2010: WHAT I LEARNED

Snow fun~, originally uploaded by HannaDonato.

I just took a moment to crack open my window and invite some of the snow in as an after Christmas guest. Up on the east coast, mother nature has given us a white blanket to clean the slate a-new to mark the end of the year.

Gazing out at the snow as it tumbles from roof to roof aimlessly, the last breath of 2010 whispers to the beat of the blizzard. This entry was supposed to be a list of New Year's resolutions, Girls in the Hall style. Instead, it turned into what I have learned this past year. 2010--you broke my heart, gave me the idea to start this blog and connect with girls around the country, shocked me with both the humanity and cruelty around the world, helped me fall in love again, and showed me that I am capable of so much more than I ever thought possible. Life threw lesson after lesson at me in the high school of life, and I am a better person for it. I am sure that a lot of you have had the same experiences. What I scribbled down along the way:

It's ok to get mad.... I have spent so much of my life bottling up my feelings in an attempt to be ever cheery. I realized that I can indeed be a good person and get upset sometimes, and it's a-ok. So often girls are taught to not get upset, and it is time we break that pattern.

Be brave..... The high road is hard sometimes. Climbing it often means courage and more work. Being kind to everyone at school, popular or not, takes strength. In order to reverse the bullying epidemic, it takes all of us--one by one--to take a stand. You could change someone's life by a hello or smile in the hallway each day.

Make time to play....... With all of the things on a girl's to do list, "time to just have fun" usually doesn't rate all that high. With exams, college applications, dealing with family, stressing about friends/boys/you name it, we all need to take a little time to breathe.

Volunteer.... It is so easy to get swept up in to the huge soap opera that is social hour at school. Think about all of the time you spend sending texts or calling your friends with gossip. What if you all took some of that time and bettered the planet? Find something that you like--tutoring, spending time playing board games at a senior center, taking care of stray pets, etc.--and you will discover that the person who gets the most out of giving your time is YOU.

Unabashedly Us.... I am a girl of paradoxes. I love to lip gloss and sneakers. I can't throw a football to save my life, but love to watch the game. I can be the life of the party, but sometimes get so shy I want to blend into the wallpaper. Each day I learn more things about myself, and have learned to embrace all of my quirks. After all, without them we would all be the same.

Don't rush.... In our attempts to make it to the next stage of life and all of the energy that we put into the possibilities of the future, don't let the present get swept away like the snow.

Bring on 2011!