Enjoy e@ch @nd every moment.

  Life is a roller coaster, a series of convoluted twists and unexpected turns, some seen, some not.  It is also like a roller coaster in the way that it goes by in the blink of an eye, so fleeting that you can't fully savor each moment of the ride.  This is something that I believe everybody should learn to do.  Something hit me this week, as I took on the semiannual endeavor of a dress rehearsal for dance.  As the spotlight shown on me in my shimmering dress, turning my pointe shoes pearly white and illuminating the space around me, I realized that everything, even my time at my dance studio, has a time where its curtain will close forever.  My time at Communications High School is finite.  The college years will be a blur, and before I know it I'll be a young adult, a middle-aged woman, and finally a frail, elderly lady.  The pages of my book will turn at a scarily fast pace and when the time comes, the last chapter will end.  this is why I want to learn to live in the moment and embrace every second of the life I have left to live.  My winter show that I've been attending ceaseless rehearsals for has finally dawned upon me.  Tonight, the dances we've been practicing for months must be impeccable.  Recitals bring so much worry and anxiety.  You must have the proper attire, shoes, hair, accessories, and overall confidence for the stage.  However, among this impending stage turmoil, I intend to stop behind the closed curtain and just appreciate how hard I worked to make it to tonight, and assure myself that no matter how many mistakes I may make, the potential to perform still remains in me.  I guess the point of this post is that we should always appreciate life's little moments.  As Frank Howard Clark said, "Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made of little things."  By taking each individual moment for what it is, we can live life much more fully.

The phrases in the above image list some of life's little moments that we must learn to cherish.

Time M@n@gement is Key

It seems like there is never enough time in a day to fulfill all of the things we intend to do our fullest potential, to honor all of our commitments, and to simply relax and breathe.  24 hours seems like such a meager time frame to accomplish the thousands of tasks and projects that cloud our minds, even if we don't realize it.  This week, through experience, I learned that time managemnt and the ability to sort through your priorities are vital in this life.  As a paradigm, there's always school.  What started off as leisurely Monday blossomed into a day of multifarious assignments, warnings of tests, and long term projects thrown on my plate.  Dance did not ease the chaos, as practices were becoming extended and requiring more effort and flexibility of our schedules, when really I had none to offer.  And of course, there was always the impending threat of buying and assmbling gifts for the upcoming festivties of the month and still alloting time for a bit of a social life.  Yes, everyone has these challenges that they must face, being oversheduled and such, but of course I also had to find the time to bake about 120 cookies, no exaggeration used.  Italian anise glazed cookies for our traditional Romeo and Juliet baking challenge, and delicate, symmetrically sprinkled wreath cutouts for the annual cookie party.  On another note, in the words of Delmore Schwartz, "Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn."  If we do not control our time and allocate it properly, it will control us.

Sometimes there may simply not be enough time to get everything done.