Leap Year

I have been so busy in the past month! Between school and different clubs and sports, I barely have any time to myself. In my absence, I have created some stories, but I am in a rut with all of them. Hopefully soon I will have a finished product and posted to the blog.
This month, we celebrate February 29th, a day that only comes every four years. It's funny to think about people who are born on this day, as they only get a birthday one time in four years! However, this also got me thinking about things that we only do every four years. For example, in the US we have presidential elections. For this country, it is a very big deal. Individuals can change everyday, imagine how much a nation changes in four years!
I also likened this to a question that we always get, "What would be your perfect day?". I want to change this question to say, "What would be your perfect day that you could repeat every four years?".
For me, this would be waking up early and having breakfast in bed (biscuits and gravy, or chicken in waffles). My whole family would be there with me like a mini reunion. We would play games and go see a new movie. I would also adopt a Scottish fold cat and get a pint of Andy's vanilla and read The Help while having a picnic with my sister.
I wish that I could repeat my perfect day every four years. As life would have it, my dream will probably never happen. On the bright side, I can try and create this type of day.

Happy Leap Year,
MBE

Night Thoughts

Through the haze of smoke coating the air, she catches his eye. Quickly, she glances down at her plain black dress, realizing that she is under dressed for the party. Her friends nudge her elbow, letting her know that they are leaving her to her own defenses. Scanning the crowd, she sees no familiar faces except for one.
Her eyes are like magnets, following his every move. Watching him shake hands, play up the crowd. Why she can't get him out of her mind is a mystery to her. When they parted ways almost a year ago, it was for good. A clean, solid break- no splinters, jagged edges, or broken pieces. Now, seeing him again, it's like she never left.
Maybe you could blame it on the atmosphere of this party or her on setting headache, she fights through the crowd of girls in tight dresses and boys with too much cologne to find her friends. Grabbing her phone and Kate Spade lips clutch, she hurries to the door, forgetting her coat and leaving behind the smoke and questions running through her mind.
As she walks down the sidewalk, trying to avoid the cracks, a hand grabs her arm.
Turning around, ready to face her attacker, she is pleasantly surprised. She finds herself looking into his face, getting lost in his bright, blue eyes, streetlamps reflecting in them. His cheeks are red from running to catch her.
In ragged breaths, a hand running through his hair, he says, What happened to us? I can't stop thinking about what we used to be, what we can become. Please don't leave
She hears his words running through her head like a cassette tape on replay. How many times she heard those words, believed the empty promises. It wasn't just him or just her, it was everything else in the universe pulling them apart, exposing the worst of them piece by piece.
I can't, she says, that's the definition of insanity, trying the same thing, only to get the same results.
Turning away from him and his pained expression, she hails a taxi just as raindrops start to come down from the dark sky.


MBE

Busy as a Bee {or student}

This week has been a hectic one. Even though I know it's only Tuesday, I feel like the week is running away from me! This week I'm going to end up having four tests, multiple quizzes, and the ACT this weekend, not to mention all the homework and other after-school activities.
I am a very stressed out person. Normal remedies like smelling lavender or counting to ten just don't work for me. Maybe it's the feeling of not knowing the future and not being able to control it to a certain extent. I also feel like studying for tests dry me out of my creative writing and other ideas because we have no room for anything but facts. Either way, this seems like I'm fighting an uphill battle this week, like the kinds of weeks where you don't seem to have enough hours in the day or enough time to recharge. Going back to my previous post, this week my goal isn't necessarily to get 100% on everything, but to look for the sweetness in the week. For me personally, I think that I'm too eager to rush, rather than focusing on the journey.
This also reminded me of a speech given to BYU students called Successfully Failing. One of my favorite quotes from that says:

"At the other end of Professor Edmondson’s failure spectrum—“good failures” resulting from efforts to extend the frontiers of our knowledge—we should not be so fearful of failing that we avoid trying new or hard things merely because their very newness or difficulty increases the risk of failure. Don’t let concern for protecting your grade point average dictate the courses you take. Challenge yourself, academically and in other ways. You may discover skills, talents, and joys you would otherwise miss out on. Your mortal experience will be a more productive part of your quest for perfection if you intentionally stretch yourself with new challenges, especially those that involve a real risk of failure."

Let's fail, discover something new, and learn to go the distance.

Adios,

MBE