Good Old Days

Another week, another prompt response. Let’s jump right in.

What one rule from your childhood do you not agree with now that you’re an adult?

Anyone else catch themselves thinking about their childhood and almost wishing they could go back to those good old days? I do. Sometimes I consider if I would ever want to start life over again so that I could relive my childhood. But then I realize how far I’ve truly come and I don’t think I would want to start over.

My childhood was great. I think my parents did a spectacular job. Thankfully, when I was growing up, it was still during the time period where you could send your children outside to play without having to worry too much. I remember exploring all over the place with my sister and friends. We were always outside.

I also have no complaints about how my sister and I were introduced to “grown-up” things. For example, we didn’t watch PG-13 movies until we were 13 years old. We were sat down and explained things we didn’t understand when we were an appropriate age. Looking back, I always thought I was extremely sheltered up until I met my husband and found out what being raised sheltered really was.

I believe that all the rules my parents put forward with us were fair. We couldn’t go over to a friend’s house to play, or have them over to our house to play, unless all our chores were done and our rooms were clean. If you were grounded for a reason, you were grounded, period. If we wanted to have a cell phone and text on those phones, we had to pay for that ourselves. We were also responsible for doing our homework and keeping our grades up.

Honestly, I think my childhood was very structured and fair. And I feel that I really learned that I had to earn things instead of depend on just getting things. We definitely didn’t grow up feeling privileged. I think that’s a really good way to grow up and I hope I can do that for my future children.

It’s truly difficult for me to think of a rule my parents put in place (that I can remember) that I don’t agree with now that I’m grown up. I can tell you of one rule I thought was stupid when I was younger but totally agree with now that I’m an adult:

PARENT RULE #1: NO DATING UNTIL YOU ARE 16

So, when I was younger I always thought that 16 was such a long time to wait before I could date. When I was a kid, other kids were already “dating” and getting “boyfriends” in 7th grade.

I ended up breaking this rule. I technically had a boyfriend when I was 14. I guess my mom could tell it was innocent and wouldn’t last long, so she didn’t throw a fit about me breaking the rule. She was right, too. That “relationship” only lasted a month because I realized it was kind of pathetic.

Really it makes complete sense why it’s better to date when you are 16. At least when you are 16, you can drive yourself and/or your SO to your date. I’m sure many of you know how awkward it is to be dropped off at or picked up from a date by your parent. Being 16 just allows you to have that freedom to truly date someone.

So… I really can’t say I don’t disagree with that rule.

Kudos to my parents, because I really don’t have anything to complain about. If I try really hard, I can pretend that I really hated my curfew when I was like 6 years old. And that’s only because I found it difficult to fall asleep in the summer at seven or eight o’clock at night when the sun was still up. I also didn’t like having to write thank you cards after every birthday or holiday when I got gifts, but that’s totally something I appreciate now because it taught me common courtesy!

I really have no ground to stand on when it comes to my parents and not liking their rules. I even reached out to my sister and this was her response:

“No, I don’t remember any rules actually. They would punish us when we deserved it. We had pretty fair dictators for parents.”

So that proves my point!

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Since I’m answering these prompts honestly, I feel like I really wasn’t able to provide a serious answer for this prompt. But, hey, it made me realize that my parents did a great job raising us.

Thanks, mom and dad. Love you guys.

Oh, What a Night!

Happy 2019, everyone! It’s a new year, the holidays are over and we’re back to our regularly scheduled grind. I, like I’m sure many of you, have several new resolutions for this new year. Big plans, big, huge! And now I must prove to myself that I can keep to my schedule; prove that I can keep my promises to myself.

So, here’s some good news I can share with you: I started a new blog series! Well, I’m trying to. Before the new year, I wrote a blog post “Our History” and one of my resolutions is to stick to it and follow through with that idea. If you are following my blogs (Hi, future me coming back to reread our material and making sure it doesn’t suck!) then I encourage you to keep an eye out for those. I will still be working through my prompt book and responding to those via blog (which is what you are reading now). Anything I post for the new series will have a title beginning with “Our History:” so there will, hopefully, be minimal confusion.

One big goal for this new year is to write, write, write! I want to get my fingers moving with words that I want to share. Maybe I’ll even find another subject to start blogging about. And you know what? I think the more, the better!

I could go on and on about what I hope to get out of 2019, but you (whoever you are) came to read my prompt blog. So let’s dive in…..

Plan a “murder mystery” dinner party. Create the diner menu and the guest list, and design the murder plot.

Whenever I think of murder mystery, I generally think about the movie “Clue.” If you haven’t seen this movie, I highly recommend that you do. It’s based off the board game and it’s one of my favorite movies to watch. The plot of the movie basically follows a murder mystery dinner theme, but with real deaths involved and a whole bunch of comedy.

I’ve always really enjoyed playing murder mystery games. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks it’s fun to become a different character and try and solve a crime. In fact, one of my closest friends has a birthday near Halloween and I almost created a murder mystery game to play at her party. Maybe for her birthday this year, we can use this one!

Okay, so for this game, we will need at least six guests:

• Anicka Parker
• Walter Jones
• Samantha Reeves
• Anthony Adams
• Helena Bell
• Clara Cook

The dinner doesn’t need to be extremely fancy, but there should be at least two main courses for guests to choose from. Here’s what I have in mind for dinner:

Appetizer:

• Cheese and Crackers

Main Course: 

• Chicken Parmesan
• Spinach Artichoke Lasagna  

Sides:

• Roasted Asparagus
• Garlic Bread Sticks

Beverages:

• Water
• Iced Tea
• Lemonade

Dessert:

• Vanilla Ice Cream with Brownie

(Here’s where this gets complicated. We need an original plot. We need something that will truly make this a mystery. It’s no fun if you can easily figure it out. You know what? I don’t think I’m going to tell you who the murderer is. Now it’s fun!)

PLOT:

Helena Bell is the CEO of a large corporation is Seattle, Washington. The company, Bell Corp recently went through a transition while partnering with a new company, Harvington Inc. Due to the transition, Helena has some new members on her team of chief officers and wants to start things off on the right foot. She decides to host a dinner party at her house.

Helena prepares her invitations. First, she must invite her chief operating officer Walter Jones. He was from Harvington company and was brought in during the transition. It would be very important for he and Helena to get along.

Next is Clara Cook, the chief financial officer. Helena had worked with Clara for years. It would be a good opportunity for Clara to meet new members and set an example of a true Bell Corp employee.

Of course, Helena can’t forget her trusty communications officer, Anika Parker. The CCO was slightly newer to the team and has only been with Bell Corp for three years. Nevertheless, Anika was sociable and would make good company for the party.

Helena decided she should also have her chief technology officer there as well. Samantha Reeves was the company’s first ever female technology officer. She came highly recommended from Harvington. Helena was excited to get to know Samantha as they both held positions typically occupied by men.

Lastly, Helena wrote an invitation to Anthony Adams. If they began talking business at this dinner, she wanted to be sure her chief analytics officer was present. Anthony was another acquisition from Harvington. Helena had heard of his work well before the partnership. Anthony had a strong reputation for his work at several different Silicon Valley companies. Helena couldn’t wait to see what he could do for Bell Corp.

A week later, Helena prepared dinner for her guests. One-by-one they showed up and began conversing in the living room before dinner. As they spoke, they nibbled on the cheese and crackers their host had set out for them. At seven o’clock, Helena announced to her guests that dinner was ready and they all moved into the dinning room to eat.

Anicka, being a vegetarian, ate the lasagna rather than the chicken. The others took their preference, or a mix of the two along with the sides. Helena was pleased the the conversations flowed very easily and was beginning to think that all would be well for her company. After dessert, everyone was full and headed back into the living room to chat.

At random points throughout the evening, the guests were distracted and away from the dinning or living room. Walter had received an important phone call and stepped into the backyard. Anthony had excused himself to use the restroom, twice. Clara had made friends with Helena’s cat and was using a string to play with it in the office, then later went outside to lite a cigarette. Helena had been in the kitchen preparing dessert and in deep conversation with Samantha and Anicka until a car alarm out front had Samantha running out with her keys. Anicka had stepped into the other room to call her children and tell them goodnight.

Late in the evening, the living room conversation was thriving until Anicka said, “Where’s Samantha?” They all looked around realizing that one of their party was missing. Helena got up and went to knock on the bathroom door, but it was vacant. Together they searched the house until they heard Anthony say “Oh my God” as he stared into the guest bedroom.

Lying partially at the end of the bed with the rest of her splayed out on the floor, was Samantha’s body. This was definitely not the night that Helena had planned.

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I can’t wait to play this game! You wouldn’t believe the solution I came up with for who killed Samantha and why. If you think you know who did it, comment your guess!

As for me, I think I will actually end up creating this version. In order to truly play, we’d need each player’s background cards and motives. Either way, I think there’s a great story here. I hope you enjoyed it!

 

Do You Smell That?

I promise that I am not purposefully doing these list prompts all the time. Honestly, I hope this prompt book is clearing the lists out of its system. I am becoming so tempted to skip around in the book and write the prompts I find most interesting.

Alas, I can’t do that.

I set a goal. I made the rules. I’ve got to stick to it.

Speaking of sticking…

Create ten all-new funny scratch and sniff stickers. Describe the image and smell.

I don’t know how they do it. I never dreamed that when I turned the page to find my next prompt that I would ever come across such a …. unique request. There’s no other way to put this, this prompt is weird.

I’ll at least give the book credit. It is really stretching my creative abilities. Creating non-existent things is tricky and takes a lot of thought. It’s good practice, no doubt.

So, after some thought, I’ve come up with an overall theme for my set of scratch-&-sniff stickers: The weather.

I mean, think about it, what if every type of weather had a certain smell to accompany it? Some people already know what rain smells like on grass or concrete. This will just be my elaboration on that concept.

But it said funny pictures, Sarah. I know, I know. Which is why all the images on the stickers will have the weather making scrunched up faces as if they can smell themselves all the time. I can’t exactly draw on here, so just use your imagination!

1. Clear skies with a sun sending down beams: This sticker would smell like daisies and freshly mowed grass.
2. A gray cloud extending across the sky: This sticker would smell like flannel pajamas and cotton blankets.
3. A rain cloud pouring-down rain: This would be a musty, crisp smell.
4. A cloud snowing: This sticker would have a strong evergreen smell.
5. A gust of wind: This sticker would smell like heather and tall grass.
6. A red-hot scorching heatwave: This sticker would smell like a fireplace or grill.
7. A mass of fog: This sticker would have a saltwater smell.
8. A cloud letting down hail: This sticker would smell like wet earth and dirty snow.
9. A bolt of lightning: Surprisingly, I imagine this sticker to smell citrus-like to emphasize/symbolize the electricity.
10. A swirling tornado: This sticker would smell like wet dirt and dust.

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I am always pleasantly surprised after finishing a prompt at how much I truly enjoyed coming up with these creative lists. I never have any idea what I’m going to write about until I sit down and let my mind wonder.

Yes, this was an unusual prompt, but I found something just as unusual to create scents for. I know that weather has certain smells that we all recognize, but putting those smells into words was challenging.

I welcome you to comment and let me know if you have a specific scent you think would better accompany the weather choices I provided. Maybe Bath and Body Works will find these options and create a new collection based on these. That would be pretty cool!

 

 

Wrong Holiday

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I promise I didn’t forget that today is Friday and that on Fridays I move on to my next prompt!

Create three original screen names and passwords that the Easter Bunny may use when logging in to check his email.

You may have seen the title to this blog post and wondered what it could be about. Well, I was seriously considering skipping this prompt and saving it for later since it’s an Eater-related prompt. I suppose it’s not entirely focused on that holiday, but it definitely is Easter-themed and I’m focused on a different holiday. Christmas!

Just a few more weeks till Christmas time! I can’t wait, and I know this is going to be such a great Christmas. But I want to do the prompts in order, so for now, let’s focus on that Easter Bunny!

So we need three screen names (let’s be real, they’re usernames) and passwords. Here we go:

1. Username: HoppyEasterBuns Password: 20-eggteen

2. Username: Hide_Your_Keys_Hide_Your_Eggs Password: Dye-Hard

3. Username: Chocolate_Bunny Password: Hide&GoSeek

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That was actually a lot of fun. I don’t get many chances to try and be witty, but I think I did a fairly good job coming up with those. I’m glad I only needed to come up with three, though. I’m not sure I had many other ideas. I think it would have been much easier if it was Santa or some other holiday icon.

As always, I’d love to hear what you come up with. Leave a comment if you have a username/password you think is especially funny! Thanks for reading and I’ll write to you all again next Friday!

What’s Your Fortune?

Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Mine was pretty great. I got to relax and travel and I even picked up a puppy on the way home! He’s basically a baby and, needless to say, I’m exhausted. I love that he’s a puppy and SUPER cute, but I’m eagerly waiting for him to grow up and become easier to handle.

Since I was out of town last week, I defaulted on one of my prompts. But I’m happy to say I’m back at it. I looked ahead at the next couple prompts and they seem to be more list focused. But I’ll do my best to provide a story in there. So, here’s our next prompt:

Write ten original thoughts that will be stuffed inside fortune cookies for perfect strangers to read.

So, funny story. My husband and I like this Chinese restaurant that’s just up the road from our apartment. They are really good! We’ve ordered from them twice in one month before, which probably wasn’t the best idea…

Anyway, they always give us fortune cookies (of course) and they never fail to make us laugh. Let’s just say they are ultra vague and not always predictive in nature. I wished I had kept one of my fortunes so that I could share with you.

Also, as a side note, how do you all use the numbers on the back of the fortune cookie?? I always thought that if you guessed one of the numbers on the back then your fortune would come true. But I’ve heard of other ways as well. What are they really for?

To answer this prompt, I’m going to create some really vague and silly fortunes for half and then do the absolute opposite for the last five. We gotta have some fun with this, don’t ya think?

1. Time is an important friend to you. 1..4..9..17..62
2. Take courage in your decisions and they will lead you well.  8..12..2..48..3
3. A close friend will reveal a secret to you. 9..23..0..6..50
4. Treat pride carefully. 11..66..5..13..21
5. Be careful and cautious financially. 32..1..15..18..99
6. Think before you speak at your next work meeting. 4..72..19..36..20
7. Don’t forget your watch, you’ll need it tomorrow. 2..52..24..10..37
8. Smile instead of averting your eyes- it will work out. 17..5..36..41..3
9. Your family wants to see you for the holidays. Don’t miss out. 22..14..34..33..60
10. You’ll get through this. We all do. 8..10..18..4..23

I’m no pro, but I think I made some pretty realistic ones. I wouldn’t be surprised to find one of these after opening a cookie.

I hope you liked them. Let me know what you think or send me some of the more ridiculous fortunes you’ve opened!

Talking Tech

Apologies are in order. I missed last week! I promise it was an accident and I’m sorry I missed it. This is something that I just do. I don’t have a timer or reminder set. It didn’t dawn on me until just now that I didn’t write a blog last week. Woops!

I guess it worked out for the best, though. I mean, I usually write on Friday’s and this week is Thanksgiving week and I’ll be out of town Friday. So this writing prompt will have to combine last week and this week.

Here’s the special double-week prompt:

Name one thing you wish your cell phone did for you that it currently does not. 

This is kinda complicated. Unless you want to say something like, “I wish it was able to make me fly,” there are not many realistic things to request that our phones don’t already do. It’s 2018 and technology has advanced pretty far.

I remember growing up and not having technology available. My dad used to work for Motorola back then. He would sometimes bring home new phone models and test them out and they would always be really slick and cool! I can still remember the Motorola Razor.

Personally, I think it’s funny how phones started super large, like bricks, and then they got super small only to get larger again! Well, I guess it’s the screen that keeps getting larger.

Back to that prompt, though! Since this is a double-week prompt, I’m going to come up with more than just one thing. There are actually a few things I wish my phone did that it doesn’t right now:

1.) I wish it never died or lost battery. It would make life so much simpler. Never having to be concerned about if your phone will last through the day. My phone’s battery life is pretty good right now. It will last me through the day at work, but not if I’m always using it. And that makes sense. But, in general, it would be nice never having to think about it.

2.) I wish it took my photos and immediately uploaded it to my desktop computer at home. Okay, I know that my phone connects my pictures to the cloud, but I have no clue how to access the cloud. It seems like “the cloud” just randomly became a thing one day and no one handed out instruction manuals. What I’m saying is, my phone probably already does this, but I don’t know for sure if it does and I haven’t figured that out yet.

3.) NO SPAM CALLERS! Okay, so for the majority of my calls, my phone does a good job telling me if the number calling is a potential scam number. But there are still an awful lot of numbers that get through. And I will never forget when I was woken up super early to the “IRS” telling me the police where on their way to arrest me. Nope. I can live without.

4.)What would be SUPER cool is if your phone could teleport you to wherever you’d like to go. Think of it like this: You pull up maps on your phone. You type in the location you are trying to get to. And instead of taping “directions” and “start”, you press “Go” and are immediately teleported to that location. Cool, right? That would be awesome. Then again, I’m probably one of the few people who are eagerly awaiting teleportation capabilities.

One more to make it and even five things.

5.)  I wish that phones would create a really loud siren noise if you ever miss more than two (maybe three) calls from the same person within a certain time frame. This is mainly for my husband who constantly misses my calls when I need him, but this is also good for when parents call. I’ve missed a few calls from my mom before and everyone should know how bad that is. This usually happens because I leave my phone in the other room to charge. (So, basically, this problem could be solved with my first request.) I made sure to turn my ring volume all the way up, but I still couldn’t hear it. I would definitely hear a siren/alarm sound coming from my phone if it was super loud. Also, what if you are trying to contact someone in an emergency and they aren’t answering their phone because they can’t hear it or just missed the first few calls? If you call them three times within five minutes and their phone sounds an alarm at them, they’ll know they need to get back to you.

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I’m not a technical person, but I think that at least the last request is not a bad idea. I do feel very lucky to be living in a time where we have such access to technology. Though our phones can do a ton of stuff for us, I think it’s still important to spend some time without our phones.

Maybe take some time this holiday and enjoy a moment or two without your phone.

Whatever you do, have a good Thanksgiving and I’ll explore a new prompt next week!

The Best We Can

I’ve found myself rereading my last post a lot more than I anticipated. I’ve also read it to my husband and my friends. We’ve had some interesting conversations about our bucket lists and what we want out of life.

I’m surprised how much that post actually meant to me. Sometimes you don’t realize how powerful or important the things you write can be. You find truth in writing, in the printed word.

It was fun and it was a challenge. I read the next prompt and knew that this would be a challenge as well.

If you wrote a song about your love life, what would the title be? Write the first verse. 

I’m just going to preface this with: I am not a song writer. I can accept that I have some amount of creativity, but I’m not sure that extends to lyric writing. I do play the piano and like to fiddle around with the keys and make little tunes. But I have never tried to write verses to my tunes.

So please forgive this if it sucks! I will try, but no promises on how good it will be.

The title of the song about my love life would probably be “The Best We Can.”

A little backstory first:

My husband and I are still young adults. We got married when we were both 23 years old a whole three months ago. We met our freshman year in college and started dating the next semester when we were both 19.

It would be a lie to say that we were gooey romantics with each other. I guess we are too much of old souls to get too head-over-heels for each other. It was a different kind of love. A much more stable, level-minded love. This might have been because we didn’t get to see each other much when we started dating. We were both working, plus attending school. I worked during the day and he worked late, usually until at least 11 p.m. Add classes and exams and projects, and it was just a lot.

Our relationship existed on the weekends. I mean that that was when we were able to actually go on dates and see each other in person, hopefully for longer than a four hour time period. We talked or texted everyday, though. Looking back, it was really tough. We had to be so mature about our relationship.

I was so impatient to have a life where I didn’t have to send him home at the end of the night. I didn’t want to say goodbye. He would always tell me that soon we would be married. That we would be living together soon. That everything we had been so patiently waiting for would be here before we knew it.

I mean, he was right. It’s here now. We got married and moved in together. We did everything right. We were patient (him more than I).

So my love life. (That’s such an awkward phrase. “How’s your love life going?” It sounds so quirky.) I do get asked a lot, “How’s married life?” And it’s good! I mean, other than living together, not much is different compared to our relationship before. And honestly, we transitioned to living with each other remarkably well, in my opinion. I thought that was going to be the toughest part.

Nope. The toughest part is me. I can be so mean to my husband sometimes and I don’t even mean to be. Just take it from me that girls have to go through, and somehow handle, a whirlwind of emotions at any given moment. And it doesn’t help that (sometimes) men are just so stupid. Sorry, but they are…sometimes.

I’m not saying I’m a bad person. I truly love my husband and I’m a great friend and I’m usually very happy and fun! I give great gifts and I always think about what I could do that would make someone happy.

I’m a good wife and I know I am. But sometimes my complicated female emotions get in the way. And this is where my husband becomes the best husband. Yes, he gets frustrated with me when I’m being mean, but he handles it like a champ. He never yells at me even if I’m yelling at him. He always holds me and tries to comfort me even if he doesn’t know what’s wrong. He tries to make it better for me.

We know we aren’t perfect. But we try the best we can. We love each other and we have dreams for our future. We work hard so hard to make our dreams a reality. And we are still learning. Especially this week. It’s been an extremely tough week, guys. But we’re figuring it out. And it’s going to be just fine.

Alright. I guess that’s enough backstory. I will now attempt to complete a verse. Please don’t judge. I have to do what the prompt says.

It’s not been long since I married my man./He said his vows holding my hand./ I said mine and our new lives began./Baby, we’re doing the best we can.

Love doesn’t mean you’re always at ease./ Never easy, life brings you to your knees /But we know it’s all part of God’s plan./ Baby, please keep doing the best we can.

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I’m hoping that wasn’t too terrible. I’m definitely not a pro, but I can at least rhyme.

And with that, this prompt is complete. I’ll write another response again next week! ;P

(Haha, see what I did there?)

Wishes and Hopes and Dreams

To be honest, I didn’t like my last post too much. I think I was feeling rather dreary and it made my post all serious and gloomy…. So…I’m not going to do that anymore! From now on, nothing but positive posts and energy vibing through!

With that being said. NEXT! Here’s prompt número dos:

Name the top ten things on your bucket list.

Okay. Believe it or not, this one is kinda a toughy for me. I’m not sure if I have ten, but I’ll do my best to give it some thought. I definitely know my number one dream, though.

#1 I want to visit each of the seven wonders of the world. 

No, this does not include additional wonders (even though I’ll probably want to see those too because they are indeed wonders). As of today (November 2 of 2018) the seven wonders of the world are: The Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Roman Colosseum, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and Petra at Jordan. And really, if you want to consider the pyramids as ancient and not current, then I’ll throw in the Taj Mahal.

Fun fact: Did you know that the Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the ancient seven wonders of the world that still exists? I’m one of the upset people who really wanted to see ancient wonders. Can you imagine how incredible it would have been to see the hanging gardens of Babylon or the Colossus of Rhodes? Like..just..wow that would have been cool.

So good news here. I can cross off one of the wonders. I’ve gotten to travel to Italy and spend three days in Rome. I would have loved to stay longer, but I did get to spend a lot of time in the Colosseum. Woop! One down, six (or seven) to go!

#2 Get married. 

Check! Done. Did it. Loved it. Living married life now. My husband is sweet, kind, and extremely book smart. I’m still smarter though, so we’re good. I planned the whole wedding, which was exhausting. But I pulled it off with help from my friends and family and it was beautiful. I’m still eagerly awaiting my wedding video so I can see it from the eyes of my guests. I can’t believe how fast it went by and when I look back, I feel like I had blinders on. So I’m excited to watch everything.

#3 Have children.

We’ve only been married for three months. We aren’t there yet and we are taking our time. But it’s ahead of us. It’s in our plan. I can confidently say that five years from now we should have at least one child. Don’t let my mother or my mother-in-law convince you of anything different.

#4 Have the best behaved, smartest doggo the world has ever seen!

Yes, I exaggerate. BUT! I cannot exaggerate how long I have been waiting to have my very own – mine to raise – puppy. You may be surprised that this is a bucket list item. Anyone can get a dog, right? WRONG. At least it has been an infuriatingly long wait for me. I’ve come this close to getting my puppy on multiple occasions, but something’s come up each time. My sister not knowing I was in the process and buying a puppy for herself. (We lived with our parents at the time and there’s was only space for one more animal). Going to college. About to get married. Each time I waited so that the timing would be just right.

But it’s finally happening! I’m going to be able to check this one off the list in less than three months! I’m so excited to get our puppy and raise him/her with my husband. Hopefully the cat will like it just as much as we do… Anyway! I’m SO ready and I can’t wait!

#5 (Wow this is hard. I have to think of six more?! Uhhh…) Trans-Atlantic Cruise!

This one sounds pretty cool to me for two simple reasons: I hate flying and I love cruises.

So I have rather sensitive ears, which makes flying a literal pain, especially if it’s for 13 hours. I also LOVE Europe. If I could go every year, I would. It would be a dream to get to Europe without having to fly.

#6 Write a book. Get it published.

When I was younger, I wanted to be an author when I grew up. I had a few good ideas of what would make a good book. I didn’t get a lot of encouragement either. My dad told me that wasn’t a good career path because it didn’t pay much. That’s true. But it was still sad to hear.

It would be a dream in and of itself to even complete a novel. It would be crazy if I did it and it actually got published!

Fun fact number two: Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? Look it up, it’s a cool concept. Maybe I’ll give it a try next year? #Goals

#7 Visit all of the US National Parks.

I’m kinda a travel person. There’s a lot of things in the world that we all know of, but don’t get to see. I don’t want to miss out on that.

I’ve camped in Yellowstone. That was pretty incredible. I like how much natural beauty is out there.

#8 Live in a different country, even for a short time. 

I think I could definitely live in Canada. I wouldn’t mind it at all.

My main goal, though, is just to not live in Texas for my entire life. I feel like it’s part of life to go off and find life in another place.

#9 Build my dream house on my dream plot of land.

And maybe get some horses. It is definitely a dream of mine to live on a large plot of land. I’m a nice person and I like talking with people, but I don’t really want neighbors. At least not any within a quarter mile of my house. Like, I mean I want LAND. I’ve grown up in and lived in the suburbs my entire life, but I know I’m meant to be a small-town girl. Maybe one day.

#10 Change someone’s life.

I want to change someone’s life for the better. The only thing that can truly make my life complete, and make me ready to kick the bucket, is knowing that I’ve helped someone make their life better. This could be so many things. I don’t know why it comes to mind, but being a surrogate for someone who needs it feels like a good example.

Before I die, before I leave, I need to do something to that degree. That will make everything worth it.

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I did it! Goodness, that was rather complicated. I’m sure I’ll think of more things as I get older. Some smaller than others. This was a good exercise, though. I recommend it. And share your important bucket list items with me! I’m interested in what you don’t want to die without doing.

Starting Things Off

Here we go! If you read my last blog, I mentioned that I’ll be answering a series of writing prompts in the attempt to find my passion. I don’t think this will be a short journey, but I do think that somehow this will help me. Of course I would love your thoughts and any constructive advice you want to provide. Like I said before, the hardest part is getting started. So lets kick this off with the first writing prompt:

While at a beach, you decide to write a message in a bottle. What would it say? Who would you like to find it? 

It’s a truly beautiful world that not many people get to experience. Even now, as I watch it happen, I wonder how many people have seen the sun set over the waves. How many have been on a mountainside and experienced the vastness of a mountain range? How many have heard a foreign language spoken in its homeland? Felt a ship move beneath one’s feet? Felt the thrust of the air current jostle a plane during flight?

If you had to write a note and place it in a bottle, how many feelings, journeys, sights could you jot down and try to explain on one page? It’s a daunting task trying to transfer all the things you’ve ever experienced unto a reader.

Maybe what drives you is different than me. But when was the last time you stared at the sky? I hope, after reading this, you can take a good long glance and truly feel things or even let your mind wonder. Take time to experience.

I truly hope your day-to-day life is as enticing as you ever hoped it would be. But, if not, try and find your drive. The world is big, busy, and beautiful. If I have a place in it, so do you.

My advice is that you go out and experience this world. You only have one life on this Earth. At least to anyone’s knowledge, we only have one life. My advice is to not settle for less. It might take work. It might take patience. It might take time. But I’m working toward my desires and so are lots of other people. You are not alone. Together we will experience and grow in this world.

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Honestly, I hope that anyone would find my message. The prime reader would probably be someone who is receptive to insight. It’s not like I’m the best person to be giving advice, but maybe this is what someone would need to hear. Maybe they would be someone like me who needs to know that there are others out there that are trying to find their best life.

We live in such a big world that has so many different things to offer. Sometimes people can get lost. I think this might be for that person.

To Sum it All Up (RGM JOUR 4250)

By Sarah Copeland

Now that we are at the end of the semester, I realize how much my Race, Gender, and the Media course has covered. What was so great about this class was that every class’s lesson was based on the first class.

The very first week of this semester, our class went over the basic media theories that would be addressed throughout the semester. This includes Stereotypes and Schemas, Agenda Setting, Symbolic Annihilation, Framing, Hegemony, and Semiotics. Every one of these theories was vital when analyzing topics throughout the semester. I even use these theories in my blogs to prove my points.

Here’s how each of these theories relates to a topic we have discussed:

• The representation of women and other minorities in the media: Stereotyping, Agenda Setting, Symbolic Annihilation, Framing, and Hegemony.
  • Basically, any story about minorities is told in a stereotypical way that shows how the media wants the public to think about minorities. The media also symbolically annihilates some minorities by not representing them at all (Native Americans). The fact that media controls the information and represents it the way they see fit is Framing. And, since white males are in control of most media, Hegemony is shown.
• Advertising Images and other depictions:Stereotyping, Symbolic Annihilation, Framing, and Hegemony.
  • Yet another way the media shows how it views the population. Advertising symbolically annihilates any minority or ethnic group they view as unimportant. Ads stereotype the role of men and women, which also shows framing and hegemony.
• The role of the LGBTQ community in the media: Symbolic Annihilation and Hegemony.
  • Or the lack thereof of the LGBTQ community in the media. Here again, we see the dominance of the social group in control of the media.
• The representation of women in sports and video games: Stereotyping, Symbolic Annihilation, and Hegemony.
  • Again, the role women seem to have in the media when it comes to sports shows stereotyping. Even though women have come far and are very equal to men in sports, they are still rarely shown on sports channels in comparison to men’s sports. This stereotypes women’s athletic abilities and well as symbolically annihilates them from this topic. There is also intense stereotypes in video games, especially those that depict women as damsels in distress or do not have women as strong main characters. Since men dominate sports and the video game depictions of women, it proves hegemony.
• Hispanics and Latinos in the media: Stereotyping, Symbolic Annihilation, Agenda Setting, and Hegemony.
  • This was the most recent class lesson we analyzed. I never realized how incorrectly they have been represented in the media. They are just as, or perhaps more, stereotyped than women. They also have very low representation at all, showing symbolic annihilation and how the media doesn’t care for us to think of them through their agenda setting.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: Hegemony is involved in all of these topics. Why? Because there’s a point. The United States of America is made up of more minorities than Whites. However, though they are outnumbered, white males are still the dominant power that controls the media. This is why our media is flawed. Our media doesn’t show the truth of minorities or any subject the dominant group would rather ignore.

If anything, this shows that there needs to be change. I think that was the main point of this class. Not only did our professor teach us media literacy, but our professor taught us to see that change must happen. Our media so easily fails at showing true depictions of our world, and it needs to be fixed.

References:

Everbach, T. (2016). JOUR 4250 Race, gender and media: A methods approach. Lecture presented at JOUR 4250 in Gateway Center, Denton.