Lesson #14

Story behind this photo: This is a picture of one of the roads we took to leave home on the way to Washington, D.C. for Barack Obama's inaguration.

Lesson #13

Story behind this photo: These boats were next to a golf course on Cape Cod.

The quote is from the song "Goodbye to You", sung by Michelle Branch.

It's a New Day

"It's a New Day": will.i.am

I went to sleep last night
I was tired from the fight
I've been fightin' for tomorrow
All my life

I woke up this morning
Feelin' brand new
The dreams that I've been dreamin'
Have finally come true

It's a new day

...

Kennedy, Lincoln, and King
We've gotta manifest that dream
It feels like we're swimming upstream
It feels like we're stuck in between

A rock and a hard place
We've been through the heart aches
And lived through the darkest days
If you and I made it this far,
Well then hey,
We can make it all the way

And they said "no we can't"
And we said "yes we can"
Remember it's you and me together

...

Lesson #12

Story behind this photo: During the spring and summer, and sometimes into fall, I practically live in flip-flops. They require no tying, no lacing, no buttons, no velcro; no nothing, except a microsecond of time to slip them on. And they come in gazillions of colors and patterns and textures (which make a difference), and as an added bonus, they are nearly always on sale somewhere.

These flip-flops were ones I wore during April vacation last year, and this picture was taken while they sat on the floor of the car during a road trip.

I love road trips! They're one of my favorite things. It's refreshing to go somewhere new once in a while, even if it's not too far away. At home, it's common to know everybody and everything about their lives, but on road trips, everything seems new.

This particular road trip was to a "green" expo. It was one of the first times I had been to the town, appropriately named "Greenfield", and now it's one of my favorite places. It's small and quiet, and it always looks the same, yet always seems different. My favorite place there is the bookstore, which my Dad and I frequent.

Lesson #11

(Some many recognize this as the quote associated with the movie The Mysterious Case of Benjamin Button; I heard it through advertisements for the movie.)

Story behind this photo: Every other year, I go to Texas and stay on a ranch. It's been a family tradition since before I was born. This chair is in the cottage we stayed in last year, which had more than enough room for all of us.

I finally got to choose my own room this year at the cottage. I haven't really been deprived of this right, and we've never gone to this cottage so I've never had an undesirable room, however it's always exciting to get the first pick when it comes to decisions like that. Plus, it goes along well with one theme from my summer: Learning to stand up for my decisions, and not care for others and their feelings so much that I forget to care about my own.

A series of events caused me to look backwards on my life and think things like, "I should have said how I was feeling," "I shouldn't have volunteered to do that," and "that was really miserable, why did I do that?"

Someone on the ranch at Texas told me that I had been overextending my generosity.

What?! I thought.

But she was right! I had put so much emotional energy into pleasing somebody that I forgot that I needed to be happy, too. I've had a much better balance since then. I do things that are good for other people, but I keep my own feelings in check.

I'm also reading this really great book, You Can Be Happy No Matter What. I love it!

Lesson #10

Story behind this photo: On my last Cape Cod vacation, I was on the beach and the ocean looked beautiful. So, I walked out on this group of rocks to take photos. I even took a photo of the sign that said "Stay Off the Rocks", yet I was surprised when the lifeguard told me I was not allowed on the rocks (sort of a "duh" moment). She was very nice, though, and said she hoped the photos came out well and that they must look great.

But about 15 minutes later, I saw some people on the rocks, and they didn't get in trouble... :)

Lesson #9

Story behind this photo: I went on a school trip to Ellis Island in New York while we were studying immigration. This is a view of the ocean from the ferry we took to get to the island.

Lesson #8

Story behind this photo: These are some very tall trees that grow alongside a path to one of my favorite hiking spots (by which I mean one of the only spots I will willingly go hiking). I took this photo on a day when I was walking down the trail with one of my favorite people, Eternity!

My family has been a Fresh Air Fund host family for the past couple years, and Eternity is our Fresh Air child! She has a lot of personality. She's spunky, sometimes sarcastic, very silly, and awfully sweet. I adore her! She likes to be outside, but she really doesn't like the bugs. She's a good hiker and explorer, and is usually ready to try almost anything.

Lesson #7

(Sorry the author is hard to see; it's Micheal Crichton)

Story behind this photo: My friend and I entered a movie contest with a "green" theme; it had to be about the environment, recycling, saving the planet, etc. This photo is one we took while walking down the street on our way to the bottle and can redemption center. It was a 24 hour contest, so we spent one day, sunrise to sunset, filming. Then, into the wee hours of the night, we edited our movie until we really enjoyed watching it and met all of the contest's guideines and criteria. We were up until 4 a.m., when her brother finally got the movie to burn onto a DVD for us. Then we slept until 7 or 8, got up, and dropped the movie off at the local theater.

We went later that afternoon to watch all the movies. Ours was not a contestant for the first place cash prize of $1000; that award went to a local amateur film production company. In fact, we came in third, and not only were we a little disappointed that all our hard work was somewhatin vain, and that our film skipped while playing and was hard to hear, the man running the contest didn't announce my name; only my friend's. He sang her all sorts of praises up onstage, but didn't mention that I was her partner. She dragged me up onstage with her to take our certificate promising us $50, but the man never acknowledged my presence. It said both of our names on the DVD, in the credits, and in the introuction, and in the movie it was pretty evident we both took part in the creation. So needless to say, I didn't make friends with the man running the contest.

However, for a not-so-great experience overall, it did have its good points. It's always thrilling to stay up all night working on something you really enjoy, and especially when it's with a good friend. She and I both have personalities that want to take charge of every project; somehow we managed to achieve a good balance, and neither of us was in control or felt left out. Plus, we made some killer chocolate milk, coffee, and chocolate chip smoothies to keep us awake (and entertained).