging, of course. Well, I am trying to implement a morning yoga routine. My dear friend who runs a lovely blog as well, had a post about getting into a 5 minute yoga routine in the mornings, and despite the fact that I try and go to yoga once or twice a week, I typically fail at actually going... So I thought a new morning routine could suit me nicely. You can check out the poses here if you're interested in trying a 5 minute yoga routine for yourself!
p.s. Check out those cute elephants doing yoga! If they can do it so can you!

Seeing Signs

Here are some of my favorite protesting signs in front of D.C. today.

This is more or less how I feel about what is going on: 

This man, is so fabulous, I just think he is great:

And finally, because Harry Potter is awesome, and so are gay rights:

Seeing Red

Happy Tuesday to you all! In case anyone's Facebook wasn't blowing up with these red equality signs, here is what the majority of us are seeing today:

     Why? Well because it is a big day for us here in the Land of the Free, it is the day that the 'issue' of gay rights has begun come to a head. Today, the Supreme Court has begun the hearings for gay marriage in D.C.  The equality sign is actually from the Human Rights Campaign, who usually has a blue and yellow sign, but instead opted for a pink and red one to gather up supporters for this day in history.
     I myself have not changed my profile picture to this sign, why? Do I not support them? Am I too lazy? No, no, I do support gay marriage, one-hundred and ten percent, I just don't see what my changing my profile picture will do to further the cause. But you know what I can do? I can write about it.
     What I have seen across my newsfeed today has certainly made me want to turn my caps lock on and go nuts on some people, but I know that won't actually help anything, so I turned here instead.
     Let me begin with this: I can't even believe this is an issue. To top that, I can't even believe this issue has taken so many years to stir up a sizable movement, and now I can't believe it is being met with so many roadblocks, just to give people what we have already promised them as American Citizens: Equal Rights. It saddens me as an American to look through the pages of my American History text book, and see over and over again, that while we preach equality, acceptance, and say we are an encompassing and understanding country to anyone who's beliefs or ideas may seem different, we can't seem to uphold this in our practices. While we are proud of our freedom, of our constitution, our country, we seem to really enjoy taking these rights away from people, and putting others beneath us. And not just any other people, our own American Citizens. This is so unbelievably cruel, and wrong, I have no words; so instead I will move on to what I have seen today.
     On my Facebook, the majority of my friends (you guys are awesome) have posted these red equal signs in their profile pictures, shared pictures of protesters in D.C. with clever and moving signs, and have taken to the comment boxes to explain and defend their ideas. Others of my friends, have taken to their statuses to say they do not support this bill, and they don't all have the same reasons for their opinions but their words all have the same meaning: they are not for equality. These people have been blasted away by comments, one avid supporter of equality saying how dare they posses, and then share this opinion on Facebook. Well, girl, everyone has been sharing their opinions on Facebook, you can't blast them for joining the fray, just because their opinion is different than yours, common.
I do not have a problem with these opinions, what I do have a problem with are their reasoning for them.
Trolling through the comments, here are the defenses I've most commonly seen:
~ It is against what the Bible says
~ Being gay is a choice, and people should simply choose to be straight and save us all the headache
~ I don't like it/It's not right etc. 
     Alright, one at a time, beginning with the Bible. Leaving my personal beliefs aside (read:I do not have any) there is something glaringly wrong with this reason against gay marriage. Here, in America, the Land of the Free, we have a SEPARATION of Church and state. Sorry, I could not control my caps-lock in that instance. What does this mean? This means, that the affairs, beliefs and rules of a church, are not supposed to interfere with the managing of our government. How then, is a definition from a religious text, standing up in our government? How has this even gained footing as a reason to separate a group of people into second-class citizenship? This is what baffles me most in this battle for equality, this religious definition should not have made this many waves in our country, let alone wash up on the front steps of our nations capitol. It boils my blood to see this kind of bastardization of our law of a Separation of Church and State.
     For those of you who think it is a choice, I pose this experiment to you: Why don't you choose to be gay for a day, even a week, and tell me how it goes for you. Didn't work? You couldn't be gay by choice? Huh, well I guess that answers that question.
     And for the rest of you, who simply don't like it; I don't like you, so what are we supposed to do about that? Shall I take away your rights? As a demographic of people, who just don't like other people, shall I not allow you to marry? To visit your loved ones in the hospital? That seems rather rude doesn't it? How about instead, I won't take away your rights, I will let you keep on having your opinions, and then you can just let gay people continue on their way, living their lives which don't affect you in the slightest. My god, it's brilliant!
     Of course, those are my opinions, if you don't like them, well, you are reading my blog, which is all about my opinions, so really that's on you, but feel free to argue (or you know, agree) with me in the comments!
xoxo

Sitting Pretty

You know, sometimes I never realize how sitting at a computer all day can tire you out, but it really can. Since ending my time at my previous site, (I swear, I will stop talking about it soon, it's like a recent ex, it's still on my mind!)  I have been hastily working on getting this one beautified and up and running almost all day. Let me tell you, I did not anticipate spending this much time arranging everything, but I felt it just had to be perfect. I thought I had an idea in my head of the direction I wanted to take this site, visually speaking, and it just wasn't what I wanted to look at for a while. I suppose that is the point of all of this writing after all! Figuring out what I want versus what I thought I want; I'm thinking this was a good start. Anyway, it is up and running, I think I like it, so let me know what you think! Also, if you saw any of the horrendous concoctions I had earlier, I am really sorry about your eyes, I'm sure they will heal soon. 
xoxo

A Hot Cup of Tea

     Ah! To be writing again! It is almost as invigorating as a hot cup of tea... I'm just giving you a pause there for the "aha" moment of realization that yes, that is this new website...For those of you following from my previous blog, I hope you like the new digs, I will do my utmost best to keep this updated and interesting for both of us, and for the newbies, welcome aboard! 
     Why, you may be wondering, start a new blog? Clearly I had something workable established previously, why mess with a good thing? Honestly it is for many reasons, I can't attribute this change to any singular occurrence, but I suppose what finally pushed me into action, was that I felt I had to. My last blog was focused on my travels in London (it's great, you should check it out here) and while I loved having it, I felt as though trying to write about non-London things was tarnishing the essence I had created there. I love my London memories and I kept having a hard time linking them to the other activities and thoughts I was having in my life at present, so I decided to keep London in a bubble and move on with a new, fresh blog, where I can tailor the subjects to encompass more than just my travels. 
     On that subject, if I am not writing about travels, then what will I be writing about? That is a great question, really it is. Firstly, I will still be writing about my traveling (I am hoping to have a rather large trip over the Summer, it is just in it's baby planning stages, so I won't reveal anything yet, but fingers are firmly crossed!) but I want to approach the blog in a different way. My last trip I was more focused on capturing everything I saw in photographs for the blog, and while I still plan on taking insane amounts of photos, I don't think I will be posting them all on here. Instead, I am trying to focus more on the writing aspect of recording travels, I mean I have this blog for a main reason, and it is writing, so I ought to up my game in that category. 
     My other purpose for creating a new direction on here is rather metaphorical, it is why this is called A Hot Cup of Tea. While I have always loved a nice cup of tea, it has become a ritualistic aspect of my life ever since England. To me, and especially to the English, tea is hot, comforting, invigorating and calming at the same time. It builds you up for the day ahead, warms you up to face the cold, and then comforts you before bed to send you to of to sleep. It energizes you for a new beginning, which is how I see this blog, at least that is the direction I am hoping to take it. You see, I will be graduating at the end of this calendar year, and while I had a plan upon entrance into college about what I was going to do and what direction I wanted to take, that plan has since dramatically changed. It isn't as though I have had any roadblocks, au contraire I am steaming full speed ahead, I'm just not sure in what direction. I have found that my interests and goals and intentions with what I want to do have altered, and I realized I am actually floundering for a direction. What do I want to do? Where do I want to go? How can I achieve that goal? Is this option worth doing over this other option? What do I want more? I don't know! Ack! I just don't know! And while I have nine months until I am graduated and have to jump into the real world, I decided I should start to tease out what I am truly interested in from the crazy mess of all the directions I want to take. At the same time, I want to have a collection of things that inspire me (and hopefully you) to start living the life I've imagined for myself, instead of constantly being in pursuit of it. And with that I open my new blog, lets see how this goes! 
xoxo