The Realm of the Pachyderm

But, before we get to me saying nice things about myself (which isn't a bad thing after you've had a day like today), I'd like to address something that I thought was awfully neat:

I was slogging through radionic refuse whilst driving around town trying to find my newspapers today, and as is to be expected this summer, I ran into both "Your Love Is My Drug" by Ke$ha and "California Girls" by Katy Perry. Thinking about how unavoidable these awful tunes are, I also began to think about how both Ke$ha (I won't lie, I just really like typing her name) and Katy Perry both had better hits than these on the radio at one point. Then, as if by magic, I came across "Tik Tok"--the better Ke$ha song in question. Immediately after, I came across "Hot N' Cold"--the better Katy Perry song in question. Is that goofy or what?

Anyway, I've decided that some self-affirmations are in order because I've been pretty down on myself today for one reason or another. However, chatting with multiple friends and a particularly caring sister have helped me to put into perspective some of the issues at hand so that they seem much more manageable. Thanks, ladies!

That being said, I shall now enumerate a list of ten things I really like about myself!

Ten Things I Really Like About Myself

1. I really like my large vocabulary. I figure that I became a selective listener because so many people use the same words to say the same things over and over and over again, and that's pretty boring if you ask me. In order to differentiate my words from everyone else's words, I just use longer and prettier words. Call me condescending, but I'm reluctant to let my loquacious practices fill me with chagrin :]

2. I really like my bagpiping aspirations. When I was thirteen, I asked my parents for a set of bagpipes, which was appropriately met with skepticism. When do thirteen-year-olds ever stick with anything, right? However, six years later, I asked my parents again for bagpipes, which prompted the purchase of a chanter and the quest for a teacher. It has been almost two years since I received said chanter in the mail, and I'm SO excited to march in parades one day in a pipe band!

3. I really like what I've done with my bedroom. While it looks like a sixteen-year-old girl exploded inside it (that really is what happened), its walls hold hundreds of memories that I can look back on in my declining years. Whether it's a hospital visitor's pass from the day my nephew Thatcher was born or one of myriad Pocky boxes, each item on my walls means something special and specific. I like to think of it as "explosive scrapbooking."

4. I really like my love of singing in the car. I always look so forward to coming home to Maryland from Utah because I know I'll have a car to blast the radio in. Regardless of the destination, every time I drive anywhere, the radio comes on, and I end up singing along to the first jam I can find. People give me incredulous looks like they've never even heard of singing in the car before, but I know they just wish they were in my passenger seat singing the harmonies.

5. I really like my spontaneity. Part of me needs structure all the time, but most of the time, I'm prone to go along with the first fun plan I hear about. The beauty of college is being flexible enough to pick up at a moment's notice to climb a mountain, prank someone's roommates, or run to the next city for ice cream. I've found that I've struck a beautiful balance between enough structure for productivity and enough devil-may-care-itude for adventures. Hence my extremely interesting life.

6. I really like my movies. More often than not, a bad day can be rectified by looking at any of the movies I made freshman year when I should have been doing homework. While they're not cinematic masterpieces by any stretch of the cerebellum, they remind of times when anything set my imagination off--a pine cone, an umbrella, a shoelace. Once upon a time, a camera came much more readily to my hand than it does now, and that makes me a little sad. However, the 40+ movies on my Facebook page usually get me out of that funk right quick.

7. I really like my ability to pick awesome friends. While some of my high school friends were pretty suspicious characters, I've since come in contact with some really fantastic people. While this may very well be less of me picking winners and more of God putting people in my path that I need to meet, I still love that I've made myself a person that sustains those important friendships rather than letting them fizzle out. I also really love that I have spectacular family, but that's a whole other blog entry altogether :]

8. I really like that I'm tidy. College is a place in which many people discover just how much their mothers cleaned up after them. Instead of discovering how many messes I got cleaned up for me, I discovered how much of an impact my mother had on me by watching myself spring into action whenever a mess appeared. I have a very hard time leaving a dirty house in the morning, and I'm glad that I'm learning stellar cleanliness now so that I can be a bombtastic homemaker one day.

9. I really like that I'm learning greater reliance on the Lord. I'm the most bullheaded person I know, which makes it extraordinarily difficult for me to ask for any serious help. However, I quickly learned after being out at school for a while that while you can certainly do a lot for yourself physically that everyone needs the Lord for help spiritually. I came to understand that humbling yourself and calling upon Him is strength rather than weakness, and that He will never, under any circumstances, let us down. I can feel greater inner peace because of my increased reliance on His steady arm over the fallible arm of flesh.

10. I really love that I am a daughter of God, and that I know my divine lineage. I love that my Heavenly Father not only created this astoundingly wonderful world for us all to live in, but also that He planned to give us that same creative power one day. I love knowing that He loves me, and that He sent His son to die for my sins. I love feeling the power of His love every day as I pray, read my scriptures, and serve others. I love having a light in the darkness that threatens to engulf me every day of my life. I love knowing of the faith that my Father has in me.

Ok, enough about me. What about you lovely people? What are some things you really like about yourselves? By all means, share them here!