A little update on life.

Hello all, and Happy Mothers Day! To all the beautiful and empowered women in the world, you are so important to the lives of everyone around you. I don't care if you're actually a mommy or not, today is a day for all of the motherly, caring, and encouraging ladies out there that have had some kind of impact on someone's life. YOU ARE LOVED. And we love and appreciate you so much, even if we can't show it every day. Unfortunately I won't be seeing my mom today, I got scheduled to work (retail... ugh!), but I hope that everyone gets to spend the day with a special woman, for my sake :).

On another note, yesterday I had the opportunity to volunteer at The Human Race in Santa Cruz, California! The Human Race is a nationwide, community fundraising event for nonprofit organizations. The Santa Cruz race in particular is a five mile walk/run, that encourages people to raise awareness and donate for a great cause. I worked the face painting booth all day, and all of the proceeds were donated to women and children in need! (Perfect fundraiser for today's holiday, eh?) Though the entire right side of me is sunburned to hell, I had a wonderful time. It was so great having a line of little kiddies (and adults) who wanted their faces painted by me! 

The only issue I had was time. I can say that I'm pretty good at face painting on myself, but my looks take anywhere from 1-3 hours. I have only painted on other people once or twice, and they still took a pretty long time. It's a lot harder painting someone elses face over your own; I know my own face, and I know I can sit still. Whereas others, (especially kids!) tend to fidget around a lot, and its hard to position your hands in a way that makes it easy to paint. Some of the full face paintings I did on the kids yesterday were taking a long time, and I could hear parents complaining that they 'didn't have 20 minutes to wait for a face paint'. Honestly, it's tough rushing through a painting, which I had to do a couple of times. And I felt bad because the paints I had to rush through, when I had a long line, weren't turning out very good at all. (Luckily they weren't paying me for them! Though I did get a few tips).

I realized that timing is just something I need to work on. I can't have 2-3 hours to do someones face, especially when I start doing photoshoots and things like that. I had such a good time yesterday though, and I'm so thankful that I was given that opportunity, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed the things I need to work on. All in all, it was a great experience!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

High School Daze

Lately I've been digging through a bunch of my old photos and videos on the web, from random image hosting websites I've saved them too, because I'm thinking about deleting my facebook. I want everything important saved on a hard drive before I delete any of my social networking sites, and let me tell you; I have found so many documented memories that I forgot that I even had! High school seems like such a blur now. I've lost friends, but I've also gained them. I've given up on relationships and started new ones. I moved from my old town, and started a new life, but I've tried to hold on to those who were, and still are, dearest to me.

These photos and videos I've stumbled upon have created many mixed emotions; happy, sad, thoughtful, embarrassed, cherished, loved, a lot of 'I can't believe we did that!' and 'I miss you's... and there were definitely a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. Looking back on old photographs, I always tend to think; "I miss how things used to be". And yes, I do miss it; but I also think about how far I, and all of my old friends, have come in life. All of the accomplishments we've made, how much we've grown and matured, discovering our passions... these years of our lives are about shaping the kind of person we're going to be for the future. I am sad when I look at these pictures or watch these videos, but I'm also very happy. Even if I don't talk to some of the people much now, it's good to know that at one point our lives intertwined, and we shared a few, or many, good laughs.

That being said, I just wanted to make this post about cherishing those fun, embarrassing, yet unforgettable memories, and don't be afraid to go back and take a look every once in awhile. 

It may turn your bad day into a good one.