Swan Talk

 Maria, Sarah, and I didn't know what it was like to be California Girls. We didn't really understand what much of the lines of Katy Perry's popular hit was even saying. Conveniently, the song came out and rose in popularity weeks before we attended our family beach trip. We spent long hours out in the ninety-degree weather rehearsing a dance to perform for the rest of our family. We laughed at the dirty parts that we understood and we danced through the dirty parts that went right over our head. The song was catchy. The song was the highlight of our beach trip. It is a moment that we talk about at almost every instance that our families meet up with each other. It acts as a segway into discussing the sweet, intimate moments of our childhood and those beach trips. California Girls is the theme song of our friendship in some ways. It speaks loudly to our innocence and our closeness to each other. I mean, how many people are you going to dance terribly in front of without an ...

 At ten years old kids are very impressionable. They care about what the people around them are saying. They love to feel reassured by their peers and superiors. My dad was a passionate Cleveland Browns fan. This type of choice was a rare one made in general, but it was definitely rare living in Pennsylvania. We were just two hours outside of Pittsburgh. I went to school feeling like this odd and comical minority. Everyone else went to school dressed in their Pittsburgh Steelers attire and my parents made me wear a big Browns jersey on the special school days assigned to wearing a favorite sports team. I stuck out like a sore thumb. I always felt embarrassed. The boys who actually knew stuff about football would tease me. I acted as this 10-year-old display of my parents' personality. I hated this feeling. I hated the conflict that would race through my mind when telling my parents it was my 'favorite team day' at school. I find now that it was not worth stressing over. Tod...

 I went on my first date ever in a car. That sounds lame at first glance. What could you possibly do as a date in a car? I would argue that cars are the most intimate places to be. Without music or the sound of the racing highway, cars are silent. You sit there with a person looking at the same view out of the front windshield. You have nothing around you besides the other person. On my first date, we went to the drive-ins. It is a date that forces you to be in the same mind space as the other person. You looked out the same windows. You listened to the same radio. You shared the same air in this little rusted car. Going on a date in a car can seem boring. You might wonder what could possibly be appealing to sitting restricted in this setting with nothing else. I thought that too. I was pleasantly incorrect.

 Getting comfortable is key to any successful piece of writing. I need to be comfortable. Sitting on a couch, on a cushioned chair, or covered in blankets on my bed help create an atmosphere that I can write to the best of my ability. I need time to free write. I need to let my fingers glide around on the keys and let the mindless thoughts spill out. This helps me begin. This helps me gain confidence in what I have to say. And this helps me have something to say. Even when I'm not writing for a purpose or assignment, allowing my thoughts to spill out like that helps me collect my feelings or ideas on life. This process of freewriting is important in finding yourself sometimes. Creating lists is special to me. As freewriting allows me to open windows, organizing with lists helps me come to terms with what windows need to be closed or moved around to create a piece I'm proud of.

 As an employee, I have learned to smile. I've learned how to keep a smile even when you don't feel like smiling. Employees are important. They make or break the job. There are bad employees. There are so many good ones as well. But no one knows what the employee does when they aren't an employee. They know that they are an employee that smiles a lot. They are an employee that offers a helping hand. In everyone else's world, that person is just an employee. They aren't treated as the mother, sister, lover that they are. They are an employee that clocks in and out and smiles a lot. They are someone who fills a slot of time in other people's world. Nobody knows about the employee's passions. Nobody knows how long their commute is. Nobody asks if they are having a great day. They are only an employee. They have learned to just smile.