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When life hands you lemons…

Probably one of the most over-used quotes to justify making good out of the difficult situations you encounter….. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. I’ve increasingly heard this used for many things that it may or may not apply to.There are a lot of subtle themes in this quote that we fail to realize when we try to apply it to situations. I’m going to bring up three and attempt to unpack them.

1. We are not in control of what life gives us.

Following the metaphor, life will give you all types of fruits, some of them will be sweet, some of them will be bitter or sour. We do not decide what life hands us. I agree to a certain point, we cannot control what life throws at us to a certain limit. I think that we can put ourselves in situations where we are more likely to receive what we want instead of what life gives.

2. Lemons are inherently bad.

Lemons are bad enough that we would want to make them into something else…Lemonade. While lemonade is good, it takes away from us experiencing the lemon for what it is.  Experiences which are thought to be lemons need to be examined as for what it is. I’m all for making good out of what life gives you but it is also important to relish in the bad so you can learn from it.

3. Life may give us lemons, but it is ultimately up to the person to decide what to make of it.

Life can throw different things at you, but it is up to you to figure out how to respond to it.

I thought of a tweak to the quote: ” When life hands you lemons, grab life by the balls and demand apples.”  I wonder what that says?

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Revamp

It’s the first summer I don’t have to look forward to school in the fall. ( I graduated!) I had great plans for the summer which involved an all expense paid trip to South Africa during the World Cup, a great paying job, and an amazing internship…They all fell through…. So now I’m stuck with nothing to do and I figured out instead of moping around, I’d do somethings that I didn’t get a chance to do for one reason or the other. One of those things is to blog continuously about randomness. I plan on blogging on things that I experience and hear about that mean something to me. It could be anything from a song I hear to politics. Who knows? I’m excited and I look forward to reading comments and having discussions about my topics.

Chika

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Valentine's Day

I decided that as a valentine’s day gift to myself, I’d get my online identity together. I just got rid of my myspace account, found the password for an inactive e-mail account, changed my facebook picture, changed my background for twitter. What does this mean? Nothing really… I just wanted to consolidate social networks decrease my online footprint. I suggest you do this to at least once a year. Have too many friends on facebook? Delete the ones you never talk to. Not using an email address? Delete it. A person can only have their hands in so many social networks.

No real valentine this year. I figured this year is an opportunity to explore and deepen the already existing relationships that I already have. What truly frustrates me about Valentine’s day is that people start to feel bad when they are alone.. Society has done a great job getting people to think that something is wrong with them if they aren’t “with” someone on Valentine’s day. Partners that are “broken up” attempt to comeback together around valentine’s day. (observation, not fact) They are so afraid of being alone, that they trick themselves into thinking it might work. They get back together and everything is fine for a week or two. After that, they fall back on the same things that made them break up. I don’t want to sound pessimistic but once again people have forgotten the real reason for valentine’s day. It’s about being with and caring about the people that hold a special place in your heart. Appreciating those who regardless of how things are going with them, find some way to make you feel special and wanted. I wish more people would remember that.

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SpringBreak Spice

I went to Indianapolis for the ncaa mens basketball tournament. Everything went according to my immaculate bracket projections. Good stuff. Met my new friend Jessica. She’s cool.

Indianapolis is pretty nice.

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Spring Break Alternatives

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A majority of the people I know from school and what not went somewhere for spring break. For me its a little unusual that a lot of people are still willing to go somewhere for spring break considering the state of our economy. This got me thinking… what would be other things to do instead of cliche spring break? I came up with a few:

Get ahead with your classes: If you have nothing to do you could try to get some work done for after break. It will make your life easier when you get back to school after break.

Alternative spring break: A couple of my friends did this as well. They would go to a city and volunteer there for a week. I’m not sure what else it consist of but this is a pretty solid idea. I think ever college kid should do at least one of these breaks in their 4 or 5 years.

Plan your summer: Start to look for what you’re going to do during the summer. Looking for an internship? Looking for a job? Use this break to get ahead and plan your summer.

Explore a city or town that’s relatively close: I live about 35 minutes from Chicago but I’ve never really experienced and explored Chicago. Maybe spring break would be a good time to explore that one place you wouldn’t other wise.

Uhhh….actually take a break?!?!?!: You could stay at home and rest? Go to sleep late and wake up later? Watch T.V like its your job?

I’m sure some of you task warriors out there can do one or more of these. I actually made a list of things I wanted to get done at the beginning of break and that’s what I’m working on.

ohhh.. and ray j should stop making music (random point +1)