Currently Lost Get Found By Britt Nicole see related

The State of Bliss.

 There aren’t any natural words to encompass the characteristics of Kyler. Not the person. Not the feeling. But the state of being. A state of complete and utter bliss. It’s when you step out of your car and the parking lot becomes a misty wonderland in a moment’s notice. It’s when you make a run for it as the rain comes pouring down on you. It’s slipping across a hardwood floor in your socks. It’s pulling the lever on the side of a recliner and feeling your heart leap with anxiety as the chair shifts under you. It’s gazing out of an airplane window and having your breath stolen as you realize there’s a whole other world besides yours. It’s sinking your teeth into the biggest strawberry you’ve ever seen. When you sit in the passenger seat with your feet up, the A.C. blowing in your face full-blast; that’s Kyler.

Kyler is when your toes leave the ledge of the pool and you know it’s too late to change your mind, but the icy water isn’t so scary once you’re submerged. It’s playing with the lemon in your Sweet Tea. It’s jumping into a pile of leaves you just spent hours raking. It’s breaking into a sprint on those final 200 meters, as the adrenaline kicks in and your pain is replaced by an invigorating high. It’s lunch outings that follow long Church services. It’s your favorite pair of flip-flops; it’s those unexpected candy purchases at the check-out counter. Kyler is the song lyric that gives you goosebumps everytime you hear it. It’s laying awake in bed at night during a thunderstorm. It’s your warm sheets fresh out of the drier.

When you hold the door for people who don’t expect it; when you smile at a stranger who needed it; that’s Kyler. It’s listening to a Frank Sinatra album on a vintage record player. It’s stretching out on your carpet and feeling more content than you would in your bed. Kyler is a good book enjoyed in a giant armchair. It’s a corny joke that makes you laugh nonetheless. It’s adding more salt to your popcorn, just because. It’s when you stop and get out of your car to help a turtle across the street. When you sit out on the front porch and watch the rain; that’s Kyler.

I guess Kyler is all those things for a number of reasons. Because sometimes a person comes along and you just can’t explain them in words. But they make you look twice at the world. They make all of the finer things in life stand out. The fear is gone. The confusion is gone. All that’s left is a State of Bliss incapable of complete comprehension. That’s Kyler.

Your State of Bliss probably isn't Kyler. It may be John, or, Eric, or Angela. It can be anyone. Anyone who makes you see the world through rose-colored glasses. So what's the name of your State of Bliss?

Currently Gone With the Wind By Margaret Mitchell see related

Been there, Done that.

 Throughout my xanga...career, if you will, I've come to the realization that there are many members of this community who are considerably older than myself. For those of you who didn't know, I'm beginning my freshman year of college in just under a month. So to kind of get myself back into the swing of blogging, and to help ease my nerves about the huge transition I'm about to make, I decided I'd like to hear from YOU, rather than talk about random subjects and ask your opinion on them. Not just for my own good, but for the good of anybody planning to take this step in the near future.

Is there something you feel every incoming University student should know? Do you have a funny story about a mistake you made or a misconception you had going into college? Something I should beware of? Good experiences I should look forward to? I don't know what to expect, so anything you're wanting to tell me, I'll be happy to listen.

A Trip to No-Man's Land

The joke is seemingly timeless. We females go to the restroom in packs. We get it. You think we don’t know? Well maybe it’s time you learned something that YOU don’t know. What you don’t understand is that the girls’ public restroom is uncharted territory where scary, annoying, and just downright disgusting things happen. Let’s take you on a tutorial through the women’s high school bathroom, shall we?

            That dreaded time of day has come, and while you’d do anything to avoid it… the inevitable happens and nature comes calling. You make it to the bathroom, which we’ll hereafter refer to as No-Man’s Land (not because there are no men…but because it’s like crawling out of your safe, yet rat-infested trench into broad daylight within the scope of all your enemies.) and, of course, there’s always a line. Not most of the time. Always. Often times the line is enough to make your emergency suddenly go away. However, on some days, like today, you’ve really got to go.

            Now, when standing in line, one of two things will usually happen. You’ll take your place at the end of the line, which, thanks to your ever-impeccable timing, leaves you standing directly in the entrance of No-Man’s Land. Here, not only must you awkwardly dodge each girl attempting to leave the bathroom, you also have the pleasure of the attention of every man who walks into the opposite door. Congratulations, you might as well wear a sign on your back that says “I’m about to do my business!”

            As for the alternative situation, real congratulations are in order; there’s only one girl in line! As you wait, you examine the cement-blocked walls and thick stall doors and decide that if ever the school was under attack, this would be your first destination, as opposed to crawling into a dark classroom corner with your fellow students. It’s like a plumber’s citadel.

            By the time you’re nearly bursting, you make the choice to turn to the girl in front of you and, upon feeling your eyes on her face, she looks up from her entrancing iPhone and responds “Oh, I’m not waiting.” Of course not. How silly of you to think she was waiting just because she was standing in line. Rookie mistake. You’ll get used to it.

            Now that you’ve successfully claimed your right to the next stall, you get the privilege of pushing past the eight girls lined up in front of the mirror. You know, the mirror that’s between you and the actual toilets? That one. You can’t help but think to yourself that each girl looking in the mirror is probably none other than a Miss High-Class Hindquarters.

            Miss High-Class Hindquarters wouldn’t allow her bottom to touch a public toilet seat if you offered to pay her college tuition. She complains day-in and day-out about the conditions of public restrooms, when the truth is, she’s the reason the restroom is so squalid in the first place. In the case of an all-out, unavoidable emergency, she’ll take about 15 feet of toilet paper, and circle it around the toilet seat about eight times (by this time, it would’ve been cheaper for the school to just invest in some seat covers.) Then, she’ll still proceed to hover about six inches above the toilet as she does what needs to be done. Congratulations, Miss Hindquarters! Your bottom remains untouched. Don’t worry about that pee all over the seat and that fifteen-foot-long wad of toilet paper you’ve knocked to the floor. It’s just a public restroom anyway, right? 

            Once inside the two-by-three foot space, you instantly change your mind about its safety. You’re suddenly understanding of how Matilda felt when the Trunchbull locked her in the dreaded Chokey. You sit on the (surprisingly clean!) toilet seat, and relieve yourself. But wait, what’s this? There’s not a scrap of toilet paper left on the roll. It’s just as you suspected. Miss High-Class Hindquarters has been here. Curse her and her selfish ways!

            Now, here’s where traveling to the bathroom in groups really comes in handy. This is the part where you ask your best friend in the next stall over to pass you some toilet paper. However, this is your first trip through No-Man’s Land, so you didn’t think to bring reinforcements. Be prepared to feel awkward.

            The unfamiliar hand that belongs to the unfamiliar person in the stall next to you deigns to pass you what you request, but here’s the thing. She’ll give you one sheet. Two tops. Doesn’t matter who she is, she will always give you only one or two sheets of her precious toilet paper. You manage to survive with your limited supply, and flush the commode as you read things like “Ashley loves Ryan” and “Brittany Z. is such a-”

            But that’s not the point. The point is, the worst is probably over. You surrender your stall to some other poor girl and wait for a sink to open up. It does pretty quickly, and you proceed to wash your hands with soap that resembles Pepto Bismol and water that’s so cold it makes your knuckles ache. Bet you can’t wait to get those hands under that drier, huh?

            Well, you’ll stand there for a good three minutes, hands outstretched in front of you and fingers spread apart like you’ve just committed murder as you wait for a drier to open. One’s taken by the chick who’s trying to dry her press-on tattoo, and the other is being manned by the meticulous girl who must make sure that every crevice of her skin is dry before she goes about the rest of her day. 

            One finally opens up and you dry your hands for about ten seconds before you get impatient and rub them on your jeans. Time to make your way out. Don’t make eye contact with the girl who’s crying her eyes out because she’s using the bathroom as refuge, and try not to gag at the girl who’s piercing her belly button with a safety pin. Just keep your eyes on the door, and soon enough…

            You’re free. That is, free to return to class and explain to your teacher why you’ve been gone fifteen minutes.       

Currently The Lost Get Found By Britt Nicole see related

Not For Sale.

So, the President signed a proclamation last week declaring January "National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month," and January 11th as National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. I thought this would be a good excuse to post an article I wrote for my high school newspaper on the matter. Human trafficking has always been a concern of mine, and I've been an activist for the last two years or so. If you read this and feel the need to become involved, I would encourage you to follow the Polaris Project link and see about volunteering, interning, or even just donating clothes. Many of the victims found are in need of things like undergarments and t-shirts. All you have to do is pick up a pack of girls underwear or two, and send them in. Even if you can't afford to give anything, sometimes all they need is for you to write an email to a politician. It takes ten minutes and I know for a fact it works, because I've written Governor Schwarzenegger with positive results. Despite the overwhelming feeling of insignificance human nature sometimes provides us with, you can make a difference.

Human Trafficking: Modern Day Slavery

            Slavery doesn’t exist today. At least, not in America. It was abolished after the civil war. These are assumptions made by many, and they couldn’t be more wrong. Slavery is as much alive today as it’s ever been, only now we’ve established a euphemism for it; human trafficking. This modern day slavery is the second largest criminal industry in the world. Human trafficking victims are coerced or forced into labor or sexual exploitation. Polaris Project, an organization based in D.C. “For a world without slavery” estimates that 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked annually in the United States alone; and that’s just foreigners! The number of U.S. citizens themselves that are exploited is even higher.

            Twenty year-old Katya, who was interviewed on the Today show earlier this year, is one of the many women with a testimony worth sharing. Katya, along with other hopeful female University students, was offered a job waitressing in America, a proposition she eagerly took as a chance to leave the Ukraine. Upon arriving, she was told by Alex Maksimenko and Michail Aronov that “plans had changed.” She and fifteen other young women were imprisoned in apartments around Detroit. Katya was told that she would work twelve hour shifts every night as a sex slave at a strip club called The Cheetah. She was also warned that she was required to make one thousand dollars a night; if she didn’t meet the quota, they would find a way for her to make up the difference. Not a dollar of the earnings was seen by any of the women, and when the men’s apartments were raided later on, authorities found over 500,000 dollars-worth of these earnings.

            Katya escaped from captivity on February 14, 2005, but the emotional scars from the abuse she endured will haunt her for the rest of her life. “I want [people] to understand that [just because] I have a smile on my face, doesn’t mean I’m here of my own will. It doesn’t mean that I appreciate this job and [that] I want to be here, and it’s not just…‘easy to leave.’ Because I was kept,” Katya explained upon being asked what she’d like the world to know about human trafficking.

            Trafficking takes place here in America, everyday. It can happen to women, men, children; anyone. This doesn’t just happen in India or China. The industry doesn’t discriminate between those living in a suburban community, and those living in a slum; nor does it prefer individuals living on the street over those with 200,000 dollar houses. The risk is still there. 

            Governments are only beginning to address the issue. Although there are laws in America against trafficking, many countries’ governments ignore, or even facilitate this exploitation. Polaris Project believes that a lack of awareness on the topic is what causes inaction among government authorities. It’s time to take a stand and show that we know what’s going on with these under-the-rug organizations; time to lead the anti-trafficking movement forward and put an end to the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. President Abe Lincoln once said “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” It’s as true today as it was in 1864; the world still needs abolitionists.           

            If you are concerned by this issue and wish to know more, you can visit www.polarisproject.org or www.notforsalecampaign.org.

Currently Flyleaf By Flyleaf see related

Dear Shoshannah--