8/30 - Passions

8/30 - Describe 5 Passions You Have

1. Helping Children - It may sound corny/lame, but all I want to do is help kids. More specifically, kids with special needs. I spent the first 18 years of my life thinking I wanted to teach special ed, and didn't realize until I was in the classroom that teaching wasn't my calling; however, that doesn't change my passion for helping this population. I would love nothing more than to devote my life helping children with special needs in whatever capacity I can.

2. Relationships between friends/family - I believe nothing is more important in your life than the relationships that you form. I would rather spend my days/nights with my family and friends than doing anything else in the world. It it difficult for me to make friends, but once I do - I do no know what I would do without those people

3. Jesus Christ

4. Ohio State - It sounds corny, but I love this university more than I can describe. It has given me more opportunities than I can imagine, and brought me some of the best friends I can imagine. I do not know where I would be in the world if I chose to attend a different university

5. Life - I'm passionate about my life. I spent a portion of my time being down about the world.After relaizing all of the amazing things that are happening in the world I am passionate about living my life to the fullest. I want to experience anything and everything this world has to offer, and am so excited that I will be blessed to follow the navy and my dreams in the future to see as many parts of the world as possible

Truth

True Life - I'm a terrible blogger

I feel like I have so few thing to blog about, but so many things to do in a day simultaneously. I spend my days reading about what all of you have been doing in your lives/blogs, but for the most part can't bring myself to blog on my own.

 I feel like if I blogged daily it would sound like this "blah, blah, blah, I miss Bryan, blah, blah, blah."

He did come visit when I was in Florida, and it was the most wonderful last minute surprise

Yesterday I made a deal with my boyfriend - you buy me a ring, I will buy you a puppy when you move to the east coast. That seems reasonable right? Even though we have only been together for a year and a half, when you know you just know, am I right?

I'm going to try to start up again with my 30 things blog. I would love to find the inspiration to write in this blog daily again.

xoxo,
Amy

Army Wives

For me, spring break is all about decompressing. Since I was lucky enough to finish all of my finals on the first day, I essentially have a two week spring break. I'm spending the first few days back at home to spend time with mom and dad and veg. I'm convinced the most productive thing I did today was mail my taxes.

In my sloth-like state I have managed to watch 17 episodes of Army Wives... I wish I could say I wasn't obsessed, but I am. I also have to admit that it turns me into an emotional wreck. I cry at nearly every other episode, but cannot turn this show off. There are aspects of the show that I adore. I think the show sheds some light on the day to day hardships that go along with being a military spouse. I also believe part of the show is ridiculous. The characters are the extremes of any relationship, and characterize most of the wives as being unstable in some capacity.

What are your thoughts on Army Wives? Creative or crap? How do you feel about how close the show runs to reality?

7/30 - Dream Job

What is your dream job? Why?

All I want to do in my life is help children. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember, I was the bossy child in elementary school who graded other people's papers and helped out other kids in class. In high school I had a teacher urge me to get involved with Special Olympics, and I never looked back. From 16 I knew all I wanted to do was work with this population. Working with special needs children is not easy, in fact it is more challenging than any other job I have dealt with so far, in turn it is also the most rewarding. Spending two summers teaching autistic preschoolers and countless hours with high schoolers with special needs, I have learned that this is what I am truly passionate about. In growing up I have also learned there are other avenues to help special needs children. For this reason, I do not know what my dream job would be; however, working with special needs children will definitely be involved. In the long run I see myself teaching for a few years and later becoming involved in non-profits or policy making to benefit these individuals. 

Military Monday Bloghop

I'm trying something new, and am super excited to be linking up with the Military Monday Bloghop!

Spending so much time away from my SNFO is terrible, and I figured this was a great way to get in touch with other members of the military blogging community. 

I'm also thrilled that I FINALLY have a plane ticket down to go see Bry. It has been far too long since our last visit, and I could not be more excited to have this to look forward to. I feel like I miss out on all of the little things not being in the same state, or even region. I would love to hit the fast forward button through my last few quarters of college to get to spend all the time with my boy. 

Well here it came and went, my very first Military Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Finals Schminals

Like most Americans I find myself to be an epic procrastinator. With three finals within the next 18 hours I found many more interesting things to do then study for said exams. These include but are not limited to:

-become insanely obsessed with DrawSomething on my iPhone
-call my grandmother
-rearrange a bookshelf
-clean Finbar's tank
-paint my toenails
-scour blogger for new blogs to follow
-rearrange my iTunes library
-help a stranger jump their car
-go for a run

While in a typical Sunday I would call this a successful day, I have only put in 4 hours worth of studying into these exams today. Looks like this girl will be sleeping very little until Monday night! But that's okay, I will have a 13 day spring break to recover. At least I have this to look forward to before some of my roommates even start their exams

6/30 - Hardships

What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?

The hardest thing I have ever experienced is often difficult for me to explain. So it seems only right to start at the beginning of the story and let the pieces fall where they may.

My freshman year of college my roommate and I had a tense relationship. We were able to cohabitate and tolerate one another, but we were never very close. Slowly but sure I became very close with the girl who lived next door, KK. KK and I had the same love of Mario Kart, Pokemon, reading, Washington DC, and laughing. It was only the cherry on top that we were both out of state honors students as well. We became best fiends quickly. As our freshman year began to draw to a close, we decided that we would be living together off campus in a three bedroom apartment. Sophomore year was wonderful, I spent the year being a stereotypical college student living with my best friend. No one to tell us to be quiet or wash the dishes - but we kept each other grounded and attempted to balance utter independence with schoolwork.

At some point between our sophomore and junior year something within KK changed. She became angry more frequently and slowly stated drinking more and doing drugs. This was never something that I was comfortable with, but let it go simply because I hated confrontation. Slowly but surely she began to take advantage of me. Utilities payments became short (if they ever came to me at all) and our living room was generally filled with a haze of smoke. I realized that this wasn't how I wanted to spend my senior year, and quickly started looking for a new place to live the following year. A few days later I was on my way to sign a lease with five (other) friends. After telling KK my decision not to stay at our apartment the following year things went from bad to worse.

I began to feel alienated in my own home. We could be in the same room together and KK would look through me as if I didn't exist. My opinions meant nothing to her, and slowly but surely I stopped leaving my room because it was just easier. She went from being my best friend to being the most vindictive person I had ever met. I couldn't make sense of the transformation in my head. As I was unable to break out of this funk that was all around be I began slipping into a state of depression. I assumed it was something that I could handle on my own and refused to discuss the matter or even acknowledge that anything inside of me had changed. Finally, after being home for spring break and having to admit to my parents that my grades had taken a nosedive I realized this wasn't normal, and I needed help.

I wasn't me anymore. I could smile to get through the day, but few things made me genuinely happy like they used to. The transition was slow, so I didn't notice how unhappy I was every day. I spent the rest of that year at home. I didn't return to school for the spring. I took the time to go to therapy and understand the root of my problems. I learned people who truly care about you don't walk all over you and that in order to be truly happy I must first love myself.

Spending time at home was the best decision I ever made. It forced me to take a look at who I was and what I wanted. I have the most supportive parents in the world who were with me every step of the way. I battled through the depression, and came out stronger because of it. I am beyond blessed that I was given the opportunity to start a new chapter in my life. Battling depression and coming out on top proved to me that I was stronger than I ever believed I could be. I am now the biggest advocate for therapy and the importance of sorting out all problems rather than ignoring them.

Though this experience was tough, and still has me a little rough around the edges - I have learned so much about myself and about the world through it.