When Writing

Future furrows his brow,       his feigned surroundings

Harboring those who wish to live,   within his frail walls, 

Reality relinquishing those     who resided in his company. 

The given-gift             and the fate-finder

Competing for casualties     within their realms. 

For those who perish in reality,    live eternal

But those who sever,       Clotho's thread

Within the sphere,     of endless tomorrows

Find fate to be,  a cruel master

The day of repentance,    lying in wait 

In an empire of days,    yet to come

 
  

When writing in the style of Anglo-Saxons for your literature class.  

When Running

The weather report for Saturday: 

      Cloudy, with 40% chance of snow. 

My plans? 

       RUN.

What a perfect time to reunite with our old friends Michael Buble and J. Bieber, their Christmas albums, and  this beautiful earth. 

It was one of those days where you wake up, all the roommates are asleep, it's snowing outside, and you can't wait to break out the new running jacket. There are times where it's completely appropriate to want nothing but a snowy day, a blanket, creamy hot chocolate, croissants, and some T.S. Eliot at 8:00 AM on a Saturday, and then there are times where you want nothing but red cheeks, soaked shoes, and the road beneath your feet. 

I couldn't believe how happy I was. It had been a rough couple of weeks, and I hadn't expected 30 degrees and heavy snow to turn that around. I stood outside my door as giddy as Hermione in a bookstore with galleons in her pocket. 

I don't think I've ever ran a faster first mile. 

When people ask if I'm training for anything, I usually say no. And that's just because it takes to long to explain that I'm training to become myself. If I said that, they would look at me funny and punch me in the arm and say, "no, but really though." 

When I run, I figured out that I'm not running to "get fit.". If I was trying for that, I would have to stop eating all the sweets that I do, heaven forbid. Health for the soul. That's what I'm shooting for. (Chocolate cake being a major part of that plan)

But running helps me to sequester (woah. that was a tricky word) myself from the world, and not worry about the general populous. Which, unfortunately, is a big issue for me. When I'm out running, all I focus on is getting where I need to go, and getting there preferably in one piece. It helps me recognize all that I'm blessed with, and how awesome human beans are. 

To push myself to the best of my abilities is something that I love. Unfortunately, in other aspects of my life, when I'm challenged to do my best, I get butterflies in my stomach, and can't do it. I play along, laugh, crack a good joke, sometimes crack a not-too-good joke, and doubt myself, because I"m afraid everyone's better than I am at everything. Which, granted, is often true. But sometimes, it isn't, and I need to own up to what I've been blessed with. 

Running is what takes me away from all of that social pressure, and helps me see what I can really do, which, though not much, is amazing. And then, we think about using our amazing-ness to make this world a better place. (Cliche overreaching theme time) There is a whole lot of amazing here, I think that we each just have a different way of distributing it. Life is about discovering how YOU best distribute your amazing human bean-ness.  

Here's an inspirational quote for the day: 

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." --T.S. Eliot

Anyways. There's a few of my thoughts about running. 

Collage

Yup. College. It's for reals.

     I never thought that one day I would be goin' to school when I was 18. I thought that I would be colonizing Mars, or living in southern France, both of which would be ridiculously awesome. However, I'm kinda glad that I'm here. At school, that is. I've learned some things, I guess.

1. Bananas grow on trees.

2. Hawaii is off the west coast....not by Florida.

3. Chocolate cake is always acceptable.

4. Some people (me) don't wanna grow up.

5. Who studies in the library?

6. Don't live a mile.5 away from campus.

7. Bring your guitar to school. It's a good distraction from the unnecessary.

8. Facebook.

9. Don't be OCD, cause then if you can't think of 10 things to put on "things you've learned list" it drives you crazy and you put something stupid like,

10. I love selective members of One Direction.

     So ya, I learned some stuff. But one of probably the biggest things I've learned is probably that it's all gonna work out. Life's a collage of bad stuff and good stuff and boring stuff and sometimes all that is confusing, but at one point, you're gonna be like, Hey. This is gonna be good. It's fine. It'll all work out.
                                            So give someone a hug, smile, and be weird, cause that's
                                                              what people are made for.

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