I Want To Write A Book

Writing a book is one of the few things on my bucket list that would make me feel completely content with what I did with my life had I accomplished it. To write a book you need organization, imagination, creation and dedication. I do not want to write a children's book, or a book that would not interest me in the least bit. I want to write a book about something I would like to read. Something my age group would enjoy engulfing their minds into. I want to make a name for myself, ya know? So, for starters, I googled "how to start a book", which was already very uncreative of myself. I should be able to start a book however I would want to and not take advice from people on the internet who probably never even had the motivation to write a book so they just decided to mindlessly tell us how we should write a book. I should have known to get off of google and start for myself when the first thing google told me to do was to "create a concept". Hold up. If you do not know that you need an idea to base a whole book on, why are you even trying to write one? It goes on and on with "consider your audience", "choose themes" and oh, my favorite, "develop your characters". I was thinking about just having blank pages as my book. No themes. No characters. No nothing. Now I know outlines like that can get you started and are probably very helpful but how nice would it be to do a project completely on your own. I feel like that accomplishment itself would make me completely content with what I did with my life.

FOMO

Fear Of Missing Out. It happens to the best of us. This 4th of July was not like my past Independence Day experiences. To start out, the 4th of July in Lititz, my hometown that is also known as "The Coolest Small Town In America" (I am not making this up), does July 4th like no other town. Downtown Lititz is buzzing all day with food, live music, events and activities for us Lititzians to participate in. Not to mention the Queen of Candles at 8pm and fireworks following shortly after. Sadly, this year the whole shabang was postponed to July 5th, which conveniently was my first day on a new job as a wedding server. Loved loved LOVED the job, hated missing out. When I got home my dad explained to me that you know what, it may seem like I missed out, but every party is the same old same old and that you need to miss one sometimes so people realize that they miss you. I loved that advice.

Kirby

Transferring from one school to another is tough as it is, but when you move out of your parents home as well, your life changes right before your very eyes.

Donte William Kirby, 21, born on September 30^th, 1992, from Philadelphia, Pa. attends Temple University as a junior majoring in Journalism.

            Under the harsh lighting in the tech center on Temple University’s campus, Donte Kirby entered the computer-filled alcove wearing a black sweatshirt and beaming with a shining smile on his face.

            Slouching back in the black reclining chairs, it is evident that Kirby is ready to get down to business and answer some questions.

            From PACE University in New York and back to his home roots of Philadelphia, Pa., Kirby realized what a huge accomplishment it was for him to move out on his own and attend a new university.

            “I was already focused on what I wanted to do. The big reason I came home was to stop putting a hold on my life. There was no reason to wait until after college to do what I want to do,” he said, relaxed and collected as he leaned forward with his hands in a loose clasp.

            What he wants to do is write books and he chose Journalism to be able to pay the bills while he does so. His genre interests include fantasy, young adult and urban fantasy.

            Kevin Chang, Kirby’s friend from his freshman year of high school projected his opinion of his transfer from one university to another.

            “His decision to transfer from Pace to Temple was definitely good in the aspect that he was able to experience a new culture and take it back with him.”

            Not only has he experienced a new culture, Chang mentions how Kirby has grown as a person and is “an individual who is able to support himself as well as the ones that are around him.”

            Learning new skills has turned him into who he is today, Chang said, and he can thank his transferring experience for that.

            Speaking of skills, supposedly writing isn’t Kirby’s only skill. Friend of Kirby’s, Kevin Scott, said, “Donte and I met in high school as we were both in the breakdancing club.”

            Kirby also mentioned how he has other hobbies in the journalism field like writing fiction and short stories in his free time.       

            While speaking to Kirby, it was evident that he always has a smile on his face and that he is truly a one-of-a-kind human being, affecting people for the good in ways he probably has no idea about.

            “Donte transferring to temple has affected me because he was the only one in our group of friends from high school who went to school out of state. Since he has been back we are able to hang out more often, and he also ended up becoming one of my roommates,” Scott said.

            Scott and Chang had nothing but nice things to say about Kirby, which shows that if anyone were to go through an experience as difficult as his they would need to get some pointers from Kirby first.

            “Donte is a very intellectual and humorous person who sees things for what they are,” said Scott.

             As for Chang, he describes Kirby as “an individual who knows how to appreciate what there is to appreciate, and suffer what there is to suffer.”

            Although the experience of transferring and moving out was great for Kirby, there were still some areas where he struggled.

            “The most difficult part about transferring was the paperwork, and the most difficult part of moving out other than the physical act of moving was the wait. I got mixed up about how a refund check works and had to wait until December when I could have moved in August”, said Kirby.

            Kirby mentioned how it was not the fact that he did not like PACE University that made him transfer schools, but there were some financial aide complications that Temple University would help out with.

            Despite his first choice of school not working out, Scott thinks it was for the best.

            “I think that transferring from a smaller suburban campus to a large city campus like temple changed Donte's attitude for the better because he was able to experience both sides of the spectrum,” said Scott.

            Although he may have had some struggles, Kirby pushed through them with great motivation and a strict mindset to be the best he could be, coming out of this experience with no anguish.

            “In retrospect, I probably should have come to Temple first, but I don’t regret it,” said Kirby.

TU's Not So Turnt Up After All

Recently there have been a lot of attacks, bomb threats, break-ins and theft here at Temple University. Comforting, isn't it? I haven't told my parents because I don't want them to worry but if they read this, to hell with it (hi mom and dad). A girl got her face smashed and teeth dislocated by a brick because a little girl in a group of about 8-10 kids were taunting her and her boyfriend. Then this group of girls went up to a girl and started punching her and in another instance these girls tried to take another girls purse, all while it's light out might I add. All Temple students are getting harassed and the best part is that it is by children who are up to 6+ years younger than us. The local children around here are cruel and it is not fair for us students to not feel safe even in our own homes. There is a petition going around for more police to expand to deeper areas of where the off campus student housing is. This week, there were two suspicious devices found in two buildings on campus that even had helicopters circling the premises. Funny story now though because they ended up being an electronics project and a prop for theatre or something like that...but they looked "suspicious." So yeah, just another super safe week at Temple. Hide your kids, hide your wife, and ALWAYS have your mace ready.

12:30 AM

It's 12:30 AM and I swear to God I heard birds chirping outside my window. It's funny to think how I just wrote a post two weeks ago about how frigid it was outside and today it was in the 60's and people are wearing shorts. My word do happy things just creep up on you sometimes.

it was so nice out this past weekend that we even got to go hiking, despite there still being snow on the ground.

Brrr

The absurd thing about the world we live in today is that the weather is never what you expect it to be. Not only because the weather people suck and never predict what will happen correctly, but you also don't expect below freezing temperature's going into March. Is this not supposed to be Spring? Another storm is set to happen on Sunday and let me tell ya I am just sick of the whole gloves, scarves, and hats shabang. Not to mention my long black coat attracts hair and fuzzies like no other and having to keep lint-rolling it is getting real old. So let's just take a moment to stop what we are doing, and pray that the Weather Gods will pull through for us who have chapped hands and lips. Please?

Grammys

Okay so I wasn’t going to write a post about the 2014 Grammy’s but I decided to (take a sigh of relief ;)) because OH MY GOD GUYS DID YOU SEE LORDE WHO ELSE FELT SO UNCOMFORTABLE?! Kelly said it best with “SHE’S FRIGHTENING.” And idk who frightens me more, Steven Tyler or Lorde. But her dance moves looked like she was getting tased and was she singing over one of her tracks? Dude idk so confused slash she looked like Kylie Jenner’s twin. Katy Perry’s set was so amazing and sick but her outfit was very unflattering. BUT the award for the smoothest voice and cutest little smirk goes to John Legend. If that man didn’t make you fall in love with him while he was serenading the audience you need to get checked out. In all honesty though, his wife looked BANGIN’ and don’t hate me, but so did TSwift. Her performance dress and her red carpet dress were stunning and anyone who disagrees is just disagreeing to disagree. But her dance moves…hahaha omg so lanky and uncoordinated LUV IT.
Beyoncé obviously rocked the stage, because, when doesn’t she? But can I just talk about how BOMP Kendrick and Imagine Dragon’s performance was? If I wasn’t so lazy I totally would have gotten up and danced to it or something along those lines idk. As for Stevie Wonder…what a legend. I could not even imagine performing at the Grammy’s and not being able to see one thing. He’s so talented.
For Lorde winning Song of the Year..it’s not that I hate her, I just don’t think that she deserves it. She slammed so many artists whether it was for the sake of feminism or for some other reasons that I forget and to be honest don’t really care about, but Royals has nothing on Same Love by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. My roommates and I were shocked. Smh smh. I love Lorde’s songs don’t get me wrong, but you have to look at the meaning and influence that a song has had on the people who listen to it. Idk, in my opinion Same Love just has such a great message. You can't tell me you didn't get goosebumps with all of those couples near the end! Not to mention Queen Latifah. How awesome did she look?
I didn’t really comment on the winners of this years Grammy Awards because I did not think any were really spectacular but let’s end this on a positive note. My roommates say that I remind them of Bo Bice (so thankful for their confidence boosting opinions) and Jared Leto...so where’s my Grammy?