Inspiration

Today has been the best day of my summer and possibly the best day of my year. I met my favorite author, Maggie Stiefvater. She wrote my favorite book, Shiver.
Most of you by now know that my biggest dream is to be a published writer...with fans of course :) I was so happy to share this experience with mom especially, because we both discovered and read the books together from the very start :) Love you mom!
Lately, I haven't been writing as much as I used to because I haven't had any inspiration. Seeing her today and re-realizing that in order to keep chasing this dream, I'm going to have to REALLY work hard,  inspired me.
I've always known that it won't be easy, Paige has been my biggest motivator in my writing and I love her so much for that! Since I was a little girl I've been making up stories that, as I've grown, have improved as my style has. I don't know what my signature style is, I'm still working on it, but I'm working on an old story now that Paige liked :) In fact, her telling me in the car today that she wanted to know what happened in the story confirmed my decision to pick it back up again.  So thank you, Paige! For inspiring even more. I think I'll name a character after you one day :)
And thanks, Maggie for being an awesome role model!

Coffee Monster?

My mom bought me a Java Monster Loca Moca weeks ago and I forgot I had it in the fridge. So, on one of my I'm-hungry-but-not-sure-what-I-want-so-I'll-eat-everything raids today, I found it :)
I have to admit, I was skeptical at first. This is coming from me who will eat just about anything except turkey burgers without questioning it. I have a very open mind when it comes to food and drinks :)
And guess what? IT WAS AWESOME!!!! :) Pretty much just like an iced coffee with a zingy after taste that reminded me of medicine, but still good..in a way! Now I'm all jittery! WOO! :D

Tomorrow at the library.. :)

If you're in the Nashville area tomorrow and feel like stopping by the Nashville Public Library, you should! Why? Maggie Stiefvater, author of Shiver, Linger, and Forever is doing a reading! I, myself, love her writing style and one day I hope to be as good as she is! I definitely recommend this series to anyone who loves music, wolves, and crying :) I cried in book one and two but not in three for some reason. And three was really sad!
So tomorrow, I'll get to meet one of my favorite authors with Kimberlee and Paige! I can't wait!
Other authors I would love to meet include:
 J.K. Rowling, no need to tell you what she wrote :) *cough* favorite book series of all time
 Cassandra Clare: Author of the Mortal Instruments series :D
Suzanne Collins, author of the Hunger Games series
Jay Asher, author of Thirteen Reasons Why
Ally Condie, author of Matched
And so many more! :D
                                                                 

Lord of the Flies

Chapter eight and nine in Lord of the Flies really creeped me out. When it comes to books and movies, am I easily scared? Yeah, but something about the talking pig head really disturbed me. Which is why I'm blogging! Because I couldn't sleep. Sure I have a hair appointment in the morning and Kimberlee is coming over in the afternoon, but if I go to sleep right now, I know I'll have nightmares! I was texting Dylan and I guess somehow I misunderstood because I thought I was reading chapter 11, when I was actually reading chapter 8... Now I'm depressed. In all honesty, this book had a great theme, but I hated the way it was written.
When it at last got to something creepy that caught my attention (creepy talking pig head) I thought it was the end of the book. I'm sleepy and reading on my Kindle, it's sort of hard to tell how far I am into a book.
Therefore, now I'm bummed because there's still more of this stupid book to read.
I love books, don't get me wrong, but this book is just ridiculous. The thing with me and summer reading lists is, I hate being told what to read and I hate having a deadline. I know I should just get used to that happening in college and stuff, but man do I hate it.
We also had to read The Hunger Games. Fantastic book. If you haven't read it, you should. I've read it three times now and still find things I didn't quite catch. Since I had already read that book before, I had high expectations for Lord of the Flies.
I understand why people think it's a great book and why it's a classic. It teaches a good lesson and has several very good plot points. Overall, it's not exciting. I'm sorry if a bunch of bratty little boys being stranded on an island isn't my cup of tea. My favorite character was Simon and they killed him off so now I care even less, if that's possible.I'm sure I'll finish tomorrow or the next day...

~Sara

Why?

Recently I've been trying to become more involved in the blogging community. It isn't easy because just about everyone is a critic. I can take constructive criticism, I mean, if you can't then you should learn right?
What I'm talking about, are the people who set out to bash other people's blogs. Why make someone feel bad about themselves? I mean, at first I let this get to me because I thought, If they didn't like it, then who will? It's true that I said in one of my first blogs that I was only doing this for myself, and I still am, for the most part. I would love to have readers that actually get what I'm talking about. No, I don't care if you're a teenager or if you're fifty-something. I just want legit readers, not the kind that follow me so I'll follow them and then never read my blog. This blog is only a month or two old, obviously it's not going to be the best. It's my project! I want to keep this blog updated all the way through college and maybe even after that just so I can look back on everything that has happened. I want to find other readers who have the same interests as me. So why bash people?

The Internet is full of insensitivity and straight up cruelty. Most of it centers, unfortunately, around teenagers.
I just don't understand why people are so mean to others when everyone could just get along and have fun. Not just on the Internet, but in real life as well.
How can we say that we want world peace, when all we do is hate?
Are we really that immature? And stop hating on teens! Sure we screw up a lot and might not make the best choices, but you were one once.

The Internet and I will always have a love/hate relationship.

~Sara

People who love me...buy me sour straws :)

Ahhh, the little joys in life :) haha

My favorite candy ever is Sour Punch Straws :) I just love them! If my mom and dad see some, they usually get them for me :) I'm not a big chocolate person, mostly I just like brownies and cake in that category, which is why they get me sour stuff when they get me candy :)

Things that don't go together with sour straws:

1. Any sort of coke
2. Coffee
3. Pretty much everything tastes weird if you just ate a sour straw

Well, I got my new schedule yesterday... not happy with it. All I'm looking forward to in first semester is yearbook and guitar class. I really love playing the guitar, but I'm sort of worried about being in a class with other guitar players. Does that make sense to anyone? Haha :)
What I mean is, I was in the actual band that we have at our school for a semester in seventh grade. I quit because #1, it wasn't really my thing although I was pretty good at playing the clarinet. I would love to have a clarinet now! But what I didn't like about it was a few of the people. It's marching band people, it doesn't have to be so dramatic. Especially then, I didn't need any more drama.
I have a great feeling about this year, although it looks like who ever made my schedule put my hard classes all together in last semester. Wonderful.
What I don't have a great feeling about are a few choice people who I know are going to annoy the snot out of me. I'll save that for another post though :) Ah, high school.

~Sara
p.s.- That little "~"? It's my favorite key on the keyboard :)

Sleep!

Here's a very "Inception" style picture I took when I was on the boat in Destin :)

I really wanted to go to sleep, but then I realized that I hadn't blogged all day! And since this has become somewhat of an addiction, I had to :) Now you get a slightly sleep deprived post from me, but that's cool :)
Anyone else hate when it when you really want to go to sleep but you can't turn your brain off? That happens to me all the time. It doesn't help at all that once I do fall asleep, I have very vivid dreams. I always remember my dreams, it's sorta sad knowing that a lot of people barely remember anything from their own dreams.
I know Kimberlee probably thinks it's weird that when I have a really detailed dream, I write it all down in a spiral notebook. Sometimes they take up about four pages front and back or more.
I love dreaming because you feel like whatever is going on, even if it's completely impossible, you believe it in that moment.
Well, before I close my eyes, I'd like to say thanks for still reading this y'all :)

~Sara

Ten happy/encouraging songs that you should listen to :)

I love every one of these songs :) They make me smile! Go ahead and listen to them all! Or a few :) It's up to you :)

1.  1234 by: Feist

2. You and I by: Ingrid Michaelson 

                                                                                               

3. Fidelity by: Regina Spektor...okay, it's not ALL that happy, but it has a happy beat :)

4. Everything Will Be Alright by: The Killers

5. Everybody by: Ingrid Michaelson... I know I already listed one of her songs, but I just love her!

6. Yet again, Here's Ingrid Michaelson's song: Be OK :) She has so many great songs!

7. She Is Love by: Parachute :) Love this band!

8. We've all heard this one :) Accidentally In Love, Counting Crows version :)

9. Haven't Met You Yet by: Micahel Buble, I love him!

10. In the spirit of Smosh, Here's Firetruckin' Perfect by: Pink :)

There you go! I hope you liked the songs :)

Middle School

Sure this picture is from 8th grade year, but I still love it!

My little brother is going into the sixth grade in just about a week and he's worried about it.
I'd love to tell him that it's a great year and he'll have tons of fun, maybe he will, but I wouldn't be speaking from experience.
Sixth grade was the worst year of my life. I had no real friends and I was picked on pretty bad by a few girls. I won't say who they were, most of my close friends already know. Over the course of that year, I even had to see a psychologist. One of the reasons I want to be a psychologist, is how much she helped me through such a tough time. Everybody deals with things differently, I just didn't handle such a new atmosphere very well. Add on the fact that I'm very anti-social, and you know it's a recipe for disaster.
I wasn't always like that though. My friends know that once you get to know me I come out of my shell. I'm actually pretty fun sometimes :)
I don't understand why kids are so mean. I seriously hope that Nate deals with everything better than I did.
The same girl that called me a whore also spat on my shoes and picked on me all that year. Did I deserve to be called a whore? No. I didn't even have a boyfriend, but she said it anyway because she knew it would upset me. Gotta love middle school girls.
Things eventually got better for me, in the first semester of eighth grade when I found the group of friends that I have now. Thank God for them too, because without them, I honestly don't know what would have happened to me.
Hopefully, Nate will have a great sixth grade year. Maybe he'll have friends that aren't backstabbers.
I have a feeling that Sophomore year will be awesome! :)

Broken Wings; Shattered Shells

So many dead butterflies line the side of the highway. When I'm running I see that. The longer I dwell on it, the sadder I get. I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't even take much notice of something as seemingly simple as a dead butterfly on the asphalt, but then, I've always been sort of different.
The cars have to be what kills them. Never in my life have I ever seen so many dead butterflies at one time than on the side of any highway. Some of them have chipped wings or are missing wings all together.
Today on the highway, I saw the shattered remnants of an armadillo's armour. For some reason the individual pieces of almost indistinguishable shell reminded me of puzzle pieces. As if put back together, a complete armadillo would appear.
Step, a piece of a tail. Step, a butterfly's wing. Step, some part of the armadillo.
That was all that was left of the poor armadillo. Just pieces of it's armour and shell.

I haven't written on one of my stories in forever. I've just been distracted by some of my old ideas that I've found, and a few new ones that won't stop springing up. I'll write more later though.

~Sara

The Charming Blanket Boy

We were at the beach. Sun beating down on us, miles of blue ocean in front of us, and a bright red blanket concealing a texting teenager beneath it to our left.
You weren't expecting that last one were you? Well, you probably were considering that the name of this post includes "blanket boy". No surprises here, folks.
I mean, has our society really sunken to the level that we can't just abandon our cell phones to enjoy the beach?
Pretty pathetic, America.
Earlier I had seen the Blanket Boy, we'll call him BB from now on, snorkeling in the water with whom I'm assuming was his younger brother. And I'd thought to myelf, He's pretty cute..that's sorta rare to see a guy like that playing with his little brothers.
Then he got out of the water, dried off, and proceeded to whip out his phone and a red blanket. What did he do next? Completely covered himself with the fleece blanket in the middle of 100 degree weather so he could do what? Text.
Thanks for proving that snap judgements are sometimes spot on, BB.
While BB spent his beach day texting, I spent mine inhaling salt water and being covered in sand.
My advice to you? Spend the rest of your summer without making a makeshift sunshade for your cell phone.
Nothing you're texting can be half as important as spending time with your families. :)

~Sara

Childhood

My childhood was made of nightlights

of my bedroom door flush against the wall

of pickles wrapped in aluminum foil

of long car rides at night sitting in my booster seat

of catching fireflies on hot summer nights

of listening to my Mema's ghost stories

of catching mice in butter bowls

of trying to run away into the night

of wasp stings and chigger bites

of my Nanny singing "The ants go marching" as we fell asleep

of climbing into my parent's bed during a storm

of my father assuring me that no monsters were in my closet

of my little brother saying there were

My childhood was made up of scraped knees and band aids

of bowls of water set out for stray dogs

of easily made friends

of playing army men
of believing in wishes
of breathing in salt air

of pretending I could be anything

of sack lunches with my name written on them

of never doubting my friends

of never worrying about anything besides when Mema would visit again

of the smell of Granddaddy's fire place
of dangling my feet from the edge of the dock

of moths fluttering around the porch light

of realizing how small we are when I looked at the stars

of sharing a room with my brother

of never looking at the ground as I walked

of feeling like I fit in

of finding pictures in the clouds

My childhood was made up of all of these things and sometimes I wonder exactly when I grew up.

~Sara

Running in the dark

For a change, here is a very detailed post :)

Last night I went running. I started running at eight o'clock and failed to run back before nightfall. I didn't let it bother me though.
Some people probably would've been really freaked out about running by themselves on the highway when the sunk went down, but I loved it.
The headlights passing me were blinding and I had to turn my eyes away when cars drove by. I know everyone thinks I'm crazy anyway, so it's not like I cared if anyone knew me. I doubt they could tell anything about me in the split second that they had before they flew past me.
Through Brandon Flowers's blaring voice in my ears, I could hear crickets and, something else.
I pulled out my ear buds, turned my Ipod off, and completely stopped where I was. In the woods across the road, a coyote started to howl.
I've always loved to hear the coyotes, especially in the winter time when it seems like you can hear them for miles. This one was close, but through the dense trees and the increasing darkness, I couldn't tell exactly where it was. Like I've said before, I don't get scared easily... well, except for paranormal activity..that movie scared the crap outta me!
Back on the subject, coyotes always sound so sad to me. When it had stopped howling, I started walking, slowly at first, but gaining speed pretty quickly.
my hair flew out behind me and I started to sprint. And I mean really sprint. I think it was probably the fastest I've ever run. Fire flies blinked their little greenish yellow lights all around me, as if they were guiding me back home. There were a few shards of broken glass on the asphalt and I jumped over them. A dog leaning it's head out a car window barked loudly as the car past me. I smiled.
Slowing headlights on my side of the road made me squint. I had enough energy left to really run fast into the trees if they looked like trouble. My cell phone was on me, I could call my parents if I had to.
The window rolled down and the truck came to a stop. I edged towards the grass. From where I was standing, I could tell that it was my dad's truck. I climbed inside, and we drove home. The stars were just starting to peak out from behind the clouds.

There you go mom! And you think I don't pay enough attention to reality... The truth is, I'm always paying attention, just not to the things I probably should be.

~Sara

Another picture that perfectly describes me :)

I hope I made someone laugh :) The crab pinched my finger, as you can perfectly see by my facial expression :)

Photography :D

Here are a few of the pics from the trip :)

I've missed you Blog!

So thankfully, I'm home again! I have the Internet back which means I get to blog again!
I've taken SO MANY pictures over the past week and my goal is to upload at least a few of them tonight :)
I have so many things I want to blog about right now and ideas period are flying through my head at about a mile a minute. It's too hard to pick just one! What I do know is that my blog is about to get a dozen new entries.

Upcoming posts include....

1. Blanket Boy
2. Photography
3. Thirteen Reasons Why discussion
4. The Very Last Potter movie
5. A Sort-of-comical Movie Experience
6. Who I Am
7. More Photography :)
8. A Few Stray Dreams 9. Old Ideas
10. Word of the Day
11. Childhood
Sorry for such a short post right now, I'm going to post soon though! Also, The blog is FINALLY the way I want it :) I'm sure I'll change a few things, like the pages and the stickers periodically, but for now, I love it :)

P.s. Who else thought the Potterhead sticker was awesome?! :D

Realistic goal from last week? Accomplished!

The new ones :)

Realistic Goal: Upload every picture from my trip

Unrealistic Goal: Grow wings and fly away to Australia haha :)

~Sara

TTFN

The truck is packed and ready to go to the Bay House, my favorite place in the world...so far :)
In fact, they're waiting on me to take this computer off the charger and take it to the car.
So, while I'm on vacation, I won't be able to get on the internet since there is no Wi-fi there.
Which also means that my Week of Favorites will have to be postponed until the week after this. :(
I'm not sad at all though, so I don't really know why I put the frowny face :)
I'm getting to spend a week with some of my favorite people, including my aunt Michelle who I hardly get to see anymore! :( But this week will be awesome :)
So, here are my goals. I'm going to do this on every blog entry from now on.

Realistic Goal: Go see Harry Potter 7 part 2 and cry my eyes out

Unrealistic Goal: Finish my novel over the week. HA! Yeah right :)

~Sara

A few changes to the blog

I decided not to put many exerpts at all onto the Novel Project page because when my friends read it, I want it all to be a surprise. Which is why the page will now just be used for news on the progress :) (I'm more than 10% done...haha). And I'm making a new page for my short stories :) Even though I've never finished one of them :) I will though :)
So...that's about it :)

~Sara

Favorites week

After making a list of my favorite movies, I realized that I have so many more favorites in other genres that I hadn't listed. So that's why I decided to make this week Favorite Week on my blog :)

Next up, favorite movie series! :)

I can't put these into any real order. I know my favorite, but that's about it. So here it goes!

Lord of the Ring series: I watch them every time they come on :) I love both movies and books that deal with other worlds and, of course, a little magic never hurt :) I could care less if I'm a dork!

Underworld series: Great vampire movies! They so kick Twilight's little stupid butt! OH MY GOSH!!! I'm revising my favorite movies list! In place of New York, I Love You goes

Interview with a Vampire. If you've seen it, It's great and you would understand that Stephanie Meyer has all the originality of a rock.

 Pirates of the Caribbean: I cry ever single time I watch the last one. If you haven't already noticed, I cry over a lot of stuff. But I just love the whole series! There's adventure and action and romance and a whole lot of comedy :) Will Turner happens to be one of my favorite fictional characters. (That list is coming later) :)

Transformers: I love love LOVE these movies! They always make me laugh! The newest one was awesome :)

X-Men: Once again, a great series of movies that shouldn't be ignored :)

Spiderman: I've seen them all in theaters :)

And the winner....is...

Harry Potter series!!!: I've grown up with this series. I started reading the books when I was in third grade, although I did read them out of order... 3,4,5,6,1,2,3,7 :) Because the first 3 movies were out :) Now that the very last one is coming out...this friday...I feel sorta depressed! which is sad, because it is just a movie series'. I went to the very last book party and after I had finished reading it, I didn't know what else to read! I guess I just love series :) The reason why I love my series' so much is because I get to keep the characters longer :)
So for all of you who are saying, "It's about time HP is over!" ...You don't understand.. :)

Peace, love, and Potterheads :)

~Sara

My top ten favorite movies of all time

When I decided to do this post, I wasn't really thinking about how hard it is to really put my most favorite movies in order, but it's worth a shot :) This list excludes my favorite movie series though!
                                        

10. Inception, PG-13: I really loved the concept of this movie and Ellen Page is one of my most favorite actresses :)

                                                    
9. Elizabethtown, PG-13: Fantastic movie that is based around death and dying, but has so many examples of life :)
                                       

                                    
8. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, PG-13: This movie has one of my all time favorite movie lines in it, "Like do you know she has six smiles? One when something really makes her laugh. One when she's making plans. One when she is laughing out of politeness. One when she is uncomfortable. One when she is making fun of herself. And one when... she's talking about her friends."
Cheesy, I know, But I've always thought that that was the sweetest thing :)

                                    

                                               

7.New York, I Love You, R: Not for kids, but very well written. This movie was composed of short vingetttes that in some way tied together. Similar to Valentine's Day :)

6. Forrest Gump, PG-13: This is a classic that never gets old :) I laugh and cry every single time :)

5. Kick-Ass, R: Once again, not a kid movie. This movie made me die laughing and had the feel of a comic book :) I also cried... and I can't wait for the sequel...

4. The Stand, PG-13: I realize that this is actually a mini-series, but it doesn't change the fact that it's one of my favorite films :)

3. Juno, PG-13: I <3 this movie. From the sarcastic humor that reminds me a lot of the way I think, to the clever writing and positive message, this movie is amazing! Another one sort of iffy for younger viewers, but more mature kids shouldn't have a problem.

2. Finding Nemo, G: I could care less that this movie is rated G and is geared towards younger audiences! This movie kicks butt! I laugh even though I can quote the movie word for word. 'Just keep swimming" is one of the many mottos I live by :)

1. The Princess Bride, PG: This one takes the cake. "Hello, my name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." This movie has everything! Adventure, romance, comedy, action, swordfight, monsters, pirates, princesses, drama, and fantasy. I've grown up with this movie! I own it on both VHS and DVD :) When I was little, I used to get scared about the Fire Swamp, but now it's just so fake :) Shame on you if you haven't seen it!

So there you have it...the difficult task of listing my ten most favorite movies is finished! For now....

Peace and LUVVVV, TRWOO LUVVVV :P Watch Princess Bride!
~Sara

Why creativity is my favorite personality trait

My mom is very creative which must be where I get it from :)
I don't really know where creativity comes from. It's like a spark in your mind that goes off at any given time. Especially when it comes to story ideas. Anything can inspire me to write. A blade of grass growing next to a wall inspired the entire novel that I'm working on now. Looking out my window, I created my main character.
Photography is different. When I have a camera, I can't think of exactly what I want to take a picture of. Especially when I have my Pentax, an old film camera that my mom gave me.
I'll scan some of the prints and share them later :)
Photography is about eye catching events, while writing is about events unfolding in your mind's eye.
I happen to love quotes. Here are a few about creativity and writing that I really love:

The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.’~ Alan Alda

Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie
~John Le Carré

A consistently highly creative person is generally irresponsible.’

— Theodore Levitt

It makes me sad that not everyone is creative, but then again, that's what makes us human. We're all different :)

~ Sara

On the bright side :)

My last post wasn't really negative but it wasn't positive either, so I felt like I had to balance it out with this post :)
On the bright side, my novel is coming along great and I hope to have several excerpts up by at least tonight. It's been a few days since I've last written, but that's mainly because I'm waiting to get my mom's opinion on one of the main events in the book :)

A few things about the book: The main character's name is Tawny Dornan. The novel is set in the future in an extremely dystopian society. If you know me, you know that I love a good dystopian story, so it was a no brainer that my favorite story idea so far is a dystopian. :)
That was only two things.. but you'd understand how long it would take me to explain if you read the spiral notebook dedicated to keeping the story flowing :)

So I love you guys and I hope you keep reading!

~ Sara

A few things you should know about me

Recently, I started thinking about how much people know about me. My guess is that almost no one knows a few of the things that I'm about to put in this list. I'll put a copy of this list in the about me page and add to it when I feel like it :)

Some of the basics

1.   Favorite color: It changes, right now it's green :)
2.   Favorite flavor of candy: ALWAYS blue raspberry.
3.   Favorite sport: Cross country!
4. Political views: Definitely a Democrat. And I know that a lot of you didn't know that one. Probably only Dylan and my mom. Why? Because this town is pretty much made up of Republicans and I'm not losing friends by arguing. Yet another reason I'm moving.
5. Future occupation: Psychologist specializing in children and teens.
6. Favorite hobby: Writing!
7. Favorite band EVER?: The Killers :)

Controversial views

1. Gay marriage: I'm all for it. Why does it matter? People can't help who they fall in love with. I personally think it's awful that they don't get to get married in most states. And yeah, it's in the bible. Big whoop. There's a TON of things in the bible that no one cares about, but when it comes to people being gay even the most nonreligious of people use the bible to back them up. It also says that there shouldn't be unmarried sex, but half of us wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that. I believe I've made my point.
2. Global warming: If more people did their research instead of just going by biased information, it would be pretty obvious. Climate change is real, and it doesn't take a genius to see that. In 2005 there were more hurricanes than any other year, they were also of stronger magnitude. But what does that have to do with anything? That severe weather we've been having for years now is a result of increasing climate change. But people still blow it off like all of these events are only flukes. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard,"The Earth has always done this". You're exactly right. The world has always done this. When? Usually before a major ice age, of which the Earth has had five. I also love how people are so quick to say, "but there can't be an ice age if the Earth is warming." Really? Once again, do your research. So once again, don't just spout off second hand knowledge. Get on the Internet and read the real facts. Or better yet, go talk to one of the scientists behind the research.
3. This next one shouldn't be controversial, but it is. If I was 18 would I vote for President Obama? I would. I don't really understand the whole mindset that he's some awful president. Especially a few years ago when he was being elected and everyone was making up total b.s. "He's the anti-Christ", uh huh and I'm the Easter bunny. Where did people come up with this? The people that believed it really killed me. I don't know how many stupid things I've heard about his Presidency. "He's a socialist, he's going to make us take God out of the pledge, he's going to burn bibles and flags, etc." I've heard all of those. By kids my age. Is that really what you're telling your kids?Do you really think that anyone would allow a president to do that? The answer is no. That would be the start of a war. Like I've said before, my mom is a Democrat (like myself), and my dad is a Republican. I've made up my own mind about everything. My mom was brought up in a Republican family, but always knew she was a democrat. I know for a fact that the same thing would have happened to me if both of my parents were Repubs. Don't get me wrong, a lot of my  close friends are Republicans, which is why I never talk about politics around them. All that accomplishes is making me furious. So for future reference, don't bash the president in front of me. I don't bash republicans in front of y'all because I know that not everyone believes in the same things as me. Which is great. It's a free country. My favorite thing about the USA? Freedom of speech. You don't have to agree with me, but I'm writing and saying what I want from now on. I don't care what anyone else thinks.

This is a video that President Obama made for the It Gets Better Project. An organization that I really love.



4. I don't think being gay is a choice. Why would someone choose to be gay? Why would they want to be bullied, have unequal rights, and have much of society look at them like some sort of abomination? God created every last one of us. To think that he would send gay people to hell just because of their sexuality, is ridiculous to me. If I ever had a kid that was gay, I would probably love them even more. Can you imagine how hard it must be for them? Why can't we, as humans, just accept people for everything that we are? I'm not gay, but if I was, I would hope that no one would love me less. But without a doubt, quite a few people would. We live in a world that is constantly changing. If we can't be more understanding, how can there ever be any peace?

5. Other religions: For a fifteen year old, I have some pretty deep thoughts sometimes. A few of them center around religions other than Christianity. We think that we're right, Muslims think they're right, Jews think they're right, etc. So who is? Most religions are pretty similar to each other. Most of them have a higher power that created the Earth and an afterlife. Me? I'm a Christian, but I don't think anyone is wrong just because they were brought up in another religion.

I had a friend once that said, "people have the power to choose Christianity." That's true, but consider growing up in a Muslim family for a second. For your entire life, you've grown up as a Muslim. You worship everyday and are very devoted to studying the Muslim faith. So why would you become a Christian? I could keep talking about this and just ramble away, but I'm getting to the point. I don't think any religion is really wrong. In other places in the world, people believe differently. Sure, there are extremists. But they're are also extreme Christians. Extremists get on my nerves no matter what religion they come from. My belief is; if you are a genuinely good person, then you'll make it to what ever heaven is after this life. I love God with all my heart. I just think that everyone should have the right to believe in what they want, when they want, and where they want.

6. Harry Potter: I remember when I was in elementary school and Harry Potter became popular. Some of my friends parents wouldn't let their kids read or watch the movies because of the mention of witchcraft. They thought that the books were against Christianity. Thankfully, my parents were never like this. For anything along those lines my view is: If you are a true Christian, why in the world would your beliefs be swayed because of a children's book series? If you actually read the books, you'd find out that it's not about the sort of witchcraft that you might find in the movie, The Craft. I happen to love that movie and I'm still a Christian. In the Harry Potter series, they have not only Christmas, but Easter as well. So I really don't understand that mindset.

Concluding this very lengthy blog post, I'd like to say thanks for making it to the end. None of my real friends should think I'm crazy for expressing what I believe in. Sure, I may not verbally express much of this to the majority of you, but I'm done with that. Most of my middle school life was spent figuring out exactly who I was. Now that I know, I'm done holding back and not using my voice to stand up for myself. So if I have to start off small, by using writing to convey my views, so be it. If I lose any friends over this, then they weren't genuine friends to begin with. I don't judge any of my friends for their beliefs, I accept the fact that we are all different people with different views. I love you guys!

Making a new video for my channel!

Working on making a really sped up video of a day in my life :) Hope none of the neighbors think it's weird when i run by with a camera belted to my chest! :) lol

The new story!!!!!!!! :D

So, I know that no one's noticed, but I haven't been talking about writing lately. No, I haven't stopped writing. That's ridiculous :) I've started working on an old story! :D
I really really love it!
I'm writing four hours a day during the week, and eight hours a day on the weekends :)
I'm GOING to finish this one!!! :D I'll post a few excerpts later :)

~Sara

Why I'm changing the name of my bucket list :)

My bucket list has mostly to do with Australia :) You may have noticed :)
The reason behind this is that one of my biggest dreams, is to one day move to Australia.
The more I learn about it, the more I'm positive that it's where I need to be.

Sure, I'm young and there's a million and one variables that will determine my future. But what are dreams?
They're the things that you hope for. The things you look forward to in life.
So what if my dreams are far fetched? All that means is that I have ambition.
I've grown up in a small town with plenty of great people, and don't get me wrong. It's a great place.
But I've always known that it's not the place for me to stay.

And sure, I'll come back and visit. But most likely, not that often.
Kimberlee says she wouldn't like living in a big city becuase of the crime rates, but bad things happen everywhere. When most bad things happen, it isn't because you're living in a big city. Bad things are mostly coincidences. They happen because you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I won't stay here because of the security of a small town, I'll leave so that I can achieve the dreams that I want more than anything.

We spend our whole lives dreaming, and not enough time living. So why aspire to do great things when you don't live in an enviroment to actually act on them?

I'm not saying small towns are bad at all. I loved growing up here. I just want to go out and experience the world for everything that it is. Sure, there will be a lot of bad, but that's the world for you. For every three bad things, there are five great things.

So I'm changing the title of my "bucket list" to my "dream list" :)

~Sara

More pictures :)

Here are a few pictures that I took today at the river :)

A really cool mushroom that my dad found at the river :)

My little Ellie!

Liberty :)

                                                          Hope you liked them :)