Rubik's Cube

Perhaps it's just my OCD-ish nature.
 
      But I very much dislike the Rubik's Cube. And I'll tell you why: To solve the Rubik's Cube, even if you have a whole line the same color, you must sometimes be willing to ruin it, in order to bring another line together. There are loads of equations, and formulas you need to know and you have to take the time to practice in order to solve it like this guy,

But seriously.

       This is the reason why I hate the Rubik's cube. Then I was like, woah, this is kind of like our life.

Cheesy analogy time:
       It's like a Rubik's Cube. In order to solve it, we have to be patient, and sometimes, we have to mix up what we've just put together in order to obtain a whole side. It can be so frustrating, but we've got someone who can solve any Rubik's cube ever, and He knows all the equations. All of 'em. It's crazy.
 And He knows when there is something better then the simple two squares of blue we've put together.

   Or maybe I just can't solve a Rubik's cube. It's been 4 WEEKS. I might have to succumb to actually learning the math behind it. Yikes.

FALL + Unicorns.

FALL

      A lot of people underestimate how much I love fall. It's unreal how much I love it. Unreal.

Or like, unicorn real.
It's just the most beautiful time ever.

     I got to go for a drive up the canyon a few days ago, and guess what? It's so pretty. I've actually never even seen it like that before. It was like a painter dumped his fall pallet all up in those mountains. The colors were so bold and distinctive. Wow.

ALSO. Fall is marvelous because you can wear sweaters.

Real sweaters.

The kind your grandma gives you for Christmas. Or the one you found at Savers for that ugly sweater dance. Or that one that you keep at the back of your closet, for when you just want to be cozy. I love sweaters. They make me feel like I'm wrapped in comfy warm goodness. Oh wait.

       Pumpkin things also happen to be my favorite ever.

Ever.
In my life.

     People joke about it, and those haters gonna hate, but pumpkin pie, pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Yum.

And those sugary pumpkin candy corn things?? So good. So bad for you....but so good.

And that concludes my thoughts about fall.
Have a good one.

Sinseriously,
Marina

Ellington

Interviewer: "Where do you get your ideas?"

Ellington: "Ideas? Oh, I have millions of dreams. That's all I do is  dream."

Interviewer: "I thought you played piano"

Ellington: "No, no, this is not piano, this is dreaming."

                                                                 "This is dreaming".

All Hail Futures Name.

With a week of college under my belt, I feel a bit better about the oncoming future. Before I was like,

"no way, man"

Because I was afraid of the work that had to come before consistency. I learned that what you get out of life is really what you put into it. And you can't just snap your fingers and be happily married traveling the world with little soccer or piano prodigy children.

I have spent so much time worrying about how I was going to get there, that I forgot or was discouraged by the now. I wanted time to fly, when, in reality, I needed to slow down, and enjoy the little things.

Dear Marina, 

Live your life. One day at a time. That's the way it's meant to be. 

Enjoy the little things. Even when the future seems daunting, stop and smell the roses. 

Be happy. Otherwise, you'll be sad. And that's no fun. 

So bring on the future. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Find the best in every day, don't lose an eternal perspective, don't be myopic, or a pessimist. 

Enjoy. Live. Create. Learn. Love.

Sinseriously, 

Marina

Singin', Dancin', and Kissin' in the rain.

Provo, UT:
Weather:
Current Temperature: 70 F
Forecast (Tonight): Cloudy; 30% chance of thunderstorms.

30%.

A measly 30%. Oh gods of thunder and rain why curseth thou my existence on this earth?

                                            Rain is my ultimate favorite thing.

You can make street shadows
Or dance,
Or stick your tongue out (until you get a raindrop in your eye.)
You can scream when there is a huge clap of thunder
You can try to take a picture of lightening. (Which never really works).
You can imitate the final dance in Step Up. (Try. Try to imitate it)
You can ride your bike.
                                      You can stand in the gutter and float boats or rubber duckies in it.

                                                                 
                                                             You can KISS.

         Or. You can watch the weather report SAY it's going to rain, and watch out your window simultaneously, and be continually disappointed till 3 o'clock in the morning when you finally drift off to sleep.

Changes, Chances, and Unicorns.

Our lives are like a blank piece of paper.
          Given to us to become what we make of them.
Some people fold them into paper cranes,
                   Some people draw on them with watercolors,
                                                                          or pencils,
                                                                               or sharpies,
                                                                                  or crayons.
                                            Some people just leave them blank.

       All of these things make us who we are. Any mark, or action we do will change the picture.
               And at the end of every day, we have a picture to hang in our little "gallery of life".

And at the dawn of ever new day, we are handed a new piece of paper. 

And sometimes things happen and things appear on our paper that we didn't expect. 

Like coffee spills, or a paint splatter, or a hole. 

And we can choose to either let them be, crumple up the paper, and throw it away, 

or, 

We can make something beautiful out of it. 

The decision between these two choices determines our happiness. 

Changes happen. Accidents happen. Life happens. 

We can always change. Or remain the same. 

But at the end of time, when we look back at our "gallery", 

We will see either beautiful artwork, or a pile of crumpled up paper. 

Make your mark. 

Sinseriously,

Marina

Carry on

I thought that they would be here,
By my side,
My whole life long,
But now I know they won't abide.
Change had sung her song.

All 'round the world, they went away,
I am left alone.
But soft through yonder window breaks*,
A figure, towards me roams.

He motions me to follow,
As a skeptic, I resist.
He waves once more, and turns,
He takes me gently, by the wrist.

We walk across a barren land,
Till we reach some rows of chairs
With people sitting in them,
Heads in hands, and tear ducts bare.

The figure whispers quietly,
As not to disturb their sorrow,
"Here is where the lonely lie,
with no hopes of tomorrow".

"The same as you, Change sung her song,
Their past was swept away,
Discouraged, Sad, and hopeless,
It was here they'd rather stay."

"They'd given up,
When crumbled, their foundation of the past,
Not wanting to move forward,
Spells of reflection had been cast"

The figure straightened up and said,
"This fate's awaiting you"
I looked around and felt there
was something else for me to do.

I said to Him, "Is there something,
Other than all of this?"
He said, "Oh yes, but first,
We must travel through the mist"

He pointed down the road a ways,
I saw with eyes of wonder,
a cloud of smoke, black as the night
in dreams when I was younger.

"Through that?" I said,
"Is where a better future for me lies?"
He nodded, "yes", and we proceeded,
Into black and smokey skies.

We walked for miles,
Down into that dark and dreary waste,
 Until at last,
Fresh air was on my tongue to taste.

As we emerged, I realized,
 Upon a hill we stood,
A valley lay before us,
Far beyond, to see, I could.

I saw the road to travel by,
And so, continued onward,
Toward a village filled with joy and song,
I kept moving forward.

The town was called Opportunity,
Reached only be travels, far,
T'was infinite, when used correctly,
By hard work, and continuing on.

Upon arrival into town,
I noticed, by the road,
A wooden sign upon a post,
The words, worn, barely showed:

"Here lies the better future,"
For the few that, however long,
 have the courage to begin again,
The courage to carry on"

--M.R.

*Reference: William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet Act ll Scene ll)

Little bit of a rough draft, if you have suggestions, I'm open to 'em. :)

Singing songs of boredom

Bored? I have some advice.

I sent a text to my friend the other day saying that I was bored stiff and had no idea what to do. Later I read this quote,

          And I was like, oops. 

This makes me want to have the energy to do things all the time. Crazy things. Like make a treasure map and follow it to something you buried in the ground earlier. Go into an elevator and do things like make explosion sounds anytime anyone presses a button. Kidnap someone in the middle of the night and have an unbirthday party. With real china and a birthday cake that explodes. Learn how to speak French. Take a road trip to the coast for absolutely no reason at all. Watch a movie outside projected on your stood up trampoline. Write a novel. And publish it via Facebook post. Become an expert on wildlife of South America.

                                                                   JUST ADVENTURE.

I have realized that I have only 24 days until I move into an apartment and go to college.

                    I know,

      I know.
                    I can still adventure then, but this is summer. I have not made the most of it.
I hereby make a vow to never again be BORED. You all as my witness. And if I ever say it, feel free to..... remind me and shoot me with....a marshmallow gun. Cause then I would get mine and we would have a battle and then I wouldn't be bored any more.

First Love

When summer's gone,
Our time is done,
There's no more time for just,
Havin' fun.
And all we have,
Is what we remember,
From when we met,
That cold December.

Walks in the moonlight,
Dancing in the snow,
Singin' songs of romance
Till the rooster crows.

This was the beginning of something new,
I know I'm kind of crazy,
But I know that you are too.
We had eachother,
To dream those crazy dreams,
Road trips, and fancy cars,
And so much in between.

Some say our time's to end,
And that our journey's through,
And I will soon forget all the times I spent with you. 

But all this is only what we're told,
We know that when it's done,
We'll always have each other
Our hearts remaining one.

We're  riding on the wings of change,
He flips and banks and turns,
We hold on tight, and persevere,
Our love will always burn.

--M.R.

Dilligence

Diligence. 

The final frontier. 

Once mastered, 

One can go, 

Anywhere, 

at Anytime. 

The trick, 

Unfortunately, 

is to Master it. 

Which, 

As it turns out, 

Is 

                                                                Outrageously Difficult

               

 

 "If you want to succeed in the world you must make your own opprotunities as you go on...You commit no greater folly than to sit by the roadside until some one comes along and invites you to ride with him to wealth of influence" --John B. Gough

"All your dreams can come true, if you have the courage to pursue them"--Walt Disney

"Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness, and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know" --Charles Kingsley

"Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes. "-- Miguel de Cervantes

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

Found my old collection of fortunes. From fortune cookies. Read through them. Mind: blown. 

Few of my favorites:

 1. If you want something, you must EARN  it.

                                        

                  2. Everything will soon come your way. 

  

   3. You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily.

4. There are lessons to be learned by listening to others.

                 
                Just as general advice for the college bound, I think these   were magically fitting.  

Like the missing piece to a jigsaw puzzle of a unicorn.

Just. Plain. Magical. 

                                                                                                      Thank you, 

Wise men of the Fortune Cookie factory. 

Sinseriously,

Marina

Out There

Out there.

      There's a whole entire earth full of people who are all on a journey. One that can't be defined by anything but oneself. 

Out there,

there are people who became employees, people who became volunteers, and people who became bums. People who became recognized, people who became looked down upon. People who became celebrities to the world, people who became mathematicians, people who became whatever they wanted to be.

All these guys...became.

I don't know whether it's been the ever nearer future, or failures in the past but I have come to realize that what I want in life it to "become" something and to succeed at it.

I heard a guy say one time that we shouldn't go out into the world to be "different" but we should go out there to be us. Whatever we want "us" or "me" to be. 

That's pretty cool.

                                                       The hard part is finding out what you want that to be.

It requires perspective.
Long term perspective.
It takes patience.
It takes the will to survive.
It takes the will to make yourself better.
It takes initiative.
It takes guts.

It's the hardest thing for me. Because I'm someone that wants to be told what to do, and do it. I want someone to tell me, "you need to become an engineer" or "you need to be a doctor", so I can go to school with that already planned for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to work, I'm just not a very effective self starter I guess. 

I feel like the joy in "becoming" comes from your own desire and journey on self-discovery. Those happiest in life, I realized, have already come to know what they wish to become, and when one discovers that, I think that a whole life of happiness can be derived in the pursuit of it.

The best things in life are free.
But,
They are going to be hard,
They are going to be difficult,
They are going to be inconvenient,
They are going to be whatever God wants them to be,
And he is going to make a way for us to accomplish them,
But we need to put forth effort.

Effort,
and Diligence. It's one of my favorite words. Maybe because it needs to be worked on.

I'm not very diligent.

I can't wait until that day when I find where and what I need to be. But I need to not forget the wise words of Master Uguay:
                            "Quit... don't quit. Noodles... don't noodles. You are too concerned with what was and     with what will be. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

We need to learn to enjoy the present even in our pursuit of happiness and purpose in the future. 


I could ramble on about the pursuit of happiness and purpose in life, but I won't. I'm running out of a controllable train track of thought.........

"Out there

     There's a world outside of Yonkers

  Way out there beyond this hick town, Barnaby

           There's a slick town, Barnaby

Out there

    Full of shine and full of sparkle

         Close your eyes and see it glisten, Barnaby

    Listen, Barnaby...

  Put on your Sunday clothes,

            There's lots of world out there

   Get out the brillantine and dime cigars

 We're gonna find adventure in the evening air

            Girls in white in a perfumed night

     Where the lights are bright as the stars!"

--Put on Your Sunday Clothes (Hello Dolly)

When times are tough.

When you don't really want to go to school,

When you don't really want to come home to mountains of homework,

When you don't want to practice,

When you don't want to go running,

When you don't want to do anything,

When you just want to call your friend and say,

"Lets have an adventure".

It's nice to have someone there to say,

"Heck Yes."