Christina Perri

In addition to sharing my pain, joy, and life realizations with you all, I also want to share my interests. I'm a huge music lover and my newest favorite artist is Christina Perri. I discovered her one morning while I was watching music videos on Vh1. Her video for "Jar of Hearts" came on and I was captivated. I love music videos that portray dark, intense emotion. I remember thinking, "Who is this chick? She's incredible. I love this song and I love this video! I will probably buy her album someday." And I did! I've been listening to her debut album "Lovestrong" every single day. It calms me down and forces me to feel. She speaks to my soul. Her voice is unique and pure and her music is honest and real.

Not only do I feel inspired by her music, I also feel inspired by her life story. She's so strong. She never gave up and always looked at the positive side of things. It inspired ME to be the same way.

Just thought I'd show her some love...

Check out her website if you've never heard of her: http://www.christinaperri.com/ 

I am already painfully aware of my flaws

"I know my flaws before other people point them out to me." ~ Taylor Swift

We all have flaws. We all have fears. We all have traits we're not thrilled about. I'm not perfect, the person sitting next to me isn't perfect, and the people who feel the need to tell me everything that's wrong with me definitely are not perfect. I personally choose to focus on my strengths, not my weaknesses. Those weaknesses are in the back of my mind. Having people blatantly point out those weaknesses doesn't help me. I don't handle criticism well, which is one of the main reasons why I like to be alone all the time. Criticism hurts. It hurts, it burns, it damages, and it scars.

Needless to say, I had my flaws pointed out to me in great detail today. They were analyzed and over analyzed. Wonderful. I feel like a million bucks now. Thanks.

People are GOING to criticize you. There's no avoiding it. No matter who you are or what you do, SOMEONE is going to find something wrong with it. I think you just have to be strong-minded to ease the burn of criticism. You just have to pick yourself back up when people knock you down. Because you're enough just the way you are...and there's always room for improvement. YOU be the judge of what you want or need to change about yourself. Don't let other people do it for you.

I'm human. I'm young. And I'm still learning.

~ Madison

Life doesn't come with a rulebook

Well, the title says it all doesn't it? I was always raised to believe that everyone lives as follows: Go to school, get a job and driver's license while in high school, go off to college, work an ordinary job, get married, have kids, retire, die. The end.

Who says I have to live my life in exactly THIS order? Not me. I feel like society has all these rules set up on how people should live and plants these rules in people's minds at a young age. I'm finally starting to develop a mind of my own and I've realized that LIFE DOES NOT COME WITH A RULEBOOK. The purpose of living is to write your own rules. Live at your own pace. Take risks. Break away from the norm. If people think you're out of your mind, let them. Who cares? You shouldn't.

You have one life to live. Live it YOUR way.

I have a girl in mind who is the perfect example. She took a leave of absence from college when she was 19 and went to live in Italy for awhile. Why? Because she wanted to. She left her bubble. When she returned from Italy, she went back to school for awhile, but something didn't feel right. She had a gut feeling that she didn't belong there. She wanted something else. So she left college, took that gut feeling, and flew 3,000 miles away to Los Angeles to pursue a music career. She took with her one suitcase, one guitar, one thousand dollars, and one big dream. Her family thought she was nuts. She didn't care. She stayed despite her homesickness and exhausting work hours. She came close to moving back home several times, but she didn't. She stayed. Three years later she put out her debut album and it peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Top 200.

Take risks. Ignore criticism. Take YOUR life by the horns and run with it without looking back. Your life, your decisions.

You're welcome.

If you turn me inside out, you will find...

Half of a heart. Words unspoken. Childhood memories. Thousands of songs playing over and over again. Uncried tears. Silent pain. Hope. Growing strength. Creative ideas. Dreams. Notes to God. Knowledge. A tsunami of thoughts about people I hold in my heart and people I desperately want to forget. Fear. A soul ready for take off. Fragile feelings. My outspoken, fearless alter ego. Secrets. Insomnia. Hidden anger. A loving spirit. A hunger for equality. Millions of unanswered questions. Both painful and beautiful memories from the past. Both a hope FOR and a fear OF the future. Loneliness. Joy. Sorrow.

And the real me.