So long, farewell...

"Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight"

hahaha, That is definitely from one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Sound of Music." 

It's appropriate though, because today was my last real day of Summer. Booooo. Tomorrow starts the mark of volleyball season and all fall sports in general. I'm probably more excited for football then I am my own season. I mean I can't wait, it's just all the Juniors know what's coming and it's crap. (So blunt.) Anyways, I'll be putting in 20 hours to volleyball, 12 to work, at least 2 days to Yearbook, hopefully a night or two of athletic training for football camp, andddd I really need to make time to see my boy. Oh- and get my schedule straightened out tomorrow, how awesome. Okay, enough of that...

Summer was great though, for once no one really knew what I was up to, I never made things that public, didn't spend hours on Facebook statuses knowing my every location. I just had a summer for me. I got to see a lot of family, catch up with old friends, and meet my amazing bestfriend/boyfriend. Summer didn't revolve around softball tournaments or baseball practices. I got to watch my brother play all-stars and watched Emma-Claire prepare all Summer for Kindergarden. She has the same teacher that John and I had, how crazy is that?! She's more ready then I am. Watching her grow up over the past 4 years has changed me drastically. There's so many things I feel I'm not ready for, but I know I have to face. IE- Volleyball season, boyfriend moving, school starting, yearbook staff, baby sister starting kindergarden AND turning five. I have so much on my mind, and I can feel all the levels of whelm just building and I can tell I'll be shedding tears more than ever. My goal for this year is to put aside my emotions, and just fight through stress. Something I've never been good at, but it's all preparation for just something else I'm sure. 

Music of choice tonight; Coldplay- Poppyfields

QOTD

God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
-Reinhold Niebuhr

"This is the star, this is your heart."

I'm starting to get back into the habit of blogging again. I guess I should start writing for a purpose. 

So today's purpose.... 

art.

At one point I really found a passion for it. I say 'it' because I was never sure what I found a passion for exactly. I can't draw people, I can't use chalk, I'm so rigid with oil based paints, my shading was never right, etcetera. Give me an oil based medium and a photograph of the ocean though, and I'll surprise myself. I can really say all this credit goes to my Art teacher, Mr. Riches. He's by far one of the hardest teachers at the school and isn't exactly amongst the most liked. But he's taught me so much, and on a much broader spectrum then just art. I was really looking forward to taking a graphics class at ATEC (applied technology education campus) this year, but after a scheduling mistake I'll probably have to take a few optional classes instead. Art II was my immediate go-to class. I can't wait to see what I can do this semester. My first goal for the semester is to recreate some photos from Charleston to put up in my room. And yes- I'm finally getting around to redoing my room. It needs it, bad. I wanted to do a black, white, and red room, but that'd be kind of hard living with a 4-year-old. So I'm doing what I can, haha.

Anyways,

There's one person whose style of art is absolutely brilliant in my mind. He's not alive today, but his story is amazing. He's a photojournalist who visited third world countries and really did everything he could imagine. His work deserves to be checked out, and thankfully TOMS did a good job of getting his story out there. Here's his website, http://www.daneldon.org/site/ 

And after hearing how my blog is getting seen by new people I hope they can take the time to check out that link. 

-QOTD

You spend so much time wondering who you are, don't you think? You flounder about, searching for your identity, when most of the time it is as plain as the nose on your face. You struggle with questions of purpose and need, and forget that the answers are found mostly inside yourselves.

Hallelujah, I'm caving in

Hallelujah, I'm in love again

Hallelujah, I'm a wretched man

Hallelujah, every breath is a second chance, yeah

"Hope is a driving factor in helping us stay on course in life, it may feel as though it comes and goes, but in reality there is always hope, there is always a chance for something else to happen, and you need to have faith that it will."

July 27, 2011

First off- Sorry Kayley Miles, I picked up the mac with your Pandora logged in and so I've been using up your hours for the past like 6 hours. wubbb yew! <3

Well, I got my schedule for Junior year today. I was super pissed at first because they gave me ATEC in the morning of first semester, that's not happening... I'll probably get that switched to student aide for p-roc and art 2. No big deal. Then- I found out I have Miss Abee AGAIN for second semester fourth block, English 4. I can't take another year with that woman. That class is SO slack. Instead I'm going to take the placement test at Central and I'll take English 101 and 102 at CCTC. Yeah, that's right, that'll put me 3 years ahead on my English classes. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it's alright. I have Mr. Corey for Pre-Cal and Mrs. Holly Sullivan for Chemistry. I'm SO excited to know I have good teachers! Then there's US History, with.... Coach Knoerr. I might die. He scares me sooo much. Ever since I was helping a wrestling tournament in like fifth grade and I went somewhere to get food and I heard him get mad and go, "Where are those gurrrrls?!" Yeah, I'm terrified. I hear his class is easy though, so I'll make the best out of it. My main goal for the school year is raise my GPA and class rank. We have a ton of kids in my class so it's super competitive, but I really want to be a Junior Marshall. I got one of our brand new Macs from the J-lab today and I'm trying to master it before school starts, how embarrassing would it be to not know how to do something after a staffer asks?! I really think everyone is going to love, love, LOVE all our ideas for the year. I hope it goes as smooth as possible. 

ANYWAYS-

I was standing in the living room tonight and out of nowhere my Daddy looks at me and goes, "Colleen, you're a beautiful girl. No, I really mean it. You're beautiful." It's the little things like that make me realize I have 3 absolutely amazing boys in my life. God, of course. My Daddy. My fabulous boyfriend. I wouldn't trade them for anything...

I might come add more to this later, but I really want to finish this spread and my room is a wreck with Journalism stuff thrown everywhere. Oh well.

QOTD-

When you look in her eyes and she's looking back in yours .. everything feels .. not quite normal. Because you feel stronger & weaker at the same time. You feel excited & at the same time, terrified. The truth is .. you don't know what you feel except you know what kind of man you want to be. It's as if you've reached the unreachable & you weren't ready for it. -Spiderman  

"It was just an innocent smile, but it lit up my world."

So, this is pretty much my last week of Summer. I don't have a lot planned, I guess I'm really just already anticipating a stressful school year. This Summer was so much different then the last few... No boy drama, no softball, no beach. But as always, I'm thankful for all the time I got to spend with my family and boyfriend and the occasional friend time. I really need to make a 'yearbook' group and get around to getting things for school ready. I'm still sweating volleyball tryouts and sweating USC's move-in day even more.

And OH- on a random note, I watched a friend go to USC last year as a freshman and basically turn over his life and now because we're on different pages still can't bother to shoot me a text or let me know when he's in town. ..real awesome. you've proved yourself. sorry i had to move on.

QOTD-

You closed your eyes. That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too -- even when you’re in the dark. Even when you’re falling. -Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

July 21, 2011

so. much. on. my. mind.

After going crazy with volleyball all week, dead week has finallyyyy started! AKA- best idea South Carolina High School Sports Association could ever have! I got my schedule for August and it's CRAZY. Starting the 1st, I have straight two-a-days until the Wednesday we start for school. This also means no beach trip for me unless we sneak in something at the end of next week. All next week is going to consist of is probably Yearbook and Athletic Training stuff. I can't believe I register for school NEXT Tuesday, that's madness. I mean, my summer is pretty much over. ...Ridiculous! I can fully say that this summer was better than last though. One thing I'm so nervous (besides tryouts, I'm freaking out about those) about is August 13th. It's Carolina's moving day, AKA- the day my boyfriend goes out on his own. (Again, no freaking out.) But still, We're talking about it right now actually and this is year number two I've had to watch a boyfriend leave for college. I guess we'll see what happens! Like I said at the beginning, I have a lot on my mind, and absolutely no way too put it all down in an orderly way.

&, I realllllly need to finish my summer reading...

If he had learned anything... it was that you can't ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence. That's all anything ever is. Nothing more than coincidence. -500 Days of Summer

(I really love that movie.)

July 19, 2011

Hey bloggers/stalkers/friends/randomlyboredpeople,

So I got back from Furman/PC camp yesterday! Of course I'm exhausted and sore, but that's part of the experience. We OWNED the skit contest, and Battledome. It got so nasty and competitive, but that was all expected. Aiken, was the most sleezy, cheap, snobby team I've ever seen. Which so explains how they're defending state champions. We placed third in the actual tournament, I was overall pretty proud with the 3 Lugoff teams. If I could take my team 1 and say "that was it, there's the varsity team, the end." I'd be ecstatic... But I can't. I won't be playing libero, and we'll have more than 8 people on the team. Oh well, no further comment.

I spent all day catching up on sleep and going through my closet. 13 hours of sleep and 3 trash bags later, I'm finished! yay! We're starting to plan some yearbook stuff, and I can see how overwhelming it's about to get. I can't believe I register for school next week, and that people start moving in to Carolina in less then a month. :( Boooo, bye-bye summer, time to start growing up again. Hopefully that can start with learning how to play the guitar, which is my latest obsession. This blog has shown NO journalistic writing whatsoever and is all over the place, but that's okay, it's my blog. :)

In everyone's past there is a love they can't get over and a summer where it all began.

Funny, how I was quote searching and found this above. If you know me at all, or if you read any of my old blogs from the last two summers, you know just who this is about. Kind of weird too, I've been thinking a lot about that person lately. Mostly the what-if questions... Looking back I feel way to young, but then again, sometime's you just know. SO, here's my actual qotd!

It is easy to forget how perfectly life works out. When you are down, you believe that things never work in your favor. But if you look back, you see that, in many cases, things happened exactly the way they needed to.

July 14, 2011

Last night I came to the conclusion a lot is going to change in the next month that I'm extremely nervous for. Guess it's really time to put my faith in God's hands and watch him bring me through.. I'm leaving in a few minutes to go to Furman. We're so well prepared this year. I can't waaaait to see the looks on all the 'stank' upper-state volleyball teams' faces. Maybe I'll blog while I'm there? No, probably not. ...I REALLY wish I could see Harry Potter, oh well, guess I'll be lame and go when I get back...

I guess I'm learning, little by little, that we decide what our lives are going to be. Things happen to us, but it is our reactions that matter. -Felicity

Obsessive blogging.

Okay, so this is post number two for the day. I'm not trying to be weird, it's just that I'm not on the phone like I would normally be. (pause, text message. Yay!) Well, my brother's team beat Mcbee 9-3. I didn't get to go to any games last summer so it was good to see him play. The third base umpire's name was John Wall, how awesome!? But anyways, I haven't really counted my blessings in a while so maybe I'll just do that!

I'm thankful for:
My parents, they really are incredible people. Even though we have completely different views and opinions I really do try to take in life lessons.
My little sister, she'll be turning five in almost a month and I really can't believe it. I feel more like a parent figure to her and I really feel like she's grown up before my eyes. Not saying I plan on being a teen mom any time soon, but I truly believe no baby is a mistake and that no matter what the circumstance all children should be loved before they grow up all too quick. (that obvi. went off subject)
My little brother, he mans the house and plays with Emma while I'm being the mean boss of the house. Thanks bro!
My co-workers, haha, they keep me sane and I couldn't imagine spending hours listening to annoying customers with anyone else.
My boyfriend, yes I said boyfriend. Everyone please freak out a little more for me... I swore off guys for the summer and pretty much relationships of any type. You kind of changed all that though, it's fun not to have to worry about labels, and not to have to worry about other peoples' opinions just yet. Whether it's hours on Skype or 10 minutes in person you're fun to be around.
My Gamecocks, hahah, of course I'm mentioning this. I've been in love with Carolina way before it was "cool" to be a fan. You're making a name for yourself. CWS back-to-back, so nice. I can't wait to see what we can do 53 days from now against ECU. "battle."
And of course I'm thankful for my yearbook staff and volleyball team, but that hasn't officially started yet.

I think I got my fair share of people in? Well anyways, I'm also thankful for anyone who has read this. Blogging isn't the cool thing to do anymore, but it helps me release so much crap I think about on a daily basis. It also lets me show off my journalistic voice a little too, and yeah, I just said crap like a sentence and a half ago... Oh well. :)
So, with all this said, I am finally starting to get text messages from all my favorites, yay! Goodnight everyone, :)

July 11, 2011

hahahaha, first off. I posted this hours ago, but my computer clock is messed up, it's July 11th, not 7th.

I definitely fell off the Blogger bandwagon, and I really wish I would've kept up with it. I got on Tumblr, but of course that only lasted a couple of months too. I can now say I'm a Twitter addict too, I use to think it was sooo lame and nerdy, but I'm pretty much a nerd so I had to give it a go. Anyways, I'll do a quick catch up on my life since my last post....

I passed through another year of high school, woot-woot! I NEVER though Honors Biology would end, ugh. I do miss getting to see my old art teacher, Riches all the time! I've been working at Rue 21, since March. It's been really great. Yeah, the hours aren't the best, and we have some really weird customers, but I love the people I work with. It's kind of sad though because people are starting to leave to get ready for college... Hopefully I can keep up with most everyone though. One of these people in-particular. haha, :) Club Volleyball was a blessing to end, but then soon after spring volleyball started. We have a new

coach, one I've actually known for years. Our assi. varsity coach is actually my old club coach too, hahahahah. Surprised? I was too. We get along just fine now, and I really think we'll have a good season. We leave for Furman this Thursday at 8AM, that should be interesting. The Yearbook came out AMAZING, and I think the student body really loved it. Next years is going to be even more amazing though because I'm the De

sign Editor, along with three other main editors- Megan, Annie-Katie, and Kayley! We got a good look at the staff when we went to CJI the second week of June. Yeah, Junior year is the most stressful in highschool, but I think I can handle it. As if I'm not doing enough, I've decided to become an Athletic Trainer too. I'm either training Basketball and Wrestling or Baseball and Softball. My parents are still holding out that I'll play next year, but I think after school volleyball ends I'm either going to play or coach at the Camden Volleyball Club and then AT in the spring. Junior year also means getting my academics up and start looking into scholarships. As much as I love volleyball, I don't think it's in my plan to play in college. I'm still wanting to go to USC to major in Visual Communications and possibly minor is Art. I came into high school wanting to major in Sports Nutrition though, while that's always in the back of my head, I'm just way to stuck on Journalism and Art. I'm a die-hard Gamecock, but I'm not ruling out other colleges like The College of Charleston or Johnson

and Wales. Speaking of being a die-hard Gamecock fan, big ups to by Carolina Baseball team winning the National Championship BACK-TO-BACK! HUGE up to Freshmen Forrest Koumas who graduated for Lugoff last year!

I'm off to go get ready for my brother's first all-star game. He has a love for baseball that I know will long outlast mine did for softball. The least I can do is go watch him play.

I'll leave you with a quote like I always use to,

There are moments of such pure, sublime, unparalleled perfection that they will force you to close your eyes and hold on to them as best you can. Life is

a series of these moments. Everything else is just waiting for them. -Iain Thomas

Find A Way- Safety Suit

My hair is now 8 inches shorter and not as red, but yeah. I love my allie-boo. :)