Birthday Epiphanies :)

So, every year around my birthday I have an epiphany with my feelings for the year. It's really strange, most people make changes on New Years, but I make it on my birthday. Perhaps this is because for the better part of my life, my year starts and ends as the school calendar dictates; not to mention the obvious answer that it truly is when a new year begins for me.

I'll recap the past four years birthdays because those are the most important to me.  When I turned 18, there was a sense of adventure and drama, which developed into anxiety. When I turned 19 I became single, and that set the tone for a year of rebuilding the warrior queen within. My 20th birthday was surrounded with anxiety and I spent the better part of that year wishing to be 25 and settled. (Quarter life crisis?) At 21, I decided -- fuck it! I'm 21, this is my year for fun and to shine and not let anyone bring me down. Every year, I mostly fulfill or carry that feeling from my birthday throughout until mid april or May.

This year's epiphany is a doozy...are you ready for it?

I'm grown up.

Let's break it down -- this year was supposed to be my graduation year and launching me into society as an adult. That's kind of a year behind schedule, but it hasn't kept me a kid longer. Tomorrow I move into my first apartment without any of my parents help. With MY good credit score, I got approved. I opened a bank account with my roomies. I won't need my parent's help paying for anything.

I own my own truck - the pink slip's in my name. Everythng I do is my responsibility. Student loans? All in my own name. The only reason I'm still my mom's dependent is to get healthcare - but that will drop off next year. I will have a career soon, I'll have to pay my student loans back in a year and a half. Soon I'll be thinking about buying a house, investments, gettina a new vehicle and retiring chuck to the desert (his rightful home where he and I can just play)

What an exciting thought. I'm a grown up. How scary. I'm solely responsible. I've done a lot of growing up in the past year and I didn't even notice. Perhaps that's why I've gotten into so many fights with friends. Maybe they've been static and I changed and thus opened my eyes to their immature ways.

And maybe, just maybe I now realize that getting married isn't something that's quite so far off. I mean, not for years, I'm still single. But I can't perach that we're too young anymorew because we're not.

So I'm gonna embrace growing up and be smart about it. I'm a planner. And now that I'm no longer living paycheck to paycheck it's time to start investing. I'm ready to rise to the top. And here comes a hard year of planning the magazine.

I'm ready to be an adult. I'm ready to reach for my dreams and watch them come true, are you?

Suicide Prevention

Every year there's a week dedicated to Suicide Prevention, but as you've seen by my previous post TWLOHA is dedicated to suicide prevention on a daily basis. Shouldn't we all be? I know that I try my hardest to be there for my friends and even people I don't know. IMAlive is an instant messaging group under TWLOHA that offers support via instant messaging. Last Suicide Prevention week TWLOHA teamed up with Boys Like Girls in creating and marketing these shirts to raise awareness. Even though Suicide Prevention week is long over, these shirts are still relevant.

http://bit.ly/c8SHPZ

TWLOHA FanCorps

Two blogs in one day? NO WAY.

Anyway, you know how I always go through phases wanting to volunteer (well I always want to, but when I have more free time I'm always actively searching it out). Well, TWLOHA is one of my favorite organizations. I'm surprised I haven't posted about them before.

To Write Love On Her Arms is an organization that is dedicated to: "presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.  TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery."


Their vision (From their website): 

You were created to love and be loved.  You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you're part of a bigger story.  You need to know that your life matters.

We live in a difficult world, a broken world.  My friend Byron is very smart - he says that life is hard for most people most of the time.  We believe that everyone can relate to pain, that all of us live with questions, and all of us get stuck in moments.  You need to know that you're not alone in the places you feel stuck. 

We all wake to the human condition.  We wake to mystery and beauty but also to tragedy and loss.  Millions of people live with problems of pain.  Millions of homes are filled with questions – moments and seasons and cycles that come as thieves and aim to stay.  We know that pain is very real.  It is our privilege to suggest that hope is real, and that help is real. 

You need to know that rescue is possible, that freedom is possible, that God is still in the business of redemption.  We're seeing it happen.  We're seeing lives change as people get the help they need.  People sitting across from a counselor for the first time.  People stepping into treatment.  In desperate moments, people calling a suicide hotline.  We know that the first step to recovery is the hardest to take.  We want to say here that it's worth it, that your life is worth fighting for, that it's possible to change. 

Beyond treatment, we believe that community is essential, that people need other people, that we were never meant to do life alone. 

The vision is that community and hope and help would replace secrets and silence.  

The vision is people putting down guns and blades and bottles. 

The vision is that we can reduce the suicide rate in America and around the world.

The vision is that we would learn what it means to love our friends, and that we would love ourselves enough to get the help we need.

The vision is better endings.  The vision is the restoration of broken families and broken relationships.  The vision is people finding life, finding freedom, finding love.  The vision is graduation, a Super Bowl, a wedding, a child, a sunrise.  The vision is people becoming incredible parents, people breaking cycles, making change.  

The vision is the possibility that your best days are ahead.  

The vision is the possibility that we're more loved than we'll ever know.  

The vision is hope, and hope is real.

You are not alone, and this is not the end of your story.

I have always wanted to get one of their shirts to support them and volunteer with them. Today I joined their street team and am volunteering online via FanCorps to raise awareness for their organization. Do you think it interests you?
Check it out: http://towriteloveonherarms.fancorps.com/headquarters/