Social Media

            Facebook is closing in on 1.5 billion users. That is an insane amount. Technology is taking over our everyday lives. There is almost no one in the United States that can go more than a day without electronics. With all of these new tablets, phones, computers, and whatever else there is, it’s no wonder social media is stealing time out of our day. I think social media makes us sad and a lot of times lonely and unimportant.

            There are so many different sites and with every site comes hundreds of thousands of users. With unlimited amount of posting ability, each user could post hundreds of times every day. That’s pretty outrageous. So many updates to read and pictures to look at. The real statistic is the average user creates 90 pieces of content each month, or about 1.5 per day. And each one of these average users sees up to 30 billion pieces of content a month.

            Not to scare you or anything, but social media does have a huge part in our lives, whether it be to keep in touch with relatives and friends or to find people like you, a whole lot of people partake in social media. When you get on to Facebook, what do you see? You see happy things. You see new music, puppies, friends and families awesome vacation photos, and all of the users who give advice, even though they are not qualified to. My point is how can you see all of this and feel sad? Our minds have a habit of making everyone else's happiness seem, well, happier. When you're feeling down, and you hop on social media, everything seems so much better than your situation, even when it’s not. When you're really happy and joyful and hop on social media, you see so many things that make other's lives seem great; you begin to question whether or not your day really was good.

            You're always worrying about your profile. No matter what app or website it is, you always are changing your profile to what you think is cool or what others would like. This is called “presentation anxiety.” Every time you post, you are trying to outdo your fellow users and make them believe that you're the coolest, or the prettiest, or the most funny.

            All of these elements lead us to being sad, social media makes us sad. Seeing all of the highlights of people’s lives make you believe that your life is not good, because you can't or aren't doing those things every day. When in reality, it's different people and it's not the same person posting something that makes you jealous all the time, it's your hundreds or thousands of friends. It's not just a few friends, they really only might post something that is worthy of envy every few months. I don't use social media a whole lot, and I know I'm happier this way. I used to get on multiple times a day, and can truly say, it's better when it's not stealing time from you, when it's not stealing happiness and confidence from you. You should try it.

           

           

Moving

So, I recently moved during spring break, my last spring break. And it sucked. But I’m not going to ramble on about how I could have been out and about having fun instead of moving. Moving in general usually is an exciting time. You get to have a whole new everything, new room, yard, neighborhood, and even the toilet and sink is a whole new experience, almost a fresh new start. But with every new start comes hard work. Unless you are fortunate enough to get people to do it for you, the same goes for moving.

Relocating a whole family is not easy in any aspect. To start, once you get a house to move into, which is hard in of itself, you have to pack. Seems simple right, just pack your belongings? Well, it’s not. It takes time and contemplation, what to pack with what, how to pack it, are you just going to throw stuff into a box and call it good? Whatever you do, the work you put in at this stage will directly influence the amount of work you put in at the final stage. If you want to be able to take it easy and just have to place things where they go, already separated and easily put in their correct spaces, take the time and carefully think about how you pack.

Your room is all packed, that’s great.  But who packed the kitchen or the living room? If everyone just did their own rooms, who did the rooms that everyone uses? That’s right, mom did. Well kind of, they’re not done. So you have to go help out with them. You help your mom finish the kitchen and your brothers helped out with the living room, but there’s still more. The bathrooms, the garage, the front and back yard, they all need to be packed and it seems like no one is willing to help. But don’t stop, because once you do, you won’t want to start again. Get it all done in one time, if possible.

Well, somehow you manage to get the whole house packed and man, was that exhausting. Now it’s time to actually move! Yay! Everyone knows this is the hard part, but it’s been so hard already, geez. With no enthusiasm whatsoever left, the big U-Haul and truck get loaded up, box by box, dresser by dresser. Don’t stop though, just like with packing; once you stop, you won’t want to get back going at all. One tip I have for you is do NOT start loading up a load right before the sun goes down. You will regret it, trust me.

Once you get all unloaded and everything is at the new house, you feel like it’s time to quit. Don’t think like this, moving is not done when your bed is set up in your room, I promise. There’s still so much work to be done. It’s almost been a whole week since we started moving, and we’re not done, pretty far from it. The big pile of “stuff” in the dining room keeps shrinking every day, but it’s still a big pile.

This was my experience moving this week, I’m very grateful we are her now and my momma is buying a house, but geeeeez, moving is a pain in the butt. The biggest lesson I got out of it is manage your time. Don’t wait to pack until the last minute. Don’t load the U-Haul when it’s almost night time, or wait to start loading until 11:00 or 12:00. And DO NOT stop working when you get everything into the house! Plan carefully and always manage your time, because this could have been way easier than it was with a little more planning.

Take risks

                My adrenaline is pumping and I am so nervous and anxious, I am almost shaking. I’ve been playing since I was eight years old, why was this time any different? But it was different. I was making my way up to the batter’s box and my at bat didn’t really matter, we were up by a lot and it wouldn’t matter if I got on base or not. But it mattered to me; this was my first varsity at bat.

                We were in Chinle, playing the Wildcats. I was dressed for varsity, but it wasn’t unusual, I did sometimes. I even got a few innings in the field in previous games which was pretty nerve racking, but nothing like this. I was only a sophomore, so I didn’t expect a whole lot of playing time on varsity. I was pretty much the foul ball boy, but there were a few sophomores who were everyday starters, so I always wanted a chance and worked hard to get one. This was it, this was my chance. So there I was, little me, super nervous and just hoping I don’t mess up.

I don’t think I messed up too bad, I don’t think I struck out, but I am pretty sure I didn’t get a hit. Maybe I got walked? To tell the truth, I don’t even remember what happened. I remember everything up to it, but I don’t remember the actual at bat or if I even got on base. I really let the situation get the best of me. I wasn’t living in the moment and just going out there and doing what I do. I was so focused on not messing up, and I don’t even remember if I did! I wasn’t willing to take a chance and have the possibility of something good happening.

More often than not, people live in fear of messing up. Not just in their first time trying something new, but every time they do it. If your attitude toward and activity is this, your attitude could quite possibly be the exact same toward life. Too scared to take a risk, because it could end up bad, and you don’t want that, do you? That’s not the way to live life and go about things. Sometimes playing it safe is good, but if you play it safe every time, you might miss out on one of the most amazing experiences of your life.

The next chance I got, I got a hit. It wasn’t anything great, just a ground ball that found the gap between the third basemen and the shortstop, but it was an amazing experience and I definitely am glad I took a chance and swung at the pitch, without the fear of missing, but with the hope that I would get a hit. And I did get a hit, and it was awesome. I don’t ever go up to bat in fear of something bad happening, and I live my life the same way, because when you take a risk, you never know what’s going to happen. You could hit a home run if you just swing.