Transitions Update- Family

This is my final update as the semester comes to a close, so I thought it appropriate to talk about who has helped me make it through the semester. My family. I love how my family never ceases to come through for me. All of those times that I forgot to bring my paper and my mom takes the time to find and email it to me last minute. All of those times that I forget something at home and my dad takes the time out of his day to bring it to me. And my sister, who is nice enough to drive me everywhere. My younger siblings who always make my day better.

I have come to appreciate the time I get to spend with them more. In high school, homeschooling, I saw them every minute of every hour of every day. Now, i'm lucky to see them in the mornings for a little bit, if they are awake, and when I come home for dinner. I am very greatful for a family that loves and cares for me, is always there for me, always eager to help me succeed, and keeps me set straight no matter what I'm going through.

 

This girl, UGH! what would I do without her! I think I can solidly argue that I have the best older sister in the world. She's always there for me, no matter what I need. Always ready to hear about my little "Freshman problems" and help me fix them.  

My awesome parents! Ever-ready to get me out of any scrape that I can't get out of myself. Always loving me and worrying about me.

 My little sister who helps keep me crazy.

 

 

Baby Brother #1, who should seriously be the next Andrea Boccelli, and if not, then Frank Sinatra will do just fine.

 And Baby Brother #2 who's always there to give me hugs and kisses when I'm feeling down. I couldn't decide which picture was cuter, so I'll just let you decide.

  Love these people so much! These guys are my support group, my team. They're always there for me, and I am so so SO grateful for them every day.

 

 

Questions, nice comments, and ideas are great. The whole idea of this blog is to help me better my writing. Any positive feedback is welcome.

FUN

You don't usually find the words work and fun in the same sentence. When you do, it's only in those special cases, like the guy who works at the jumping castle store. Otherwise, work usually gets the bad rep. I'm here to say that, although work may not necessarily be fun a lot of the time, fun is necessary for you to be able to do your absolute best.

 

This is true for sports, academics, music, or any other job. I always think of the Mary Poppins quote "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and SNAP! The job's a game!" Although this may not be very practical in most situations, there is some truth to it. Your work is only as fun as you make it. I personally do not find sports fun, except for maybe the occasional soccer game with my family. However, I know many who do and say that their game is not the same without it. They do their best when they are having fun. 

 

From experience, I know that I learn way better when I find something fun in my schoolwork. In middle school, my mom would have me memorize a long bible verse every month. She did the same with poetry in high school. At first, I was very bored with it and struggled to get the verses memorized. I found a solution to this by accident. Everytime I had to sit down and work on my memorization, I would find myself daydreaming and sometimes doodling rather than even looking at the words. I decided to try illustrating the bible verses and sometimes just drawing a picture for every word. Since I am a very visual learner (and love to draw, besides), this helped me memorize them very quickly. When I got to Biology, which has tons of definitions to be memorized, I tried the same strategy and it worked!

 

My chemistry teacher drew on the idea of fun in learning and had us make ice cream and carbonated lemonade in class. I will always remember that certain chemicals can raise and lower boiling and freezing temperatures and that different chemicals solubility rates can be raised and lowered with different temperatures.

 

Here's something funny I found on Pinterest. It's called "gummy bear motivation" :). When you have a long passage in a book to read, you place gummy bears all over it. When you reach a gummy bear, you get to eat it! See you can have fun in learning!

Any musician will tell you that, when music is your passion it is FUN pretty much all of the time! And no, by fun, I don't mean FUN. as in the band, even though they are great :)

True it can be a pain to have to practice all of those hours "some nights" (sorry, I had to :D), but overall, it is SO much fun! Starting off sometimes, though, you need a little motivation. You need to find something to make it fun. When I was little, my teacher was very good at this. He had an analogy about a song I was learning being like a double-stuffed oreo (if any of you remember those). The song had four sections- The beginning, two middle sections that are the same, and the last that is just like the beginning. When I played through the whole song (a monumentous occasion at my level and age) I got an oreo. Once I figured out that playing the song well and fast several times got my mom to give me more oreos, I was off with leaps and bounds. As I got older he would incorporate games ino my practice routine. If I stumbled on a part of the song, we would stop, roll the dice and see how many times I had to repeat that section correctly. This would lead to mastery. Every student's favorite game (besides the oreos), was the ball drop. This game taught us to watch our teacher carefully during performances for timing and synchronization. My teacher would drop the ball and everytime it bounced, we had to pluck the string on our guitars at the exact moment it touched the ground. This sounds simple enough, but once the bounces get shorter and quicker, it get's pretty tough. This game helped alot with our group performances. Every note became perfectly synchronized with each other until we sounded like our goal of one guitar.

 

Now that I'm older, I provide most of the fun and motivation in my playing. Now, just the playing itself has become its own reward (especially if you play fast!). I enjoy practicing and learning new pieces that I really like. That is in and of itself fun for me.

As you can see, work can be fun. you just have to take the time to find it.

 

(Okay, for this blog post, I did the unthinkable. I put in pictures from an unoriginal source. For anyone wanting to cause any trouble, I got these from imgur- gummy bears, and imgfave- FUN. I do not own these photos. I only put them in to serve my purpose. Please do not sue me :) thanks - Mara)

 

Questions, nice comments, and ideas are great. The whole idea of this blog is to help me better my writing. Any positive feedback is welcome.

Here it comes!

Here it comes! The end of the semester! Packed full with nerves and excitement all blended together until you can't tell the difference between the two. Nerves about Juries, and vespers, the upcoming semester, finals and final grades. Excitement for the holidays and perfomances. It's all coming around. By now I have started to feel some relief alongside the tension. Some classes are coming to a close while others are going at full speed. Registration is over and done, I am signed up for every class I needed/wanted. Next week is Thanksgiving and I get a little breath of rest and relief.

 

Looking back, I feel so blessed to have had so many oppotunities come up. I have gotten to perform at Paten Elementary, a friend's art show, another friend's wedding, and am looking at maybe another opportunity to play at a Christmas party next month. I also feel a little overwhelmed at how much I feel I have learned in such a short span of time, particularly about music. If you had given me a sheet of music this past summer and told me to sing it to you then and there, I never would have been able to. If you had played an inerval and told me to name it I probably couldn't have without some struggle. If you had asked me spell out the chords in a scale or write out a simple melody for the progression, I would have looked at you like you were crazy, and I NEVER would have thought I could learn so much on piano so quickly! And it all does seem like it happened so quickly. I still remember going to commencement speeches and fall regisration like it was only last week, and now the semester's about to be over soon.

 

 I'm excited for next semester and what it has in store for me. New friendships, new things to learn, new opportunities. If next semester goes half as well as this one did, I will be very happy :)

Questions, nice comments, and ideas are great. The whole idea of this blog is to help me better my writing. Any positive feedback is welcome.

Mistakes and Learning

Mistakes have played a big part in my learning, both academically and musically. In writing, mistakes and revision are what make for great writing. The more mistakes you find and fix, the better your writing will become. This has been very true of my learning to write. I remember a few particular papers in high school that I wrote, thinking I had done a great job. I turned them in to my mom, and when I got them back, they were marked up with corrections. Only when they were pointed out to me was I able to see how terrrible some of the wording sounded, all of the grammar issues, spelling errors, "messiness" in my ideas, and bad structure. Learning to fix these mistakes has made and continues to make me a better writer. So I  guess you could say that it isn't the mistakes that teach you, but rather learning to fix them. This went over to math too. My mom was a good teacher in that she made me work, and work hard for my grade to ensure that I reall knew my stuff. In math, if I wasn' getting it, she wouldn't just stamp on a bad grade and move on. She would make me do the same or similar exercises over and over again until I got it and it clicked. This frustrated me for a while, but it ultimately led to mastery of the materials. Realizing the mistakes helped reveal my weaknesses so we could pinpoint and refine them until I had it all down. The same went for my music. My teacher would help me pinpoint my weak spots and we would work on them over and over until they were fixed. We wouldn't stop until all of the tranitions were smooth, the duds were gone, and the tone was perfect. As you can see, realizing your mistakes and learning to fix them is very important. Though they may sting for a little while at first, they bring beauty to the finished product and confidence in your own mastery.



Questions, nice comments, and ideas are great. The whole idea of this blog is to help me better my writing. Any positive feedback is welcome.

Get your Head in the Game!

This week's topic is focus- a difficult thing to keep when you are surrounded by so many sources of distraction in our technology flooded world. Focus is important in academics as well in sports. Just like  an athlete will lose a match if his or her head isn't in the game, a writer or student will miss deadlines and get bad grades if they don't get their head in the game and get to it. During any sport, an athlete always needs to be in the game one hundred percent. If they get distracted, they will most likely fumble, maybe miss a catch, and ultimately mess up the play entirely. 

The same happens with students. It is very difficult to keep focus when you are surrounded by so many distractions an are living in such a fast-paced world. There are emails to reply to, texts to read, status updates to look at, Pinterest projects to try (my guilty pleasure), TV shows to watch, and your best friend- the bed- to doze off on. So many distractions! It's no wonder almost every student I have met to date has to deal with procrastination. There is just so much to do. And yet, half of the time we don't do what we really need to do.

I know that my biggest problem is distractions in my head - worrying about what I have to do and when I need it done rather than actually doing it. I can sit down for hours on end planning and worrying and not even write one word of my essay. I've been struggling with this more and more as I get further into my school year. This is no bueno...not good! I know that if I want things done, I've got to get to it and do them, I just struggle getting started.

 Usually what it takes to get me started is turning of the music, blocking time-wasters on the internet using "Chrome Nanny" (my best friend- look it up in the Google chrome apps), going somewhere to be alone, and grabbing a snack so I have no excuse to leave my work undone. I know for many people it can also help to turn off your phone, or an even better solution, someone recommended giving your phone to your roommate or friend while you study. For a while, I argued with my sister and mom that I could focus with music playing in the background just as long as it wasn't anything loud. I began to find myself so bored with my work that I would get distracted by the music no matter what kind or how soft or slow it was. Now, I just turn it off completely. The most important thing to remember is to just get to work. Just worrying about it won't get it done, you have to sit down and get to it. Okay,... go now...I mean it! Get to work!

Questions, nice comments, and ideas are great. The whole idea of this blog is to help me better my writing. Any positive feedback is welcome.

Going For the Win!

Have you ever had a huge opportunity come at you, and ended up missing out big time because you didn't go for it when you had the chance? I know I have. Three years ago I had the opportunity to go to Guatemala on a missions trip to a girls home. I ended  up missing out on a big life experience because I wasn't willing to stepout on my own to try to raise the funds. I was afraid I couldn't do it and let practicality get in the way of my faith that God would provide.  In short, I hesitated and before I knew it, the opportunity was gone. It wasn't until last year that I had that opportunity again and got to experience the life-changing adventure of going to another country. See, If I had stepped out the first time and gone for it, I could have gained all of that experience earlier. I just had to be willing to take that leap and go for it. Since I didn't, I missed out on that opportunity and had to wait a while for it to come around again.

 This concept of going for the win is very applicable academically as well. If you want the most out of your education, you have to be willing to get out there and go for it. This means going past the assigned page length, with more research than required. Taking things a step further and taking your education into your own hands. For many, this may also mean an attitude adjustment. After all, you can only go as far as your attitude allows. If you don't believe in yourself, you will most likely fail, but if you beleive that you can do it, you have a very large chance at success.

That year that I missed out on the missions trip, many of my friends came home with stories of life changing experiences. That was when I knew, I had missed out on something big. The next year came around with the opportunity to go on the missions trip again, but this time, I had something else planned. A trip to Colorodo to attend a conference with Summit ministries. This trip also required me to take that step out and raise my own funds. This is where God stepped in and changed my attitude. He showed me that He could and would provide for my every need. The next time that the Guatemala missions trip came around, I was prepared. I went for it and came out of the experience with so much more than I ever could have expected. All of this came from that one little leap of faith. I went for it, and am so glad I did!

The same can come from taking that extra step academically. If you get out there and believe you can achieve, you will! So go out there, and take that leap of faith - I'm sure you won't regret it!

Me (far right) at Prince of Peace Home for Girls, Summer 2011, with some girls from my team and from the home

Questions, nice comments, and ideas are great. The whole idea of this blog is to help me better my writing. Any positive feedback is welcome

The Goals Make the Game!

Goals are a very important thing in the world of sports. If a team goes out onto the playing field without any plan of action and just decides to "wing it", the odds are that they will most likely lose. I don't watch sports very often, so just bear with me if I say something wrong. The purpose in their playing will become muddled as they go for the win and by the end of the game, the whole team will just be one big wreck. The players will scatter across the playing field and run around hoping for the best. In  a hopeless game of "hot potato", the ball will be passed from player to player and finally end up into the wrong hands. Or, the ball won't be passed to the right person, and that person will get tackled because his teammates didn't know what was going on and weren't there to watch his back. Because of this, the team will lose badly. Basically, the lack of an aim or purpose in their game led to a big loss in the end. 

This idea of having goals set in mind also applies to writing. Before writing, a writer- whether published author or college student - needs to sit down and set his or her goals for writing into place. They need to decide what they will be writing, how they will do it, and who they will be writing for. Without these few goal marks set in place, this their writing purpose would be unclear, their thoughts scattered, their writing unorganized, and their paper hard to read overall. With the goals put into place before writing, your paper will clearly state its purpose, it will be very well written, and clearly understood by the audience it is intended for. Just like in a football game, where the coach has the perfect game plan. The players will be in the right place at the right time, the ball will be passed to the right people, and it will all end in a touchdown! Clearly, purpose and goals make the difference. 

Lately, I have been trying to apply this idea of setting goals into my own life. I have set goals in the past, but over time, they have become muddled and needed some "resetting." Where do I want to be a year from now? 5 years? 10 or 20? In the next few years, I am hoping to be a Certified Suzuki guitar teacher, with a well-established studio. These are all things I am beginning to work out as I set out in this new chapter of life in college. I know that setting these now as I am looking ahead at my next four years in college, will help make the bumpy road ahead of me at least a little bit smoother. Or, at least give me something to hold onto while i'm out there. In the end, I'm hoping to reach that finish line, look back, and be able to say that I did my very best and made it through well.






Questions, nice comments, and ideas are great. The whole idea of this blog is to help me better my writing. Any positive feedback is welcome.

Write to Win- How Attitude Makes the Difference

Have you ever noticed how much of a difference attitude makes in sports? Great football teams don't come to the game with a loser's attitude. The come to play hard and win. They have an attitude aimed for success. If even one member of the team isn't feeling it and just has that loser's attitude, it wrecks the entire game. It makes that much of a difference.

This is very true academically as well. Your attitude in school makes all of the difference - whether optimistic or pessimistic. Do you see a challenge and think "I can do this" or do you  pull back and say "I can't do this, so I'm not even going to try." In order to succeed, you have be able to look at that book that's thicker than it is wide and say "I can do this!" You need that winner's attitude. Similarly, when you write you must write like you know, not how you "think." You need to write with authority. Now, is this easy? No, most of the time it isn't, but just like any sport, it will take practice.

Any athlete or performer will tell you that next to practice, the most important thing is warming up. If you just go out on that field and play hard, you will most definitely pull a muscle, or worse. You need preparation. The best way to prepare for any tough thing is to do it lightly at first. For a sprinter, this means doing a little jogging; for a musician, playing a slow and simple piece helps; for a writer, taking notes or skim reading the book can help you get an idea of what it's about. Just start slowly.

Next, you need to keep your game up, you need stamina; and what better way than by feeding yourself good stuff. Sure a football player can cram in the junk food every now and then, he needs the carbohydrates, but in order to keep himself going, he needs something better that his body can actually use. He needs that protein to help keep his muscles going. For a writer those yummy carbohydrates are fun books, but what a good writer needs to keep them going is some tough stuff. They need the meatier books, the books with more useful information that can be applied to their writing. You need to have ideas backing you up when the going gets tough.

Another important thing is that you have to be willing to work for it. Do you think those NFL football players got where they are by sitting on the couch eating potato chips all day? No! they trained hard. They had to be willing to get battered and bruised to become the best. One of the most important things in any type of performance situation is your work ethic. Are you barely stepping up to the minimum, or are you reaching for that high bar? To get to the top of that ladder, you'll need to do some reaching. It's like that one famous saying, "it is better to aim at the sky and hit an eagle, than to aim at the eagle and hit a rock." You can't just go for the minimum word count and write for a "C." You need to get out there, write, and write well. Don't wait until that last minute and get a crudely put together, mess of a paper. Start ahead of time so you can put your all into it. I know, it is very easy to become overwhelmed with all of this work, but just trust me it will be well worth it in the end. Don't see it as a huge obstacle needing to be overcome, see it as just a small detail  in your ultimate goal of success.

Now, you don't have to be an athlete to understand this. It can apply to almost any performance situation, whether you job or, as we have already seen, academically. I am a musician, a classical guitarist, and this applies so much to my performance. If I want a performance that moves a crowd, I need to be willing to go beyond my comfort zone. I need to be willing to get softer and put some feeling into that sweet part and rumble those strings on that emotional swell. I need to be willing to get loud and put some attitude into my music as well. I need to focus, or my music will just sound disconnected. You need to give your all. If you're not feeling it and you don't have that winner's attitude, it just won't work.

Thus, attitude can become the winning or losing decision in any game. The way you see these obstacles ahead of you will determine whether you make it in the end or not. It is your own choice from the very beginning whether you will succeed. Now, get out there and write to win!

Questions, nice comments, and ideas are great. The whole idea of this blog is to help me better my writing. Any positive feedback is welcome.