I Wanna Be Put Back Together and I Wanna Stay That Way

I don't know why. I just really don't understand. Maybe someone can explain this to me. Why every time I feel overly joyous, things go downhill. Especially lately. It's as if I'm on an emotional rollercoaster... An infinite rollercoaster that won't let me off. It's not even as if my weeks have consisted of various moods. It's daily. If I wake up in a good mood, I tend to have a fairly pleasant day till about 3rd block, when things start worsening. However if I get to school in a rush with a trail of bad day symptoms following behind, I tend to have a great day. I don't get it. Is it a crime to be so happy? Maybe it's strange that sometimes I can be so happy and content with life- it feels absolutely amazing. But balancing it out with such melancholy is not worth it. The happier I feel, the worse the breakdown seems to be. To make matters worse, trouble doesn't come alone either. It comes in clusters, making it seem like everything is collapsing. Every aspect of everything. I suddenly find myself feeling discontent and distressed with things that I hadn't even realized were problems, things that I hadn't put a second thought into. I guess I need to get my life together. I want a medium. Things weren't like this before. I miss being whole.

Makes You or Breaks You

Boulevard of

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Dreams...

Sometimes competition is what pushes you, helps you, forms you.

Sometimes it's what breaks you.

It's All About Perception

Fruit

I'd just like to say that I LOVE fruit! It's the one type of food that I could eat all day and never get tired of! It can satisfy cravings for sweet and sour, and there's soo much of a variety. You have strawberries, bananas, oranges (I'm a fan of clementines and tangerines), apples, nectarines, kiwi, ect ect. Think about a hot summer day where you've been outside all day. What better than to indulge in a sweet, juicy watermelon? Or cut up a few mangoes and eat them after dinner? During the summertime, my family has mangoes for dessert on a daily basis. It's healthy, and delicious. Plus, fruits don't even contain many calories! For those of you who like to stay in the norm, there's the usual apples and oranges, but then again there's always the exotic fruits for whenever you're in the mood for a change, something exotic! Like pomegranate and starfruit and leeche! And if you're in the mood for something refreshing, just blend it all together and add a pinch of sugar to make a smoothie! I lovee smoothies, and they're so easy to make too. Lastly, for those of you who believe fruit is too healthy and not satisfying enough, there's always the classic chocolate covered strawberries! Mmm.. so soo good. Now I think I'm gonna stop ranting about fruit so I can finish my plum :)

Just an amusing comic I found:

And an amusing video :)

Marcel the Shell

Haha this is soo cutee!

I think I can, I think I can

"Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly." - Stephen R. Covey

One of the hardest things to do is stay motivated. We are capable of so much, yet we accept defeat or satisfaction prior to reaching our full potential. While the ultimate goal seems to be perfection, we lack the self-motivation to even reach our personal bests. We just stop trying to improve.

This year I'm running cross country for the first time. I joined believing I was decent at running from soccer season, but slowly I grew more unsure of myself, especially after seeing the capabilities of others and their long strides. Never had I taken much care to being short, infact I like being short. As practices started going by, I lost all motivation. I wasn't a runner, why was I doing this to myself? I realized I just wasn't cut out for this. I just wasn't good enough. Instead of motivating myself to try harder and improve my times, I ran to get it over with. Then, the weather started changing. The first day there cool breeze, rather than heat and humidity, the workout was distance. Since I have a preference for distance workouts and the weather was simply beautiful, I just kept on running. As I calculated the miles in my head, I became surprised at how much I ran without stopping to walk or rest. As I became tired, I convinced myself to keep going.. "Just a little bit more and you'll be done with 3 miles Sehar... Well now that you finished 3, you might as well do a bit more to be able to say you completed 5K.." and that's how it continued.

I felt so accomplished after finishing that day, not because of my time or the distance, but at how much I pushed myself to continue while others had taken the easy way out and just walked. From then, I realized that I could do it, the only thing I lacked was motivation. I now see my timings improving as I bring out my dedication and confidence from within. My problem was that I had accepted defeat too easily. To make matters worse, I didn't accept that I wasn't trying to my fullest potential. Instead, I made excuses for myself. "Oh the weather isn't good today... Oh I'm fasting... Oh my legs aren't as long as hers... Oh I didn't get enough sleep..." Now I realize that yeah people will encourage you, but in the end, it's all you. Just like in a race. The people on the sidelines can cheer you on, but once you pass them and that burst of energy you received from their encouragement is gone, it's all you. The truth of the matter is that you can do it, because it is possible... you just have to know it's possible. It's easy to tell yourself that you're not good enough and therefore there's no point on trying, but you have to remember that if you expect failure, that's exactly what you'll get. When you fall down, you can't give up, you have get back up and keep going, because that's how life is. As long as you don't give up, you can always improve. You just have to get past the pessimistic view of "I can't do it", because that won't get you anywhere. The hardest barrier to overcome is your own mind, and once you overcome that barrier, all that's left is to put forth effort and dedication.

Rain, Rain, Come Again

Rain, rain go away, come again another day.

We've all heard it before, no doubt we all have at least sung it in our childhoods' at some point. But why does rain have to go away? Why does everyone always seem to moan and groan at the thought of rain? It seems as if every other person is a bit bummed on rainy mornings. Why is that so?

Yesterday at Khane (Mosque), I was asked to help teach the kindergarten class because one of their teachers was not there. The topic of the day was rain and water. It was also quite ironic that it happened to be raining that day. We discussed how although sometimes rain puts a damper to our days, it is also such a necessity. Without water, the plants and animals would be unable to live. Some people long for nothing but clean water, while us fortunate citizens are blessed with always having fresh water by the push of a button or turn of a knob. Yet we never take the time to appreciate it. Rather, we complain. We complain that it messes up our hair or ruins our plans. We complain that it tampers with our moods. In reality, some people have just made it a mindset that rain equals moody and bad day. Rain should be looked at as a blessing from above. We seem often times to forget that rain is something beyond our control and not just another part of our daily lives. I myself love the rain. I love watching thunderstorms and lightening. Falling asleep while listening to the steady, heavy downfall of rain while being wrapped in a nice blanket always seems to bring the best sleep. It's just so serene. Rain can bring upon so many emotions; there's some sort of soothing concept attached to rain, yet at times it brings upon a more hectic and exciting atmosphere. Either way, rain should simply be embraced. Running through the rain and carelessly dancing through it can be so much fun when you just let yourself free to enjoy your surroundings and alter your mindset to see it as a positive aspect.

Recently, it seems as if it rains on big events, events with prior anticipation. The day of my first (and second) Majalas, the day of my Sixteenth Birthday Party, the day of Cross Country Time Trials, and the list goes on. I remember wondering, on each of these occasions "oh mann, why does it have to rain today of all days?!". I remember questioning the outcome of the events because of the rain. But now that I think about it, maybe it's no coincidence, and maybe it's no punishment. Maybe it's God's way of saying good luck? Maybe it's a mini blessing. Or maybe I'm over-analyzing it. Regardless, I still believe rain is beautiful and more people should learn to appreciate it rather than look down upon it. So maybe next time we see rain, we should see it through different eyes, see it as the beauty it really is.