2014 McLaren P1/ LDS Mission

I'm not going to write a review for a car. Simply because I couldn't be able to convey the delight and vwoom that that car, just on description, made me feel. (903 HORSEPOWER!!) Gorgeous piece of machinery.
Anyway, here's a link. 2014 McLaren P1.
Lordy, that's a nice car. And that guy is so funny.
I'm pretty sure that I want to...not marry a mechanic (not that I have anything against mechanics, my grandpa was one) but marry someone who is very good with cars because one of my favorite smells, no joke, is the smell of new tires.

My cousin is having his farewell tomorrow. He's going on his mission to Tempe, Arizona. And all I can say is he has NO idea what he's in for. I've lived down in that sort of heat. He never has. So, it'll be very interesting to see him handle that. The only thing is I've never seen any sort of enthusiasm from him for it. So I'm not sure how he's going to react to it. I'm willing to cut him some slack because he's from small-town Idaho and doesn't know any better. I've done all three. Small town, medium city, and big city. Different cultures and opinions don't shock me anymore. But he could also surprise me and be able to handle this well. We'll just have to see.

Saved for Later

You know what's strange? The feeling like you are unbelievably important in minor ways. It's not just how you influence the people you know. You always hear stories about that and frankly, those stories irritate me. They make me feel uncomfortable because I'm of the opinion that I don't want to hear about the good effects of what I do. Tell me what I do wrong so that I can correct it. But I don't want to be praised for when I do good in front of me. I don't want to know. Because then I feel like I have something to prove. I would rather just continue living my life oblivious to the good I do. If I do something brave or heroic, I would rather just go back to my quiet life.
Sorry, that was more than a little bit off topic. But what I really wanted to talk about how you can influence someone's life just by being where you are when you are. By you being on the road you're on, when you are, you might cause someone to be late for a meeting or an appointment. But because they're late for the meeting, they meet someone that they would never have met otherwise. That other person could become their best friend, the love of their life. Or they could further influence more lives by being the best friend of one of your friends or the love of their life. By being in front of someone on the street, you could cause them to hit a red light. But because you did that, they didn't end up in a car accident. You can influence people without knowing them and without doing anything special or different than just doing what you do. You can also influence their lives without actually interacting with them. Some people might say that those are just a series of coincidences. Me, I don't believe in coincidences. And not just because I believe that God (or whatever higher being you happen to believe in) has a subtle hand in everything. It's because simple choices are the most powerful and we can never know the results of those simple little choices. They could be as small as the intertwining of two lives for all time or as large as bringing a smile to someone who needs it. We're all important. And don't you dare let anyone tell you differently, because you don't need someone like that trying to break you or bring you down. You are stronger than that. You are better than that. And trust me, if you don't believe that, then you just need to trust me. Trust this faceless, voiceless... random person that wrote this. Sometimes that's easier than trusting family members or friends. Because how or why could they know? Us faceless people on the internet have no ulterior motives. Normally. Then there are the trolls but I try to avoid those people. They irritate me. But other than the trolls, most people just genuinely want people to be happy.

Somehow, I feel like I'm going to need this later on. Sigh... That'll be one of those moments when I just hate people.

Faces to a Coin

Two sides to every coin. Hidden and revealed simultaneously. Is the face shown heads or tails, private or public? Surprise is felt when the other face is seen. Who am I? The question that should always be asked for the answer always changes. Sometimes the private face becomes public and the public face is reconciled with the personal yet what never changes is what is both. Energetic and sensitive, two halves of a whole. Humanity condemns two faces even though they exist naturally and this is exemplified in Harvey Dent of DC Comics. When he became horribly scarred, he became the villain Two-Face. There is some subliminal messaging there because he can no longer hide his private and public lives and this knowledge drives him insane. We are two yet one in purpose and we should be the two we are.

The Results of IB

Hell is officially over. Nothing on the planet could possibly compare to what I went through emotionally and psychologically and what I have successfully completed. For those of you who don't know what the hell that is the International Baccalaureate Programme is, you're lucky. It's a 2, 4, 7, or 12 year program that is supposed to be helpful. Check out the International Baccalaureate Programme link for more information because that's far more politically correct than what I'm about to say about it. Me, I went through seven years of that. Started in 6th grade and I had no idea what I was getting into. Now, looking back, I just shake my head and wish my past self luck in her endeavors. I would go through it again just because of how much I learned and grew because of it. I understand stress more than I could possibly want and that can only do me good in the future. As much as I have complained about IB, especially the past four years, I'm grateful. I really am. I promise the world this. There were days that I hated it and days I hated myself for choosing to put myself through it. There were days when I wanted to quit and give up and take the easier path. There were many sleepless nights and stressed out days, breakdowns, and being so tightly strung that one more little thing would have made me break. And I'm not ashamed to admit it that during Junior year, the only two things that kept me going were pride (because some sick part of me enjoyed the torturous work I was going through and I didn't want to go back to a normal school when I'd been part of accelerated classes) and sheer stubbornness because that was my sixth year of torture and there was no way that I would let it beat me (and the same thing went for my seventh year of hell). Now those are two of my most prominent personality traits and I know that because of what I had to go through to get them so finely honed, those two will last with me for the rest of my life. Come hell or highwater, I will have pride and I will have stubbornness and between the two, there is not nor will there be a challenge too great (see, told you the pride was a central characteristic) for me to overcome.
I did not give up. I kept fighting through everything. And I am so very proud to say that I am a recipient of the IB diploma. And for my class of 2014 who stayed in IB, we did it. We stayed. We didn't quit. We each had our own reasons for staying, but that doesn't matter now. We earned what we learned about ourselves. And best of all, it's over now. New challenges await us and we are ready to face them with heads held high and the confidence that can only be earned through coming, seeing, and conquering. We're ready. I'm ready. And I'm ready to step out of what I know and embrace that which I have in my future. Because if I know me, and I've done a lot of soul searching because of this program, not even the sky is the limit for me. BRING IT ON!

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
~Albert Camus