Favorite characters

I am extremely fond of books, especially when I can relate to the characters. I suppose that's why human beings create art; it's meant to reflect life, and human nature. It's natural when reading to see ourselves reflected in the characters of a book. And when we read and think about the characters, we come to understand ourselves better. Thus, I thought I'd make a list of the characters I like. They are in no particular order and I'll probably have to add to it later, as I think of more.

Meg, from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Like me, she reads books and thinks and has an overactive imagination. And she is brave.

Lucian, from The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander. He's a storyteller, who loves listening to stories and learning about the world around him. He tends to overestimate his own abilities sometimes, but he makes it through with help from his friends.

Morwen, from Calling on Dragons by Patricia Wrede. She's a witch, a highly intelligent individual who has about nine cats, with whom she converses on a regular basis.

Edmund, from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I love Edmund because he changes. He knows he made a huge mistake and he does his best to fix it.

Anne Beddingfield, from The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie. She's an extremely adventurous young woman who travels to South Africa by herself, uncovering mysteries along the way.

Vin, from Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. She's brave, but has a hard time trusting people. She is willing to fight for those she loves.

Elizabeth Bennet. from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Yes, I know it's somewhat cliche, but there's a reason the book is so popular. It's really good! And Elizabeth is a very strong character, witty, bold, slightly imprudent. She has to learn to recognize and admit when she makes a mistake, letting go of her pride.

Kim, from Mairelon the Magician and Magician's Ward by Patricia Wrede. She is an orphan who is used to living on her own, but she winds up working with a magician named Mairelon. She's quite resourceful.

The new year

Today is only the second day of this new year. And it does feel new. It's a chance to start over, in a way. It's like opening up a brand new journal and writing in it. As we start the new year, we can decide who we want to be this year and create new memories. But it's also a time to reflect on the past. I don't believe in dwelling on the past or on dreaming too much of the future. Rather, we should learn from the past, plan for the future and live fully in the present. Being in the world is a wonderful experience, and I think we should take full advantage of it. That is what I want to do this year. I want to experience life, to learn from my experiences, and to be the best person I can be. I don't know what this year will bring yet, but I'm excited for it!

Things that make me smile :)

birthday parties

friends

balloons

blue skies

trains

pictures

love notes

clocks (melting ones, or broken ones)

ice cream cones (with ice cream inside)

mint chocolate chip

Pixar movies

good books

flying

fairy tale endings

life, the universe and everything

architecture

starry nights

campfires

irises

s'mores

hugs

waffles

Greek yogurt

cantaloupe

sweaters

old movies

poetry

walks (on the beach, up to campus, through a foreign city at night, etc)

making up words

good conversations

Christmas songs

A good mystery, read while curled up in a comfortable chair on a rainy day.

comfortable couches

stuffed animals

foreign films

cooking with friends (and eating, too!)

art museums

thinking, musing, pondering or otherwise wondering about life

dancing (salsa or country)

Spanish poetry

fall weather

teachers

dreams

lunch

colorful leaves

spiral staircases

Spiral Jetty

roses

trying new things

talking to people

making lists in an attempt to describe myself.

Those lists are probably unavoidably incomplete, but I try anyway. I made another of these last year in July, so I thought it would be interesting to do it again and compare the two. Maybe I'll do it again next year... Here's last years' version:

Singing in the rain.

Cooking with friends.

Dancing.

Pizza.

Love notes.

Letters.

People who genuinely care, and who take time to show it.

Going for walks.

Swimming.

Picnics.

Canyons.

Blue skies, with not too many clouds.

Playing soccer with friends, in Spain or wherever.

Going for walks.

Fireworks on the fourth of July.

The way nighttime smells.

Jumping into/through pool toys...

Writing and expressing myself with words (thus this note).

Hearing songs I like come on the radio.

Lying on the floor with my roommates and talking about whatever we want to.

Talking about books, movies and plays with other people who like talking about books, movies and plays.

Singing out loud, when I'm with people who won't mind.

Museums.

Seeing friends I've been missing for a while.

Swing music.

Finding really cool parks.

Spontaneous dance parties.

Liar's dice.

Hugs.

Fiddle and folk music.

Hearing stories.

Speaking Spanish with people.

Baking cupcakes.

Sharing food.

Weddings!

Laughing.

Waterfalls.

Taking pictures and making memories.

Making people smile.

Musings on life and poetry.

It's been a while since I've written. As you can tell if you look at the dates of all of the posts on here. But I feel like writing again.

It's about midway through my second-to-last semester as an undergrad. It's also my last Wednesday as a 2o-year-old. Life is still good. It's just busy enough to help me avoid boredom, and I am enjoying my classes. I've been reading lots of Spanish poetry, which means I've been thinking about life, love, memories, dreams and philosophy. I enjoy thinking and making connections between all the things I learn. Poetry is a fun way to express thoughts. I've tried writing poetry a few times... I find it easier to write in free verse, without worrying about rhyme schemes or meter. For me, that's a better way to describe life. Life doesn't always fit in a specific meter. It's mixed-up and crazy and complicated. Putting it down in words is hard enough without worrying about making it rhyme. That's not to say that I don't believe there's meaning to life. On the contrary. I believe life is full of meaning. God is real. He loves all of His children, and He does have a plan for us. That's where the meaning of life is and that's why I can say that life is good.

Things I like to do.

So Summer term just started at BYU. It's good to have new classes, even though I enjoyed the ones I had last semester. My senior seminar class for my Humanities minor is going to be awesome. As we were introducing ourselves as everyone does on the first day of class, I got to thinking about things I like to do. Thus, I'm making a list of some things I enjoy.

*I like to travel. It's good to see other parts of the world and meet new people. I hope to go back to Spain and Portugal sometime within the next few years, and I'd love to travel to Chile again. I've already been there with my family, but it's been a while. I would like to see Brazil and England and Ireland, too.

*I love languages. This helps when I travel, because I don't want to fit the stereotype of travelling Americans who expect the world to speak English for their benefit (Note, I said stereotype; that means I don't believe it's universally true, just that it's something that other people believe about people from the USA). I've got a list of languages I want to learn, and so far I've got Spanish and Portuguese, but I'd like to add Italian, French, and German someday, if I have time.

*I love reading. My favorite genres are fantasy, frontier literature (Louis L'Amour--no, he doesn't write only westerns; he writes about frontiers, which is a broader genre), some dystopia (utopias that aren't... like The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, etc.), mysteries (mostly Agatha Christie), and other classic literature. Favorite authors are Lloyd Alexander, C.S. Louis, Isabel Allende. Some of my favorite books are To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, The Alliance by Gerald Lund, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Louis, The Icarus Hunt and Deadman's Switch by Timothy Zahn, and many others.

*I like watching movies for fun and as part of class. When I saw Avatar a few weeks ago, I didn't like the plot but I did like being able to see the themes of romanticism and discovery and so many of the same themes that show up in American literature. (By "American" I mean everything from the top of Canada to the the southern tip of South America.) I enjoy watching films in BYU's International Cinema because there's so much to think about.

*I love to quote my favorite movies, especially Emperor's New Groove, Star Wars (mostly the original series--I don't like the newer ones), and the Princess Bride.

*I like older movies, including The Thin Man series (one of the few instances where the movies are better than the book that inspired them--mostly because they're a lot cleaner), "Casablanca", "The Maltese Falcon" and some of Alfred Hitchcock's, mainly "The Lady Vanishes", "Rear Window," and "The Trouble with Harry." The dialog tends to be better, and they're less likely to fall into the typical genres of "chick flick" or "adventure".

*I like listening to a lot of different music. I like classical, country, Beatles, Monkees, Carpenters, Billy Joel, some pop. As a general rule, I don't like rap.

*I like to cook. It's really fun to cook with people and be able to talk, and then get to share delicious food. It's much more fun to cook when you either have someone to cook with or when you're cooking for others. If I do cook alone, I either pull up a TV show from Hulu or I listen to music. (It's more productive if I just listen to music).

Well, that's about it for now. Not that there's not more I like to do, I just have to get on with my day. So long.

Metaphorical randomness...

I have decided that life is like a giant game of telephone, with miscommunications galore and lots of laughs. Actually, many things are like games. Dating, for instance. In that particular game, no one knows the rules or understands the moves other players make. I don't think anyone ever does understand the rules to the dating game, but we'll be able to stop worrying about it once we get married. (At least, the kind of dating where you're trying to find the right person. I think spouses should still continue to date each other.)

I've also heard that love itself is a game, but that version of the saying isn't as accurate, in my opinion. Love is more complicated and it's harder to state in a metaphor. I like the quote that says the course of true love never did run smooth. It's from one of Shakespeare's plays, but I don't know which one. Anyway, love isn't really a game. And it probably is smooth sailing sometimes. Or maybe not. Life itself isn't easy, so why should love be unproblematic? Ah well.

Other things that are like games are conversations, tests, including the GRE, according to the prep class I'm taking, and probably a lot of other things. And I know that using "like" makes it a simile, but that's still a kind of metaphor. I still like the game of telephone analogy the best, though. To me it describes both the frustration that arises from miscommunications and the joy and laughter that we can generally find if we look for them and refuse to take ourselves too seriously. It makes life a lot more fun.

Finding time to be happy

I saw a quote once that said "It was a dark and stormy night, but I chose to ENJOY it!" I think it's a good policy. Life is filled with ups and downs and craziness. However, there is always sufficient time for that which matters most. For me, the most important things in life are church, family, friends, and education. Besides those, there is room for the smaller things which make life so much fun. We can and should find time for the non-essential things we like to do, like watching movies, going on walks, getting exercise, listening to music, dancing, laughing, reading really good books, and writing. It's these little things that make life enjoyable. And we are meant to find enjoyment and happiness in life. It's not supposed to be boring. As my professor taught on the first day of my world religions class, we should find enjoyment in learning and we should learn because we love it. For me, school is not something I want to get out of the way so I can move on with life. This, right here and right now, is my life and I want to enjoy it. Of course I have to do things I don't enjoy as much, but I can handle that because it's part of living and becoming a better person, I suppose. However, life is a gift and I think that it's my choice whether or not I enjoy each day. And by choosing to enjoy each day as it comes, I can find lasting happiness. It's not always easy, but considering that the alternative is unhappiness or a depression that I bring on myself, I like the first choice much more.