Well, I've done it!

I'm a probie!
For those of you who don't know what that is, I'm a probational fire fighter aka a rookie. I may be mopping floors and doing the handy work/grunt work around the station for a while but that's just how life goes in a station. You get to participate in training and such but you have to work your way to the top! I start on the 14th and I'm incredibly excited. I've been told that rookie classes take about 3 months to complete at the station I am volunteering for. That's basically the whole summer, but the whole reason I'm volunteering is to see if this is what I really want to pursue as a career! So this will be my test run. My summer JUSTstarted today and it looks like I'm already crazy busy with it!

So lets see...

May 13th- Doctor's appointment for thyroid
May 14th- First day of rookie classes & Walker's birthday
May 15th- Doctor's appointment follow up for thyroid & get together/ bday party with friends I havent seen since BEFORE CHRISTMAS DB
May 16th- Doctor's appointment check up
I think there might be a dentist appointment in there somewhere too 

May18th-28th - Spending time with my boyfriend in SC! <3 <3 <3

June 3rd- July7th - 1st Summer 5 week session [Calculus1] Mondays-Thursdays starting at noon
June 10-28- baby sitting my coach's dogs at her house while she's in Greece and Italy

I don't really have much planned for July yet... maybe move in to our new condo with my room mate! We'll see! Probably do some exciting stuff for my birthday maybe. Even with being busy this summer I still am going to try to find time to draw and work on my art as well. It's something I'll never get enough of!

Anyway, like I said, I'm super excited to get started and see if this is truly what I want to do. If so, I'll attend Texas A&M and study fire sciences to continue my career!

There are times when I feel so incredibly lost...

...I just don't know what to do.

All I have is art... all I've ever done is art...
and I've been dreaming for the longest time.


But today I woke up. I seriously thought about it and my dream job is literally, one of the hardest to even think about getting. For a long time I've wanted to work at Disney as a character designer or an animator or something. Today I came to terms that I could not possibly meet all of their standards. I'm not a super fantastic artist like so many other people. They have tons of options to choose from how could I ever catch their eye.

I'm transferring next semester and I haven't got any clue as to what I want to do with my life. I'm going to be a sophomore in college... and I don't know what I want to do. I'm usually the optimistic person in these situations, but lately, I just can't be. I'm so lost. Everyone around me knows where they are going in their future and I am the only one left who hasn't a single clue. I'm so scared that I'll never find the job that makes me happy. Sure I'd love to be a stay at home mom, but until that day comes I'd rather be able to provide for myself and significant other if that is the case. What if I can't?

I am clueless.
I am lost.
I am scared.

I'm just your average girl.

Hello World! It has been quite a while!

Wow I haven't been keeping up with this blog like I said I was. Woops. Ah, well, time for some updates! This is gonna look like a really long post but there are lots of pictures!

Alright so Spring Break was pretty chill. Walker came down to visit for the week and we ran around doing and seeing some cool things like going to NASA and hanging out at the beach. (It was still WAY too cold to even touch the water)

Our first day together we didn't really know what to do. This is us brainstorming.

We visited my dad's offices. He teaches Offshore Safety Management for people that work on oil rigs and stuff. He has simulators and he had to fix a mouse because it was spazzing out. Needless to say Walker and I enjoyed pressing all the buttons on the simulators and the sound board to make sound effects in the room. Lots of buttons to press that make noises and flash. It was highly entertaining for the both of us... even though I tend to do it frequently.

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I don't remember what day it was, but I had been wanting to go to our park and throw the softball around for a while. Walker and I decided to do that for a little while and then walk one of the bike/running trails. We kept seeing small trails that went off the main path and decided to follow one back into the woods until we happened upon this little sight. There was another little hut type thing off to the left of this one and a wheel barrow with some trash or something in it. I was instantly creeped out and was ready to get out of there. I don't know if someone built these to creep people out on purpose or if someone actually lived in them but we didn't stay long.

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Walker had never been to a rodeo so I figured, why not take him to one of the biggest around? So I did. We attended Rodeo Houston 2013 and watched Kenny Chesney perform. Afterwards we took a ride on the Ferris Wheel. It was kind of late so that was the only ride we did that night. It's the best time to go on the Ferris Wheel at the rodeo because all of the carnival lights are on, not to mention the rest of Houston is all lit up.

 

We went back to the carnival the next day to hit up all the other rides we didn't get to. We played carnival games and ate some delicious fried oreos, a fried brownie and even tried a fried poptart. SO HEALTHY I KNOW. We won several stuffed animals at the carnival games. He then decided he was going to bungee jump. He's waiting in line in this picture. He is crazy...

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The first time he was down here we didn't make it to NASA Johnson Space Center so I made sure we did this time! I'm a big Space nerd and he's into science so this place was perfect for the both of us! We walked around, saw a video and went on a couple of tours before heading down to the beach. At the beach, we laid out for a while before it got too cold, had some snacks and enjoyed the sun while it was still up. We sculpted a few things in the sand leaving Whinnie the Pooh behind.

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We had a busy day the next day. I told him we would go to the shooting range, so we did. We shot at a few different targets with my .22 Henry Rifle for a while, my dad had his new gun he was figuring out and one of the guys from the fire station brought along his new pistol. Walk complained a little about my sights but they work for me so... oh well. He didn't do too bad though! He kept shooting a little high but he got the hang of it.

I always talk about College Station. I love it there and I can't wait to be there myself. A&M has always been so much fun to me. After a few discussions with my parents and myself, Walker had become interested in seeing the campus for himself! My dad and I gave him a small tour of A&M showing him the main buildings that he'd be interested in such as the math buildings, engineering, those types of things. I told him about many traditions and my dad had some neat stories about what he experienced when he went to school there to go with the explanation of the traditions. Many of the buildings weren't around when my dad was there so he was able to give us kind of a look back on the old A&M. We also attended an Aggie Softball game. One of my favorite activities. We attended the first SEC game of the Softball season and we were able to sit behind the "Sugar Daddies". These guys are an absolute riot. They constantly heckle during the game and try to distract the other team by yelling at them asking where they got their bows, or if they didn't have one, where it was. I recommend going to an A&M Softball game when you get the chance. You won't be bored.

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Well, all good things must come to an end sometime.. Spring break ended and saying good bye was tough. But it's not the last time we will see each other. In fact summer is coming up and we already have our plans! 

I've been finding myself struggling more and more in school and in college it had only become worse. I have always had a hard time with focus while reading and comprehending what I just read. If I tried to read I would almost instantly become distracted or I would reread the same sentence or paragraph over and over and just not get anywhere with it. I was recently placed on some ADD medicine and from what I can tell, it's been working. All of my grades have gone up a significant amount and I'm extremely proud of myself because I can actually finish things now. School still isn't a breeze for me, but it has made it a hell of a lot easier to deal with assignments and completing my work.

There is a motorcycle that literally never moves in front of our dorm. It is ALWAYS taking up one of the best spots for our dorm and makes everyone angry because there ARE spots designated for motorcycles right around the corner from the door. Upon my return from spring break this is what that motorcycle looked like. I'd like to applaud the person who had the guts to do this. They need an award or something. Everyone loves you now whoever you may be.

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I went home for Easter weekend. We were getting ready to go to a crawfish boil when my dad took Dot, my dog, out so she could go to the bathroom before we left. He came across this little guy which Dot, being the genius she is, ran RIGHT by him. His back legs were injured and he was just dragging them behind him, using his front legs to inch around on the rock. He was a brave little dude, sitting there, threatening us with his tiny little hiss. We managed to find a small box to put him in and take him to the Texas Wildlife Center where they rehabilitate wild animals to release back into the wild. He was put into good hands. I know opossums are not good friends and carry a bunch of diseases but the babies are so cute and so small.

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Lately we've had some crazy weather down here in Galveston. One day it will be absolutely gorgeous and warm outside. Perfect to spend some time at the beach without getting cold. Tanning time!

 And then the next day will be winter temperature along with buckets of rain.

It's been going back and forth like this for a couple of weeks now. TIME TO DECIDE AND STICK WITH IT WEATHER. C'MON NOW.

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Today! I went on our Biology field trip. My friend asked for a video of what we've been up to so this pretty much explains what we did! Sorry for the awkward close up. 

In the net that I mentioned in the video, we ended up catching a bunch of small squid, several fish, a blue crab and some shrimp! 

Yay little squid!

This is the same little guy in the two pictures above. He was actually really pretty, he had blue and yellow markings along his face and he was shiny in the sun!

There's our blue crab hanging onto a shrimp. I guess he was hungry!

A fish surrounded by some little squids, the squid were really entertaining to watch swim around in the water

You can kind of see the crab at the bottom and a squid or two swimming around :)

There was also a boat fire that broke out while we were on the water. We heard them calling over the radio and then we saw the smoke. 

I looked it up earlier when I got back to my room and this is the short little article I found. No bad news so far! Except for the ship of course...

Being in Galveston, we see a lot of cruise ships all of the time and today a Disney ship was in the port! pretty neat. They have a giant Goofy hanging off the back of the ship like he is painting.

I'm a teenager.

I'm a college student.

I've been up to a lot of things.

Today has rocked so far.

I'm just your average girl.

All-American Excitement

So today I was dragged out of bed at about 8:30 to travel up to College Station for an open house type deal to hear about the program I would like to transfer into. It is called VizLab and is Texas A&M 's version of an art program held in the College of Architecture. It began in 2008 and is a very competitive program to get into. So we drove the hour and a half dri e to College Station this morning about 30 minutes later than we had planned. I wasn't in the best of moods seeing as I have not been getting a sufficient amount of sleep and not sleeping well. 

The first half of the day was not appealing to me at all. It was all business. I was not happy or entertained. We decided to also attend the Aggie Softball game later in the day. We went and parked at about 1:00 and had a couple hours before the game started. It was the perfect opportunity for one exhausted, moody teenager to take a nap and of course I did not let that chance slip by. I woke up just in time for game time and we headed into the stands. I chomped on a giant dill pickle and munched on some popcorn while enjoying the game along with the yells and hollering from the boyfriends of the team. I suggest y'all go to an A&M Softball game when you get the chance! It was a double header today, we had the opportunity to stay and watch a second game. However, it was already rather chilly and pretty windy so we decided we would go to Aggieland Outfitters and then Layne's Chicken Fingers before heading home. 

WELL!!! 

During the game I had come across Amanda Scarborough's Instagram while flipping through some tags and do I followed her. She's one of my favorite players ever. She played at A&M when I was younger and ended up becoming an All-American pitcher. I SAW HER AT THE GAME AND JUST ABOUT DIED YOU GUYS. We were walking towards the gate when a small group of people caught my eye. They were talking to AMANDA!!! I freaked out. I was totally like a little kid in a candy shop. I was SO excited! I waited patiently, literally trying to keep it cool on the outside. She acknowledged I was there and I introduced myself! We had a short little conversation, you know, where are you from, did you play, those kinds of questions. AND I GOT A PICTURE WITH HER AND SHE TOTALLY JUST COMMENTED ON IT!! After she took the picture she asked if I was on Facebook and to tag her, I can't figure out how to tag her on Facebook without being her friend but I did tag her on Instagram! Ahhhhhhh!!! I'm still so excited about the whole thing and the fact that she just commented on it makes it even MORE AWESOME! So it's safe to say the second half of the day was totally amazing.

Amanda and I! 

AAAAHHH SHE COMMENTED ON MY INSTAGRAM PHOTO! 

I'm a teenager.

I'm a college student.

I'm still freaking excited about this whole thing.

I'm literally still squealing about it.

I'm just your average girl.

Just a few motivational quotes to help you get through the day.

Get a Backbone.

This is going to be a rather short post but hopefully it will make you think as well.

Check out this video featuring Arian Michael Foster, an American football running back for the Houston Texans of the National Football League.

Arian lists what he stands for, what keeps him going through his professional career as the Houston Texans running back.

(worth watching!)

I just saw this video and it sparked a thought in my mind. 

I can't really live for myself, if I did, I feel that it would be so much harder for me to feel like I have a purpose. I want to live for the people around me, I want them to realize how much they mean to me without having to receive anything in return. I want to live for my friends, I want to live for my family, I want to live for my job. When I become a firefighter, that's kind of the mentality you have to have anyway. If I'm not around to do this job, that's one less chance for someone to survive. I know a lot of you probably think that this isn't really a good way to live, but some people, like me, have to think like that. I want to be strong for someone who is not having a good day or who can't be strong. I'm also a bit conflicted in the fact that I also want someone to be strong for me too when I'm feeling weak and sometimes I don't let that happen when I need it to. My friends and family mean the world to me and I could not have gotten this far without them. That is an extremely cliche thing to say but it is 100% true. And I want to thank all of you for being there to support me on my worst days. 

I stand for my family.
I stand for my friends, who supported me through the hardest times.
I stand for the ones who can't fight.
I stand for those who are lost, the ones that can't find their way out of the smoke.
That's what I stand for.
What do you stand for?
Get a backbone.


I'm a teenager.
I'm a college student.
I found my backbone.

I'm just your average girl.
"It's not because of that, and it's not because of money, Work's in my blood and I [do it] 'cause I'm hungry."

New Suite Mate with a Side of AWKWARD

So I was trying to be nice and give this girl the benefit of the doubt. She's not my room mate after all... Let me give you a little history. 

After our previous suite mate, who we all got along with really well due to the fact that we bonded during the summer through our SAIL program, left this semester, we were unaware of the situation our room had been put in. We were unsure if we would demote ourselves from the Fantastic 4 to the 3 Musketeers or if we'd have another being in our humble abode of chaos. (PSA: We are not boring to be around when we are all together) No one had been notified by any means, email, phone call, text message, facebook message, nothing. We all half expected to walk into our 4-person dorm room after returning from a wonderful, month long Christmas break with one empty bed. 

Chelsy, my hysterically entertaining suite mate who I met during the summer program, was the first to return to our temporary living space. She arrived completely expecting to have a half decorated room. This is not what she walked in to. The other side of the room where our previous room mate had stayed was occupied. Things on the desk, clothes in the closet, television on the stand and bed made. Let me say again, there was NO knowledge of this new person to any one in this dorm room. 

--MEANWHILE--
Mollie, my crazy room mate, and I met up and had dinner then drove the rest of the way to the campus together. We got there later that evening. Mollie was also in the summer program along with Chelsy and I. We noticed there were still 4 names on our door. What...? Who is this stranger that NO ONE had any idea about!? She clearly was not in the room and neither was Chelsy. Mollie and I unloaded our cars and started unpacking our clothes and things. While we had bags and boxes of stuff scattered around the room as we made it look like home again, the new meat walked in. She didn't say much of anything. A few minutes later she walked in, looking around our room she hesitantly stated that our room was "rather interesting" as if we have super weird stuff hanging around our room. False. That is not the case. We have a lot of posters and our room is epically awesome. Sorry, we like color other than a dull eggshell wall. Later on Chelsy came in and told us a little bit about her. She also enlightened us that she bumped the A/C up to 77 at one point. We were going to have problems if that kept occurring. 

She's older than us by a few years. She's quiet for the most part except when she comes and shuts our door because she can barely hear our music. I'm not understating or exaggerating by any means. I don't know what else she does besides sit in the room and read her school books all day. I really think the only reason they picked to room her with Chelsy is that they are both Marine Biology majors.
One night we went into Chelsy's room to say hi to our ex-room mate/ suite mate over Skype. We noticed that she sleeps with a bible beside her bed and a verse written on a whiteboard over her bed. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I guess it was just really unexpected. As I mentioned before, she likes to think our music is too loud and come shut the door even when her door is shut all day. I'm not too sure that she even listens to music. 

The entire reason I'm writing this blog is because of what occurred earlier tonight. I've been in my room, lounging around all day, drawing and stuff. Mollie went home for the weekend and Chelsy stayed out last night and had not returned until late. This evening I ended up leaving the door open for a little bit. Not the best idea I guess. Newbie took the chance to just come chill in the room and start questioning me about my life. Normal questions actually, I was alright with answering them. However, I am shy when it comes to new people so my answers were pretty short and concise which might have made me come off as a bit of a bitch. At least I admit to it. She asked the questions you would normally ask when getting to know another college student, you know, what majors, what do you want to do, do you like classes... that kind of stuff. I can talk and draw at the same time. She decided that she wanted to come draw with me. What was I gonna say? "No, you can't come sit in the same room and draw." No. She brought in some paper and started drawing. She asked if I had any colors. Of course my new Prismacolor markers were sitting in the wide open. I wasn't going to allow her to use them because, 1 they are brand new and 2 they are pretty freakin expensive. Keep in mind I had been drawing all day and was getting a bit tired of it. I started checking out the internet, seeing what was up. She watched over my shoulder the whole time questioning each thing I was doing. THAT'S what bugged me. After sharing a couple videos I climbed onto my bed and continued messing around with my computer. She took the time to start messing with the things on my desk and picked up my sketch book. I new she was going to flip through it so I politely asked her not to look through it. She then proceeded to flip through every page and ask me questions about each one. Some of which were kind of uncomfortable to explain. AUGH. The whole experience was rather awkward. I really had to vent about it. Interesting story though right?


I'm a teenager.
I'm a college student.
I'm not sure that I like our new suite mate so far.
#newsuitemateproblems

I'm just your average girl.