Inspiring People

I have compiled a list of people that are inspiring to me. Some of them are people I know, some of them are famous people.

I'll start with famous people.

ShayCarl + Katilette
They have youtube channels, they are a couple with 4 kids. (Shaytards, Katilette, Shayloss, Shaycarl, etc). They have been one of the biggest influences on my life to date. They make daily vlogs (videos/ video logs) on youtube of just their daily adventures. I'm not explaining everything about them, but Shay went through a long process of finally losing 100 pounds, which was extremely inspiring. He ran 2 marathons, and now his wife is running a half-marathon. They started eating healthier and such. Plus I love their kids. So they have influenced my healthy lifestyle--- a lot. AND my happiness, and attitudes towards life.

Tina Fey
You can't say you didn't see this happening (me writing her name in this blog). She isn't especially "inspiring" as she has been influential. I love her mostly because she is absolutely hilarious and beautiful. But she is influential as well. She influenced my style a lot, and she has influenced the types of comedy I like. She has inspired me to just "go for things" as well, from certain things I read in her book.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
He's a guy from the 19th Century. He didn't really "influence" me of anything, but I have found we have many identical thoughts, which in process, makes him inspiring. He had contributed some ideas towards individualism and such. I don't know too much about his personal life, but I love his quotes and his ideas. I am going to get one of his quotes tattooed on eventually. This one "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist".

Okay, now onto personal people. Wow. That made logic. Logic makes lots of today. Today lots makes of logic.

k.

So I am not putting names for these people, but I will identify who they are. My friends will know who they are, based on what I put down. They are all teachers... soo...

The first person is a teacher. She helped me break out of my comfort zone. I had her for Careers and Peer tutoring. I really felt like I could talk to her. I got some feedback and stuff from her for peer tutoring, and she helped me break out of my comfort zone. As well, it helped that she treated me like an equal to her, rather then a student. She would laugh with me about certain things, and easily trusted me to do things for her, like marking tests, giving me her keys to go to her car, just stuff like that.

Well, as stated, they are all teachers. I have had this teacher for history. I HATED history before Grade 10. Then I had her, and she changed my point of view completely. It takes an amazing teacher to get a person to like something you used to despise. I see her a lot outside of school. She's not the most "personal" teacher, but more recently we've talked more. She's sort of a closed teacher, she doesn't talk about herself much. But we've became closer which is nice.

Last teacher. I had her for Family Studies. The very first day I had her, I HATED her. But then I loved her, so it was all good. She is an amazing teacher. She knew when her class was getting bored and would tell jokes to make us laugh. She is the one teacher that I would go to for anything, if I ever had to for whatever reason. She helped me find my voice. I was really quiet in that class, but from talking to her... after that class was OVER :(, she helped me develop a voice, and made me aware that I can actually talk, and that people want to hear my opinion. Hearing that made my life.

These three teachers are amazing. They know it too, because I have written two of them thank-you cards, and the other one I nominated her for an award, she didn't win but she got honourable mention.

And the three (well four) celebrities are also amazing.

They are just some of the people who helped make me who I am today. You know, besides my parents, and friends, etc.

But these are the type of people I... I don't want to say worship, but respect, a lot. I hope to meet ShayCarl and Katilette someday. They are so down to earth and amazing. It would be likely for me to meet them someday, as well. Tina Fey, it is less likely, but who knows!

Anyways.
I guess this is it for now.

Personal Quote: "I don't drink because I am rebelling against teenagers."

This here, is a blog post about religion.

I haven't blogged in over two weeks. The past two weeks have literally been the weirdest ever. 


I have just had the weirdest conversations and the most awkward confrontations with a few people. I have had a couple of huge personal realizations, 1 mental breakdown, and about 50 awkward thoughts. 


All I know, is based upon these two weeks, I think this summer is going to be pretty awesome. 


But that is not what I am blogging about. I am blogging about religion. 


Now, I know that everyone is going to ignore this, but just to clarify, these are my personal beliefs, I do not put anybody's personal beliefs below mine, well thats a half-lie, I do. I believe my assumptions are correct, but I do not believe yours are incorrect. I respect your religion and the idea of you having a religion. I do not put down religions, or other people's thoughts and beliefs. I just put mine out there so much, that sometimes it comes off as hurtful comments.


So as a disclaimer, if I insult you in any way shape or form, I apologize. If I insult your RELIGION in any way shape or form, I do not apologize. I respect your opinions and thoughts of religion, but whether or not I respect your actual religion, is up to me. Likely, I do. I can't think of any religions I currently flat out disrespect.


But here we go.


I was raised an Anglican Christian. Until about age 8/9 I stopped going to Sunday School/Church, because of the dumbest reason ever (I got into a fight with my mom over a pair of pants she didn't want me to wear yet to church, and I wanted to, so she didn't let me go to Sunday school as a punishment... just for that Sunday, but after that day, I slowly trickled away from going).


But after I stopped going to church, I was still considering myself a Christian. I would go to a couple of my friends youth groups from time to time, I would attend family baptisms, weddings, funerals, etc. A couple of times I became more religious on my own, and would wear my cross necklace more often. I would also watch Sunday Services online in Live Streams from churches. 


But then suddenly, within the past 2 years, my views have been changing more. Back then, I had no idea what religion was. I just thought it was something everybody did. I wasn't even overly aware that other religions existed until I was probably 10-12 years of age. 


But then I found out that Athiesm exists and was like, whoa. 


I am not 100% how my thought process of religion worked.


I became more spiritual, for example, into angels, tarot cards, spirits, learning about the afterlife, psychic, etc. I am less spiritual then I have been now.


But I guess about a year ago I officially stopped calling myself a Christian, because I just sort of shifted away from it. 


I had called myself different religions though. Like Spiritualist Christian, Agnostic, Spiritualist, Agnostic Theist, Spiritual Agnostic (basically agnostic). 


But I guess I have similar morals (like all of society) to the Christian church. I do still carry some Christian beliefs, but I guess thats a given. 


But down to my beliefs currently:


I do not believe there is a god. I believe that every living thing on this earth (plants, animals (humans)) is equal. Yes, I believe that I am as important to this earth as Cannabis, or an Earthworm. I believe that everything in this earth serves an equal purpose, therefore should be considered equal.


This being said, I don't believe in higher powers. I believe that things like "Gods" and "higher powers" and things like Feudalism, and any other chain that shows something at the top and something at the bottom, are just because people throughout history have been somewhat stumped/confused as to who/what to look up to. 


People think they need someone in charge of them or someone to look up to. Kids have parents, for example. We have bosses at work, and teachers and school, that have some form of responsibility over us.


So society teaches us that we need to look up to a certain figure. Then all people in history ask themselves, well who do these higher powers look up to? Kings? Gods? 


Believing in a god simply gives some people a purpose, in my opinion. I know that sometimes I wish I could just get down and pray to a god and ask for things to get better, its a great feeling, I admit it. Its a great feeling to think that something else is above you and responsible for you.


But as an individualist, I believe that you are responsible for governing your own actions. 


But I think people that do pray, in a sense its good for them. Because if a person truly believes in a god, and prays to the god to... let's say, get a girlfriend (this is a REALLY FAR stretch) but lets say somebody prays to find a girlfriend, and maybe by simply "praying" this thought in their brain triggers other things to actually go out and find a girlfriend. I think this false hope from people above you (who don't exist, and are a figment of your imagination) can inspired people to actually get things done and change their life.


Sorry, have I lost you yet? 


Now, I don't believe in gods, as I said, I think every one is equal.


But I do believe in some form of afterlife, reincarnation, etc. Why?


Well, let me get into the Spiritual/Religion VS Science debate.


Scientists will basically tell you, there is no afterlife, correct? (If I am wrong, please do correct me). But its because they have NO FACTS to back it up. Correct?


Well, heres a question. 10,000 years ago, did we have facts to prove that Pi = 3.14159? No. 


That is a mathematical/scientific... CREATION. Thats right, went there. Creation. 


There were no facts to prove pi = 3.14. There still aren't, in my opinion. It is a created THEORY. 


But anyways, straying from the point. There are no facts to back it up.


I am a spiritualist. I think the spirit moves on to something else, after the body decays. The body gets worn out physically from all of the mental and physical tortures it has been through in this life. The spirit lives.


Some people believe that people don't have spirits. Let me start off by asking you, what does a spirit mean to you? Your emotions, and thoughts? The soul? 


I think that there is more to life then just your body aging and decaying. I know that thats what science says. But maybe the spirit doesn't exist. I have no proof to prove that it does. But I don't believe "YOLO". 


I gotta say, my favourite thing is when Christians say "YOLO!" because do they not know that Christianity generally believes that you don't only live once? It believes in things like the afterlife (heaven), etc.


Again, digression.


Okay. My general point with the afterlife, I guess is that I think there is more to life than what is known. We discover new things everyday in science and in general. For some reason people think that we haven't discovered everything. Well I think that we haven't discovered the spirit as much as we can. Maybe we cannot visit the afterlife or reincarnation, but we certainly can strengthen our spirits, in my opinion.


Now, my idea of the afterlife is different from chrstianity's, though. I don't think that its like going to heaven or hell. I believe that different spirits can move on to being other living things, i.e., reincarnation. If I told you what I REALLY believe about reincarnation, people would think I am a bit more of a freak, than I am already trying to lead you to believe. But I think that people can also be ghosts, angels., etc. Hell, I think you can be reincarnated as a rat, a piece of grass, a bird, another human, a bull... any living thing... no, anything with a spirit. 


The spirit can move on. The body cannot. That is that.


So in general, I guess I will just say I am an agnostic.


Although I don't believe there is a god, I do not fully disregard the possibility that there is one. I don't know, so I can't officially say there isn't. But based on my beliefs there isn''t.
And Although I believe there is some form of afterlife, I do not fully disregard the possibility that there is not one. 


Its just a fine line. So thats why I guess I'm an agnostic. Unless theres some other word to describe my religion that I am unaware of. 


The things that inspired this blog post have been:
- Things I learned in Grade 11 History this year
- The Funeral I was at on Saturday
- A podcast I listened to, of some of my favourite youtubers (Who are Mormons)


Personal Quote: Look, I'm not saying that I love tina fey or anything.. But if there was a 'gay4fey' fanclub, I'd be the president

Seeing a Person for who they really are

We all judge people. We are all guilty of it, whether or not we choose to admit it.

We may think "I accept all people of all ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, genders, stereotypes, etc". But in the end, at one point or another you will see another person or hear something of another person and judge that thing.

For example. *Insert name here* just got a nipple piercing. Judged? Yes. 

OR

*Insert name here* just shaved half of their hair. Judged? Yes.

OR

*Insert name here* skipped 4th period yesterday. Judged? Yes.

I am guilty of it. The biggest way I am guilty of judging people is by judging them based upon their appearance. I find I am very guilty of it at work. I am really skeptical about some of the people that come to the Library, and a lot of them are somewhat "sketchy" (judged). But the truth is, no matter what, there is a person in there.

I am not saying I am going to get to know these people at work, but still, I accept that there is a human in there, worthy of not having to be judged.

Recently in one of my classes, there were a few people in my art class I really judged hardcore. I even talked to these people in class. I assumed they were in Art just for the credit, thinking its an easy course. I am in it (was :( ) because I like expressing myself. Also, I decided I didn't want Marketing and dropped that course and art was one of my only options. For part of our culminating activity, we had to get into groups of 4-5 people and the teacher would ask one person in the group, questions about their art and the other members of the group would watch. My friend went first, I went second.

Everybody else went afterwards.

Now, some people here may not actually understand how art is a form of personal expression, especially if you have not taken art or actually understand art. 

But 3 of the members of my group I was not expecting them to be deep and actually have meaning behind their art. My art has a LOT of symbolism and stuff in it, which they were really impressed by. But going around looking at their art and hearing their point of view, and them actually talking about art, I judged them. I thought that they wouldn't know anything about art (some didn't) but the truth is that their art did have meaning behind it. 

I actually learned things about them through their art. Things that I judged about them. The one person actually had a favourite artist. I didn't think he liked art at all, considering the fact that he has skipped. The other members, besides me and my friend all said they regretted missing certain units (from skipping) and that they wished they hadn't.

It was actually so fascinating to me to learn about themselves through their art. At first I thought they might be bullshitting their oral presentations (JUDGED) but then I realized, this is kind of hard to bullshit. They were actually being honest.

I hope that the teacher gives them a good mark. I think that even she was impressed over how much meaning and understanding they have actually acquired in their art this year.

I should tell her that. I just might.

So I guess the moral of my story is to look deeper into people to see who they really are. Sometimes judging *isn't* a bad thing. Sometimes its safe to judge people. Like maybe you judge someone as a stalker, and they actually are, thats not bad. Unless they aren't, then you are kind of screwed. But you just have to find your fine line.

But no matter what you do, do not expect the way you judge someone to actually be who they are, because chances are, you are wrong. 

You judge people based off of your personal experiences and opinions throughout life: i.e., that guy from 5 years ago that never washed his hair, and steals money, and then thinking the next time you see a guy who never washes their hair,  5 years later, you may judge them to be a thief, although maybe they are homeless, or cannot afford their water bill that month. Who knows? 

You never know.

I am changing "Life Advice" to "Quotes" but they will be quotes that I have made up. Either that or something REALLY inspirational to me.

Personal Quote: "The first mistake a historian can make is believing their current civilization is superior to the past civilization of their studies."

Random Facts about me that make me weird/gross

This blog post will be random points about myself. Most of them will be weird or gross things about me, that makes me an extremely odd human on this earth. So you don't need to tell me I am abnormal, I know it.

I have eaten in the shower before. I don't do it all of the time. But I have when I was really tired and hungry and needed to shower. Obviously this is weird.

I still sleep with the blanket I slept with as a baby. I have a legitimate reason though, it is not really soft or really rough, so I use it as a pillow so it forms to my head. All other pillows annoy me. But I just slept with it up until like age 8/9 then continued at some point when I was like 13 maybe? Because I just wanted to once, then didn't stop. So yeah, I'm pretty much cool.

I used to ride my scooter + bike up and down the driveway in Lyndhurst when I was 6-9ish and would pretend I was on a TV show talking about either being healthy, or how to ride a bike. Sometimes I would pretend it was a segment on "Zoom".

I have had an insane amount of imaginary friends throughout the years. I remember at one point I had a bunch of imaginary animals. So many horses, cats, dogs, birds. It actually affected my social life, not just in my head. I would think on my way to school, that the dogs and horses and birds were running along the bus with me. I would pretend to feed my pet rabbits and dogs with "feeding buttons" I had imagined on the wall. The only name of any of the animals I can remember, is my favourite bird that I had, Rainbow. I used to have regular imaginary friends as well. Once I had one named Jessica, who I didn't like. I decided she would move to Belleville, next door to my grandma (this was when I lived in Lyndhurst). When I moved to Belleville, this storyline remained in my life with my imaginary friends. In my world, I was pissed I had to move me and my besties (Krista, Taryn, Breanne, Alexis, Jenna, Cora, Cara, etc) next door to her, because I hated her so much.  (I had imaginary friends up until grade 6/7).

One time when I lived at my Grandmas, she had some paper reinforcers (you know, those white circles that you put around hole-punched pages when they get ripped). Well I had no idea what they were. I convinced myself that they had "popular powers" and that if I performed a ritual in which I took them and stuck them to different parts of my body for 10 seconds before school that it would give me "popularity".

In Grade 8 I sent Dylan Sprouse a letter expressing how good of friends I thought we would be, and inviting him to my Grad. I also sent him a key ring, telling him that it had meaning, and I wore my own keyring on a string around my neck for the majority of 8th grade, thinking that it actually had meaning to him.

One time when I was about 7/8 I was in the living room, watching TV while my mom was in the shower. I started flipping through the channels, and went to the 900s (which were mostly restricted material). I selected one of the channels. It was lesbian porn. I was so confused, I had no idea what it was. My mom walked out of the bathroom into witnessing me watching lesbian porn.

The night I got my braces out I chewed on a toothbrush for about 2 hours because "it felt good".

When I am alone, I talk to animals. Like squirrels and birds and stuff. One time I was by the soccer field by zwicks park. I started talking to a chipmunk. Somebody saw me and awkwardly walked by.


I used to.. practically "worship" some objects of mine, like idols. As a child. I had a Mcdonalds toy of some evil guy from a movie. I began "worshipping" and "talking to it". It "spoke to me" and told me to go attack my dad. I went out into the living room and jumped on my dads shoulders and began pulling his hair. I also worshipped yet another mcdonalds toy. It was Jasmine (From aladdins) necklace. I used to believe it gave me "pretty/sexy powers". I used to hold it up to parts of my body to think that I could fill it with love and then open it and release the powers and get whatever guy I wanted. I also had this other plastic heart necklace with like dogs and stuff on it. It was on a weird green cord and I used to store small things in it. I felt this necklace represented friendship. I would share little candies stored in it with friends. I would put colours that represented friends in it. I would write their names in it.

Thats all for now folks. Hope you found something useful to make fun of me with :)

Happiness is a Choice.

I have been so happy lately! Just the attitude I have been putting towards life, and the events that have happened, have just put me at a high.

I believe happiness is a choice, and happiness is the way you react and place yourself in the events in your life.

I guess it is kind of like the half-glass argument. Which actually gets on my nerves, so this will probably be the only time I will ever talk about it ever.

But let's say, I put a positive outlook towards something in my life, I am obviously going to be happier. 

For example, from Midterms, my history mark has gone down 3%. I could mope about that. But I choose to be happy about how my law mark has raised by 1%. 

Besides, I still have time to study for history.

Today I was stressed out a little about time, because I forgot I had a drivers ed lesson today, for two hours. But instead of freaking out about it, I went to it, and now I am done drivers ed. Everything worked out for time in the end, I went to the gym and worked on my Law presentation AND studied for history for an hour. I chose to look at the positive of it being my last lesson.

I've only been to the gym 2 times this week. Which sucks. But I choose to look at it this way: I am eating healthy everyday, and I *also* reflected back on some old twit pics of mine and realized HOW FREAKING BUFF I am getting. I have gained 10 pounds of muscle. So I reflected on that, and that made me happy. 

I saw a status on facebook about "nothing ever works out". It doesn't work out because you won't let it work out. Let me ask you, what do you WANT to work out? Do you want your grades higher? Study. You don't have time to study? Well, maybe you should drop some other activities in your day. You "can't". Well that my friend, is called sacrifice. I don't know how to fix your problems, but you need to ask yourself "What can I do to give myself more time in my day?". I can't tell you, but you can certainly tell yourself.

You can do anything you put your mind to.

I am one of those cheesy people that says "Anything is possible.". I actually believe in that phrase more than I actually should, because I go to the extent of honestly believing that ANYTHING is possible. For example, living after decapitation, a Canadian citizen becoming the president of the united states, or a monkey growing from my butt.

Although those are VERY unlikely to happen, I won't say they are impossible. Sure, they haven't happened yet, but you never know what could happen in the future through science, new laws, new discoveries. Just change. 

If you feel you are unhappy right now, and you don't want to change, then there is your issue right there.

Some may argue that they cannot simply "change". Of course not. Sometimes it takes years, an entire life, or even just 5 minutes. I can do it on my own, others require assistance.

But change doesn't just pop up and happen, you need to let it happen or make it happen. 

Its all in your hands. Contrary to popular belief, happiness is not something that comes to you, it is something you radiate out. 

Life Advice: JUST TRY IT.