While working on my very mundane, and very “routine” to-do list one day, I came upon a song playing on my phone. The music at that point had just become background noise; my eyes and ears were too busy trying to make logical sense of the seemingly senseLESS tasks ahead of me that night. The song, though, shared one very quick but very powerful lyric, right at the moment where my mind came back to what was happening around me. The singer, in his calm and smokey voice, uttered the words “love it all”. I then listened closer to the song and realized it seemed somewhat sad, that the singer had gone through his fair share of hardships, yet he still loves everything about his life because, to him, nothing but good things can come from the not so good occurrences that happen to us almost everyday. For the life of me I cannot remember the song. The song that broke through my barriers of focus and concentration on things that didn’t really serve me in any way. Somehow though, I feel like my lack of memory is a blessing in disguise. I am one of those college students that absolutely needs music playing no matter what she is doing; studying, painting, yoga, etc. Maybe, because I am the way I am, the song will make an encore appearance when I need it again.

Chalk Board Messages

Things get extremely jumbled when you are a senior in college (especially in your last semester). You spent the last four years making schedules for the next few months ahead of you; and then what? The scheduling seems to slow down and the “real world” is knocking at your door. Everyone will ask you where you are going next, in my mind my response is something like “well I would love to spend some time in Greece over the Summer,” but we both know that is not what they are getting at…unfortunately. My point is, these stressful, at times completely annoying everyday tasks are almost necessary for you to realize what you really want in life. Structure and adventure are both so important in the foundation of our lives. Yes, I would love to backpack across Europe tomorrow and for the next three months; but I also want to wake up tomorrow and teach middle school students the reasons why art is such a huge part of my life. We can never, at the same time, have both routine and spontaneity, but we can intermingle them in a way that gives us the best of both worlds. The key, really, is to just “love it all”. To work through the daunting but necessary tasks of your every day while dreaming of things you want to create and places you want to see, because you WILL get there. Life is a give and take kind of adventure. You can’t always be angry at what you can’t control because in the end, the things you desire most will come and then you are truly living. Choose to take the good with the bad and love it all. For me, I will wake up tomorrow and teach art to a classroom full of students, then I will come home and continue my savings plan to get myself to Europe!