30 Day Writer's Challenge | Day 1

As I sit here with 15 minutes until midnight trying to nurse my sudden case of insomnia, all I can think about is what the heck...? (Feel free to fill in the ellipse with whatever you choose. I will explain my ellipse later.) So, to hopefully gain some sense of clarity on my life and everything that is involved, I decided to take up a challenge that my lovely friend Katherine has extended. It is a 30-day writing challenge. Now, this is not your writing everyday activities entry.  Entries should be thought provoking, interesting, and passionate.  Think about it, the more interesting, the more people will want to read.  She also provided a great website that provides many, many ideas on topics.  So there's no excuse.  Get up and tease the brain.  I challenge all of my blogging friends out there to do the same.  Here goes nothing...

In my Life-span Development class I have been challenged to write a personal history report on muah.  Now, this may sound incredibly interesting to all of my viewers out there, but alas, my life is a tragic story.  Okay, maybe not.  But it is something to ponder.   The assignment is as follows:

 Identify critical turning points in your own life, some that you have experienced already and some that you anticipate.  Relate these points to theories about social and cognitive development to explain the impact of each event.  How do the events transform you into a "different" person?  Were there events that occurred during particular stages that changed you?  Address in your report your family, education, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.  You should consider what you already know about development ("critical periods", "milestones", etc).

So my first homework assignment becomes a sort of self-reflection on my history and the events that shaped me into, well, me.  While, this may seem a pretty heavy post for my first writer's challenge, it is one that I have been constantly thinking about.  All the thoughts of my childhood rush to my mind as I think about how I grew up.  Parents divorced when I was 8.  I moved in with my mother to a completely different state when I was 11.  I entered (and survived) high school.  I graduated, went to BYU for a year and then unsuccessfully came home.  I entered into the world of work when I was 18.  I have had a rocky relationship with my father and an even rockier one with God.  But all of these things, I think past.

I continue to think about my life in the last two months.  Those of you that have followed my blog before now know that I spent an amazing five weeks in gorgeous Italy.  In those five weeks, I didn't feel a change.  I didn't think that I would come back a different person.  We were told for months leading up to our departure that this trip would change us.  I didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal.  But when I arrived home and dove into my once normal life of work and school, I woke up from the Italian coma that I had been sleeping in and realized how wrong I was. 

Italy completely changed me.  We were told that when coming home it was normal to suffer from a sort of depression state.  Things were different around us.  I went from an easy-going, completely carefree community to the hustle-bustle and zooming traffic of my old world.  It wasn't until I was sitting back at my little 4'x6' cubicle, typing another redundant email about maintenance or supplies (I can't remember which one), when I realized this is not the life I want.  All I could think about was the lyrics that Belle sings in Beauty and the Beast.  "I want adventure in that great, wide somewhere...I want it more than I can tell."  How true these words speak to me.

My personal history report may turn into something small.  Sure, all of my past events, my "critical periods" have shaped me into who I am, but that trip to Italy, my five weeks in Tuscan heaven, have completely transformed me into someone that wants adventure from life.  I strive for something more.  And even though I may not graduate until I'm 30, I will make something of who I am in between those years.  Because really, what is life without the adventure?  Life without the pleasure?  So I end with a quote that I consider as appropriate in life as it is with food:

I'm so tired of saying 'no' and waking up in the morning recalling every single thing I ate the day before, counting every calorie I consumed so I know exactly how much self-loathing to take into the shower.  I'm going for it.(Eat Pray Love)