Dec 10

Dec 10 Twelve and a half things I have learned by being a 12th and 1/2 Grader

Casey McNamara

Advice, Diary, Inspiration

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

―Charles R. Swindoll

There is never a dull moment if you can create good energy - Energy is everything. What you put out you attract. Simply put, we have the ability to manifest. Your dream friends, profession, love, even your dream life. You simply need to create it. The quote I have above by Charles R. Swindoll is one that my family lives by, we can only control our attitude and our attitude controls our energy. You want love? Be love. You want light? Be light. We all have bad days, tests, experiences, breakups, losses, those things are inevitable. But not everyone understands that from all bad comes good, you just have to be determined enough to seek the good.
Shaving your legs requires skill - shaving your legs in a super small shower with shower shoes is nearly impossible. I am telling you guys, the next great idea is to make shower shoes that suction to the wall so you can shave your legs without your foot sliding down the wall. If anyone goes on shark tank with that idea I want 20% equity.
Being kind is everything - I swear by this. especially at college, you see so many different walks of life with a whole spectrum of strengths. There are athletes, geniuses, comedians, vine famous girls, California kids who have never seen white or yellow snow before. College is so wonderful in the way that it is so diverse and that you get to meet so may new people. However, no matter who or what or how or why, you should always be kind to people, especially if you are going to be living on the same campus together for four years. I don’t care who you are, you’re never so cool, busy, wealth, rich, beautiful, or even loved that you don’t have to be kind to those around you.
Everyone is nervous to put themselves out there- It doesn't always seem like it but everyone has something that they are insecure about and makes them feel vulnerable. For some it is raising their hand in class, for others it is talking to boys or maybe gaining muscle at the gym. Others are embarrassed by their two left feet and their friends may be insecure about their bald spots. Just because you can bench 456.92 pounds or can tear up the dance floor doesn’t mean that you are sharpest tool in the shed. We all need each other, so very badly, to understand that our weaknesses and insecurities don’t make us less than, rather they makes us valuable, beautiful and relatable. Perfection is what makes our life more imperfect. It drives away connect, which decreases genuine love. My favorite quote that I speak about in depth in my Becoming Real post (that may be met favorite post) is “Once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to the people who don't understand”. -Margery Williams Blanco, The Velveteen Rabbit. Don’t be one of the people who doesn’t understand.
Young Dave Chappells are rare and super valuable - For those of you who don’t know who Dave Chappell is, he doesn't know who you are either…people who create laughter are like GOLD! There is never a day I don’t wish to laugh uncontrollably. Funny people exist but I think technology has really dulled peoples witness. My grandfather was hilarious because he was so quick on his feet, he always had the last word which was often a pun or some sort of joke, and if he made a funny joke he could always make it funnier by building onto the original joke. It’s a little sad, half my jokes consist of conversations with myself because the amount of people who can carry on the joke using wit or materal that is created on the spot is lacking. If you ask a whole room of people “tell me a joke”, I bet 1/2 google “funny jokes to tell hilarious girls who write killer blog post” Ah, see what I did there? Actually I goggled jokes for blog posts that gass yourself up so your readers see you as a celebrity.” I could just keep going with myself. It’s nice I can keep outsmarting my past self, she’s just not with the times! Budumpsh…Okay, I need to stop. But essentially I just laugh with myself at myself until the others I am with stop frantically trying to type up my content to sell on craigslist. Actually, I’ve never been on Craigslist but let me tell you, there is not a sentence that uses the word “craigslist” that isn't funny. Anyway my point is, laugh as much as you can as often as you can because it is truly a waste to not.
You can be JUST friends with people of the opposite gender - Maybe it is just me since I came from an all girls school but I have always had closer girl friends than I did guy friends. I am a very affectionate, open, touchy feely person. I never struggle to be myself around my girl friends because I know that they will always just be my girl friends and won’t confuse my personality for flirting. However, with guys it can get hard. You never know if someone is just like that or they are flirting and what if they like you and you don’t like them like that but then you treat them how you would your friends and it is perceived as more than friends. There’s always a little more gray area with boys and for me personally that always made it hard to like fully be my loving and affectione self why also having a mutual understanding that we are just friends. In college, though I definitely have significantly more close girl friends than guy friends, I do have a few guy friends who I have found I can be my real, affectionate, and loving self with and who understand that we are just friends! Before college I thought of guys as guys and girls as girls but when you really think about it, regardless of your gender, you are a soul and a person and that’s all you need to also be a friend.
Take advantage of the resources - Today I had a paper due at 10:30 am and met with a writing tutor at 9am and she read it over and helped me edit and cite. She was so helpful and I don’t know why I waited so long to use this resource. Colleges want you to succeed. They literally have help for everything. Nothing at school has the nutrion labels on it and so I was definitely having a hard time counting and estimating the amount of carbohydrates in all the food I was eating. I met with the nutritionist on campus and told her all the things I eat and she spent hours researching and calculating how many carbohydrates each food has in it and put it into a spreadsheet for me. She’s the best and that was so incredibly helpful because I am busy, we all are, and she helped lighten my load and still do what I needed to do.
Learn the staffs names and be grateful for them- People always told me to “go to office hours to show you're a good student who cares”. Well, I say show you care to everyone regardless of their ability to help you in some way. Because most people are only focused on looking good or being kind to those who can help them get an A or get a job. But the people checking you out in the Tea room or the custodians who clean your bathroom, are helping you in bigger ways than we know. They are the people who you can really impact, so make it a positive one.
Matching PJ sets cure everything - I am obsessed with matching PJ sets I think they are so cute. They are also just a life hack. You look cute and put together, yet you literally get to be so comfortable and cozy. Life hack…I swear!
Take classes you like - I love all my classes, I like the professors, the size, what we are learning, how they teach, everything. Well, some of my classes are early…I don’t always love that but it is fine. However, there are people all over that take all these classes they hate. Obviously you can’t be a nurse or on the pre med track without taking some of the science classes, but you don’t need to take physics if you want to be a journalist. I actually don't know what you need but I don’t think you do. My best advice is take classes you enjoy and if you have to take that class you are not crazy about, take it with a friend or find the professor who best fits you. Sometime I think people like to make themselves stuggle and be miserable just so they can feel like their A is worth more than someone else A because they still got an A and they didn't like the class and had to work harder than Linda who loved Lava 101. Actually, sometimes getting an A while being miserable for a semester is less valuable than getting a B or even a C and being happy and purposeful in your work. If only we got grades for how we use out time, then maybe people would start to priorities the important things.
You can still have fun while “adulting” - Two days ago I woke up at 8:30 am and caught up on emails…talk about “adulting”. But then I played Lego Starwars on my DS. Ladies and Gentlemen, like I said in my Magic is everywhere even my adulthood post you can do both. Be mature and responsible while still finding magic everywhere!
5 More to learn - You still have so many more experiences and things to learn beyond being a 12th and a 1/2 grader it is ridiculous. I wonder what I will learn in the nest semester!