Old Age: A Mindful Constraint

Hello Friends,

My mom texted me this pictures and said, "We were all sooo young!!"

My reply, "Loving the outfits! We're all still young! Wait til you're 80 and I'm 58 ;)"

"We will both be old ;)"

"We could even think about daddio being 100 and us being 70 :)"

"Wouldn't surprise me the old bugger!"

"Haha you're never getting away from daddio!"

In this image my mom was almost my age, 23, and my dad was 31.

It is true, time goes by faster than you wish and here we are today 22 years later.

Some of my friends are 24 and 25, about the time a "quarter-life" crisis hits. But those of us who are 22 and 23 do not even want to think about 25. In just two years we will be looking back at accomplishments and weighing what we've "done"with our lives so far.

I want to disparage the focus of age no matter if you are 22 or 104.

Here is what really matters in your life:

1. The relationships you form with others
Significant others, family, friends, passing strangers, classmates, the barista you see every morning for your latte with skim milk.

You meet millions of different people throughout your lifetime. Whether they be long lasting relationships or a few passing minutes, you never know when you can change another person's life just by saying hello. In turn, you never know when your life will be changed by a person you meet.

This world is populated with 7 billion people. Building relationships with others is human instinct and it is fully up to you whether or not you build relationships or pass through life living for yourself.

"If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace."
                                                                                                               ~Franklin D. Roosevelt


2. Giving back
A consequence of 7 billion people on this planet is many, many, many people who are in need. Food, water, shelter, education, clothing, hygiene supplies, school supplies and love are all necessities for people to live. How many people go through life without thinking of all the suffering around us?

We see a homeless man on the corner begging for some change, but drive past him with our music cranked high. We quickly change the commercial during the weekly sitcom because you don't want to be saddened by seeing starving children.

Donate food at the local food pantry, volunteer in your community, be a big brother or big sister or start a fundraiser for you favorite non-profit organization. The simplest act is giving back to those suffering in this world.

“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” 
                                                                                                                     ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. Pursuing your passions
A depressing sight for my eyes to see is people who are "stuck" in a job they absolutely hate. We are all breathing, we all have time, we all have passions. Pursue your passions no matter what!

Did you have a dream when you were 12, 25, 34, 50? Have you made your dream come true? If you're shaking your head left and right, I wish you the best. It's never too late to begin and change the path in your life.

"Decide what to be and go be it"
                                                                                                                              ~The Avett Brothers
4. Travel 
 Go see the world. I don't care how you get there, how you live there, or what you do when you're there, just go.

That was vague wasn't it? Well, traveling is extremely important in order for us to open our eyes and push us out of our comfort zones. Warning: You will be uncomfortable during at least one part of traveling. Don't worry, this is a good uncomfortable.

The people and places you see while traveling will be memorable for the rest of your life. During travel you soak in different cultures, sights, sounds, languages and food (my favorite). Most importantly, you have the opportunity to see how other people live in different environments compared to your own.  

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
                                                                                                                                    ~Maya Angelou

I urge everyone to experience life instead of measuring your life with numbers. Is living truly living if you do not do anything worth living for? Ponder that one.

Stay Joyful,

Jess

Always on the Move

Hi Friends,

It's been a while since my last blog post thanking everyone for the Charity Water donations. Busy is not a loaded enough word to describe the past month and a half which included spring break and a lot more traveling. One week out of the last 2 weeks I have been traveling, and I am very grateful for the opportunity. 

An excerpt from Tennsyon's poem, Ulysses, expresses my urge to keep traveling to new places in and out of the country: 

"I am a part of all that I have met; 

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough 

Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades 

Forever and forever when I move" 

 I love these four lines and the truth pouring out.

 I am going to skip my spring break description because to be truthful it was a little stressful and includes car troubles. So, Easter is where I will begin. My sister Carmella and I were able to travel back home to Wisconsin to see my parents. The weekend was extremely relaxing, filled with good food and family bonding. We traveled back on Monday, the first of April and on Friday the fifth my friends and I traveled to Sioux Falls, SD for a concert. I love EVERY song on Macklemore's album The Heist so my sisters and I were pretty pumped for the show. He did not disappoint (we could have done with out the abundance of high schoolers). After staying over our friend Allie's house whose parents so graciously let us stay and they fed us, we drove back to Moorhead on the sixth.

Monday the  8th my sister Nicole and I left at 2 a.m. for Mankato, MN for the state academic conference where we presented our content analysis of violence in children's films(this is another blog post). We returned home from Mankato that same day around 8:30 p.m. On top of the traveling were days filled with school, homework, hanging with old friends and work so by Tuesday I was wiped out. So wiped out, I slept from 12:30 am Tuesday until 2:45 before going to work at 4. My body was telling me I needed rest but I pushed a little more and now I am sick with a cold. It was ALL worth it because seeing and experiencing new people and environments is worth it.

I guess what I am trying to say is settling down in one location is going to be hard for me in the future. All my life I've never stayed in one place very long. Moving from Fall River, MA to Providence, RI, to Wausau, WI and then to Moorhead, MN. I've always anticipated the move to somewhere new; a place with great adventures.  Of course I can always make adventures myself no matter what the city. After living in Moorhead, MN the past four years I've heard plenty of people say, "There's nothing to do here, it is so boring." You know what I say to that? The town isn't boring, only you are. It is called making the best of your situation and if a person cannot find entertainment or activities to do in the F/M area I call b.s. because that's their own fault.

I look forward to the traveling I pursue in the future and my next step in life. With this long winter we've been having (snowed today!) I hope to move out of the Midwest for a while after the summer of 2014. I also plan on doing some traveling in the country to states not yet visited. So I urge everyone to let your margins fade as you continue to keep moving.

Enjoy the picture of my sisters and I as babies, taken in Massachusetts.

Stay Joyful,
Jess