Go Confidently In The Direction of Your Dreams

I’ve crossed a threshold. The minute I pranced across that resurrected stage in the middle of the football field and shook the President’s hand, I crossed over an imaginary line from days of dressing like a ballerina and dreaming of being a princess into the world of job applications, apartment rent, and alumni tee-shirts.

Somehow, in these past 22 years, I’ve grown up. I went from watching The Little Mermaid until the VHS tape ran out, to sending endless resumes and cover letters to huge corporates in New York City. I’ve gone from falling asleep under the violet printed comforter in my childhood baby-pink bedroom, to anticipating a move into an apartment with a roommate, complete with my own sets of dishes and hand towels.

Somehow, when the caps and tassels went spinning wildly into the air, I switched over to the “other side.” Somehow, I entered “adulthood.”

And the minute we turned our tassels from right to left, and were met with a hearty “congratulations” from the countless academics, we were able to let the smiles spread across our faces and whisper, “We made it.”

“After the banquets. Rehearsals. Fiestas. Siestas. After the stage grows quiet and the valedictorian steps up to speak. After you check your phone to find texts from your family sitting proud in the crowd. Mom is hooting loud. Your sister is tearing up in the third row. Grandma has a new dress on. After you stand up. Walk down the aisle. Up the stairs. Shake the President’s hand. Smile for the snapping of the photo. And walk across the stage into the After. The After College Life. The After Dorm Life. The After Studying for Finals Until 4AM. The After This… This very thing you called Your World for 4 years, 1,460 days, and however many hours you never thought to count.”

This is for the after. And making all the memories count. For remembering the all night study sessions, and the 2AM drives to walk along the beach. Remembering the friends you made during Freshman year, and whether they stuck with you to the very end. For remembering the sporting events, and charity volunteering, and all those measly meals you consumed in the dining halls. For walking through the greenery and tulips of the campus. For all the stupid comments you made, and all the knowledge you gained, and all the “I love you’s” and “I’ll miss you’s” and “Good luck’s” you uttered when hugging each other in blue gowns and caps.

And this is for the best that is yet to come. For the full-time jobs, new apartments, new colleagues and friendships. For more schools, and more degrees, and more learning and growing. This is for the after, the adulthood, for making those dreams you worked so hard to achieve come true. This is for crossing the threshold, coming into a new side of life, but never forgetting where you came from, for never letting the girl who wanted to be a mermaid fall away. For daring to dream every second of every day, and letting your eyes sparkle at the thought of capturing the world to put inside your pocket.

A 10-Letter Weight

A simple 10-letter word is starting to haunt me right now. It seems so nimble, so small when I look at it in print, but when it rolls off of my tongue, it carries a huge weight that immediately lands on my shoulders. This everyday vocabulary word delivers anxiety to me, because it seems at this current moment, I cannot find motivation.

I make lists of things to do for a day, for things to accomplish within the near future, for tasks to complete within a specific time frame. Lists, to me, are the stepping stone; these will make me realize what I want, so I can plan it, visualize it, work toward it! But then the list gets tucked away– on a forgotten post-it, in the back of a journal, on a computer document. It’ll be placed in the back of my mind and then I’ll feel the anxiety again when I realize that motivation has not graced me with its gift…again.

Where do you find motivation? Is it right in front of my eyes and I just can’t seem to reach it? Is it waiting for me to lift it off my heavy shoulders and put it to good use? Or is it already harnessed inside me, deep down in the recesses somewhere, just waiting for me to dig it out and thrust it into action?

Either way, here’s to the realization that I need it to continue. That it needs to start working to my advantage, that whatever form it comes in, I need to harness it and run with it, for as long as it may last.

What A Joy To Exist Under Those Lights

“It’s an amazing thing, to live inside a skyline.”

We cruised around your southern tip, the wind whipping wildly as we threw camera phones into the air to get a snapshot of Lady Liberty, watching the sparkling Brooklyn Bridge glide overtop of us, adjusting our zooms to get the most perfectly cropped shot of your moonlit skyline. We threw our cares away for a while, staring into the skyscrapers from our distance out on the water, the waves lapping gently against the hull, flashing her most appropriately given name: The Spirit of New York. We were certainly feeling the spirit deep down in our souls.

It’s an amazing thing, to live inside a skyline. When you travel day by day, you look down, watching your feet and the stretching sidewalk, never taking a moment to glance up. You rush from place to place while glancing at your watch, swearing that the second hand is moving too fast and if you could just have a few more minutes. But when you’re out on the Hudson River, floating thousands of feet away from the dock, you can’t help but fall under the beauty of those skyscrapers, the twinkling of the endless miles of lights, the thought that the city that never sleeps is the place that you call your number one love.

And you’ll suddenly be amazed at the journey, the moments it took to make it this far, to come to this point, where you’re able to stand back and say, “This is my life.” And you’ll retrace your steps, and relive those moments, and thank God for all the mistakes, the failures, the blessings, the heartbreaks, the decisions that led you here to the present. And you won’t regret a single thing. You’ll realize you worked so hard to come this far, to make it.

It’ll take your breath away on a different level than the typical day by day. And you’ll stand back and think, “What a beautiful blessing in disguise. What a joy it is to exist under those lights. What a moment to revel in the sights.” It’s an amazing thing, to know you live inside a skyline.

Book Review: Long Drive Home, Will Allison

As a previous intern for Simon & Schuster, and a publishing student in general, I follow their company and almost all of their imprints on Twitter. I follow tons of publishing houses and industry resource accounts; they’re full of information about upcoming titles, reviews, author tours, sales, industry news, etc., etc. And the other thing they tend to post: giveaways.

I’m pretty addicted to Twitter, and as I was scrolling through my timeline of tweets the one day, there sat a tweet from @simonschuster saying that they were giving away copies of Will Allison’s Long Drive Home in trade paperback to the first few people that retweeted them. I honestly didn’t think I’d win the book, but decided to retweet it anyway, just for fun. An hour or so later, I got a direct message asking for my mailing address so they could send along my copy, and I have been in love with Twitter giveaways ever since.

So here’s my advice: follow your favorite companies on Twitter! Most of them probably have an account, and they love seeing your feedback to them in 140 characters. And there may be a little something in it for you down the road, too. ;)

To Sum It Up: After being involved in an aggressive road rage situation, Glen sees the offensive driver again. With a small jerk of the steering wheel in an attempt to shake the young driver up for his previous actions, a fatal car accident occurs, putting Glen in the guilt-stricken position, wondering if his plot for small scale revenge resulting in the death of a high school student. When Glen realizes that he is the only witness, he begins lying to the police in an effort to protect his family, specifically his 6-year old daughter, Sara, whose future would be in jeopardy if a court case or jail time were the penalty for her father. Glen attempts to slink his way out of the eye of justice, but realizes that it is a hard price to pay regardless.

Strengths & Weaknesses: Allison has certainly made these characters life-like and lovable. I felt myself feeling sorry for Sara, as she mostly doesn’t understand the events happening surrounding the accident and its repercussions. I also understood Glen’s guilt and fear-stricken anxieties, yet felt the urge to just scream at him to tell the truth from the beginning– the reasons for his lying are understandable, but I don’t think the overall anxiety and stress were worth it in the end. But my major problem with this book was how it ended; I was reading along, anticipating the conclusion of the plot to come within the next few pages and then… it just ended. It wasn’t necessarily expected, and I feel like the story had an “ending,” but not a “conclusion.” I’m still left wondering now how all the characters of the book turned out after everything was said and done. This also made the italicized sections of the novel seem a little lackluster; I assumed they were there to build up suspense for a huge reveal at the end, and when nothing came, I felt that they had just lead me on (with very vague hints) the whole time.

Rating & Recommendation: 3/5 stars. This is the kind of book that’s nice to read if you want something that’s quick and easy.

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I Relay For Life

I’ve attended various walk-a-thon fundraisers in the past, all supporting very important and different causes. These events are always enjoyable; it’s a great way to spend some time with friends or family while raising money and support for something that is close to your heart. But I had never experienced any such fundraiser until my junior year of college.

That’s when I attended my first Relay for Life, an all-night walk which supports the American Cancer Society. The philosophy behind Relay for Life events is that cancer never rests, so why should we rest as participants? Relay occurs from sunset to sunrise, encouraging participants to walk all night long in order to celebrate the lives that have overcome cancer, remember those that have been lost to it, and to fight back against the deadly disease by raising money and coming together in spirit.

My first Relay at my school, Hofstra University, was one year ago and we reached our fundraising goal of $90,000 by the end of the event, making us one of the top 5 college Relays in the NY + NJ area. Thousands of students came together for a Saturday night and walked to support a cause that hits so many lives each year.

This year, we set out to reach a new goal. $100,000.

We gathered together on Saturday night with $80,000 already in our favor, raised through participant fundraising and a large anonymous donation. We set out to walk with hope in our hearts and a huge connection through each other.

We walked laps in silence in remembrance of those we had lost. We walked laps with Katy Perry and Rihanna blaring in the background. We walked with laughter, with tears, with conversations. We walked from the opening lap at 7 PM Saturday night until the closing ceremony and final total announcement at 6:30 AM Sunday morning.

And for all those people who doubted we could reach the new, ambitious goal we set? Let our $104,000+ total sink in.

I could not have asked for a more amazing experience to end my senior year. Having that sense of campus community and connection in support of such a life-changing cause is one of the most beautiful experiences, and to have banded together to reach our goal and defy the odds makes it even sweeter.

Here’s to Hofstra Relay 2013: I’ll be back next year, and so will our ambitious efforts to create more birthdays and get closer and closer to finding a cure.

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To support the American Cancer Society, visit their webpage. To find a Relay for Life event near you, visit this site.

It’s That Time Of Year, Folks

…the time of finals.

A week ago, all I could think was, “I’m a senior! Senior week activities are coming up! I’m graduating in about three weeks! And then going to Europe! And then finding an apartment near NYC! And I’m going to be away from classes and homework soon! Yippee!”

Fast forward to now: “I have a huge drawing final to do in less than two weeks and no motivation. I have a desktop publishing final project that I’d like to take extra seriously so I can add it to my portfolio. I have three more paintings to finish. I have to create a teapot for my ceramics class. I have to apply to ALL THE JOBS and anxiously await some type of offer. I have to go look at apartments in the NYC area and then worry about whether I’ll be making enough money to afford their rent + my student loans + food. Or I’ll just Ramen noodles for the next few months.”

Life is stressful sometimes, huh?

So excuse me while my to-do list, schedule, head, life are a mess, because I’m going to make every moment of these last three weeks count.

To The Women of Anchal

For their April campaign, More Love Letters is collecting handwritten notes for the women of the Anchal Project, an initiative that provides alternative careers in the textile industry to women who make a living as a commercial sex worker in India, but would like to find a way out. Approximately 18 commercial sex workers are employed part-time as Anchal artisans, and gather on a regular basis to quilt together. The love letters sent in during the month of April will be distributed to these women as they come together to make a change in their lives.

“Life is a beautiful gift. Our most cherished and lasting memories are stitched together with the murky moments, making a quilt of our past that we must display proudly–it shows how far we’ve come and how much strength we have in us to keep going. When we look back on the collection of events that make up our timeline, we should be able to count the blessings and be grateful for the challenges, be grateful for the lessons we have received to carry with us, of the stories that we have to tell. Your story is an incredible one–it should be sewn into every square of the quilts you create so that someone will come to revel in it, so that it will spread into the world as a glorious victory. To me, your story is inspiring and I will carry it with me into the future as a beautiful sense of hope.”

With Love. XOXO

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To support the Anchal Project, visit their website.

Send a letter to More Love Letters for the Anchal Project this month. Writing not your thing? Consider donating $1 or 2 to the More Love Letters IndieGoGo campaign– we need your support to help supply our postage! Only 2 days left to give!

A Love Letter for Planet Earth

If the Earth had a voicebox, you’d hear it in the wind, in the kind of ocean front breezes that make you want to sink your toes deeper into the wet sand and stare out at the purple sunset for a just a moment longer. You’d hear it in the cardinals, sparrows, and robins perched throughout the oak trees of the forest in your backyard, where you spent all your summers climbing those branches and finding shelter for hide-and-seek behind their trunks. You’d hear it in the buzzing of each bee floating from tulip to tulip in hopes of collecting the sweetest nectar.

If you looked through the Earth’s speckled eyes, you’d see the luscious greens of rolling hills and plains, the dark and dusty red of majestic canyons, and the dank, black space of mysterious caverns. You’d see the coarse pieces of bright coral hiding beneath the ocean waves, the slick surfaces of rocks embedded into the river bank, the felt-like fabric of each petal of a rose. You’d watch as the leaves changed from brilliant emerald to deep auburn, and then littered the ground before the purest snow made the grandest entrance of all.

If the Earth had a bloodstream, you’d feel it pumping through the soles of your shoes, tunneling through the soft soil and dew-covered grass in the early hours of the morning when you wander out to get the paper. You’d feel her heartbeat gravitate from the equator, spiraling toward the Atlantic and Pacific, making their waves crash heavily upon opposite shores.

We often don’t take the time to enjoy the beauty of the things around us; we are too concerned with concrete jungles, maintaining full-time jobs in skyscraper offices, always expecting bigger and better. Sometimes, all you need is to take a moment to realize all the beauty around you, the simplicity of finding a moment in the shade of the tree, to realize what a beautiful place we inhabit.

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”  - Native American Proverb

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In honor of Earth Day (April 22), do your part to make the world a little bit better.

Books vs. Films: Should You Read It or Watch It First?

Over the weekend, a friend asked me whether he should read The Hunger Games novel before seeing the film. Personally, I always try to encourage people to read the book before seeing the accompanying movie because: 1. let’s face it, the book is better 99% of the time, and 2. even if the movie is really spectacular, most times it just ruins the book for you and makes you not want to read it because you think, “I already know what happens.”

If you haven’t heard of The Hunger Games yet, I’ll pardon you for living under a rock for so long. In Suzanne Collins’ dystopian post-apocalyptic YA series, the young adults of Panem are forced to compete against each other once a year in a televised spectacle called the Hunger Games. The chosen tributes from each of the country’s districts must fight to the death in a controlled arena, until the remaining person is named the victor. Book one of the best-selling series first appeared on shelves in September 2008, but it recently hit theaters on March 23, 2012, and is still the highest-earning movie at the box office after four weeks, raking in over $530 million (as of April 16).

As an obsessed lover of the series, I had to see the movie on the big screen, but I admit that I was a little nervous that the film wouldn’t live up to the high expectations I had after reading and falling in love with the novels.

But director and writer Gary Ross proved that he knew what he was doing. Throughout the two and a half hour film, I cried, snickered, felt betrayed, gained adrenaline, experienced fright, and sat on the edge of my seat (even though I knew what events would happen next). The Hunger Games film captured the suspense driven twists and turns that the novel thrived on. I couldn’t put the book down upon reaching a chapter’s end, as I was constantly left with a cliff-hanger and had to know what was going to happen next. The movie captured the book’s suspense factor perfectly, and was long enough to include just about every piece of information that was nestled into the pages of it’s literary counterpart.

So why, since I claim that this book and film are so similar, would I suggest that you simply HAVE to read the book first? Because seeing the movie first will diminish the experience of the book for you. This novel thrives on a carefully plotted story; each cliffhanger will keep you turning pages for more. Yet if you see the film first, that pivotal element of suspense will be lost on you when reading the book, and the heightened experience of the thrilling story will certainly not be the same.

While this is the case for The Hunger Games (and for most books, honestly, trust me), there are some titles where it doesn’t matter which outlet comes first. For example, the film version of Jodi Picoult’s novel My Sister’s Keeper is completely different from the wonderfully written novel; no matter which comes first, the experience will be different for the audience. Picoult’s writing inspires much more emotion than the film, and the major difference between the two will leave you shocked (and will immediately assign you with a preference of the two). Another example is Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I thought long and hard about my opinion of the movie, after pouring myself over the novel for two weeks and falling in love with it. At first I thought I wasn’t impressed by it, until I realized that the two were so different in terms of the way I experienced them that I couldn’t consider them as counterparts; in my mind, his novel and the inspired film act as completely separate entities.

Do you have a preference when it comes to movies adapted from literary works? Do you read it or see it first, or only do you simply only do one or the other? And most importantly, have you seen The Hunger Games yet?

Happy National Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month! I love when literary elements are recognized, so to celebrate, here is one of my favorite poems:

I’ve always been a big Shel Silverstein fan; his writing is timeless, and carries on for people of all ages. This poem is simple and sweet, and will always hold an important message for me.

Another way to celebrate: She’s The First is a not-for-profit organization that sponsors girl’s education in the developing world, helping provide them with the resources to be the first in their families to graduate. Their group believes that “the best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls.”

In honor of National Poetry Month, She’s The First created a poetry anthology through a writing contest, asking girls from around the world to script verses based on this prompt: If the world were your classroom, what would you teach a girl? Entries were chosen to be published in a paperback anthology, and all the proceeds go to She’s The First to sponsor girl’s education in Ethiopia, Nepal, Kenya, India, Guatemala, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Order your copy for $15.00.

This past week was also National Library Week, so be sure to thank your librarian. :)

“A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.”
- Lemony Snicket