Thank You, Thank You!

I have had the most wonderful birthday thanks to all the wonderful people in my life who have proven to be true friends and, of course, family. I just wanted to express my gratitude, joy, and sincere thank you in having so many special people help me celebrate a momentous occasion in my life. The past few days would not have been nearly as fun-filled and exciting without you. Thank you for the "happy birthdays," the beautiful cakes, the free drinks, gifts, sweet cards, and also spending your time with me. As I looked around at my dinners and my gatherings this week and saw your faces, I was reminded how lucky in love and blessed in life I truly am. I can say without a doubt that this has been one of the best birthdays ever and certainly the most memorable. I have all of you to thank for it and know you will always be a part of this most special memory. 

With love,

Chloe

Friendship and Its Feud

The past few days have left me wondering how do you confront friends? It is relatively easy to stand up to one's enemies - to defend yourself from attack, to be on your guard, and to meet dislike with mutual dislike. However, how do you knowingly enter conflict with beloved people when it is absolutely necessary for the sake of your self and for the sake of your friendship?

We tend to draw lines in our lives; lines that if crossed, trigger a defensive response. When it comes to friends and family, the line is a little less clear and the response a little less aggressive. After all, we love these people and expect them to know the lines just as well as we ourselves do. We expect our friends to give of themselves just as we give of ourselves... a relationship of give and take, compromise, and, at times, sacrifice. How else are we to become a part of each other?

When one party refuses to give, the friendship suffers and evolves into something unhealthy. It is said that anger, yelling, and even arguing are signs of a healthy relationship where both parties care, but we are often hesitant to explore these emotions and outlets in our friendships. We ignore the problem and silently fume to ourselves, which plants the seed of bitter resentment. So, perhaps in the long run it is best to fight, to yell, to introduce your friendship to conflict in order to save it. Funny how life works.

An Ode to My Father

Please describe your relationship with someone that has pushed you to excel at

Some thing and how that motivation has carried into other aspects of your life.

At the ripe old age of four, I received my first bicycle – actually a tricycle, but who’s counting wheels? My very first sidewalk venture on this tricycle landed me on the pavement with skinned knees, a good cry, and a bruised ego. Already, I was eyeing my lovely pink gift with suspicion, chewing the idea over that perhaps the tricycle would be better to admire from afar rather than ride. I probably would have settled upon my notion and stuck to it with an immovable dedication had my father not picked me up and set my bottom back on the hot pink seat (after wiping away my tears of course). And then three years later, when I was giving my very best to upgrade to the treacherous bicycle that all of my friends had somehow already mastered, it was my father who hounded and poked and prodded until I could complete a successful circle around the driveway without falling over.

My father always had the bravery and love for adventure that I lacked even as a child, but because of him I have seen firsthand what it is to not give up. I have inherited a willful stubbornness when it comes to, well, anything. Being told it cannot be done by others or even by myself is my call to battle. I have especially taken this to heart when it comes to academics, an area of my life that my father has many times encouraged me to get back up, dust myself off, and ask for some more. I took the hardest classes with the hardest teachers simultaneously. I retook the ACT four times because I was unsatisfied with anything but my best; meaning I voluntarily returned over and over for a grueling, four hour test. I have pushed through all-nighters where I have watched the sun come up through the library windows just to know that I have beaten the material into submission.

Now, despite many setbacks and stumbles, I refuse to give up the hardest academic and career path offered. Unlike my impulse to concede defeat after falling off the pink tricycle, I daily have the urge to push myself further and pick myself up when I know I have a long, hard road ahead. Perhaps, I would like to think that I have done all this alone, but that is not the case. I am who am and have come thus far because someone once taught me what not to give up means, and he has never given up on me since.  

Words That Take Your Breath Away

If there be grief, then let it be rain,

And this but silver grief for grieving's sake,

If these green woods be dreaming here to wake

Within my hear, if I should rouse again.

But I shall sleep, for where is any death

While in these blue hills slumbrous overhead

I'm rooted like a tree? Though I be dead,

This earth that holds me fast will find me breath.

William Faulkner 

Four Things

This week's treasures: may they enliven your darkest days.

My sister is an amazing writer. She can pack a big punch in only a few words, a rare talent which really proves how talented she is. Read one of her original poems about the love she shares with her daughter, and you'll understand.
The Education of Emily: An Original Poem

I'm lucky enough to be seeing The Avett Brothers this upcoming Friday along with Band of Horses. Their song "I And Love And You" makes me cry nearly every time I flip to it on my iPod... one of those deep, but light cries that makes you appreciate everything that much more. I hope it touches you like it does me.

Also, you need to check out Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Just do it, and I promise you will thank me.

This next "treasure" is one recommended by my friend, Pamela. She is reading Why Men Love Bitches by Sherry Argov for an upper level communications class. At first, she complained and winced at the idea of having to read one of those "pathetic, self-help books for needy women only in search of a man." After speeding through more than half the book, she was pleasantly surprised and absolutely loving the humorous writings of Argov. According to Pamela, the author is often right on the mark when it comes to men, women, and their respective peculiarities when dealing with the opposite sex. So, give it a look ladies!

Life As We Smell It

"Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel." Oliver Wendell Holmes

It is said that smell is the strongest of our five senses when it comes to memory. A whiff of something familiar can trigger memories of childhood experiences, certain places, times, and especially people. I have always relied heavily on my sense of smell. Anyone who knows me knows that I smell everything that is unfamiliar to me as a form of personal investigation. So, I guess it is safe to say that many of my memories are wrapped up in and even defined by scents. Recently, I used a forgotten conditioner in my shower and was bombarded by both grief and joy as I smelled my grandmother in the bottle. A face wash I used one summer takes me back to some of the most carefree times of my life when my days were filled with floats down Terrapin Creek, laying out to the sounds of Band of Horses, and savoring sun and solitude as I found myself; and nights of Mexican food, margaritas, and making new friends under starry summer skies. Any time I smell Freeze-It Hairspray, which is a rare event, I can imagine being in a uniform, hose, and white boots with butterflies raging in my stomach as I waited to step on the field during halftime.

Often I think smells draw us to people. I can say for certain that many of the people I am closest to have a familiar, pleasant smell that comforts me and makes me feel "at home" with them. Pamela smells clean; my sisters smell sweet and sweaty; my mother smells of hand lotion and softness; my father of new car; and Scott's smell is indefinable, but intoxicating. Smell plays a big role in our everyday lives, but is overlooked for our more obvious senses like sight. Today, I am promising to fine tune my sense of smell and more thoroughly take in what I am smelling in the hopes of enriching my life experience and more firmly engraining what and who I experience in my memory.

Hands.

"To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour." William Blake