Childhood Questions

1. The most important figure I had in my life growing up throughout my childhood was my mom, and she still is to this day. I have always admired how she handles herself in situations, how independent and honest she is, and how unconditionally she loves me. She has helped shape me into the person I am today and I have taken after her in many ways. She has been my biggest blessing and greatest role model throughout my life so far and will continue to be for the rest of my life.
2. If I was granted 24 hours of my adulthood life to be child again I would spend it outside again for the entire day playing with my sister and all the neighborhood kids. This was a time period when there was absolutely nothing to worry about except for what game we were going to play next. In return, if I was granted 24 hours of my childhood life to be and adult for a day I would spend it going out and doing everything that requires independence in adulthood life, because I remember that being what I wanted so desperately when I was a child: independence.
3. When I was younger a "family fun night" consisted of going to Incredible Pizza. We would always go eat pizza and then play games for hours afterwards. Then we would spend way too long standing in the prize line for some cheap little prize that would probably break in less than 20 minutes. But for some reason this was always something special my sister and I would look forward to, because it was not something we got to do very often.
4. A cartoon from my childhood that I spent way too much time watching was Tom and Jerry. I would sit in front of the box t.v. in the living room on the floor with my blanket and just laugh and laugh and laugh at every episode of Tom and Jerry that would air. I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but I did for some reason, and my mom would just laugh at me for laughing so hard at Tom and Jerry. If it were to be made into a blockbuster movie now I would probably go watch it for nostalgic purposes and to just give me a little dose of my childhood again.
5. One time I had this birthday party at the park in my hometown, it was my fifth birthday. All of my friends and family came and the adults grilled hamburgers and hot dogs while all the kids ran and played around at the park. This is one of my favorite birthday memories.
   

Inspired by Hopper

Nighthawks

This painting reminds me of late night adventures to Steak n' Shake with my best friends in the summer. The people in this painting are in a cafe shop with very few people in it and it appears to be late at night. There is no roaming traffic outside the window and everything is moving at very slow pace. Much like those night I spent at Steak n' Shake at midnight with my friends. Just sitting up there and talking for hours about life and everything in between. I imagine the smell of waffles, hash browns, and coffee feeling this cafe shop. I imagine quiet, muted conversations between the few groups and couples in the cafe that late. I imagine the sound of rushed waiters and waitresses in the midst of their jobs, the sound of glasses and plate hitting against one another. All of these are things I experience when spending late nights dining with my best friends.

Window Poem

Straight ahead I see
the open road, endless and straight,
a setting sun covering the sky,
and signs giving directions to my next adventure.

To my left I see
bright green trees,
hitchhikers strolling down the asphalt,
and rocks lining the road.

Something is different today,
the sky is dark and gloomy,
the sun didn't set today.

Always pondering out
that car window.

I look out the window and see
auburn, crisp leaves falling,
the harsh air fogging up my window.

Looking harder ahead I see
a split in the road,
two directions.
Which way should I go?

Artist Profile: Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born October 21,1881 in Malaga, Spain to the parents Don Jose Ruiz Picasso and Dona Maria Picasso y Lopez. His father was an art teacher and also Picasso's life long teacher throughout his life. His mom stayed at home and took care of the house and family. Picasso never received much schooling while growing up. His father taught him almost everything he knew. However, Picasso did attend Barcelona's School of Fine Arts for a short while before dropping out and roaming the streets of Spain painting on his own. Something many people may not know about Picasso, or find shocking, is that he was an incorrigible womanizer. Throughout his life, Picasso had two marriages, but he also shared in many affair, girlfriends, and flings throughout the span in his life as well. His first wife was Olga Khokhlova and his second wife was Jacqueline Roque.

Pablo Picasso did not live an easy life. Throughout the course of his life he underwent many struggles that shaped  him into the man he was. At a young age, Picasso experienced the death of one of his close friends, Carlos Casagemas. This is what led Picasso into his depression stage. He suffered from severe depression and this is what inspired his Blue Period of artwork. After recovering from this severe depression, he later experienced the loss of his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, to suicide.

Despite, all of Picasso's struggles and set backs he still managed to create some of the most famous art pieces to this day. Several of these pieces include: Blue Nude, Two Nudes, and Card Player. Picasso's work still resides in the hearts of many today and his work will forever have a lasting impact.

Inspired by Your Artist

Girl Before A Mirror

By: Pablo Picasso

The classic story we all want:

To love

and to be loved.

But, how are you seen through your lover's eyes?

Love is the timeless story that will never grow old,

and let's hope it never does.

If you take away the feeling of love, 

then what are you living for?

Everybody deserves to love 

and to be loved by somebody.

Three Musicians

By: Pablo Picasso

Three old time friends,

different upbringings,

different personalities.

All strung together into three

life long best friends.

Bound together 

by their passion for music.

Strumming,

humming,

and rhyming

building a friendship through the rhymes of music.

Newspaper Headlines

Missouri State swimming and diving reclaims conference championship

This title of the newspaper sticks out to me because I swam for seven years up until this year. So it was a huge part of my life for so long. I swam for Missouri State Aquatics before transferring over to the Drury Swim Aquatics Program and then transferring to the Kickapoo High School swim team and swimming at school. I made so many close friends throughout the course of the years that I swam and only quit swimming due to the amount of time it took up. Swimming competitively is very time consuming and I made the tough decision to quit my senior year because I wouldn't to make time for all my friends and family that are close to me before we all part ways and grow up and start our own journeys. I knew those would be the memories that I looked back and valued over my swim memories that I already had 7 years worth of.

Six Word Memoirs

Southern roots beginning, city living currently

Writers as Readers

1.) When I read I need a quiet environment that is relaxing. I can't read if there is a lot going on around me or in a very social environment. I like dim lighting and soothing atmospheres, too much going on around me and I tend to focus on my environment and not my book.

2.) The types of writing that interests me is realistic, true stories. I find them very inspiring and either heartwarming or heart breaking and I enjoy reading both. On the other hand, sometimes I enjoy ready utopian societies and that are not so realistic. This can help me escape from the real work and have my mind focus on something else than what is going on in the real world.

3.) One of my best memories connected with reading is back in 6th grade when I was really invested into reading and did it a lot, more than just books I was required to read at school. Although, when I was in 6th grade we had book talks once a month and I believe this is what helped me get into reading so much. As I've grown older I don't read as much, or at all really, but I wish I did because I really enjoyed it back then.

4.)  I don't think I would ever write a book of my own, although, when I was younger I did write my own little short stories. I never seemed to finish them and I feel like this is why I could never write a book someday. I tend to lose interest in projects very fast, I'm not sure why but I just can't seem to hold my focus.
I am also just very personal so I tend to make my writing personal as well and I just don't think I would want the whole world reading my personal writings.

Memorable Passage

“Because you aren't just someone I loved back then. You were my best friend, my best self, and I can't imagine giving that up again." He hesitated searching for the right words. "You might not understand, but I gave you the best of me, and after you left, nothing was ever the same.” 
― Nicholas Sparks, The Best of Me

This particular passage has caught attention and been engraved in my memory since the moment I read it because to me it just captures everything a relationship should be. You should be bettering yourselves together and giving each other everything you have. I just feel like this passage describes love perfectly and everything it should entail. It captures love and heartbreak in a matter of a few sentences. It is one of those passages that pulls at your heart strings and makes you think. I feel like at this time in our life, my generation, focuses on love and finding someone and finding the person you want to spend your life with, and I feel as if Nicholas Sparks captured my generation's emotions perfectly. He put into words the works of falling in love and how it can be gone in a heart beat, and he worded it so beautifully.

Keeping It Real (Like Dan)

2. Three tips I would give to parents of teenagers are: you have let us make our own mistakes and learn from them, we are going to develop our own beliefs as we grow older, and please support us even if you don´t always agree with us because life is all about learning.

7. I don believe that you can know if you love someone or not after only three days. I feel like part of loving someone comes from knowing everything about a person- their flaws, their interests, what makes them who they are and loving them through and despite it all. How are you supposed to know all of this about a person after only three days?

10. I feel like family should know their limits when it comes to getting involved in a family member´s relationship. I feel like there is a fine line between knowing about what is going on in the relationship and involving yourself in the relationship like it is your own relationship. I feel like parents should understand the difference and respect it. Parents that often over involve themselves in their child´s relationship make it ten times harder on their child when the break up happens I feel like.

12. I feel like illicit love is more appealing to us because we all want what we can´t have. When there is something in front of you that everyone is telling you that you can´t have, it makes it that much more desirable in society I feel like. I feel like this is a mind set that will last forever, it is why temptation seems so desirable.

17. My idea of a perfect day would be spent at the beach with my best friend and family. We would spend all day on the beach, laying out and playing in the beach waves, and then we would go back up to the condo and get ready to go out for dinner that evening. The beach is my happy place and I can´t imagine spending a more perfect day at the beach then with the people I love the most.

27. I feel like we teenagers are pretty hard on our parents. They are learning how to deal with everything with us for the first time just like we are and they only want what is best for us. Also, if you think it parents only know what we decide to tell them is going on in our lives, which is troubling to think about, but teenagers keep secrets and parents know that because they were once teenagers too.