From the Outside

   

This morning I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping, the sun streaming through my window. Naturally my first thought was, "Oh No, I'm late for school!" And then something occurred to me that brought a smile to my face; it's summertime!  The 2011-12 school year has finally come to end.
     I have to admit, I'm not exactly proud of this year's accomplishments. I find it hard to believe that anyone would be proud of  narrowly escaping the last grading quarter with a "B" average! Thankfully we have this summer to collect our thoughts and find a new approach. I use "we" because I'm positive that I'm not the only one who would do this year differently.
    Summer is a time for big plans, and for great adventures. However none of these things will happen if people stay cooped up in their homes all day! That is why Oz and Neverland would like to promote a new campaign, From the Outside!

                    Go outside for an hour a day, that's all I ask! The mission is to flip things around so that the outside is in. What I mean is that we need to take the old phrase "from the out side looking in," and change the meaning so that we are on the outside, glancing in (looking might be creepy), but instead of jealousy, we feel sorry for those on the inside because they aren't experiencing the outside!
      It doesn't matter what you do as long as you step out, let the adventure find you. Whatever you do, don't forget to pass it on! Share your experience, because it is likely that someone else needs to experience the great outdoors just as bad as you did!              
                                                                                                                 

The Art Gallery

A blank canvas is really all one needs. In life, in work, in everything. The blank canvas is what we need in order to see the potential that we possess. We are born a blank canvas with the world ahead of us. For all anyone knows we could be the next Gandhi or the next Hitler. The beauty of it is that that decision is completely up to us. We can be whoever we want, and the size of the footprint we leave behind in this world can be as big or as small as we want it.
Life is made of a blank canvas and passion. A passion for everything we do. It has to feel right. Every action has to have the soul behind it every step of the way. So with that passion we can fill that blank canvas with the most beautiful works in the world. When those works come together, we see the single greatest display that has ever graced the face of the planet. There are plenty of people who will never fill their canvas to their potential, but why not try?
Or is life more abstract? Is there anything wrong with life just happening to us? There are others who just live life like a carnival jumping on one ride at a time with no intricate pattern. There is never a general one size fits all approach to life. That is figured out by the individual. What we know is that the individuals come together to make this unfathomable world we live in. That art gallery is the most complex collection there is. Philosophers have thought, and will continue to think on it until the end of time.
Think about it! How complicated is the world around us. We compare that to the highly organized galaxy outside this world, and we realize what we have around us here. Knowing that, consider what humanity adds to the beauty of the world and as an individual, the effect one has on the surrounding environment.

Remember...

Was there ever a time in the world without computers? I personally, have never owned one, nor do I own the memory of not seeing a monitor on the desk in the corner of our living room.
The first computer I remember was this gaudy white thing that took up three times more space than the current family computer. I remember putting the cd-rom games in; Reader Rabbit, Easy Bake, and Barbie's got a horse. It was also the same computer that distracted my dad just long enough to allow a three year old me to push my then one year old brother's baby walker down the stairs with him in it!
Later, when the out-dated computer was finally retired, it was moved to the basement play room. There, my brother and I would spend hours playing games such as, office, writer, etc.. The loud, clunky, space consuming computer is now residing in a landfill just outside of town.
The plan is to get myself a computer for my own use, but I will never forget the sound of the dial-up tone!

Parents are Ameteurs

    

 Fun fact, one of the most defining moments in a person's life is the day they discover their parents aren't perfect. For certain people, this happened at the ripe old age of, five. For others, the delusion lasts longer, much longer. Once this discovery is made, however it does not take long for us children to begin heedlessly pointing out these errors in our parental units.
     This goes on for sometime, until the "adults" can't handle it anymore! They have spent their child(ren)'s entire lives babying them along, suffering through the excruciating pain of sitting through our elementary school orchestra concerts, where the whole violin section never failed to sound as if someone were filing their nails on a chalkboard. After all of this, they are not going to stand around while an emotionally abusive teenager sit on some high pedestal, lecturing in disgust. Why should they have to, would you? No.
     So they do what comes naturally, take revenge. And eye for an eye, an insult for an insult. They start to point out every single little thing we do wrong, now their even. But, they want to make sure we get the message, so they take it one step further, they start looking for things we do wrong instead of just noticing them. This in turn, is the source of World War 5,893.  What gives us the right to pick on them, we're only teenagers? What do we know? We are amateurs!
     Hold it, amateurs, what a term? This is where our grandparents spring into laughter. What do our parents know about being parents? Did we arrive with some sort of manual explaining how to raise us? Of course not, parents have no idea what they are doing? That does not mean we need to point it out! Because, as we've, heard we don't know what we are doing either. So really no one should be picking out anyone else's flaws. The one thing parents do have on us teenagers, though, is that they have survived the teenage experience. They know a thing or two about life in our shoes. They probably have some advice to offer, if we take it. We just have to sort out, what's advice, and what's a frustrated insult. The next step is to communicate, ask for advice, tell your parents things they say that are insulting. When the airways are clear, World War 5, 893 becomes a happy healthy household.

                 

The Diary Entry

I just needed to bitch, so I wrote it all down. After realizing what I wrote, it dawned on me! I was experiencing raw feelings as a teenager. Since I am one of my own examples of the teenage experience. I thought I might share what I wrote with the rest of the world.

I am unhappy to present that almost every part of my life has fallen to shit, yet again. Hence all the dark themed posts lately. I am tired, I have no interest in anything. In short, it's safe to say I am an emotional mess.

The plan is to hide at my grandmother's house. Every time I walk into my own house, my mood goes down ten notches. When I leave it goes up five. Slowly my emotions have been depleting piece by piece.
A lot of things have been on my mind lately and I completely zoned out. My room is a mess, I've been slacking on my school work. The only thing I feel capable of accomplishing is reading about someone's miserable existence on this Earth or better yet, watching it on television.
Next complaint, not only am I getting dumb, I am getting fat. I need to escape, and make a plan to get back on track. Ugh Ef my life! Some people say stress increases endorphins, but I sincerely think that this is not the stress they are talking about!

The Big Here

It starts with, what would it be like if something happened to me. Would mom care, would a tear fall from my Father's cheeks, my step mom wouldn't even blink. No one cares.

Later your mom asks, "do you even want to be here anymore, because you're always welcome to go live with your dad." That's it the heart has shattered one thousand too many times, you've snapped. You scream "It's not that I don't want to be here, I don't want to be HERE!"

The big HERE, your mom looks confused, after a minute she gets it. The big HERE, planet earth, she realizes, that she just witnessed her own child tell her that they no longer wish they were alive. She's scared and confused and has no idea how to handle it. Her child is suicidal. No one ever thinks it will happen to them until it does.

These thoughts are normal, for anyone who is depressed, it is scary, but it occurs more often than anyone would like to admit. Even if the slightest thought comes to mind, tell some one, get help. They have no right to look at you like your insane, your depressed.

If you, or someone you know may be suicidal, please call a hot line for example:

1-800-784-2433/ 1-800-SUICIDE

You are not alone, suicide is a monster that no matter what, never deserves to win. Beat it, I did.

With tons of LOVE, Katie

Holidays and the Depressed

    Its the holidays, and the effort it takes to climb out of the bed in the morning is equivalent to the effort of pushing an elephant across the continent of Africa. Sure this is the time to be grateful for everything, but there are chemicals in the brain that  won't allow those kind of happy thoughts.
    Once, out of bed, and out doing the daily activities, putting on a face, hoping no one will notice. Those miserable feelings, the urge to cry, it's all bottled up inside. There you wish you knew what it was like to be happy.

     If you fight depression, don't let it take the holidays too. Here are a few tips.

• List a favorite Christmas song.

• List what YOU love about this time of year: focus on that and forget about everything else. It doesn't even have to be festive; it's your holiday do what you love!
• If you can't have a fantastic holiday, make it one for someone else. You can volunteer, spend time with someone who usually alone,  or make sure your little brother has the most magical holiday yet. 

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• Exercise, especially if you are depressed chances are you aren't participating in the healthiest dietary plans, how could you with all this comfort food around just waiting for a victim to drown the sorrow into it. While that might work for a little while, exercise makes endorphins, and endorphins make you happy! It's just  that simple

• Doll yourself up! That's right, put on that make up, curl that hair. Its hard not to smile when you feel pretty!