Calling on Courtney

Alrighty, it's that time of year again. The time of year everyone can reflect on what they are super thankful for. Those sappy instagram collages, the tweets about family and friends, and all typical "I'm thankful for these people" facebook posts.

The problem is that I'm thankful for way too much. Not to try and be super sappy, but I'm thankful for my whole life. Every single part of it. There is no reason not to be grateful for what I have accomplished this past year. So I've decided to comprise them into a short list so as not to brag about my life, but to collect my thoughts during this holiday season.

1. I'm glad I am a part of the Gator Nation. 



2. I am so thankful I finally got to meet my best friends in the whole world. 



3. My family is still completely crazy... and I wouldn't trade them for the world.


4. I'm grateful that Taylor Swift is in a happy relationship at this moment in time. 



5. MY CAT



6. The fact that FSU still sucks.



7. I am thankful Adele dropped her new album, and that "Hello" is the only thing still stuck in my head. 



8. I am so happy that the musical Hamilton is still sold out and tickets are $1,000,000 a piece. 



9. I'm thankful I haven't failed out of college and have to move back in with my parents and attend community college and turn into a vegetable. 



10. The fact that I'm single and focusing on me this holiday season, which means no cute gifts or cuddling when it's cold and netflix all by myself.



11. I'm so very glad that I got cast in my first show at UF, even if it did require throwing up on many people. 



12. I'm thankful that Starbucks changed their cups because now I can draw pretty pictures of Jesus on them. 



13. I am really happy that I live in a nation that cares so much about other people and their quality of life. 



14. Happy that J-Crew had a 30% off everything sale yesterday. And I'm thankful that I'm now broke as well. 



15. I'm thankful that I have such a beautiful life ahead of me. I don't want to change anything about it. 

What would you do if you had five minutes to do whatever you want? No responsibilities, no chores, no homework, no classes. Just you and five minutes of time. What would you do with a free five minutes?

I thought about this question while sitting outside on campus. I was doing an economics quiz and it was absolutely beautiful outside. As I submitted the quiz with delight, I realized that I had finished all of my responsibilities for the weekend. Obviously I could find stuff to do, if I needed to, but I took a moment to myself. I thought how beautiful the temperature of 73 degrees with the sun shining through the trees. I took notice of the people around me and thought, they all look so busy, so hurried, and so disinterested with what is going on around them.



Point of the story is that this is what I did with my five minutes. I took them all to myself, without any distractions from friends, my cell phone, teachers, or responsibilities. I just sat and reflected. And you know what? It feels pretty good.

My challenge to anyone who is reading is to take five minutes to relax and just breathe without any distraction. Five minutes isn't a lot and it definitely will not kill you. I just feel that we all get caught up in trivial things that won't matter in the next few months.

In the wise words of the great Tim Tebow, "I really try to enjoy life and have joy with what I do." And I think that's what we should all try to do.

For the past week, I have spent my time in this beautiful little treasure called Sanibel Island. Now, when I say this is one of Florida's best kept secrets, I'm not lying. I had never heard of this place until we had actually reached it. My roommate told me that she had been a few weeks back with her family and that I would not be disappointed.

Well, the first day we arrived it poured all day. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. We arrived to the resort and you could not even see the island or the beautiful water of the Gulf or anything for that matter. It was heartbreaking because there was not one second that it stopped raining.


The second day was better, but it still was cloudy and raining for most of the day. I actually missed the sun by day two. I live in Florida for Pete's sake, I am supposed to see the sun at least three times a week (even when it storms all the time).


However, the food at the resort was excellent. Expensive, but high quality and lovely. The best thing about it though was that at almost every meal I was offered a glass of wine or fruity drink. Why you ask? I have no clue. This is America, not England. I guess in Sanibel they all have bad eyesight and I look like I'm 25, not 18. Eh, it didn't bother me one bit.



Today, on our last day of the trip, the weather is beautiful. What I am looking at right now is from a movie or travel brochure. No joke. The only sad part is this was our last day of being here. So, we didn't really get to enjoy the pool, dock, jet ski's, or yacht that takes you on a colorful sunset cruise.



Even with the rain and the bad weather, I enjoyed the fun trip with my sister and mom. This will be the last time we ever get to go on a trip with just us. Not to get all sappy here, but they made the trip for me, not the place, the food, or the weather. Good company is what really makes every vacation memorable. I think that may be the best advice I've ever given. I'm gonna quote that.

Sorry, I haven't posted for a while. For the last four weeks, I have been participating in Swing! The Musical presented by the King Center and the Cocoa Village Playhouse. All I can say was it kicked my butt and I freaking loved it. And just so you know I'm not lying, I'll post a picture to prove it.

The other day I went with my family to the movies. My sister has continued to beg my dad all this week to take us to see Inside Out, the new Pixar movie about the girl whose whole head is run by little people with certain roles. There was Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear.

I have to say, from a completely serious standpoint, Pixar definitely did a good job with this one. The concept was unique and the animation was just incredible. Not to mention, the script was funny, heartfelt, and made the audience smile.

After watching the movie, I realized that we all have different command centers in our head. Some let fear run our lives, some sadness, and some anger. I have always tried to be happy my entire life. Told myself that I would not have friends if I wasn't always smiling because people like happy people. I'm always the energetic and positive person in the group because I've always believed that there is no time to be unhappy and why would one want to be unhappy.

The movie Inside Out taught me that to be balanced in life, you can't just have "Joy" running the command center all the time. You need all the other emotions to work too in order to be who you are. I realized that we can't hide the sadness or anger or fear or disgust because we need all of them for our body to function daily. If you bottle the other emotions up, it will cause you to burst later on.

My challenge now is to let the other emotions take their course on a daily basis. If I need to cry I will, if I need to scream in the car at some idiot male who doesn't know how to drive I will, and if I need to be grossed out by the showers in my dorm hall I most definitely will.

I also challenge you all to make the right emotional choices in your life. If you feel like anger controls you, try letting sadness or joy take over and help balance you out.

This doesn't mean that you should give up on joy though because in order to have that real joy, you need to feel emotionally secure. If you can, always try to look on the bright side of things because it will really help when dealing with difficult people or situations.

Also, if anyone reading this blog does want help with their crazy emotions or someone to talk to, I am always here to rant to. Just sound off in the comments below. #stillmissingbingbong

I'll be completely honest, having arachnophobia is the most terrifying thing in the world. Not only are you afraid of the really really big spiders, but you are afraid of the tiny ones too. Even the babies. Those scary little spawns of the devil.

So naturally, you can see why when somebody says, "hold my pet tarantula because I trust you with her," is heart-stopping.

Well, not too long ago, I went to go play putt-putt with my family. At this specific putt-putt establishment, they had a little zoo set up with a bunch of cool jungle animals there. While looking at the different glass containers I came across a set of them that had white wispy threads running across them. My hair stood up on my arms and my pulse quickened. I knew exactly what was in these containers. And it scared the crap out of me to even look at them. The thought of the only thing separating me from those vermin was one layer of glass. A layer of glass that could easily be broken by a flying putt-putt ball from a kid who just whacked it way too hard because he has no idea how to play golf or even hold a putter correctly. I backed away very quickly.

At that moment, the guy who had been taking care of the creatures came out from the back and noticed how I looked at the three containers staring me in the face and cunningly smiled at me. "Arachnophobia eh?" he said with a quizzical brow. "The worst," I replied with a chuckle. He then said, "Hold on for a second would ya?" and went back into the door that lead to all the containers with their multiple creatures in them. I knew what was about to occur and I did not like it one bit because out of the door came the man, holding this mother-loving huge tarantula. And it was huge. Not just huge, it was the King Kong of all spiders huge.

The guy turned to me as I backed away. He said, "This is my pet spider. She is really really important to me and I don't want you to hurt her. Before you freak out, can I teach you about her?" I couldn't reply because my eyes were glued to the thing that was in his hands. I nodded my head. He started to talk about his spider and what it could do and most of it I didn't hear until he brought it closer to me. I jumped back. "Woah, hey, it's okay, I got her. Do you wanna just touch her for me? She feels like silk and she won't hurt you. I'll do it with you." At this point, I was frozen. He had asked me to put out my finger, but I couldn't. He carefully reached for my hand and put it on the spider's butt. I had begun to cry and shake.

He looked at me and said "now was that so bad?" Then he looked at my brother and asked, "would you like to hold her?" My brother eagerly held out his hands and he put the spider in them. The spider snuggled up and curled her legs into the middle of his cupped hands. "Oh she likes you," he said. He grabbed the spider and turned to me. "Oh no, I can't. Please don't," I said to him. He walked closer to me. "I trust you with my best friend. If you drop her you will break her exoskeleton and she will bleed to death. I trust you," and with one swift motion he dropped the spider into my hands.

Time seemed to have stopped because I couldn't breathe. Nor could I get rid of the creature in my hands. It's eyes stared at me and I stared right back. I thought for a brief moment, "wow this creature isn't that bad." Then, the spider started to crawl up my arms. I got so freaked out, yet couldn't move or scream. I didn't want to drop and kill it. However, it kept moving up my arms like it was ready to eat my face off. Before I had the chance to start crying again, the guy whisked the spider off of my arms and it was over. I had done it. I had actually faced my fear and let a big ass spider crawl all over me. Now, I can fully take on the world. Except those baby spiders, they still freak me out.