A Lesson On Rules

This semester, I am taking a Creative Nonfiction class as one of my writing genres to get my degree. In this class, we are usually tasked with writing a piece on whatever our teacher decides he wants us to write on. Today's assignment was on rules. We can write anything we want to as long as it fits under the topic somehow. I decided I wanted to share this on my blog because I am proud of what I have written. The comments I got from my teacher surprised me. I was told that my voice in the piece is clear and natural and that really surprised me. When I am writing, I often find myself struggling to find my voice and the piece never turns out the way I want it to. However, with this piece, I found myself just writing and not thinking about the words that I was putting on the page. I think that I produce well written pieces when I am able to stop thinking about it and just write. I believe that there is freedom in doing so, and I love being able to set myself free from worrying about each and every word that I am trying to put on the page. I'll stop my tangent now. Without further ado, I present: Rules to Live By.

Rules to Live By

Rule Number One: Make your bed every day. No matter what, I try to make my bed every morning. After I wake up in the morning, I get out of bed and shower, then I make my bed. I suppose the years of my mom telling me to make my bed finally stuck. Or perhaps this is me finally moving up in the world towards total adulthood.

Rule Number Two: Don’t forget to eat. I know, I know. How can someone forget to eat? Well, I have…on numerous occasions. Oftentimes, when a spark of inspiration bitch slaps me in the face, I end up typing away at my laptop for hours on end until it is way past time to eat. Then, like an idiot, I choose not to eat. With that being said, don’t forget to eat because you will starve…and then die.

Rule Number Three: Get off your lazy ass and go outside. I tend to spend my time sprawled across my futon binging shows on Netflix. I constantly think to myself as I am watching Netflix, that maybe I should go outside and do something. Maybe I could go find inspiration for my blog that I have neglected these past few months. There was a time where I cranked out blog posts like it was nothing because I went for walks to find something to write about. Now, I’m just lazy.

Rule Number Four: Write something for your blog every day. No. Once a week. Or is it once a month? Maybe it’s once every two months. I forgot what I last told myself it would be. Either way, I have broken this rule for myself so many times that I just end up apologizing to the few people who avidly read my blog. I used to write for myself, finding new things to do and new inspirations. But now I lack inspiration to do a simple thing like writing a blog post. Actually, it’s not that I have writer’s block, its that I don’t push myself to write more often. There is a quote I read at some point that said writer’s block is just procrastination. After using it as an excuse so many times, I have realized this to be true.

Rule Number Five: Write. Even if you think it is absolute shit, write. There is always time to edit and people who will look at your work and help you to make it better. I suck at this rule the most. I am often insecure about the words that I put on the page thinking that someone is going to judge me based on what I write. I have always been afraid of what people think of what I write. But I have realized that none of my work will ever get better if no one else sees it. I think that is part of what encouraged me to start my blog two years ago. Even though I have been neglecting my blog lately, it is still a way for me to share my writing whenever I do write a post. My blog has helped me overcome the fear of others hearing what I have to say, but the thought of being judged still looms over my head like a pendulum. But hey, who ever said you had to listen to what people say about your work. In the end, other people’s opinions on it are merely suggestions that the author can choose whether or not to follow.

A Study In Milk

While I was having lunch with my friend Lis the other day, she did something that shocked me. Lis had come back to the table with a glass of milk. However, this was no ordinary glass of milk. It had ice cubes in it. Yes. Ice cubes. Lis had put ice cubes into a glass and then put milk in the glass on top of the ice. She claims that it is "an ice cold glass of milk." You heard right, a literal interpretation of the phrase ice cold. Now, I don't know about you, but I cannot drink milk with ice in it. The ice will water down the milk. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Since that day, Lis has been bugging me to write a blog post on it. Here I am, doing just that. Now, I didn't want to write such a short post about Lis's strange milk drinking habit, so I decided to take a look at other various forms in which milk can be seen. 

Here in America, when you buy milk in the grocery store it comes in a plastic jug. Most commonly they are gallon or half gallon jugs. 

These plastic jugs are made of a flimsy, yet still hard plastic. I'll admit that I don't know much about it, but I do know that when dropped, they aren't likely to break. Anyways, to me, this plastic seems like a lot of plastic for one small jug. Plastic is one of the biggest problems with recycling and trash in the world today. It is everywhere. Many times people throw plastic away, and I feel like it is such a waste. Despite this, people still buy milk in plastic jugs. This is because it is about the only thing that is actually available. 

Plastic jugs are not the only form that milk takes. Now I am going to talk about bagged milk.This gets a lot of laughs from a lot of people. In parts of Canada and a few other countries, milk comes in little plastic bags. 

I don't understand why people think that it is such a weird thing to have milk come in a bag. There is a lot less plastic involved in it. Smaller, thinner plastic produces less waste than a bulky plastic jug. Maybe it is because people who don't have milk in a bag don't know or understand how to pour it. For some reason, people can't comprehend putting the bag in a pitcher and snipping the corner. It really isn't that hard to comprehend, yet I get funny looks when I explain how it works.

Personally, I think bagged milk is cool. It takes up a lot less space in the fridge than a bulky gallon jug and it is better for the environment if it makes less plastic in the long run. Even so, people just don't understand. 

Over the years, milk has also been packaged in glass bottles and paper cartons, but you don't see many of those anymore. About the only kind of milk that I ever really see in a paper carton is the weird almond or soy milk or whatever other milk it is. I don't really know. I don't drink the artificial milk. As for glass bottles, we don't really see those anymore. I wonder why that is. Glass bottles are cool. They can be used for so many different things, so why did we switch over to mainly plastic packaging?

On another note, the packaging of milk is different depending on where you are but the way people drink it is usually always the same. You pour it into a glass and you drink. You don't add anything else to it, with the only exception being chocolate syrup to make chocolate milk. I have never in my life seen someone put ice in milk. That is with until Lis decided to one day sit down at the table at lunch with a glass of milk with ice in it.

(Note that this is actually iced coffee because I could not find a picture of iced milk. Let this be proof that ice in milk is in no way a thing. Carry on.)

Does anyone else in the world put ice in milk? Am I the only one that sees a problem with it? I don't think anyone else does this. Lis might just be a little crazy. Well, she's my friend so she ought to be a little crazy to put up with my crazy. Despite this, the disagreement between "iced milk" (I'm calling it iced milk because that is clearly what it is) and just a plain glass of milk still stands. 

Honestly, why put ice in milk if it is just going to get watery and gross? That is the way I see it. My opinion is not changing. The combo of ice and milk equals no for me. Personally, I don't drink milk as much as I used to, but this draws the line. This is too weird, and quite honestly feels wrong. It seems like a disservice to milk. It never asked to be treated with such disrespect. It only came here to make our bones stronger (That's what milk does, right? I'm no expert).

With that being said, I'll leave you to sit and ponder this new milk thing that my friend has revealed to me. I won't try it. However, if anyone else drinks milk with ice in it, leave a comment or let me know. I genuinely want to know because it just seems so weird to me. Thank you for reading my strange post on milk, I hope it didn't seem too strange.

Until Next Time...

Finals Week Is Here

It is December. Finals week is upon us. Stress is in the air. But for some odd reason, the stress for me is no longer manifesting in such a way that I am not even  stressed at all. There is no looming dread hanging over me. I know that for most people, finals week is a defining moment in the entire semester. However, I don't see the logic in thinking that way. Finals week is not a defining moment. These grades may or may not alter your grade and GPA for the semester, but no one grade is what changes the course of your entire college career. Too many times do people stress out over finals week as if they're fate for the rest of college will change if they don't make the grade they are hopeful for on their final exams. I believe that people shouldn't think this way. Finals are just another grade to me. Finals may be easy and some may be hard. It really depends on the class, the teacher, and how much you have worked during the semester for that class. If you work hard during the semester and don't wait until the end, then finals week should be a breeze. If not, then in my opinion you deserve to be stressed. You are the cause of your struggles if you don't do the work. Sure I was stressed last week, but it wasn't over finals. It was over the swiftness of everything that was coming towards me. I couldn't handle the workload of last week, but now that it is over I can be more or less stress free for finals week. I do still have stress, but it is no where near the monster that I was dealing with last week. This stress is more like a mosquito. They are annoying, but not something that is hard to manage. Given the choice, I'd rather a mosquito bite than a monster with teeth bared standing before me. I think that this is something that people need to realize. Worrying over a few tests that in no way define you is pointless. It is wasted effort when you could be doing something else. Maybe I have just found some good distractions, but even so, I in no way feel stressed. I don't quite understand it and I might be getting repetitive, but I hope my points are making sense. 

Anyway, if you are like me and are in the midst of finals week then take my advice. Try not to stress so much about grades that will be insignificant to you in the future. When you've long since graduated from college, these grades are going to mean nothing. They are just stepping stones to your degree. Sure it might be hard, but some stones are heavier to carry than others. In the end, they all end up in the same place. Who ever said stepping stones all had to be the same size and shape? I hope this metaphor makes some sort of sense. The point is, don't stress so much because it is wasted energy. Think about other things and let the work you have done throughout the semester show though your finals.

And to those of you who have already finished your finals or are near finished, don't stress about what you got for you grades. I guarantee that you have done better than you think you did. That is usually the case, because when we get stressed out we naturally start to doubt our abilities.

I think I'll end my speech here. Good luck on your finals and try not to stress so much.

Until Next Time...

Gingerbread and Breakfast

On this rainy day, Georgia College's Habitat for Humanity hosted a gingerbread house contest during the Hanging of the Green's event. My suitemate Oliver and I participated in it. We worked for days putting together a masterpiece that is our "Gingerbread and Breakfast."

The front of our little house.

It took hours of work rolling out fondant pieces to adorn the roof and walls. We even created a little fondant chimney to look like it was made of rocks. From pretzels, to fondant, to royal icing, to sugar lights, and grass made of cake frosting, we worked on our little house. It is one of the best gingerbread houses that I have ever helped build, and we are so proud of what we accomplished.

The back of the house with the little fondant chimney.

(Photo creds: Oliver)

(Picture used with permission. Photo creds: Oliver)

(Photo creds: Oliver)

However, we did not win the contest. We are really sad to have lost after putting hours of work into it in the midst of the end of the semester. It was a really nice break to have been able to spend time working on the house though, and I want to say that we could try again next year and maybe we would win. Even though we lost, I am happy to have participated. It is always fun to work together to build something as cute as our little house. I only wish that it had not have rained today to allow more people to come out and see the gingerbread house that we worked so hard on. All in all, I'll keep my chin up even though we lost. Sometimes I know I can be a bit of a sore loser, and in this case, I'm taking the loss pretty hard. It is never fun to work so hard on something only to lose in the end. But I suppose that it is a lesson to learn. A lesson in trying your best to accomplish something, even if you don't always succeed.

Stress: A Second Person Narrative

Rain pours down from the sky as you sit in your room staring blankly at the ceiling. The stress of finals, projects, and five million other things race across your mind. Occasionally the stress goes away when your mind drifts off to something else, yet always drifting back to the stress of everything. The last few weeks of the semester bring anxiety that ravages your mind and body. You bite your nails, sleep (but not feel rested), and curl up into a ball wishing for it all to end, wishing that you could go home and forget about school for a while. Every semester it is the same; you know finals week is coming all semester, yet it sneaks up on you always. There are things you could be doing to prepare for the tests that come running at you like a battering ram, but you sit down and do nothing. You do nothing in hopes that the stress will go away because every time you try and do something productive it only makes the stress worse.

On this gloomy day, the stress and anxieties that have built up over the semester are all the more present. You lounge about your room in a state of dysphoria as the world seems to be crashing down on you. In a way, your mind leaves your body. It leaves your body in such a way that you are left with nothing but a blank stare and an empty shell. Silence surrounds you like shadows. You think of nothing. You only stare. When your mind finally comes back to your body, you are left in a worse state than before. You are left in a state of panic as you realize you have many things to do in order to ensure that you do not leave the semester a failure.

Even so, you plan to wait until the next day in hopes that tomorrow will be better. In fact, you know tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better because any day can be better than this one. Any other day. Just not today. Today, the stress has become too real. The stress has entrapped you. The stress has placed you in a trance that you cannot possibly be rescued from. The stress has become a monster looming over your shoulder, teeth bared and ready to chomp down on your mind as the weight of the semester hangs over your body as if it were a pendulum.

However, tomorrow...tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow you will go to class and be productive. Tomorrow you will be more awake than you have been all week. Tomorrow you will put on your armor and pick up your sword. Tomorrow you strike back against stress. Tomorrow you will be triumphant and with this triumph, you will crush your finals, projects, and anything else that stands in your way. You will emerge victorious in this battle; stress will trudge back into its hole.

Your thoughts snap back into thoughts of today, and the rain pours ever on.

Hemoglobin Hemorrhage

Let's talk about something that not everyone likes to talk about. Let's talk about menstruation. Now, don't just leave before we get to the good stuff, stick around for a while because this needs to be said a lot more than it is.

Menstruation is something that 50% of the population has to deal with, yet we sweep it under the table and discourage talking about it. Why is that? Why do we discourage something that is a natural bodily function, a function that is crucial to human existence? Why do we think that menstruating is too gross to talk about? I don't know the answer to these questions, but I do know that these are questions that we shouldn't even have to ask.

As someone who menstruates, I strongly disagree with the way the world treats periods. We tax things like pads and tampons as luxury items when having a period is not a luxury. We constantly say to women who seem slightly agitated, Is it that time of the month, as though it is a bad thing to menstruate. The list goes on and on and on. Does anyone else see the problem here?

I'm going to stop bashing the way the world treats menstruation because I think you get the overall idea. What I want to do now, is enlighten you as to what goes on during the "wonderful" time of the month where you bleed out of your vagina.

Basically, those who are cursed with the Red Dawn are shedding what the uterus has prepared for the production of a child. When the uterus is not gifted with such a child, it decides to punish the innocent owners of said uterus. 

An angry uterus results in cramping because the uterus is actually trying to kill itself. Doesn't that sound painful? It is. Excruciatingly painful. For some people, the pain is so unbearable that they cannot function as they normally would. The pain feels like something constantly kicking you in the lower back and stabbing your stomach. Because of cramping, sometimes it can be hard to eat or you feel like throwing up. With that being said, those who are faced with The Gift of Mother Nature find creative ways to deal with the pain. I once (tonight) made a bowl of oatmeal to use as a heat source to help calm the cramps...and because I was hungry. There are also numerous amounts of ways to lay down just to get comfortable, because cramping=not being able to find any sort of comfortable way to lay down.

Along with cramps, other Shark Week symptoms include (but are not limited to):

1. Craving every random food that comes into your brain, including ice cream...all the ice cream. 
2. Bursting into tears for no reason at all or bursting into tears at the sight of any cute fluffy animals. Especially tiny little piggies.
3. Turning from living life as a peaceful, happy individual to a raging demon-like creature.
4. Sleeping so much that you forget what being awake is like or not sleeping at all. There is no in between. 
5. Constantly being bloated to the point where you can't fit into your favorite pair of jeans.
6. Sneezing and feeling like you just wet your pants. Even though it is just a lot of blood quickly leaving your body and possibly staining your favorite pair of underwear.

I think I'll stop there. The list goes on for miles. Or more. Or less. It really depends on the person. Every Aunt Flo is different.

I would usually say that I don't know why I wrote this, but I do. I am tired of the world viewing periods as something that is shameful. I want to freely talk about it without it getting weird. It shouldn't. I also want people to realize that it sucks for everyone that has to deal with it, so if you don't deal with it, then make an effort to understand what half of the population has to go through for the majority of their lives. 

I hope this was informative despite being highly satirical. Everything that I have just told you is true, but satire seems to prove points (plus I find satire fun to write). 

Until next time...

Hello Again

To those of you who read my blog,

I know that it has been a long while since I have posted anything new. This is the first post in months. I'll admit I'm a little upset with myself for that. I like to write, and I have been neglecting that for a while. Maybe it's because I haven't had anything that I really wanted to write about. Or maybe it is just me being the slightest bit lazy. Whatever the reason is, I don't really know what yet, I am going to try to make myself find things to write about. I know that this isn't the first time that I've said this, but maybe this time I'll actually listen to myself.

Anyways, I still don't have anything that I really wanted to write about in this post, but maybe I'll just give a small update into the world of Katie. I am now a sophomore at Georgia College, and I think it is going relatively well. You know, aside from being buried in assignments like everyone is in college. Nothing has really changed from last year at school to this year. I think I am still relatively the same person, maybe I talk a little bit more than I used to, but nothing major is new with me. At least, I don't think so. Maybe other people see something different than I do; I don't really know.

There's not much else that I can think of to say at the moment, so I'll just leave you with the knowledge that I still plan to post to my blog. It might just be more spread out than I usually say it will be.

Until next time,
-Katie