Human.

Recently, I watched a documentary called Life In A Day. It is by far the most moving documentary I've seen in a very long time. You can watch the trailer below, and you can click the link below the trailer to see the entire documentary which is free to watch on YouTube.

Here's the whole thing!

^^^^

The documentary is made up of video submissions from ordinary people all over the world. Though it should be mentioned that some of the ordinary people have extraordinary stories to share. 

I think I cried every ten minutes or less (both happy and sad tears). 

The film is beautiful. It truly captures part of what it means to be human. 

There are so many sharp contrasts between the many different walks of life, that it is astounding. One of my favorite scenes asked people what they had in their pockets. One man reached into his pocket and took out the keys to a Ferrari, while a man in a small jungle village turned out the pockets of his pants that were little more than rags and said, "nothing. I have nothing in my pockets." 

It is painful to see how hard life can be for so many people when we complain about such stupid things.
My favorite scene of the movie takes place in a cemetery in the middle east.
A man lives in a small shack with thirteen other people on the outskirts of the large burial ground.
He says, and I am not quoting this word for word because I couldn't find the exact quote on the internet,
"This is my story: I can't work because my wife is dead and I have to take care of my children. My twenty year old son is mentally retarded and so we have to tie him up all day to keep him from wandering off. We have no running water, no drains, and no electricity, but we are alive. God will not forget about us. I do not believe that God would put a population here if he did not have a plan for us."

If you do watch the documentary, tell me what you thought about it in the comments :)

Peace, love, and humanity,
Sara

Say, Sara- Staying Close

Say, Sara
When you graduate do you still plan on being close to your friends? 
-Anonymous 


Why yes, I do plan on staying close to them.
Paige and Elizabeth are like my sisters. I know that I annoy them from time to time, and that Paige gets tired of hearing about my latest nerd obsessions, but we all love each other dearly.
Those two girls can make me laugh even when I'm having a horrible day. We build each other up, create imaginary murder plots for the people who hurt us, and do the silliest things.
I honestly don't know what I would do without either of them.

Me and Cap'n!

When we go off to college and end up miles away from each other, I don't think anything will change.
At least I really hope not. I think they'll still be my favorite confidants. 
Assuming that I get married one day, I'll have them be my maids of honor because I could never choose just one of them :)


I know that people change and sometimes grow apart, but I feel like the second part is optional. 
People grow apart because one or both of them needs that change to make things better for themselves. 
Sometimes people can hold you back from greatness. They can knock you down, trample you, and still be unable to see what went wrong. But some people, the people who are better for you to be around, they will raise you up. They'll push you out of your comfort zone and allow you to reach goals in your life that you never thought possible. Those people are the kind of humans I like to surround myself with.
I don't see myself growing apart from Paige and Elizabeth. If they ever grew apart from me, I'd be pretty sad and I wouldn't really know what to do.

The three of us are like really mature kids.
I remember one day a year or two ago when Paige and I were bored out of our minds.
Sure, we could have played on the internet or watched TV, but what did we do? We ended up having the "Walnut Olympics" in my backyard.
We got out a bucket and threw huge walnuts at it from varying distances. We lined walnuts up on the picnic table and threw more walnuts at them to clear the table off. We even hung walnuts from clothes pins on the laundry line and tried to knock them off with other walnuts.
That was when I knew that Paige and I were pretty awesome people. Because who else has fun at like fifteen or fourteen years old by throwing around some walnuts? I think we could do the very same thing now and still have fun. :)

Paige, me, and my brother :)

In conclusion, I do plan on staying close to my friends after high school. And not just Paige and Elizabeth, but all of the wonderful people that I have come to know over the last couple of years.
I hope that no matter where we all end up in the world that we can make time for each other.

Peace, love, and skating,
Sara

Scribbling: #2

Niceville, Florida 2012

I am silent,

Down narrow hallways do I creep 

To the room that holds the girl in a light and shallow sleep. 

She that resides between the spaces, 

In a land of shifting faces, 

Does taunt me with her effortless rest.

Friends Are Friends

The other day my friends Koas and Olle were brought up in conversation and someone said, "But you met them on the internet" as if this fact somehow made our friendship less real.
To be honest, it bugged me quite a bit.

We live in a world where the people we meet do not always have to be seen in person.
We might meet them on an internet forum, Xbox Live, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc.
And, if they seem legit enough, we build relationships with them.
Or you might be stupid and fall for a con or something, but that's not what I'm talking about today.

Last November I met two people who I would later consider two of my very good friends.
I'll be honest, when I first started talking to them, I struggled with understanding what they were saying.
I guess that's my Southern American-ness coming back to bite me. :)

It was my best friend Paige who told me to get on Xbox that day. Her message read, "Get on Xbox! There are guys with accents! :)". And so I got on Xbox.
The Guys With Accents turned out to be Koas (he's English) and Olle ( he's Swedish), and I felt like an idiot because I kept having to say, "What?" because I couldn't understand them half the time. I don't remember if my accent caused them problems or not. :)

It didn't really make sense for me to have problems understanding Koas, I had grown up with Harry Potter and other shows or movies that had a primarily British cast. But for whatever reason, I was having issues and I felt reallly stupid.
It turned out not to matter though, I got used to both of their accents pretty fast. Occasionally, I still have problems with their slang :) 

We started talking on Skype, which is one of my favorite inventions. The biggest problem? The time difference. Koas is six hours ahead of me and Olle is seven hours ahead. So as soon as I got off the bus (this was before I could drive) I would make a beeline for my room and log on to talk to them.
Olle even tried to teach me some Swedish once. It turns out that I'm too American for his fancy pants language :)

The point is, it doesn't matter how you meet someone. Friends are friends, no matter how far away they are.
I tell Koas and Olle more than I tell some of my friends who live just down the street from me.
And, they never fail to make me laugh :)

Peace, love, and British Television,
Sara

A Weekend Involving Time Travel and Symphony No. 5

This weekend was awesome. I saw The Amazing Spider-man with Paige and Elizabeth on Saturday. It was great! :)
On the way home, it was raining and thundering and I had one of my idiotic ideas.

Me: We're about to pass Dylan's house (one of our friends), put my Ipod on Symphony No. 5.
Paige: Why?
Me: Just do it!
Paige:... Found it!
Me: Alright, now text Dylan from my phone and tell him to go outside.
Paige: Why?
Me: Just do it!
Paige: I don't think I like where this is going.
Me: *smiles devilishly*
Paige: Alright, I sent it.
Me: Fantastic.

A few minutes later, we were about to be in front of Dylan's house.

Me: Alright, play it!! *Rolls down window, blares Symphony No. 5 while making my own imitation of gangster signs out the window*
Paige: *While laughing* Oh wow, how do your seats lean back again?

I love making Paige laugh :) But alas, my efforts were for nothing. Dylan was at Cap'n D's. 

In other non-important news, I've recently become a fan of Doctor Who, which is something I never thought I would be. I'm always hearing references and my friend Tristan watches it, so I decided that I wanted to know what it was all about. And frankly? It's amazing.
It has made me laugh, cry, jump off the couch out of excitement, cover my eyes because the Silence and the Angels scare me, and fall in love with more fictional characters.
I've been watching it for about a week and a half and I'm already almost done with two seasons with Matt Smith as The Doctor. I also had to add Matt Smith to my long list of husbands.
He now ranks number three, right behind Adrien Brody :)

Essentially, I'm a very huge geek. I've always been like that, and I've always embraced it.
I'm always looking for a new book series or a new show to fall in love with, and now I've got a new one :)
Paige still refuses to watch it with me, but I know she'll have to eventually...When all of our friends are watching it!!! MWAHAHAHA! 

I just love everything about it. It's smart, witty, cheesy, sad, tragic, etc.
And, The Doctor is amazing. :)

Peace, Love, and Fezzes,
Sara

Say, Sara- Building A Blog

Say Sara,
How did you create such a fantastic blog?
I need some advice, I started blogging yesterday and with only one reader (who's one of my best friends) I feel like writing for ghosts :)
How can I get more readers? What can I do to better my blog?
I really admire you, you made a wonderful work in your blog, so I think you could help me:) Thanks:)
A Newbie And Supporter,
Cassandra  


Thank you very much for reading! I love hearing from my readers. It makes me all happy and junk :)
Pretty much everyone has a hard time with readers at first. But trust me, they will stumble across your blog eventually and if they like what they see? They'll probably stick around. 
After you've written a few posts, you might want to do some experimenting with the actual look of the blog. I recommend finding free blog backgrounds on sites such as Shabby Blogs, Dotty Dot Dot Designs, or sites similar to those. But, it's entirely up to you :)
After I had my blog for a few months, I realized that I actually did want to hear feedback on the things I was writing about and without readers, feedback is sort of hard to come by. 
So I started searching around for other teen bloggers, and I found a few. They read my stuff and followed and I did the same for them.
Also, posting a link to your blog on Facebook is a good way to start, although I don't blame you if you don't want people who see you every day to read your stuff. I know I didn't when I first got started. 


Also, don't forget to add labels to every post. Doing so gives search engines something to find and allows more people to come across your blog. (By the way, drop me a link to your blog in the comments!)


You may have already done this, but having multiple pages on your blog might be something fun for both you and your readers. I'm about to redo a few of mine and turn them into something new.
Offering a way for readers to contact you very simply and easily is a great way to connect to your audience. In fact, if I didn't have Say, Sara, then I probably wouldn't be talking to you right now and that would be stink-ish.
Also, making a blog button and a Facebook page should draw attention. 
If others really like your blog, they can grab your button and put it on their own page. 
I hope I was able to help you in some way :) 


Peace, Love, and Bowties-That-Are-Cool, 
Sara

The South

I have always talked about how much I want to get out of Tennessee on this blog.
Sure, I still want to travel the world and live in tons of places, but I understand now that I am going to miss it here.
For those of you who don't really understand how to picture the south, I'll try my best to paint it for you.

In the south, it is common to see little boys with mud smeared faces playing alongside half dried up creek beds. There are plenty of ghost stories and tall tales that have been passed down for generations.  
There are winding dusty back roads that display the land in ways that cannot be described as anything other than beautiful. 
In the south, there is the smell of sweet iced tea on the breath of pretty much everyone. 
Hands hang out of rolled down car windows and wave at passing cars. 
People do a lot of waving here. The person doing the waving most likely doesn't even recognize the passing car, but they still wave and smile. 
Everyone knows everyone, at least in some small way, here. 

There are lightning bugs in the summer, and the forests are set ablaze with hues of red and orange in the fall.
Summer nights are spent conversing with neighbors on front porches with sweet tea and lemonade.
The stories told of past adventures bring smiles to everyone's face.

In the south, people tend to support each other. They are genuinely happy that you won whatever it was because you happen to be the police chief's son's wife's niece's third cousin's husband.

There are parades held at homecoming and at Christmas in which the band always marches.
There are quilts hand sewn for grandchildren and logs in fireplaces.

But, overall, my favorite thing about living in the south are the stories told by the people that I love.
I usually sit, listening quietly and laughing with everyone else, as I hear for the five hundredth time the story about my father being tied to a tree with a hose pipe when he was a little boy.
Or the plentiful ghost stories that my mother, aunt, and grandmother never seem to run out of.

There are stars here, though not as many as there are in more rural parts of the world, and I smile each time I see Orion in the sky.
Once, when I was about six or seven, I remember walking up the sidewalk to my nanny's house and looking up at the starry night sky.
"There must be something else out there besides us," I said to my parents. They both agreed.
That night, I first understood how small I really was.

There is something about the quality of light here that is utterly enchanting.
In the early morning and late afternoon, the land is full of both soft and sharp contrasts between light and shadow. There is bright green grass against deep orange sunsets. There is the black of the asphalt beside the field of wildflowers.

In the south, the summers are hot and the winters are frigid.
In the south, there is plenty of room to run and explore in the woods.
In the south, I learned about the value of family and the blessing of friends.

Peace, Love, and Late Afternoon Light,
Sara.

Say, Sara- On Rumors

Say, Sara
How do you stay so strong!? Your so committed to your blog, and your music. I don't even know you, and your like my ideal! I check your blog almost every day. Just to see what you have to say! I hope you continue your blog forever! It makes me cry, and laugh (sometimes at the same time)! :). So, I was wondering, There is this nasty rumor going around my home town about me... I don't even want to show my face anymore! :(. What do I do? How can I stop it!?


A lover of your work,
Melia 

Thank you for saying those things :) It makes me extremely happy to know that someone understands what I'm writing about.
I only consider myself strong sometimes. No one can be strong all the time because at some point in all of our lives something will break us. The only thing that really matters is how we put ourselves back together.
As for my blog and my music, I look to writing (both music and stories that I can never get quite right) as a way to think. When I write, I never know exactly what the outcome might be, I just know that I have to get my thoughts onto paper.

Now, to answer your question.
I wish that I could tell you the exact solution to stopping a hurtful rumor. Sadly, there isn't a real way.
What I can tell you, is that you are stronger than the words of people who don't know what they're talking about. I've been the victim of rumors in the past and it is definitely not a fun place to be in.
People are so quick to assume that whatever they hear from someone else is true. People are also quick to judge you based on these things.

When I was in middle school, people were not very nice to me. I was (and still am) a weird kid.
I got called awful names, and if you might recall from an earlier post, a particularly hateful girl spat on my shoes.
Later, just last year, someone told me that they were only mean to me because they had heard something about me from someone else. Needless to say, that person is not my friend anymore.

So how do you beat the rumor?
Be so much better than the idiots who are spreading it around.
Be strong, be wise, and most of all, be brave.

People who spread rumors do it for attention. They do it to single out someone they might label as weak.
But guess what? You aren't weak.
You have more strength than all of the people who believed in and spread that rumor.
Why? Because you heard those things being said about you, and you kept going.

Never let anyone's idea of you define who you are. Rise above their ignorance and make them regret the things they've said by setting an example of epic coolness. :)

Peace, love, and battle scars,
Sara