Little Things

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Some "littles" I'm thankful for this week....

...my swim classes, although they might drive me bonkers sometimes, they teach me patience and are a supply of endless hugs and laughter.

...to be stressed about decorating my dorm, because it means I'm going to college.

...coffee. again.

...spin class.

...dear friends who are always there for me.

...leggings. perfect for virginia weather.

What are you thankful for this week?

xx

Thankful

I'm thankful for planes, brains, and automobiles. For books and tests, for really hard classes and college acceptance letters. I'm thankful for deferrals and second chances, for forgiveness and praise. For leggings and cowboy boots, cozy sweaters and fleeces. For bunny rabbits and puppy dogs, for moose and deer. I'm thankful for skype and twitter and facebook and mail. iPads, blackberries, and iPhones too. For fast cars and slow days, for Pinterest and flyaways. For TV shows and warm socks, for Chinese food and checking stocks. 

I'm thankful for friends who make me laugh, cry, and grow in love. Who celebrate my life, and help me through my sorrows. For late nights and early mornings, for senioritis and hurricane warnings. Wrap watches, pearls, and monogrammed jewels, for capes, vests, and swimming pools. For smiles and charity, for water and heat, for India and France, for tea that is sweet. I'm thankful for queen size beds, 800-count threads, open doors and football scores. For country music and hairbows, for headbands and bootcut cords, for riding boots and hardwood floors. I'm thankful for camp and gold bandanas, for the South and progression, for history and english and lines of regression. I am thankful for a family that loves me, supports me, and cheers me on in everything I do, for a school that has grown me in more ways that I know, and for a country that has given me endless opportunities.  

There is so much more that I'm forgetting, but this is a pretty good list.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

xoxo,

Royar
{The Young Southern Prep}

Thankful

Although it's nowhere near Thanksgiving, it's always the right time to give thanks for the things in our lives.

Today, I am thankful for:

Sore muscles, because it means I'm able to feel my legs

Races to have anxiety over, because it means I have another race in my career to run

Crying over SAT scores and scholarships, because it means I have too many blessings to count

Tweeting my political opinons, because it means I still have my right to free speech

Watching movies in school, because sometimes our brains need a break

It's Friday, because I really need a weekend too!

What are you thankful for this week?

xoxo,

Royar

{The Young Southern Prep}

Merry Christmas!

And numerous indeed are the hearts to which Christmas

brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment.  How many

families, whose members have been dispersed and scattered far
and wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then reunited, and

meet once again in that happy state of companionship and mutual

goodwill, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight;

and one so incompatible with the cares and sorrows of the world,

that the religious belief of the most civilised nations, and the rude

traditions of the roughest savages, alike number it among the

first joys of a future condition of existence, provided for the

blessed and happy!  How many old recollections, and how many

dormant sympathies, does Christmas time awaken!


We write these words now, many miles distant from the spot

at which, year after year, we met on that day, a merry and joyous

circle.  Many of the hearts that throbbed so gaily then, have

ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then,

have ceased to glow; the hands we grasped, have grown cold; the

eyes we sought, have hid their lustre in the grave; and yet the old

house, the room, the merry voices and smiling faces, the jest,

the laugh, the most minute and trivial circumstances connected

with those happy meetings, crowd upon our mind at each

recurrence of the season, as if the last assemblage had been but

yesterday!  Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the

delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the

pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the

traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and

his quiet home!

{The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens}

Merry Christmas y'all! Best wishes in this holiday season!

xoxo,

Royar

{The Young Southern Prep}

Christmas List IIII

This is in a series of posts about Christmas Gifts, both my wish list and gifts for others!

If you haven't heard of the great layway payoff's of 2011, read THIS  or THIS.

The greatest words of wisdom I have ever received have been those that are a core saying of my camp: Pass It On. 

Three simple words. But oh, do they mean so much. 

Last week I had a five left over after picking up a few things, and I gave it to the dear sweet Salvation Army lady standing outside of my local grocer.  She turned to me and thanked me saying, "God Bless you, Young Lady, remember, you always have the Lord on your side". Will I miss that money in a week, a month, a year? No. Will I ever forget those words? No.

It's all about the little things y'all. Doing what you can, with what you have, wherever you are. I was given privilege in life for a reason. To help others. We all get caught up in finding that perfect gift, I mean, I'm guilty of this too. I'm off to drive downtown today finish up gift shopping, and I have felt stressed more than once this past week about not having the "perfect" gift.  But the best part of the holiday season, and about Passing It On in general, is that warm fuzzy feeling you get.

You can't get that warm fuzzy feeling from playing Angry Birds or COD. You can't get that warm fuzzy feeling from giving a gift card. You can't get that warm fuzzy feeling from being passive when there is work to be done.

Although I keep the mindset of Pass It On in use all year, it means the most to me during the Holidays. It's an easy time to open your heart to those in need. It's often the most publicized during this time of year. I encourage y'all to keep this state of mind all year round.

A wise person once said (because I really don't know who did), "Hold on to whatever keeps you warm inside."


Volunteering with Operation Smile keeps me warm inside. Giving keeps me warm inside.


Today I'm going to make a stop at Sears or K-Mart and pay off a toy or two on layaway.  I will never know the family or the children I'm doing this for, and they will never know what my name is.  That doesn't matter to me.


A favorite Operation Smile's Student Programs theme of mine was "We don't expect you to change the world, but what if you did?"


By doing a little bit on my part, I just changed a family's Christmas morning, a microcosm of their world.

What's keeping you warm inside this week?

xoxo,

Royar

{The Young Southern Prep}

What I'm Thankful For

Today, I'm thankful for all of the opportunities I have been given.

I go to one of the best secondary schools in the country,

I will travel to Paris in March for two weeks to live as Parisian,

I have climbed the Great Wall of China, 

I was chosen to be a Counselor In Training for four weeks last summer,

I've been Captain of a team,

I have traveled to China,

I have given a speech to over 300 people, and I'll get the opportunity to do it again next year,

and today, I'm very happy to announce a new opportunity I have been given.

Friday night, I received an email congratulating me on my acceptance to the Winter Mission Training Workshop for Operation Smile.

I still can't believe it, and I am thankful that my prayers have truly been answered on this one.  I have been waiting since last year when I sent in my first application.  I have been denied twice and as they say, third time's the charm. It was hard to put my faith in God and to know that I would go when the time was right, and it was hard to wait and to fail, but I am thankful for the lessons this has taught me.

I have learned a lot about failure, patience and faith in the past two years and those lessons have made me a stronger and better person, and that, I couldn't be more thankful for.

“My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win.” - Ronald Reagan


"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." - Teddy Roosevelt


Thanks Ronnie & Teddy. I agree.

xoxo,

Royar

{The Young Southern Prep}

What I'm Thankful For

I got this idea from Queen Bee Swain, if you're not following her, you're missing out on a wonderful blogger!


Today, I'm thankful for my health and for being alive.

I've been pretty sick for the past two weeks and it's hard when you're not feeling well, just like in the dead of winter what it's like to feel the heat of the sun on your face, to remember what feeling normal is like. So Friday night, I finally felt better and I went to hot yoga. It really re-centered me after these past six weeks. There have been so many ups and downs that sometimes I forget that I need to find a middle ground.  Afterwards, I came home and powerwalked with my Mother and her friend. Yesterday, I went to the beach and ran four miles, which hurt a lot, but it reminded me so much that I'm alive; that I need to start to appreciate every morning when I put two feet on the ground.

It's funny how when you cannot do something that you realize how much you miss it.


What are you thankful for this week?


xoxo,


Royar
{The Young Southern Prep}

What I'm Thankful For

I got this idea from Queen Bee Swain, if you're not following her, you're missing out on a wonderful blogger!

Today, I'm thankful for America and for being an American.

Sometimes, it's hard for me to remember that there are other people out in the world that do not have the same rights as I do. I go to school everyday, a right denied to many girls my age in other parts of the planet, walk around my city without fear of being persecuted for the color of my skin, my religion or what political party I agree with.  I can actively debate my teacher and classmates in each of my classes, without fear of the repercussions.  I can agree or disagree with the things our government does freely, along with my fellow Americans.  I am thankful for the men and women who serve in our military, I am no where near as brave as them.  And yes, my friends do make fun of me for getting a little weepy when I see the American flag waving slowly in the breeze, or when they have the Bald Eagle fly out at sports events, but what can I say?

I'm just thankful.

And of course, I do love saying if my friend asks to meet for coffee on the weekends,

Of course I'm free, I'm an American.

What are you thankful for this year?

xoxo,

Royar

{The Young Southern Prep}