A trip down memory lane

As promised, I am going to share a list of things I loved when I was younger. I'm a 90s child, so if you are too, you will probably find yourself saying things like, "I remember that movie!" or "I loved that show!" Here is my list. Enjoy. :)

The Wizard of Oz ~ I literally used to watch this movie every single day. I never got tired of it. I used to collect anything associated with The Wizard of Oz. I have toys and figurines of all the characters and I dressed up as Dorothy one Halloween, ruby slippers and all. I even tried to make myself go to Oz one day by repeatedly banging my head on the kitchen counter. (Not joking)
Lizzie McGuire ~ My favorite show as a tween. I saw every episode, knew every detail about every character,  and owned several Lizzie McGuire toys and books. And don't we all have an alter ego in our head saying everything we wish we had the courage to say, just like Lizzie did? Of course.
Blues Clues ~ I LOVED Blues Clues. My little brother and I were both obsessed with that show as kids. We like Steve better than Joe. We were sad when Steve left to go to college. :-( I will always love Blues Clues. Always.
Zoey 101 ~ Another one of my favorite shows as a preteen. PCA is pretty much the coolest school ever.
The Amanda Show ~ How could anyone forget The Amanda Show? Cutest, funniest show ever. Amanda please!
All That ~ I wanted to BE on this show. I watched it religiously and I'm so sad that it doesn't come on anymore. I miss all the 90s Nick shows.
Hannah Montana ~ I watched this show in my early teen years. I never missed an episode up until the last season I think. I had sort of lost interest in it by then. But I definitely used to watch this show all the time. I remember watching an entire marathon once. Who does that??
Barney ~ I wanted to play and dance around with Barney.
The Chipmunks ~ Nothing could tear me away from the TV while I was watching The Chipmunks. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked when the movie came out. I was even more stoked when I found out that one of my favorite actors would be voicing Simon. That made me want to see it even more.
The Nancy Drew Mystery Series ~ I read these fat novels one right after the other. I would typically finish one every three to four days or less. They were hard to put down.
Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events ~ I was never a big book series person, but I LOVED this series.
The Rainbow Fish ~ One of my all time favorite children's books. Such a cute story about sharing and friendship. I want a shiny scale too!!
When the Sun Rose ~ Another one of my favorite children's books. I love the illustrations. So beautiful.
Crash Team Racing ~ The only video game I ever loved. I wanted to play this game every single day. 
Barbie ~ I collected the dolls. I also made them talk about life, love, and fashion with each other. Yep.
Beanie Babies ~ I STILL love Beanie Babies. Who doesn't?
Amazing Allie ~ This doll was my best friend back when I didn't have any. We had tea parties together and knew everything about each other. Poor thing. She was loyal to me and I just stuffed her in a wooden chest one day.
American Girl Magazine ~ My favorite magazine as a kid. I always got so excited when a new issue came in the mail. I would sit down and read every page right then and there. I was even published in the magazine once! My first writing success. (With mom's help) ;) I also loved the American Girl books.
The Berenstain Bears ~ I loved the show AND the books.
The NeverEnding Story ~ This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I thought Atreyu was hot. And the storyline was just epic.
Veggie Tales ~ Um, talking fruits and vegetables? Yes please.
Casper ~ The original Casper movie with Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci. It was epic. I watched it all the time, secretly wishing I had a little ghost friend of my own.
Rugrats ~ I was a huge Rugrats fan. I loved all the little adventures they would go on. It was by far my favorite cartoon.
N'Sync ~ I was in love with them. We had tickets and backstage passes to one of their shows when I was in 4th grade, but it got cancelled due to bad weather. I cried all day long and people at school thought I was terminally ill or that someone died.
Britney Spears ~ I saw her in concert three times when I was little. My mom even recorded all of Britney's TV appearances and kept them on a tape for me. I watched the tape every day.
EVERY 80s/90s ANIMATED DISNEY MOVIE ~ If I listed all the Disney movies I was obsessed with as a child, I would be here all day. But some of my absolute favorites were A Bug's Life, The Fox and the Hound, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Toy Story, The Pagemaster, and The Brave Little Toaster.


*Sigh.* This makes me miss my childhood even more.
What did YOU love when you were younger? :-)

Imagination is never a bad thing

I spent my Saturday night listing the things I loved/was obsessed with when I was younger. I sort of got to re-live my childhood and it made me really happy. I will share the list with you in a later post, but for now, I want to share something that got me thinking tonight. When I was little, I had an imaginary friend. Yep. I am no longer embarrassed to admit that.

I really hate when people make such a big deal out of kids having imaginary friends. I think it's wonderful. This is a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I don't care. I understand that parents want their kids to be socialized and have real friends, but if a kid wants an imaginary friend, let them have one. (After all, imaginary friends are there for you whenever you want them to be.) Imagination should never be discouraged. My mom never discouraged me from having an imaginary friend. She played along and welcomed her into our home.

I've always been very imaginative. I still am to this very day. I believe that imagination shouldn't be discouraged because the kids who live in their own little world and have a big imagination are the kids who grow up to have creative, expressive careers. These are the writers, artists, actors, and musicians.

If you can create imaginary friends, alter egos, etc., you can create ART.

I was the weird kid. I was the outcast. I was the quiet, socially withdrawn girl. That's who I was and who I still am today (Since we're being honest). And I'm not ashamed.

Please excuse me while I go create characters, share my heart and soul through lyrics, inspire others, and pursue my writing dreams. I got my pen, my paper, and my big old imagination. Let's do this.

I don't understand myself

I seriously don't understand myself sometimes. I'm up and down more than a roller coaster. It amazes me how I can sometimes go from being completely euphoric to being completely unhappy all within a day.

Some days, I am productive and driven and go to bed feeling proud of myself. Other days, I sit around complaining that there is nothing on STARZ and eat anything I can get my hands on and go to bed feeling like I wasted another day of my life. Some days, I am a bit OVERLY positive and try to put everyone around me in a good, optimistic mood. Other days, I hate nearly everyone and could almost punch the next person who looks at me wrong and by the end of the day, people are slamming doors in my face. Some days, I make mental lists of why being alive and well is awesome. Other days, I make mental lists of why being alive and well isn't worth it. Some days, I jump out of bed, excited about the day ahead. Other days, I don't feel like getting out of bed at all. Some days, I laugh. Other days, I cry.

And some days, I'm my own best friend. Other days, I'm my own worst enemy. Both the friend and the enemy tend to have an equal influence on me sometimes.

Bad days CAN get better

I woke up this morning and stubbornly convinced myself that today was going to be a bad day. I told myself that it would be one of those "wake me up when today is over" kind of days. First of all, I woke up to find a bug on my floor. If you know me, it goes without saying that I'm terrified of bugs. ALL bugs except for butterflies and ladybugs. So THAT automatically put me in a bad mood even though my brother picked it up and disposed of it for me. Because then I became all paranoid. "What if it was in my room all night? What if it crawled on me? What if it had babies? What if it comes back to life and hunts me down?" 

Second, my sink has been clogged for the past few days, which is a terrible nuisance for a compulsive dish washer like me. I like the sink to be CLEAR. But I couldn't wash all the dishes because I couldn't rinse them without the sink filling up and then taking 9 billion years to drain. AND I was very low on dish soap. Another nuisance. 

Third, I had a few incomplete writing assignments/projects that needed to be done and I didn't have an ounce of motivation in me at that point. So all I wanted to do was get on Twitter and listen to Pandora radio until the sun went down and it was time for bed. 

So I basically told myself that bad days don't get better. Once a day starts off bad, it all goes downhill from there. I made a mental list of everything that annoyed me, everything I was stressed out about, and everything that was ruining my day. Even though I was pretty much ruining my OWN day by doing so. 

But you know what? As I sit here looking back on my day as a whole, it wasn't so bad. Today was Christina Perri's 25th birthday and I celebrated by watching some of her YouTube videos, listening to her album, and reading her positive tweets/blog posts. Instant mood booster. AND I got off my butt and finished every writing activity that needed to be done and I did it with a positive attitude. My mom even came home to tell me that she "really really really really really" liked a story I wrote, which was one of the writing activities that I completed today. It made me happy because my inner critic told me it sucked. 

I played with my dogs. I saved a caterpillar's life. I watched the Alice in Wonderland movie for the first time. And most importantly, I changed my attitude and refused to have a bad day. I may have had a bad morning, but it's not fair to take it off on the other 8 hours of the day.

So today I learned that bad days CAN get better. Maybe with a song, maybe with a tweet, maybe with a nice compliment, maybe with cute puppies, maybe with an accomplishment, maybe with an epic movie, or maybe with a change in attitude. 

~ Madison :-) 

Time flies

Today is my little brother's first day of high school. Oh, how time flies. I didn't completely wrap my head around it until he was out the door this morning. When I look at him though, I don't see him as a high schooler or a young man growing up and coming of age. I see him as my little brother.

I still vividly remember my first day of high school and today is bringing every bit of it back into my mind. I remember wearing a little blue shirt with fabric flowers sewn onto the shoulder. I remember having my hair in pigtails. I remember being terrified and excited at the same time. I remember the highlight of my day being when the boy I was totally in love with gave me a hug. I remember the bell to go back to class ringing as soon as my friend Abigail and I sat down with our lunch trays. I remember being innocent, hopeful, and optimistic. But that was just the first day. I had amazing days and I had horrible days as high school flew by. Overall though, high school treated me well.

I hope it treats my brother well too.

Why do most people only get recognized when they displease?

This is just a thought that came to me randomly today and it's one of those things that I can only explain through examples. So take a look:

Instead of telling a person how horrible their new haircut is, why not compliment them on their rad new shoes?

Instead of arguing with your child because they didn't have time to do a certain chore, why not reward them for doing the chores they DID get around to?

Instead of bashing someone for choosing not to go to college, why not commend them for at least graduating high school?

Instead of gossiping about a young girl getting pregnant, why not notice how great of a mother she is?

Instead of telling someone they suck at basketball, why not tell them how great they are at soccer?


I could go on, but this will do.
So I hope you get my point. It seems like most people only feel entitled to point out people's flaws or weaknesses. Or just certain choices that someone else made that they don't agree with.

It's so much easier to build someone up than it is to tear someone down. Why not tell someone how much they mean to you or how proud you are of them instead? I will if you will.

~ Madison

Keep moving

My goal is to keep this blog as positive as possible. I want to inspire and encourage people rather than put a damper on their mood. With that being said, I also want people to relate to me and know that I have bad days too. I don't want people to think that I'm a ray of sunshine all the time. I get discouraged, I get my feelings hurt, and I run into obstacles. I want to share it all with you guys.

Now on with the subject. I often compare living life to travelling down a road/taking a road trip to a desired destination. Isn't that what we're all doing? Going on a journey until we reach our desired destination? But the trip will not always go exactly as planned.

So my point is that sometimes we will come to a dead end and have to turn around and find another way. Sometimes it will get stormy and we will have to pull over and wait it out. Sometimes we will get lost and panic. Sometimes we will run low on gas and have to figure out a way to fuel ourselves back up again.

But does that mean that we should ever just stop moving and stand in the middle of the road? NO.

No matter what happens or what unexpected/unwanted curveballs are thrown your way, the important thing is that you keep moving.

"It's not about how many times you fall. It's about how many times you get back up."

~ Madison <3