Viva la Vida

Before I get to my actual "blog post," I figured I would give everybody a little update on my life since the last time. (It was only a week fyi.) Carson-Newman has been hit by the bad mood bug. I haven't met seen one person on campus who has looked happy at all. The weather might have something to do with it, but it's been much more for me. Everybody around me has been drama-filled, and I feel like a lot of people have been mad at me. Plus I have been sick for the first time since starting school, and school stress doesn't help. I guess its a good thing its the weekend.

Viva la vida. In Spanish, this means "Live your life." It's also my first tattoo, so obviously the phrase means a lot to me. For the past year, it has been the motto of my life. Live your life. I take this phrase to heart. I think we all have one life to live, and we have the full choice to live it how we please. If we make mistakes, it's our mistakes. If we have successes, it's our successes. We are the only one's responsible for the quality of this life we have a chance to live. Nobody can tell us if we are living it wrong or right because in the end we are the only ones who have to deal with it. Does this mean we shouldn't take the advice our family or friends give us? Certainly not. Should they be offended if we don't always take their words to heart? No. My family has had a hard time dealing with this. I have always been the "golden child" in my grandmother's eyes. Needless to say when she saw my tattoo and found out my preference in men, she flipped. She doesn't understand that this life is mine. Maybe my idealogy is too radical for her since she is coming from a completely different generation. Whether she admits it though, I can almost guarantee she and everyone else in this big world have done something that our family doesn't approve of. In the end, it shapes us to be who we are in the long run though. So viva la vida. Live your life. Because at the end of the day, you are the only one experiencing it, and your satisfaction and approval is all that matters.

"Well, I know what's right. I just got one life. In a world that keeps pushin' me around, but i'll stand my ground and I won't back down." --Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers