50 Reasons to Live [Guest Post]

Good morning! 

I really like having these posts go up in the morning, I feel like I had such a productive day. Today, I want to introduce you to Cassi. Well, you should know her because she hosts 5 Little Grins with me every Monday! Cassie is an amazingly strong human being who follows her passions...that's right she's a Warrior Queen!! She's here to share one of her life stories, and to give us all a list of 50 reasons to live...a list that we all need some days. 

Hey!  I'm Cassi!  I blog over at The World From the View of Two Teenage Girls, with my cousin Katie. We blog about our lives, our goals, and we review some stuff too.  Raewyn is kind enough to let me take over her blog for today. :)

December 21st, 2013 I started self harming.  It's not something I'm proud of.  It's not something I've overcome.  I'm working very hard to get past it, but it is extremely hard.  I''d always heard of it being addicting, but I thought they were crazy.  I mean, how can you get addicted to cutting your body open?  But you can and I did.  To anyone who is in that place or anywhere they need it, here are 50 reasons you shouldn't end your life today, or ever.

1. You're needed
2. Sleep
3. Food
4. Books you can't put down
5. Snow days
   
   
   
6. When your favorite song comes on the radio
7. Bucket lists to complete
8. 7 billion people you haven't met
9. Beautiful places to see
   
   
   
   
   
10. Rules to break
11. Long hugs
12. Really good movies
13. Hot showers
14. Getting letters in the mail
    
15. The smell of rain
16. Sunsets
    
17. New shoes
18. Hot tea
19. New episodes of your favorite show
20. Being awake when everyone else is still asleep
21. Fireworks
    
22. Hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows
23. Singing to songs you don't know the words to
24. Kitties!
25. Waking up and still remembering a really amazing dream
26. Seeing your favorite band live
27. We still might get another Harry Potter book
28. Getting to eat your favorite food
29. Campfires
30. Candles that smell nice
    
31. Getting to wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt
32. Conversations at 2 am
33. Traveling the world
34. The sound of crunching leaves
35. Cute children
36. Watermelon
37. Getting to go to your best friend's wedding
38. Hitting snooze just one more time
39. Your favorite artist/ band releasing a new album
40. Going to the pool on a hot day
    
41. Laughing so hard you cry
42. Memorizing that verse of a rap song and owning the next time the song come on the radio
43. The butterfly project
44. Putting on clothes that just came out of the dryer
45. Giving presents to people you care about
    
46. Finding out about a talent you didn't know you had
47. The cold side of your pillow
48. Cake
    
    
    
    
    
49. I love you and so do so many other people
50. Knowing that other people have made it through this and you can too

-Cassi

Don't forget to go check out Cassie's blog!! I'd like to add that if anyone EVER needs to talk, I am here. Send me an email and I will give you my phone number and we can talk whenever. I love you and I would love to get to know you and love you even more. The flaws you think you have are wonderful. The scars you have are beautiful. You are beautiful. 



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Bloggers Give Back Giveaway Round 2!

We all want to leave this world a little better than when we came into it, right?

Bloggers Give Back is a unique giveaway that gives you the opportunity to do some good in the world! One lucky winner will have a donation of $60 USD (or equivalent) made to the charity of their choice in their name.

The giveaway entries work just like any other around the blogosphere but this time all of the money donated by our wonderful sponsors will serve a greater purpose! 

Hosted by Lesley, from By the Porchlight:

support SPCA St John's

With co-host, Raewyn from Be a Warrior Queen:

support TWLOHA

Meet your giveaway sponsors!

 support Justice Mission

support Girl Up

support Cause for Paws Utah

 support LIFT

support RAINN

    support Halfway There Rescue        Enter below to make a difference! Good luck!   a Rafflecopter giveaway


Check out one of our featured Warrior Queens:

CHOC Walk 2013

I know we all aren't excited it's Monday. But let's make it a great week!! And here's one way of starting off your week great...

Let me tell you about this wonderful walk that I'm doing next month!! I do it every year that I can. Last year I had to miss it because my job was solely on the weekends, so I couldn't ask for days off.

In Orange County there is an amazing children's hospital. I really cannot say how happy I am that we have such an amazing children's hospital in our vicinity. It is called the Children's Hosiptal of Orange County or CHOC.

Every year they do a fundraiser walk at Disneyland in the super duper early hours of a Sunday. You walk throughout both Disneyland and California Adventure and along the way there are all of these facts about CHOC. And there are all of these survivor stories and I spend the whole time crying and smiling because of all of the amazingness.

I know you're probably wondering why it is a hospital that is so close to my heart. I mentioned recently that my cousin had cancer as a child and passed away. He did die cancer-free though! That boy was my shining light and the sunshine in my life. After finding out he had cancer at the age of 2, he was announced cancer free (on television!). He had a couple of bone marrow transplants and other surgeries. He had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He even survived a couple of bouts of graft vs. host. He was a fighter.

All of his cancer treatment was done at CHOC. His at-home nurses came from CHOC. His family stayed at the Ronald McDonald house several times to be closer to him while he was in the hospital. I don't think I could ever express my gratitude to the nurses and doctors at CHOC. They were amazing.

Every year that we walk, we do it in honor of Gregory and all of the other children that CHOC has helped. We've tried to start a Team Sunshine, but never have the time to dedicate to running a team. This year I decided to join the Anaheim Ducks Diehards team.

The Ducks were Gregory's favorite hockey team. Occasionally, the Ducks players will visit the patients at CHOC and they happened to fall in love with Gregory - who happened to be wearing his mom's King's jersey that day. After that, Gregory got to go to a couple of games and sit on the ice. Players came to his house and he was on the news a couple of more times.

I love watching these videos and hearing him laugh. :)

My foot tattoo is an ambigram, it says Sunshine one way and Gregory the other

I painted this, and then got it tattooed on me :)

If you would like to donate, here is my profile!

Happy Monday!



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Warrior Queens

Hi guys,

Sorry for the week-long hiatus. I went on vacation for my last week of winter break and am currently in North Carolina. I found some time to write for you guys and it's about something very important that happened to me last week :)

Have you met the original WQs? The girls who got me through high school with the WQ philosophy. The girls who were going to get WQ tattoos with me? Well, there was a group of us...I want to say 5 or 6 who started calling ourselves WQ back in the day.

A few of some of the original WQs (I'm in the middle)