Expressions of Silence

My philosophy on life, or at least on how to look at life, is to look at other people's problems and challenges to put your own into perspective. I know that I do more than my fair share of whining. It never fails that if I think I'm having a hard time with something and I just talk to someone else for five minutes about how their life is going, I feel that my problems aren't so bad after all. (Although, sometimes this makes me feel worse, because then I feel guilty for thinking that my problems were bad...) Now, I believe that everyone here on the earth and who has ever lived is faced with different trials suited to their personality, character, and skills. That should make you stop and think a little about your own or others' challenges.

I have been blessed to have full use of all my senses my whole life thus far. I can wake up in the morning to a beautiful sunrise and see all of the different colors in the clouds and the sky and watch as the sun makes everything golden and alive. I have my sense of hearing intact as well. As anyone who knows me at all knows, I LOVE to talk, but I also LOVE to listen. I like to listen to people speak in conversation or when making a speech, and I love to listen to music. Music is a very important part of my life in listening, but also in expressing myself through singing and playing the piano. It is very hard for me to imagine being deprived of either of these great senses and living through life with any measure of satisfaction. Yet, there are people, amazing people, who do just that. Some people, whether born without or as a result of some later incident in life, cannot hear. Some cannot see. Of course, there are other senses, but as of this point in time, these are the senses I feel I would have the hardest time without.

I was recently privileged enough to go watch/listen to a concert by Expressions of Silence. I'm not very informed about the group, but the basics are that they are the choir from the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind which is located in Great Falls, MT. Kids from all over the state go to this school, and have a schedule much the same as the public schools in the area. This choir meets after school, and is comprised of 5th to 12th graders. They have performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and they traveled to Washington D.C. to perform as well. The signing is not a direction translation of the songs for the most part, as I understand it, it's mostly artful signing. These few facts I know I found out from a friend who got to meet with the group earlier in the day and from a sheet they gave people before the concert describing the group a bit. I hope to find out more about just how they learn the music and how to sign in time and such, but since I don't know right now, I'm not going to attempt to tell about what I don't know.

And so back to the concert I attended. I believe part of their theme was 1950's music, so they began their concert with several pieces from the 50's. They signed all of their songs, and had dance routines as well. They all looked like they were having such a grand time up there. They also did this song called "Love in Every Language" (I think that's what it was called) and as I understand it this has become a routine part of any concert they give. The last half of their concert was filled with songs about love and understanding like "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer and patriotic songs such as "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood and "Citizen Soldier" by 3 Doors Down. I found these songs particularly inspiring for some reason, probably because they weren't just fun songs like the 50's songs had mostly been. They had a message, and the way these kids expressed this message was particularly impressive and inspiring to me. I hope that everyone gets a chance to see something like this. It really opened my eyes and made me appreciate what I had. It also made me think more about those people who don't perhaps experience things in quite the same way as I do, but are still bright, wonderful, loving people capable of expressing themselves.

Strange Snow

This was the snow in town the other day...it was big enough to be hail but it was really, really soft. It was pretty strange I have to say. I didn't really think that it was real snow at first.

A good old fashioned letter

I don't know about you all, but I love writing letters. Real letters that you put in an envelope, lick to seal, and put a stamp on before dropping it in a mailbox. There's something so satisfying about writing out a letter by hand and then by following through the whole process. And then you put it in the mailbox and start wondering about when the person you're sending it to will get it. Eventually, you get to wondering about when and if your correspondent will write you back. And although sometimes this can have a somewhat depressing effect if you don't get a reply, it is all the more rewarding when you do get one in reply.

There's something so much more personal that comes in a handwritten letter than an email or text can ever hope to convey. The individual who wrote the letter's personality shines through the individually formed letters. You can often tell if they were hurried or if they took their sweet time writing it. And almost always, depending on the letter's content of course, you feel so special that someone took the time to write to you in a day in which the world of instant gratification evidenced by cell phones and computers seem to make the handwritten letter obsolete. This may all sound somewhat hypocritical seeing how I am typing it out on a computer to be shared via the internet...but its not really the same. I can't send this little blip to the whole world in an envelope, and it is not intended for one individual. I even wrote a paper about this for my English class this semester. This is how much I really like letters. :)

I've kept pretty much every letter I've ever received. Currently, most of them are in a book in sheet protectors, organized by the sender. If I'm ever feeling a little lonely for someone in particular, or just lonely in general, I pull that book out and read through the letters. Some of my favorites are ones written by my cousins when we were little kids. They're so funny! Kids are pretty consistent...they say funny things, and they write funny things. Also, there was often a drawing or coloring with most of those letters. They just remind me of playing in the old combine in the field, playing board games, and helping my aunt in the kitchen. They remind me of swimming in the canal and riding horses.

Some of my other favorite letters are ones written by Taiwanese friend. She has pretty good English, but sometimes the things she writes are so funny just because of the way she's structured them. I always love reading about life over there. I find it fascinating. Plus, I haven't seen her for a few years, so its great to still communicate with her via letters. Also, the envelopes and stamps she sends the letters in are often really cool because they're Taiwanese.

I always loved having "pen pals" as a kid, obviously I haven't changed much. :)

Sisterly Love

For whatever reason I've decided to talk about my sister today. Probably because I was home all day with her Saturday which only happens once a week, if that. Normally, I'm in town all day at school during the week and she's at school, and on the weekends I spend a lot of time with my friends, because school stuff really doesn't allow for a lot of friend time during the week.

There is about a five year difference between our ages. We are very different, and yet, especially lately I see a lot of similarities...it's rather frightening actually! haha She is a lot messier, louder, and more dramatic than I am in general...(of course, this is all from my obviously biased opinion) She also has an irrational love and tolerance for all four-legged mammals and any bird species you could possibly name. Before my sister expressed major interest in having pets, we never really had very many. We had a few hamsters and a rabbit over the first 14 years or so of my life, but really not very many pets. Since my sister has gotten a bit older we've had 3 geese (not counting the gosling we had for awhile and then gave away), 2 guinea pigs, and several goldfish...more than you can count...This may not seem all that significant to some, but it really is...have you ever been around geese, let alone kept them as pets? Enough quibbles about her animal interests....

We've shared a bedroom since she was about 6 months old...maybe a little older than that, I can't exactly remember...I was only 6, but I distinctly remember her crib being in my room and her screaming and crying for what felt like forever most nights, and that being the only occasion I ever seemed worried about actually getting to sleep because of school the next morning. haha You would think that I would have spent more time around her as a result of this, but I, alas, neglected that duty of getting to know her - partially because of our age difference, partially because she has a tendency to irritate me.

Lately I've been spending more time around her and with her. I went on a trip to Spokane with her a few months back, and I've noticed especially since then that she reminds me of myself...which scares me a lot, because I'm pretty certain that there is really only room enough for one of me in the world! haha She is becoming quite the goofball, but really she was doomed considering how goofy I am...and how several of our other relatives are.

Practice makes perfect...or not...haha

So, I've known for awhile that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to playing pool. In November, I'd only played once before, so why would I know what I'm doing? Since then, I've been determined to get better. So, for about the past month I've been playing several times weekly. Mostly with my buddy Chelsea...who's not the greatest either, she is however better than I am.This is me...attempting to shoot some pool...

And this is what normally happens to me when I play pool...I start laughing like crazy and have to hold myself up on something.
And this is Chelsea...notice the cue ball is off the table quite a way...that happens to me a lot, I just managed to catch it with the camera somehow. We often do amazing things...we just can never do them again because they always happen by complete accident. I have gotten somewhat better, I nearly always hit something when I hit the cue ball...but I still scratch a lot! These games tend to take about 20 minutes apiece! I hope I get better soon...

My first post on my first blog ever!

So, I have a couple of aunts who are really into this blog thing...so I decided to give it a go so I'll have something else besides facebook to distract me when I'm supposed to be doing homework. haha

Well, let's see what should I write about on this very first blog post of mine....well I guess I could talk about college life a little, since that's pretty much what my life is about right now...at least it's supposed to be about that. I'm taking a random smattering of classes to fulfill my general education requirements and also to see if anything really strikes my fancy. I've never really been the sort of person who has known their entire life what they want to be when they grow up. When I was little all I wanted to be was a singer. After I hit the age of about 10 or 11 I realized how unrealistic an ambition that was, and since then I've had no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. So far this year, I've taken classes in astronomy, sociology, anthropology, music, math, English, and Irish. Some of it has been quite interesting and fun, and some of these classes were the epitome of boring and frustrating. I've found that there are some professors who are really neat people who are eager to share what they know and make the classes as interesting as possible. Then there are those professors who are so caught up in what they know and how many years they went to school to get whatever prestigious degree that they have, that they seem to be trying to make their classes as boring as possible to see how many people they can put to sleep. Another observation is that college text books cost a lot! And they're big and heavy! My backpack strap broke today! I'm quite sad...but what does that tell you about the amount of books I've been carrying around for the past 5 months?

Well, I guess I'll wrap it up here...its not too exciting, but its all I could think of because that's what's been on my mind lately. Next post will be more fun I promise! :)