Rainy Days

"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow." -Jerry Chin

 "Persistence is the element of human nature that daily moves us closer to our dreams."
"To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did."

"One does what one is; one becomes what one does." -Robert von Musil

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning." -Albert Einstein

“It’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.” -Batman Begins

"To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all." -Peter McWilliams

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always be what you've always been, and you'll always get what you've always got." 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -Gandhi

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Arbre à souhait- Jardin des Plantes

Listening to Mat Kearny, Telescope, Matchbox 20, and KT Tunstall while watching the rain lightly falling outside couldn't get much better. While this isn't totally about France, it's part of my experience here and being here has helped me realize so many things I might not have otherwise, so I think it pertains. There are a lot of quotes, but I promise they're all worth reading! 

I love stormy weather. It's the best for curling up on the couch with a good book, cuddling, watching movies, sketching, and reflection (a few of my favorite things). I spend two days in Montpellier this week and it was absolutely wonderful. I'll write more about it later, but in the Jardin des Plantes there is a tree called "un arbre à souhait".  People write their secrets, wishes, or secret wishes and hide them in the tree. I don't think I have any secrets, so I wrote a wish.

I only have one, maybe two, semester(s) to finish before I get my Bachelors degree. Then, it's on to graduate school. I have to start my application for that in less than a month. Another best friend is getting married in 5 months and I turn 21 in 6 months! I can't believe where I'm at in my life right now. Truth is, I always knew I'd grow up, but I never wanted to be a grown-up! And I'm almost there... Scary! I used to laugh at my mom when she'd say she didn't what she wanted to do when she grew up, but everyone is "growing up" in some ways. We are always changing. I know I've a very different person than I was at 16, last year, or even last month. Life is an accumulation of normal days in which we make seemingly small decisions. But, it is the daily decisions which shape our lives. Your decisions determine your direction and your direction decides your destiny. So start by deciding what you want to be, where you want to be, and how you can get there. Each day you wake up is the start of the rest of your life and each day you get to decide where you want the rest of your life to go. Dream. Make goals and work to reach them. Wishes are only unattained goals. Don't fill your life with empty wishes. Your entire life is simply a sum of "todays." Make each "today" count. 

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Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen. -Michael Jordan

 All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. -Ellen Glasgow

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. -Anatole France

Always remember that the future comes one day at a time. -Dean Acheson

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. -Leo Tolstoy

“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction” -Winston Churchill

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. -Mary Engelbreit

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. -Maya Angelou

Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed. -Irene Peter

Things do not change; we change. -Henry David Thoreau

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance. -Harrison Ford