UPDATE: Social Media Challenge

Hey guys! It has officially been 24 hours since I posted the "Social Media Challenge" yesterday and was determined to steer clear of things like Facebook and Instagram. Well, I am back this morning with a full update on my experience, my failures, my achievements and overall what I learned.

After publishing my post yesterday, I felt extremely enthusiastic and determined. I was hopeful. To be honest, I was overconfident. Then...it happened. Only two minutes after the challenge had begun, I opened my phone, swiped through my apps and opened Instagram. The scary part was that I did not even think about what I was doing, nor did I want to even check Instagram.

 It happened like clockwork.

It was automatic. My fingers seemed to move on their own and my mind seemed to shut off. 

Okay, okay. That may be a bit dramatic. But in all seriousness, it was a real wake-up call. That was the moment I knew that social media was affecting my life in a negative way. Now, I was really determined to finish the challenge and succeed. Honestly, it was tough. Throughout the day I would find myself wanting to check Facebook or Twitter, especially whenever I was in an awkward or boring situation. After the fourth hour, it got easier. My need for these social networking sites slowly decreased. And, by the end of the challenge, I had almost forgotten about them.

What I Learned: 

1. Social media/social networking can be an addiction. Personally, I wouldn't say that I am addicted to social media. Although they do say that denial is the first sign of an addict. (This is where you laugh.)

2. Without social media, I am able to live more in the moment and am more aware of the situation I am in. 

3. Social media can be positive in smaller doses. It's all about balance and priorities. 

And, there you have it. Those 24 hours were tough. But, they were also an amazing learning experience. The biggest lesson I learned, as I pointed out before, is balance. Life really is all about balance. Too much of anything is a bad thing, in my opinion. And this includes social media. If you joined me in this challenge, congrats! Whether you "failed" or "succeeded," as long as you learned something about yourself, then you won. :) So, put away the phone, laptop or whatever you use to connect to the online world once in a while and remember how amazing the real world can be when you give it a chance. 

That's all for now.

-m

Mirror

When you look in the mirror, you should feel proud. That's what I learned today.

High school is a time when we all "find ourselves." Some of us have a new boyfriend each semester, some of us get our noses pierced, some of us dye our hair pink and some of us stay the same. That's me. My goal was to step outside of my comfort zone. To open up to people and just be me. Until today, I thought I hadn't made any progress. But a few minutes ago, my eyes cast across a mirror and something caught my eye. It was just me staring back through the glass. But this time, I felt different. The person in the mirror had gone through a tough time finding herself. But she was trying. And when I looked into the mirror, I was happy. This new found feeling should be experienced by every single person on this planet. We need to accept ourselves. Not be so hard on ourselves. We need to love ourselves. Because we are all worth something no matter what others say. How can we be truly happy if we aren't happy just to be alive in our own bodies. There is no one else like you out there so the next time you find yourself by a mirror, take a look and smile. ;)

World War 3

Hey there. So my friend was out of state today sending her sister off to college. She sent me pictures of her dorm and the campus and raved about wanting to go to college right now. This led me to spend the majority of my day on google, searching different colleges and how I could get into them. I looked at video tours, pictures, freshman profiles...everything related to college I googled. I was filled with this longing for freedom and to go explore the world in hopes of finding a new and exciting life. Then something happened. My brother and I found our old nerf gun. We loaded it up and quickly planned an attack on my mom who was working in the kitchen. While he casually sauntered in, beginning a conversation, I titled the kid friendly weapon around the corner and shot. Well, she was furious. But then my sister came home with my dad and let's just say it was WORLD WAR 3! By the end of the battle, I remembered how much fun and chaotic it could be at my home. I couldn't believe just an hour earlier I had wanted to leave so urgently! I realize now that I shouldn't take my family for granted. So lesson of the day, don't rush to grow up. Enjoy living at home, as weird as that may sound!

Thanks for listening.

Second chances

Wow....so this morning as my chihuahua roxy sat in my lap enjoying the sunshine filtering through the curtains, I realized I had forgotten something. After thinking for almost fifteen minutes, I remembered that I failed to post yesterday. Part of me felt like I was done. I couldn't possibly post again after failing the one goal I created for this year. The one chance I had to complete something and fulfill my ambition was ruined. But of course, after another ten minutes of thinking, I came to another conclusion. This blog is for me. And this blog is for whoever else happens to read it or is following it. And I'm here to talk about lessons learned from my life. So here we go, second chances. It's okay if you fail. Failure exemplifies to the world that you actually tried. You have passion for something and that passion is so great that you were willing to risk the option of failure. We shouldn't be so hard on ourselves. No one is perfect. So we should all give ourselves a second chance. A second chance to prove to ourselves that we are worth something. And to prove that we can accomplish whatever we set our minds to. 

Thanks for

Listening. 

Distorted Reality

Has anyone (meaning maybe the one person watching this) seen the movie "The Internship?" Well, in this movie the three or four highschool/college interns talk about how hard it is to be a kid in this day and age. They say that because of technology, you have to be a complete genius in order to get a good job. This thought led me to thinking about whether technology really is beneficial to society. And by technology, I mean the new, high tech stuff, like iphones and social networking. Here's a question, how many of you seem to feel bad or even depressed after checking up on facebook/instagram/twitter. I personally can answer with "yes." Sometimes when I look at all of these pictures people post, it makes me think their lives are so much fun and even perfect and mine is lame. But even though these social networking sites don't leave me feeling my best, I continue to check them every day. It's an addiction. An addiction that needs to stop. But this morning, I had a new thought. Those pictures that people post only capture a small slice of their life. It may look all happy and perfect, but who knows what their life is really like? A picture is only an image, not reality. And also, why should we pay attention to the lives of people who are not in our own lives! It's time to live for ourselves. That's why I love the movie "The Internship" because these kids learn that they should try living in the moment, not through a lit up screen with distorted images of reality. So lesson of the day, live in the moment, for the here and now. Don't miss out on the real stuff. ;)