Before I Die...

Oh baby.

Can someone please explain to me how it is already half way through February?  How, and when, did that happen?  It literally feels like December was just yesterday--I'm not kidding.  I mean, midterm break is next week, and the week after is March.  March!  In less than two months, exams, and this whole semester, will be completely over!  It still barely feels like it's even started!

In other news, when time goes by quickly, it astonishes me.  Frankly, if we're going to talk about being astonished, the fact that I'm 21 still kind of blows my mind.  I remember my eighth birthday and it seriously doesn't feel like that long ago (we went to a farm near my house and went tobogganing and played in the snow...hey, there's only so many things you can do when your birthday's in January!).  Or even something that wasn't so long ago--my grade twelve prom was three years ago.  Three!  I remember shopping for my prom dress and it feels like it couldn't have been more than a year ago.

People are always saying that life is too short, and I've never really understood what that meant.  I mean, life is the longest thing we have--nothing we do or experience will be longer than our lives on earth (except the afterlife, but let's not get into that).  I've always thought that people who said life was too short were kind of silly, but now I think I finally get it.  It isn't that life itself is short--70 or 80 years is a really long time--it's more that the time we do have goes by so quickly, that if we don't take advantage of it, it'll all be gone before we know it.

So, in the spirit of taking advantage of our time on earth, I've created a sort of to-do-before-I-die, bucket list type of thing.  Here are ten things, in no order, that I would like to accomplish before I die:

1. Travel to all the amazing places on my growing list of places I want to visit (Greece, Australia, and Italy, just to name a few);
2. Actually learn to speak Spanish (instead of just the few random phrases I know);
3. Visit all of the THCF camps (the five I haven't seen, and the new ones being built);
4. Finish writing/editing my NaNoWriMo book;
5. Possibly get said book published (or another book);
6. Find that one person that I want to spend the rest of my life with.  That one person that makes me think no other man exists;
7. Live in another country for an extended period of time (probably a couple months);
8. Meet J K Rowling, Meg Cabot, and Suzanne Collins;
9. Do something drastically life changing for me, and no one else; aaaaand...
10. Be on a TV show of some sort.

So, what is your bucket list?  What kinds of things do you want to do or accomplish before you die?  Let me know in the comments!

love <3

Re: The Hunger Games

A couple days ago, I wrote about a new book I had started reading called The Hunger Games.  This afternoon I finished it.  There are so many emotions running through me right now and I just need to get them out.  I was going to make a video, but I fear I might cry and I'm not prepared to be that vulnerable on camera yet.

The protagonist of Hunger Games, Katniss, comes from a very poor neighbourhood.  Most of the tributes (that's what the competitors are called) are underprivileged, so it's not weird that Katniss has very little.  But, because the whole book is written from her point of view, you really get a sense of just how poor she is.  Before the Games, she has to break the law every single day and risk being punished by death just to feed herself and her family.  Of course, during the Games, how rich or poor you are really has no affect on your chances of surviving; even if you have all the food in the world back home, that isn't going to help you get food in that arena.

I don't know why, but the situation Katniss has pre-Games makes me really sad.  I mean, I know none of it's real, but I also know that there are people all over the world, and as close as around the corner, who have it just as bad as Katniss did.  I mean, in the book, she has to hunt for her food, and if she doesn't catch anything, she doesn't eat.  That really makes me feel guilty when I think of how I can just go to the grocery store, give them a little piece of plastic, and get all the food I could ever want.  It makes me feel even more guilty when I think about the times I've had to throw food out because it's gone bad, but there's easily someone out there who would kill for my moldy bread or mushy, brown bananas.  And I know it's crazy, because I know there's nothing I can do about it.  I mean, I can't stop eating and spending the money I have; that doesn't make any sense.  Me not eating isn't going to put food in starving peoples' mouths.  And, of course, I can't make food appear for these people.  I can donate both my time and money to shelters and soup kitchens and such, and while that would help, it won't help everyone; that isn't really possible.  I mean, people, and groups of people, with way more money and resources than me haven't been able to solve this problem, there isn't much I can do.  I can help, but I can't fix it.

I know this is all really crazy, and I know this is all stemming from a fictional character in a fictitious book.  Maybe I'm just going crazy, I don't know.  But all day I've been having these weird thoughts and feelings and I needed to get them out somehow.

If you've ever had this kind of emotional reaction to a book or a movie or a song, let me know.  It would really help to know I'm not alone in this!

love <3