20 Things That Give Me Happiness

This post is just going to be a list of 20 things that make me happy.

• The feeling you get when you're the final hit and you get the point.
• Jamming out to my favorite musicals as if I'm on Broadway.
• Watching Netflix and YouTube with food.
• Reading a really good Wattpad book and finishing it in one day.
• Being able to snuggle with all my stuffed animals.
• The confidence you get when you wear new clothes and/or get all dolled up.
• Waking up at 5:30 am for morning volleyball practice.
• Getting a good grade on a test that you were not so confident about.
• The way you squeal when you see a cute animal.
• Going to parties and dancing to all the Spanish music. 
• Making an imaginary world in my head where I control what happens.
• My great-grandmother's delicious cooking.
• Being alone in my room, playing Call of Duty Black Ops on my PlayStation.
• Having my family and friends around who support and care for me.
• Volunteering for community service hours.
• When my brother comes home and it feels like old times.
• Having talks about life with my Mother.
• Seeing and being able to play with my little cousins.
• Dying of laughter over the most random things with my friends.
• A phenomenal thing called life.

Perserverance

     Everyone at some point in their life has to perserverance at one thing or another. We all have that one thing that we just want to continue trying or get better at. An example of a person like this is a person named Nick Vujicic. Nick doesn't have arms or legs, so you would automatically think that he can't do normal stuff. Actually he does everyday things like we do, he go swimming, fishing, and many more activities. Three traits that Nick has are self-respect, perserverance, and courage. He has self-respect because he respects himself for who he is, and doesn't bring himself down. He doesn't think of himself as less just because he doesn't have arms or legs. He also has perserverance because even though he has a disability, he doesn't stop doing activities that any of us would do. The third trait he has is confidence. Nick has confidence because he knows that he can try new things, he isn't going to let his lack of arms/legs bring him down, and he knows that he can accomplish anything.

      A connection that Nick and I have is that we both have perserverance. We both try new things and have confidence when it comes to new activities or old ones. An example of this is when I first started playing volleyball, I couldn't do anything. My serves didn't make it over the net, I couldn't hit the ball in any shape or form, and I didn't know what the rules are or how we had to rotate. I wanted to try it because I would always see my brother playing the sport. In order to better myself, I started taking volleyball classes and practicing more. I would ask my brother for tips and tricks and would play volleyball any chance I got. In the end, I have been on the all-star volleyball for two years in a row and I think I am a pretty a good volleyball player. For anyone who wants to try something new or get better at something, just keep trying and don't give up.

Budweiser Super Bowl Commercial

     Every year, different companies and corporations use the Super Bowl as a way to advertise their product to a big group of people. Many people watch the Super Bowl every year, so it's perfect for large companies. Some companies use this huge audience as a way to sell more products or to send a message. One commercial of this year's Super Bowl was one by Budweiser. It summarizes the journey of one of the founders of the Budweiser company, Adolphus Busch, into a 60 second video. It shows a young Adolphus immigrating from Germany to St. Louis. When he gets to America, there are people who tell him to go back to where he came from, just like many say to immigrants nowadays.
     You can obviously tell that this commercial has a message because it is about a hot topic, immigrants. I think that the message Budweiser is trying to send to its audience is that not all immigrants are bad and they actually add to our society. Adolphus Busch was one of the founders of a ver big and popular beer company. He came to the United States as an immigrant and created this company that has lived for many years and till this day is relevant to Americans.
     I think that this commercial sent a good message about immigrants. I liked how they didn't just yell, "Immigrants are good for America" and did it in a more subtle but still impactful way. This shows that if it weren't for immigrants, some of the things that we consider 'American' wouldn't exist. Also if it weren't for immigrants, America wouldn't be as diverse as it is and have all of these different cultures. In my opinion when America was nothing, immigrants from other countries came to start a new life and bettered the United States economy. If it weren't for immigrants, the United States would not be the country it is today.

Best Advice I've Received

     Advice is given everyday, it can be the smallest piece of advice to a bigone about life. Advice helps us either make good or bad choices. They help us go through our daily lives knowing a little bit more about what path to choose. I am given phenomenal advice almost every single day by my mother. She tells me things that no one ever told her about how hard life is. She lived a hard life growing up and basically grew up without a mother nor a father. Everything she knows about life, she has learned by herself. The best advice she has ever given me was 'Don't try to run, when you're barely crawling'.
     The meaning of that saying is to not try to something too early. Everything will happen at its own time. I think that generations of today try to do things or act a way that is too old for them, and I'm not saying they are mature. There are kids who are ten, who act and dress like they are sixteen. There will always be time for everything, there is no need to rush it and not enjoy what is happening in the moment. I really like this phrase and I always have it in the back of my head. In the end, my mother has given me many pieces of advice but I think this one is one of the most important ones.

Worst Argument I've Had

     Arguments are a thing that everyone has, even those who are super nice and don't have drama. They happen for various reasons and can be about almost anything you can think of. Everyone has that one argument that was so bad, and now they don't like talking about it. I haven't had a super horrible argument with anyone, the ones I have had are just average. An argument that sparked a lot of controversy is one that I had with my friends. One of my friends, we are going to call her Steve, decided to tell me and my two other friends, we are going to call them Tony and Clint, a scenario. She asked us what we would do if someone, who was an atheist and hated those who believed in any god, was holding a gun to our heads and he asked us if we believed in God. If we said yes, we died and so did our families. If we said no, he would let us and our families live. Tony, Clint, and I all said yes, Steve said that was good because we would be let into Heaven since we got killed. This is the moment where everything went south.
      Steve was saying that if we said no and survived, when we died God would not let us into Heaven because we weren't being faithful to him. All three of us, Tony, Clint, and I, tried to explain to her that's not how it works. We told her that if you said no, you could still be let into Heaven. I go to a Catholic church, so I don't know how it works in Christian churches but in Catholic Churches there is a thing called confessing. You can go and confess to the priest about your sins or just pray to God asking for forgiveness. Steve wasn't understanding this and was being extremely stubborn. In the end, we all learned that we may all be in the same religion but it all is about how you interpret things. We also learned not discuss about religion because we start yelling and it just isn't good.

'Fake It Until You Become It'

     In a TED talk video, a lady talks about how the way you position yourself can portray how much confidence you have. If you stand/sit very openly with your legs spread out or  your arms out, you have more confidence. If you slouch or wrap your arms around yourself, you have less confidence. Even though this describes how much confidence you have, this can also relate to how much confidence you have in some aspects of your life.
     One aspect of my life that I feel most confident about is health. I think that I take pretty good care of myself. I try to eat healthy by not eating so much junk food. I have gym at school every other day and I do several sports, right now I am on the volleyball team. Another aspect of my life that I feel really confident about is education or development of myself. I learn new things everyday, and I am not just talking about academic related things. I make mistakes everyday and I learn from them. I think that my mind is developing very well.
     The part that I think I need to improve on is social. I can be very talkative with my friends but once someone else or a stranger is put into the picture I turn shy. I want to be able to not be shy around strangers and try to start a conversation with them to break the ice. I also want to better the relationships I have with the people around me. Right now they are good but I feel like they can become better.

Acts of Kindness Over Winter Break

     This winter break I didn't really do many acts of kindness. In fact I didn't do anything in general, unless watching Netflix and YouTube all day counts. To many, the holiday times are when people get a break and are with their families. To others, the holidays are very stressful, that is why it's important to do acts of kindness in these times. They make those who are stressed out or can't spend time with their families feel better. Over winter break, an act of kindness I did was help my brother come home. I brother came home for Christmas and I helped him with his luggage and stuff like that. I also helped my parents prepare the food for Christmas and New Years, and attend the guest we had over. Overall, winter break was a fun time for me.