Quick Thoughts Part One: Love

Love: Noun, Verb [luhv] Loved, Lov-ing a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

Just the other day when I was talking with a very special friend of mine, the question of love came up. He asked, "What is love to you?" And for a minute, I was speechless, nobody had ever asked me that before and I hadn't had an answer for it. Until suddenly it hit me, I had an answer, every feeling of love I'd ever felt came rushing to the front of my memory, just begging to be vocalized. I answered with this...

"To me? Love is among the greatest feelings in the world, if not the greatest. You can feel love towards anything and there are many types of love. You can love doing something, like you love golfing and I love dancing. You can love eating, sleeping, or reading. Love is just that way. You can love and be loved by your family, which to me is one of the truest forms of love... the kind you feel because your family will always be there for you. Your pets or animals can love you, you can tell by the way they protect you or cheer you up. They know it just as well as you and I do. You can love your friends and they can love you, in the platonic way of course. Love for your friends comes from the feelings of trust and happiness you get when you're around them. For the most part, you're friends will stick by you and try their hardest to cheer you up when you're down."

By this point, the person I was talking to was just nodding along, agreeing mostly with what I was saying, and making 'mhm' noises. Then, I turned the tables and asked him a question.

"And there's love love, the special type. Haven't you ever been in love?"

His response, "Well... I've felt love towards and from my friends and family. But no, I've never been in love."

I got into a tizzy when I'd heard this, never been in love? Never been in love?! This person was missing out!

"Well then I feel like you've been robbed because when you're in love and being loved in return... it's amazing. Everything is brighter, you're determined, you're happy, it's like... you can do anything when you're in love. Things are better, everything makes sense. And you know all those cheesy love songs on the radio? You'll smile and find yourself relating to them, thinking that the musician and lyricist wrote this song just for you and your special someone."

The conversation carried on from there, it lasted for about a good hour or so and I felt like it was one of the better discussions I'd had in a long time. His final answer made it just that much better, "This being in love thing sounds good. I'd like to try it."

So that's it, my first quick thought blog post, about one of my favorite things. What can I say? I'm a dreamer, a wisher, and a hopeless romantic.

Realization

I am on the cusp of becoming a senior at Technology High, wow. We're a few days shy of the month of April, April brings Spring Break, STAR testing (for the last year -woo!), and SATs. Then comes May, everyone is just itching to get out and enjoy the lovely weather... but we're gearing up for what's coming next. June. Finals, finals, finals, oh and graduation for our beloved senior class! Once they've graduated, they're out... I mean I'm sure most of them will come back and visit as often as they can next year because Tech High is so magnetic. But for some, they won't be coming back. They're going off to be adults in the world and to attend the college of their choice. Which brings us back to what I'm trying to get at. For almost three years, I've been lumped in with a group of 60 or so other kids. Wonderful, funny, smart, creative, and talented kids. Bonds have been formed and broken, but for the most part... we're all in this together. We're going to be seniors, the grade you dreamed about when you were playing on the playground in third grade, the grade you dreaded when you'd pass by a group of tall and intimidating older kids, the grade you can't wait to just get through when you're working on your twenty plus page white paper. This is it, guys. We're almost there; I say we finish our junior year off beautifully and try to make our school, staff, teachers, and families proud.

My To-Do List

1- Become a YouTube/Internet sensation.
2- Master the piano, guitar, and drums.
3- Visit each Disneyland/world/park in the world.
4- Raise $$$$ for my school.
5- Do something that makes a difference.
6- Have my photography be featured on ABC7's picture of the morning, again.
7- Make my parents proud.
8- Become fluent in Spanish, travel to Spain/South America to employ my language skills.
9- Make somebody's day, every day.
10- Play Bridge with my grandparents and their friend, Shirley Temple.
11- Improve my hand-eye coordination.
12- Continue the learning of ballroom dancing, possibly start a club at school.
13- Volunteer more often.
14- Become a Big Sister (not a literal one, a member of the organization).
15- Win a trophy.
16- Write and publish a successful and charming children's book.
17- Teach kindergartners how to read.
18- Learn how to sew.
19- Make sure that all of the people who have ever inspired me, loved me, or guided me... know just how much what they've done means to me.
20- Work for the Disney Corporation or Hollywood Records.

*These are in no particular order. The list is growing...

"That's so going on Twitter!"

The situtation: You're out on the town on a Tuesday night with a gaggle of friends, you've decided to stop and eat somewhere, when the clown of the group decides to stick beverage straws up his nose and poses for a picture while doing so.
The problem: You want to share this funny moment with all of those who aren't out with you at the time.
The solution: Twitter it!* (The grammatically correct saying would be 'Tweet it Up')

By now, you're puzzled. Twitter? What's that? Isn't that a heart condition? Or something bees do? Twitter is the latest craze to sweep the world of social networking, it is currently the third most popular website (falling behind front runner, Facebook, and coming in at a close second, MySpace). The site has been active and on the web for exactly three years (the third 'birthday' was celebrated last week!) and was developed by a quartet of blogging and podcasting masters in the sweet city of San Francisco, California. No, Twitter is not a heart condition... and it is not something that bees do. What it really is, is an elegant and delightfully simple social networking tool that can be accessed via web browser or mobile phone. Users post updates or 'tweets' about what they happen to be doing at the moment or where they are. Videos, links, and pictures can be posted in the tweets for all of their 'followers' to see. A 'follower' is merely someone who has subscribed to someone's updates and receives them on their homepage/Twitter timeline. Followers are not to be confused with stalkers, which the site has jokingly been referred to as a tool for stalking-made easy! When you 'follow' somebody on Twitter... you will inevitably be bombarded with their updates (depending upon how Twitter-active they are), so at any given moment... you could know what your favorite comedian is up to, what your boss is working on, or what your class mate is eating. A wide range of celebrities and people of importance can be found on the site and while not ALL of them may be authentic, there's a very good chance that the person posting the tweets IS that person indeed. Barack Obama, our nation's newest president, manages a Twitter account, as well as members of the Good Morning America news crew, celebrity talk show hosts (like Ellen Degeneres), and even musicians (such as John Mayer).

I personally follow the New York Times, a handful of celebrities, classmates, and friends. Twitter is a great way to stay connected to just about everyone and you can often find me 'tweeting' a picture of a silly friend's doing or informing my followers of my educational day at school. It won't be long until I find out that my grandparents or even my own dog (yes, some people's animals have Twitter accounts) have been tweeting, following, and replying. This site is personally and highly recommended by myself, it's a fun and simple way of networking and communicating.

Follow me @ twitter.com/chelzeymccrazy

The Big Box Debate: To Build or Not To Build?

Recently the Wal*Mart corporation discontinued it's efforts to open up one of their super markets in the Northern California town of Santa Rosa, after five years of trying to bring a staple of the super center to town. The said store would've created an influx of jobs (which is beneficial for everyone in today's rough times), stimulated the region's economy, brought bargains into the lives of people who need to save money, and created tax breaks. All great things, am I right? Let's just assume I am and move on to why there will be no Wal*Mart in the town of Santa Rosa... the city thinks that by bringing another member of the Big Box Club (more on that later), would be too big of a risk in today's struggling economy and would cause too much stress on the environment. Uh, hello?, there are these great things called taking chances and recycling! Sure, I can see a couple of the down sides to bringing in a Wal*Mart to such an industrial town like Santa Rosa... for instance... more traffic! In the already crowded and traffic riddled city, the added amount of people traveling to and from the super center daily to stock up on necessities, would just further add to the hour long crawl on Santa Rosa Avenue. Another downside to Wal*Mart? It would contribute to urban decay, the store would produce thousands of pounds of waste daily with all of their boxes and packaging they use. By now you might be unsure of where I stand on this issue, so I'm going to set you straight. Build it!

Santa Rosa is already chopped full of stores that are members of the Big Box Club (yes, it's later... so I will tell you about the BBC as I have so aptly nicknamed it). In order for a store to be considered a 'Big Box' store, it has to be a part of a chain. You're familiar with chain stores, aren't you? There are over 20 Starbucks Coffee houses located through out Santa Rosa, which is a pretty large number for such a small city. Other Big Box Clubbers that have made their homes in Santa Rosa include Toys'R'Us, Barnes & Noble, Sears, Target, Costco, and Lowe's. These big named stores can be found just about anywhere and are constantly filled with consumers. Why not add Wal*Mart into the mix? It's just another store, apart of just another chain, taking over just another town.

What do you believe?

When faced with a time that even the brighter side of things seems duller, keep your hopes up and know that it won't always be that way. Sometimes life decides to challenge you, it throws out hardships and complications, and sometimes you can feel like there's no use in going on... but there's no need to give up, if you just find hope; you'll know that better days are yet to come. Where would we be now if America's heroes, pioneers, and titans had given up after their first rough patch in their life? What if you had given up on school all together, just because of one crummy grade? Or maybe a relationship failed, does that mean that you should lose all faith in love? No, don't give up, have faith, restart.

There was a time for me when it seemed like everything was falling apart, nothing was going my way, I just couldn't seem to win, and I just felt like I couldn't go on. No matter what happened, I knew deep down inside that I just couldn't give up, I knew that things would get better in time if I didn't stop hoping. And that's what I did, I didn't stop... instead I found hope and peace in the music of three boys from Wyckoff, New Jersey. Things for me started to brighten when I just sat down and listened to their music, but there was one time in my life when even my darkest days couldn't be improved even slightly with the aide of their music... that is until I heard one particular lyric.

"A little bit longer, and I'll be fine."

I knew then, when I heard those eight words strung together and accompanied by a stripped melody of a piano, that I'd found hope. By repeating that to myself, "a little bit longer and I'll be fine," I found that it came true. Those words made me stronger, for just holding on a little big longer. This is what I believe in, I believe in the promise that everything will get better in time.

What do you believe in? Indulge me!