Wake Up!

1. Make sure your alarm is set.
2. Make sure you don't turn off your alarm instead of hitting the snooze.
3. If all else fails, just make sure your phone isn't on silent so someone can call you to wake you up.
4. Wake up.

Hello from Iowa! I am currently sitting in a hotel in Ames, IA, planning out tomorrow with Megan. We are at MBLGTACC (Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference) with our Straight and Gay Alliance. So far it has been amazing - went to a session on trans*, heard Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington speak, and saw Andrea Gibson perform.

We were scheduled to load up at 6:45 this morning and leave by 7....I woke up to Megan storming my dorm, telling me to wake up and get going. I had overslept my alarm and only had a few moments to finish packing and quickly get ready. If you know me, you know I do not feel human until I have a shower - I cannot function and I am not a happy camper as I normally am.

My "grr" face...

Although I felt non-human all day because I didn't get a shower, I woke up today. I woke up to the fact that there is more to learn and more to discover. I woke up to the fact that there needs to be change. I woke up to the fact I don't know myself as much as I thought I did. All of this isn't bad; it's exciting.

So here is my quick lesson for today: wake up to the world around you and wake up to yourself. When you think you know it all, something has gone terribly wrong. There is always something to learn - wake up to it.

Peace!

-Nicole

PS Listen to the Circle of Life while watching the sunrise.

Living Among the Great

1. The symposium is never too fun at 8:30 in the morning.

2. Bring a coat to college, even if it is only the middle of September.

3. When you get a text saying, "My dorm was evacuated and firetrucks are coming" and then you hear sirens outside your window, something must have gone wrong.

4. I am living amongst 'the great'.

Woke up this morning at 7:15. Gross huh? I sat through some super interesting (and sometimes boring) sessions for the symposium. All-in-all it was a fantastic experience and I learned a ton. (I will be posting some interesting facts and quotations soon.)

I realized something: I am living among some of the greatest people ever. And this is true in two ways. One is these people are fantastic. Just fantastic. They make me laugh maybe a little too much to be productive, they make me do crazy, weird things, and they also make me learn. The people here are fantastic and absolutely can be considered 'one of the greats'.

But this also something else. Whenever I meet someone really cool (which seems to be occurring quite often lately) and I learn a bit more about them, I suddenly get the feeling that in 10/15/20 years I will be watching the news or reading the paper when I see their name for doing something amazing. I feel like I am living among future famous or world-changing people.

For example:

- A few months ago, I met an up-and-coming TV star, who also wants to be a political leader someday.

- I met an amazing poet who will definitely do something someday. Not to mention she has an amazing heart for the world, though she might not know it. (Maybe if I can convince her, she might let me post a poem or two on here). 

- I met a girl with such a bubbly personality who isn't afraid to tell it like it is. She isn't afraid to show her emotion in a world where emotions are often looked down upon. (Plus we are so alike it is very freaky.) I just know she will end up on my list of 'Oh I knew them when...'

These are just a few people I have met. I have a theory that every single dang person out there is able to change their world. Though I can't tell what is going to happen in the future, I just have a feeling I am among people who will change the world, even if that change is small. No change is a small change.

I truly am among the great. I am so dang happy because of it.

As for me and my 'greatness', I guess we will just have to see what comes my way.

Peace!

-Nicole