Spreading Love (beginning the essay)

I believe in spreading sincere love. What I mean by this is looking for opportunities to love people in any way, shape, and form possible. It is sincere because it comes from the heart, an honest action with no intent other than to selflessly, fearlessly, and freely love by pouring into someone's life. I believe in spreading love because the moments others have taken time to spread love to me have been the most influential and cherished moments in my life. In little ways and in big ways, love is contagious and once you've experienced it, you want to share it with someone else.

There are some things I try and remind myself throughout the day that keep me inspired to love. I remind myself to smile sincerely. These are things that are important to me because they are things that others have done in my life. Love really is contagious and I believe it can spread like a wildfire. 

A smile means a lot when it is a true smile that is comforting, inviting and warm. A smile can encourage and lift a person's spirits. Ever since I was a little girl, smiles have warmed my heart. I often was too shy to smile at people, but it made me so happy when other people would smile at me. I began to look for smiles and learned to smile back and eventually learned to be the smile initiator. 

Another thing I remind myself is to be open to strangers. Get to know the people that work at your favorite place or the regulars that come to where you work. All friends were strangers once. 

Another thing I try and put into practice is encouragement. A little text, a letter, a phone call to remind someone you care. Lastly, I try to be aware of what's going on in the lives of those who surround me and I want to be there for them through the good and the bad. I want to have deep conversations with people to truly get to know them beyond their appearance and beyond the things they keep hidden from the world.

These are all ways to spread love, but love is not limited to these things.

Stories and moments to maybe use as examples: 
My teachers pouring into my life Senior year when everything went wrong. 
Brittany being my role-model when my own sister couldn't be a good example for my life. 
The note from Kiersten. 
When I'm at work and a customer asks how I'm doing before I can as how they're doing or when they smile. 
When my co-workers care.
When my neighbors took time to get to know me.
 

Credo (edit before essay)

I believe in spreading sincere love. What I mean by this is looking for opportunities to love people in any way, shape, and form possible. It is sincere because it comes from the heart, an honest action with no intent other than to selflessly, fearlessly, and freely love by pouring into someone's life. 

I believe in spreading love because the moments others have taken time to spread love to me have been the most influential and cherished moments in my life. 

I believe in smiling. A smile means a lot. A smile can encourage and lift a person's spirits. 

I believe in strangers. Get to know the people that work at your favorite coffee shop or get to know the regulars that come to where you work. All friends were strangers once. 

I believe in notes. A little text, a letter, a phone call to remind someone you care. I believe those are all ways to spread love. Love is not limited to these things.

Naked Chocolate (or not so naked)

Chocolate. Chocolate is a wonderful thing. I had a friend who didn't like chocolate and I never understood that. I had a dog that liked chocolate a little too much and I did understand that. I actually had two dogs that liked chocolate a little two much. The first one was our first family dog. He was the best dog ever. No dog will ever compare to him. His name was Samson and he was a stunning white German Shepherd. When he was a puppy, he snuck into my parent's closet and discovered my mom's Godiva chocolate stash. He ate the entire pile of it. He was okay after a massive stomach ache and he didn't ever go looking for that stash again. Now we have a little Daushound named Charlie and last summer that little sneak ate a whole roll of Oreos. He didn't learn his lesson though because a few nights ago he stole my chocolate muffin and downed the whole thing. My dog (my child, I should say), Gidget, is an Australian Shepherd who loves chocolate as well. While I was studying last night, I was rewarding myself with M&Ms and she wanted one so badly she did all her tricks in a row. So I gave her one. That was probably a mistake, but I couldn't resist her little begging eyes. I'm a sucker for my dog. I don't know what I'd do with out her, to be honest. She is my best friend. She really is. It breaks my heart to leave her at home for work, school, etc. because she sits at the door and cries. It's the best feeling ever to get home though, because she's always waiting for me and she attacks me with kisses and love when I walk in the door. I know when I get home today that she'll be there, waiting for me to play with her in the snow. I love everything about my dog. I love her flaws because they make me laugh and I love how hard she tires to please me and how loyal she is. I love observing her reactions to things and training her. She is very quick and enjoys learning new tricks. Nothing compares to the love of a dog or loving a dog. Just don't let them get into your chocolate.

Toilet Paper Roll

Two things come to mind when I look at this toilet paper roll. The first is that my hedgehog likes to play inside them and the other is that one time my mom's friend gave her a painted one for her birthday and they played a silly game with it. Both are good memories that make me smile. My hedgehog is still a baby. He's kinda grumpy (hence the nocturnal-ness), but when he's awake, he is very playful and curious. One time he got stuck in the toilet paper roll I put in his house and I heard a banging noise. I was worried so I ran over to his house and he was walking around banging into things because the roll was stuck on his head and he couldn't see. Half of me wanted to rescue him and to be honest, the other half of me wanted to leave it on him because it was so funny and quite adorable. My mom and her friend were funny to watch too and believe it or not, there was no drinking involved in this game. They simply looked through the painted toilet paper roll like a telescope at each other and died laughing because of how ridiculous it was. I feel like maybe I don't talk about serious things enough and that all the stories I've written about so far are kinda silly, but hey, everyone likes to read a silly story. I don't know what else to write about. I'm working on trying to kill the editor but I'm still hitting backspace a lot more than I should be. I'm not even using really big words, I'm just making silly mistakes. That happens a lot. Especially in the morning. Especially on a snow day when I don't particularly want to be at school. This morning was a struggle. I kept hitting snooze and checking my phone in hopes that school would be cancelled for the day. Turns out it wasn't. So I'm here. Writing about whatever comes to my mind. Annnnnd I don't know what to write about so I'm blabbering. Blogs are weird because sometimes you want to have a voice and sometimes you'd rather people didn't know your thoughts. Today is one of those days because I don't feel like my blog is really saying anything. So maybe I should say something in case someone decides to read this. By now they probably think I'm crazy. Crazy people are always interesting though, aren't they? Well, I really enjoy my health class. It's made me want to work on a lot of things and grow. So That's my important thought for the day.

Credo

I believe in spreading sincere love. 

What I mean by this is looking for opportunities to love people in any way, shape, and form possible. It is sincere because it comes from the heart, an honest action with no intent other than to selflessly, fearlessly, and freely love by pouring into someone's life. 

I believe in this first of all because Jesus loved me and laid down His life for me. In response to His love, I want to love others. Secondly, I believe in spreading love because the moments others have taken time to spread love to me have been the most influential and cherished moments in my life. 

I believe in smiling. A smile means a lot. A smile can encourage and lift a person's spirits. 

I believe in strangers. Get to know the people that work at your favorite coffee shop or get to know the regulars that come to where you work. All friends were strangers once. 

I believe in notes. A little text, a letter, a phone call to remind someone you care.  

I believe those are all ways to spread love. 

In Response to Mrs.A's "This I Believe"

I relate to believing in the power of stuff. The right stuff. I hate having too much stuff. I hate clutter. I'm a little OCD and a little on the neat-freak side. Well, okay my whole room is usually sparkling and my clothes are color-coordinated. Maybe I'm a lot on the neat-freak side. Just as much as I hate clutter, I hate it when I feel like I have to keep up with society by buying certain things to impress certain people. Sometimes I even hate how much I spend on myself. I return things I buy for myself a lot because I often feel like I am being too materialistic. When it comes to getting other people gifts, however, I will spend a significant amount of time thinking about and researching the perfect gift for that person. And usually, I get them more than one thing. I love giving gifts that mean something. I will spend twice the amount of money to get the perfect gift rather than getting something I think they might like. I am a gift giver and I love getting gifts. I love it when someone puts time into getting me something. It doesn't even have to be a nice gift, it could be a stick with a bow on it that represented an inside joke and I'd be ecstatic and keep it forever. I'd probably even frame it. That to me, is the power of the right stuff.

This Summer

If everything works out I'd love to be traveling all summer. For the first time, I've set up goals and started working on them that way all these things I've wanted to do seem more realistic and reachable. I've never gotten to this point. Usually I get discouraged and talk myself out of these incredible experiences. I'm ready to live now. I'm ready for life to begin and I'm ready to go on a journey of discovery and adventure. I want to grow more in my faith and get out of this cycle I'm stuck in with daily life and stupid goals society has pressed upon me. I want to learn more about myself and step out for Jesus. There are three trips I'm working on for this summer. One of them is a mission trip to Africa. I've never been on a mission trip before. Another is a trip to backpack around Europe. My dear friend Kelli and I are researching that right now. And the last is a road trip to my hometown in Georgia. That trip also involves beach camping and staffing a summer camp in Chattanooga, Tennessee.