The Idea of Love

What is LOVE?

When I was younger it was playing tag in the playground. Then I realized I was way too mature for that so then it formed into secreting holding hands and folding notes behind the teacher’s back. Now I am seeing love in a whole new light.

When I got to high school I became obsessed with the words of Stephenie Meyer and Nicholas Sparks. I spent hours immersed into the idea of perfect love. Who doesn’t fall for the charming personality of Edward Cullen in Twilight? Or the passionate Noah Calhoun from the famous love story, The Notebook.

Every girl wants to be swept off their feet by that one novel perfect man. We want to be young forever. We want to dance in the street. We want a man that sparkles! (This point varies; some of us might want a buff, tattooed werewolf).

A wise teacher of mine said “Love is not easy.” For most of the romantic novels I have read, Love was easy. The idea of love was ideal. But what I found out was that no matter how hard you look, those men can only be found in the pages. Sure, I was disappointed when I realized most guys don’t have super speed or private islands in South America.

I let the fantasies go. And what I found was a new and refined idea of love. Something that was real. It wasn’t all romance. Even perfect men have flaws. There will be bad times; times when you get sick of love. But all of it is real. REAL LOVE. 

I still am addicted to reading romance novels, but I no longer wish I was printed inside them. My idea of love has changed. I believe when you find love, you find someone you want to be with regardless of their imperfections.

So any girl out there still waiting for your prince charming to come, let yourself go into the idea of real love. It’s worth finding. Who knows, you might end up falling for someone better than any vampire out there! ;)

Arms for Bethany

What ended with a caring bunch of my fellow thespians raising their left arms all started Friday morning in a series of unfortunate events. It was a morning just like the rest: wake up, get ready for school, and try to survive the last day of the week without falling asleep in any of my classes. 8:55a.m., I had made it through economics and now I was off to face conditioning in the gym. We started with jogging and for some reason I looked down at my arm. It first I thought ok, it's not that bad, but after a double take my heart started to beat a little faster. My left arm was badly swollen with a bit of swelling in my right arm as well, though it was not painful. What was wrong with me? I tried laughing about it but after seeing my coach, three nurses and a doctor that had no ideas as to what it was, the joke wore off. All of my worries started to fade as I drifted into a deep sleep from the Benadryl the doctor gave me thinking it had to do with my strawberry smoothie. When I woke up my arm was a little better but still unpleasing to the eye. I went over and over in my mind what I had done in the past few days trying to figure it out. And just then a flashing light went off in my head. Bicep Curls in weights yesterday! I searched ‘elbow forearm swollen from weight lifting’ in Google and got more than stumped looks from the nurses and doctor. If only doctors used Google every once in a while! I found out that I’m not a freak! Apparently other people had faced the same exact thing I was from hitting the weight room a little too hard. Tony from Yahoo Answers said his arm was back to normal within a few days and recommended elevation. While all of my friends were cheering Holbrook on at the basketball game on Friday night, I was sitting at home on the couch with several pillows on each side of myself elevating my arms. Now that’s a party! If only I had someone fanning me with palm leaves and feeding me grapes.
            Saturday came and I had a Navajo Taco sale to get to. I worked hard making posters, prepping the order forms, and delivering meals. I wore my jacket most of the day trying to ignore what was underneath. When the sale was almost over I took off my sweatshirt figuring I had to check for any progress. I realized working actually made it worse. The swelling had almost reached my hand. Panic struck me once again and I threw my hand in the air like a little kindergartener who wants to answer a question in class. Yes I looked silly but luckily this was a drama club event. Erin was sitting next to me at the time and gave me a questioning look. Once I told her I was trying to elevate my arm she threw her left arm into the arm for moral support. This trend caught fire and eventually everyone in the kitchen had stopped what they were doing with raised their arms for me. It was such a little gesture that only lasted long enough for me to snap this picture, but the meaning of it touched my heart. Every time I look at this picture I will be reminded of how blessed I am to have people in my life who care and will support me through any obstacle I face.