The Beauty Of Simplicity

Think before you speak (or act). I say this because I've had a recent experience about a stupid mistake a made and I did not even bother to think before I acted. When we do this we not only harm the other person, but we are also harming ourselves. We are showing them that we don't care about them, we are showing them that our thoughts are more important than theirs, which is NOT true. No person is more important than the other, we are all equal. And when we act/speak in a way that degrades the persons self-confidence or their self-image we are telling them that we are better than them and that we deserve a higher respect, but we Don't. My recent experience was awful on my part. I took my anger out on one of my most treasured friends, and I made them feel as if they did not matter because I did not get my way. Not only is that childish, it's also just plain rude. I had not thought through why I did that, and I had no reason to do so. The point of this article i...

I want to raise my children in the gospel. When I raise my children I want to be the kind of mother that they can go to in times of need, no matter what it may be. I want them to know that they can come to me with any problem and not have to worry about me yelling at them for it. I want to live my life virtuously so that they may realize what it looks like to live out the standards of the church. I want the walls of my home to be lined with book shelf after book shelf. I want them to realize that fairy tales are real and that we can create our own with the right ingredients. I want my children to not be afraid to be themselves around people. I want them to know that the only people who matter in life won't care, and the ones who do don't matter anyway.   I want to be the kind of mother that they can look to for life advice. I want to be the kind of mother that will be nonjudgmental of their situation because I've probably been in the same position. When I raise my chi...

I usually like to keep my religion seperate from my writings, but today I cannot do that. The Lord has done so much for me everyday, and I feel like I need to recognize it more, so here goes it.  "For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you." (Deuteronomy 20: 4)   I ran into this scripture this morning as I was looking for some kind of comfort in my trials, and this alone has helped me a lot. The Lord saves us each day. He sends angels to look after us, he inspires each of us to do little things like waving to a random person on the street, or smiling to an old friend you haven't talked to In years, and we do this without realizing the impact we may have on that person.  Heavenly Father helps us each day, he never faulters with this. Today I've realized that my Lord has been fighting next to me everyday of my life, and it brings a smile to my face just knowing that.  Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ has always b...

[Disclaimer: I am not throwing myself a pity party, so please do not treat this as such.] A Letter To Those Who Don't Like Me: I do not know everything. I simply don't. I know you expect so much of me. To be smarter, to have a little more common sense, to understand all social cues. I also know you expect me to be prettier, to laugh less, to talk less. I know you don't like how I treat people. I know you don't like my smile. And I know you don't like that I have any friends at all-- especially if they may be your friends as well. I know that you may think I'm too short.  I'm dramatic. I'm too goofy. And that I'm annoying as heck. I know that my simple existence bothers you. I know that everything and anything I try to do to make it better will never help. And I know that I will never please you, and that kills me. But if I'm to be real for a minute, I shouldn't care. I am training myself to try to understand why you don't like me...

How often do we listen to our friends? To our family? To Strangers? The first step to a great friendship is listening. When we listen to someone we let go of our thoughts, we let go of ourselves, and we listen to them. A wise friend of mine once said, "Listen for the sake of knowledge. Listen for the sake of understanding. Listen for the sake of listening." Sometimes all we can do for a person is listen to them, to let them vent about something. And that's not always bad. In fact, embrace that. Listen to the person, and you will gain a better understanding of the person, which leads us to step two. Step two to a great friendship is understanding the other persons story. And how can we do that while we're talking about ourselves so much? Often we find ourselves listening to reply, but that's not the right way to go about it. We need to listen to understand. Take a minute to look at your life, just take a step back and look at it from a distance. How grea...

So this week I was challenged to think about my life as a whole, and evaluate what can be beneficial and meaningful in my life as I progress through the many steps of eternity. This has gotten me thinking, What do I find meaningful in my life? What is it that keeps me going? That pushes me far off the edge and beyond? What motivation do I have for myself? Let's break it down, shall we? My life is full of failures, but it's also full of successes. One, for instance, is my family. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. How in the world is that a success, Hannah? And that is a good question. How IS it? For a minute, I want you to step out of your own shoes, and whether you know me really well or not, slip into mine. Imagine the normal family trials: bickering, disagreements, nasty words. Now imagine a dream family: Laughter, shoving (but in a playful manner), games, support systems, everything. My family is like both of those. We have our fights, sure, but mos...

Cellular Devices and Social Media. Why do these two programs/objects consume so much of our time? Why do we let them? What's the point? I've mentioned in past posts about how important it is to recognize the beauty of the world outside of our devices. And I also know you probably don't believe me, but it's true. The thing with devices is this: When we are so involved in our texts, instagram and facebook posts we are  making it impossible to fully embrace the beauty of the world. We let the amount of "likes" and "followers" dictate what we do with our time. But the thing is when we put down our phones we can experience the beauty, not just see it. Life shouldn't revolve around our devices. Granted, they have helped us evolve in our sciences and medical department, but that's beside the point of this article. Anyways, back to the subject. I'm going to share an experience with you guys. This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to...

So this has been on my mind a bit lately. What people think of me. Of us. Of who they think we are. I feel like the human race depends too much on what people think of us, the negative part of us. They let people dictate who we are by believing something they say about us. I've had this happen way too often. I've had people tell me something they don't like about me, they give me their opinion on what they thought about something that I did, and I believe it. I believe that my choice that I made is who I am. This  might be a bit confusing, so I'll give you an example. Say I got a low score on my math test, and I told my friend and he/she told me I'm not very smart and I begin to believe it. But that's the thing. It isn't like that. It doesn't have to be like that. We aren't who people think we are. We can work harder to get that higher score. Or learn from that mistake. But we shouldn't let what people think we do affect us. We shouldn'...

So I had a few requests to do another guide to life through my travels, so here goes. [No Judging!] So I've traveled quite a bit in my life, but mostly in the States. Well... Until this summer. My family loves to travel and go on adventures to new places and visit crazy cool historical sites, so I've had quite a bit of experience out of my small town. In the previous article I gave you three tips to help you enjoy your time wherever you are, and I've decided to add a few more to that wonderful list. Ready? 4. Don't get so involved in your cell phone or things back home that it stops you from enjoying what's right in front of you. I've made this mistake many times before, and I've regretted it many times over. But this summer I had to leave my phone behind and it was the best thing I've ever done. Because of that I was able to experience everything around me, I didn't have to worry about who I was talking to at the time or if someone posted ne...

Being yourself. Sounds hard, right? Well here's some good news. It's one of the easiest things ever! It's not hard at all. But here's what IS hard. Forgetting society's definition of beauty and perfection. I know this is may seem hard right now, but it gets easier, I promise. When you're not trying to be this perfect person you are actually letting your true colors show. So society's definition of perfection is having a perfect body, and a kind and girly personality, right? But that's just it. You don't have to fit into that category. Be YOU. Don't act dumb to get a guys attention. Don't stop eating because you want a smaller body. Don't feel like you need to laugh at everything, or wear certain clothing items to feel like you fit in. And please, I repeat, PLEASE do not feel like you need to hide your true colors in order to fit into society's small box of perfection. To me, True perfection is in being yourself. It's ab...

[So this my first Vignette I've officially written, so don't judge me too harshly. Enjoy!] The Chase Peering around the corner I saw nothing. That alone was something to worry about. There's almost ALWAYS someone out there. Taking a deep breath, I made my decision. I'd go out there and look. I know this would be dangerous, but I also know that if I don't risk myself than someone else will get out, and I don't think I could live with myself if I knew that my friends would get hurt because of something I didn't do. Looking around the corner one more time to make sure it was clear, I did a dive roll with my gun held against my chest, and just barely missing the shot fired at me as I scrambled to the other side. I took a another minute to catch my breath before diving out again, across the hall and into a doorway in which more shots were fired, and this time I was just barely out of range. I took my compact mirror out of my purse and used it to s...

So we've all seen We Bought A Zoo, right? I haven't seen it in so long, but I remember a scene in the movie when it talks about 20 seconds of insane courage and I want to talk about that for a minute. Now, you don't have to finish reading this if you don't feel like this applies to you or even if you already feel bored by this but I figured I'd share this with those who do care. :) So 20 seconds of insane courage. 20 seconds of complete and utter embarrassment. Those twenty seconds can really be important though. So I'm going to share a fairly recent experience that had to do with these 20 seconds of embarrassment, please bare with me. In the movie it states that something great will come of it, but let's be real. I have no idea if that is true. And I've never really been great with sharing my feelings with someone, so this was pretty hard to do, but I'll share with you anyways.  So this was pretty recent, in the past few days, in fact. I had deci...

I'm going to be honest for a bit, alright? So here goes. Love.  Whether it's true love or just a crush it doesn't matter. Love is powerful. This post is for all those who are currently going through withdrawals from a broken relationship, or simply just trying to get over a long time crush.  Love is a hard thing. Break ups are hard. Especially when it was one of those relationships of pure bliss. Where everything seemed perfect and wonderful and then it just... Ended. Cut off. Completely cold turkey. And you're not sure what to do. You kind of just sit there. Trying to understand what went wrong and how you can fix it.  The worst type of breakup, though, is when you both know you still have feelings for each other but one reason or another comes up to keep you two apart. Whether it's a busy schedule, or distance, something always comes up and it kills you inside. I know it kills me. Especially when you realize if he did truly like you he would make more ...

Have you ever had someone tell you something they had heard about you? Whether it's a rumor, or it's true, and you didn't like it? And it turns out the rumor is true? Has that ever upsetted you? If you answered yes to any of those then I'm here to tell you that that doesn't have to dictate who you are as a person. Sure, you've made some mistakes in the past, but that doesn't mean you can't change your future. Don't believe what they say. Don't just accept it as gospel and keep living like that just because people expect you to. Change the game. Mix it up a bit, and show them that's not you anymore. You need to take a step forward. You need to realize what you want to change about yourself, improve about yourself and take a step towards that goal. Ignore what others might say about you and continue to reach for the goal. People don't dictate who you are, YOU do. So step up to the plate. Throw them a fast ball and move on....

Wall Flowers. "What are these "wall flowers" you speak of, Hannah?" , you may ask me. Wall flowers are those people in the back round you never truly see or notice. They're the people that may be shy, or home schooled or maybe a little "weird" as your mind might categorize them. They're the people no one finds the need to talk to because, to us, they may seem too "uncool" for us. I'm writing this to tell you they're not. Wall flowers are not like that at all. Sure, we might be shy or home schooled, but that doesn't make us any less of a person, right? Just because we don't have a million friends surrounding us or are talking all the time, doesn't mean we aren't humans. Today I had the opportunity to go to a math class at my local high school and become the wallflower for the hour. I watched as one person went out of her way to talk to me, and I'm grateful for that. But I also had the opportunity to watc...

Have you ever had that dream as a child to go somewhere exotic and exciting? Somewhere you've only read about in books or have seen on television and you've always wanted to visit? Welp, that was me this summer. London was (and still is) my dream place as a child. I've always wanted to experience the culture of London, England. And lucky for me- I got it. London is a beautiful place, it was where I got to really connect with my friends. The fairs, and accents all made it so real. But the thing that I learned the most from this trip around the world is that it isn't about where you go, but who you're with.  I enjoyed it quite a bit because I had my mother by my side, and a whole load of new friends to share the experiences with. I learned many new things through this trip. 1. Life isn't about rushing to get to the next step, it's about enjoying . You should never go into something with an attitude only to finish it and get it over with. When...

Hey guys! I haven't updated in a few months, sorry! The next few posts will be very entertaining though, I can assure you that. :) It'll be full of travel stories, and advice on what to and NOT to do while traveling, as well as advice on reality and how to handle hard people. XD I HOPE YOU ENJOY!

Finals. Need I say more? Finals are, quite frankly, the scariest time of the year. Probably scarier than Halloween. (Is Halloween even scary?) It's the time of year that decides your grade for the year. The final decision that could make it or break it for your college chances. Well okay, Maybe I'm overreacting. But STILL! It's a scary time! When you think you have an A+ in one class, but your teacher decides to grade an assignment from months ago, and it lowers your grade quite considerably. Or when you are studying your heart out and you can't find any time to do anything else. Finals is the time that you are cut off from the outside world, the time that you don't talk to any of your friends because you're too busy studying. It's some pretty tough stuff. But the best part about finals is that summer is RIGHT AFTERWARDS! It reconnects you to your social life, and it's a huge relief, at least for me. But Finals are hard. Unless you're ...

This is for family, friends, and boyfriend/girlfriends alike. Life without you is like trying to breathe underwater without an air tank. Impossible. Without you my life is bland. It has no meaning to it, it seems endless. Without meaning.  My mind yearns to hear your voice again, to feel your arms around me in a comforting hug. You make my life has no reason to continue without you. You make life crazy, fun, and adventurous. Your smile can light up my day, and your comments spice up my thoughts. You're my life support. You can make me happier than anyone in my life, and I miss that. Each conversation we have makes my life brighter, hearing your voice and your laugh makes it all the better. Your absence is like a missing piece of a puzzle, as much as you try to fill it with another, it never fits just right. I hate how much I miss you. It makes me miserable. But knowing that I can see you again makes me smile brighter than the sun in the hottest day of the sum...

Disclaimer: This is a mixture of different people's opinions, so this is pretty true stuff! The Friend Zone. Have you ever been in it? Or were you the one that issued it? Either way, it can be painful. First let's start with being in the zone. You know you have feelings for this person, but you can't get through to him/her. That hopeless feeling you get just thinking about them. Wistfully daydreaming and wishing it was you that they were thinking about every second of the day. I'll give you an example. When I was younger I had a best friend that I had a huge crush on. But atlas, it wasn't meant to be. I thought about him all the time, and wished I could be the girl he talked about so often. The way his eyes would light up whenever she walked into the room, or how his smile would become ever brighter when she cracked a joke. I yearned to be her, and I felt hopeless. In the words of a close friend of mine,  "it feels like that person just said, "yo...

Be yourself. I'm going to be honest, I hate society nowadays. I mean, really? Short skirts and see-through shirts? No, that's not how you get the right guys attention. Being yourself is about letting your personality flare in public, no matter who's watching you. It's about letting go of people's judgements. Life is great, it's AMAZING! But we can't live up to our full potential and really know that until we stop pretending to be someone else and become the best version of ourselves. Society is wrong. You don't have to have the skinniest body, or wear the best trends to be beautiful. You don't need to cover yourself in makeup to be beautiful. Beautiful women are those with confidence in themselves, and aren't afraid to be themselves. Happy woman are beautiful women. But I'm serious, you don't need to be perfect to be beautiful, Because every girl/woman is beautiful. Regardless of size and shape. The most beautiful thing ...

Stress isn't easy, that's for sure. But when you look for the bright side in it all, it creates space to let you breathe. Yes, take a deep breath. Don't worry about the future, worry about you. In this moment. Not about what's going to happen if you don't understand this problem or don't finish this assignment right this second. Just breathe IN, and breathe OUT. That's all it takes. Can you feel your muscles relaxing just a little bit? Or even a lot? Can you feel your mind becoming clearer once more? Now hold on to that feeling. That same thought. Now that you're calm think about this: You have so much to live for. If you don't finish this one thing, you'll live. But you'll have a strong education in your future that can and will benefit your family in your future. You'll be able to get a job, and support them. You can do this. You are more capable than anyone. You just need to believe in your mind. You may not be able to...

Have you had that one person that can make you smile, just by saying a single word? When you know you've never been deeper in the depths of despair, and yet he/she is the only person that has ever been able to dig you out of that grave of sorrow? Yup, you got it. That's my best friend in a nutcase. This is Olivia, and she's saved me from that dark place more times than I can count on my fingers and toes.  This is a tribute to the girl who stayed with me no matter what. She's the kind of person that everyone looks up to. She's the brilliant girl in the class that everyone knows and has her life plan up and running at such a young age. She's the person that only a few people can Truly understand, yet she's kind to everyone no matter whether they've let her down before in her life. She's forgiving and perfect. She only wants the best for her enemies, and even better for her friends. Olivia's the kind of person that boys fall in...