Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Preparation

"If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the
situation he has prepared for."

-Florence Scovel Shinn


Preparation is key, as my mother always told me. It's not about knowing what to do, it's about how you get there. For me, being prepared is one of the most important things in life because it has the chance, in essence, to make or break me. That's why I've always found it necessary to continually organize and prepare myself. I do this by keeping a planner and using it continually, by keeping a mental schedule, by working ahead on homework, by keeping myself in-line and self-discipline to get my goals accomplished and by never losing site of what I long to become: a pediatrician. If I keep my goals in reasonable reaching distance, then I can truly achieve. If I set my goals too high, I know that they're harder to reach. But I also know that if I set my goals too low, I can never get what I've earned. That's why I've set my goals within reach, not too high, not too low, at just the right amount. I've also learned to take constructive criticism and work with it. I used to be so stubborn and strong-willed, I know that I'm not ever going to lose that sense of me, but I've also learned to deal with it. Not everyone is going to like what I'm about or who I am and I have to learn to take that and run with it. I can try as hard as I can to be the best person I can be and if people don't accept that, then I just have to live. Forgive and forget, is best for me. And to live and to learn. I guess I'm writing this post more because I've come to some self-realization: I am me. Love me or hate me; that is the question. But the answer, for me, is okay either way. I've become myself and will reach my goals through preparation. That is all.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Birthday :)


COUNTDOWN: 3 DAYS :):):):):):):):) Officially, in three days, I will be seventeen years old!! No big deal or anything especially since I'm not even getting any presents, but it's still another step up in this world. Being seventeen I can now: go to rated R movies, rent pornography, and get my full license. WOOHOO. Just kidding. Literally, none of that stuff applies to me really. I've always been able to go to rated R movies or at least for a year or so now, because I look old enough so I never get I.D.ed at the movie theaters, not that I ever go to movies because I honestly don't. Secondly, I'm not some psycho sex fanatic nor have I ever had any interest in watching pornography, so I don't plan on renting it anytime soon. And lastly, I got a speeding ticket last June when I was sixteen so that means I have to wait a full year from that day to get my full license. Aka: I can't get it until June. And, as I stated before, I'm not getting any presents, well at least not NOW. My present for my birthday is going to Florida for eleven days in June with my best friend in the world, Cassie. So, my parents already booked my flight for there and back, and after $300, decided that that was a sufficient birthday present and to me, I agree, it's the best. It just sucks waiting for it. Espescially since I'm all hyped up at the fact that it's my birthday and usually you get presents on your birthday. So yeah it's going to take a little while for me to get used to the fact that I'm not getting squat right now, but I plan on having a good day anyways. I'm gonna hang out with friends, hit up some parties, and just embrace the last moments I'll have being sixteen. The biggest significance of turning seventeen for me is just showing I'm one step closer to leaving high school. I guess I have mixed feelings about that right now. I mean I like school, don't get me wrong. I love my friends, my teachers, and even most of my classes and I don't mind the workload that much, but it's the stupid stuff like little high school drama and what not that makes me so incredibly happy to almost be entering my senior year, to almost be on top, and then to be into my college years and eventually into a successful career and life. It's nice to think about. But as for now, I've got to embrace the time I do have in high school. Go to as many sports games, festivals, shows, concerts, and what nots I can. I want to enjoy the dance this year and look forward to my last two dances next year. But most importantly, I want to

enjoy my last few days of being a young little sixteen year old before I mature into seventeen years old. Okay, maybe it's not that big of a deal but I mean come on, whose gonna not get hyped up about their birthday? That's right. So Sunday, March 21, make sure to wish Kiona Rolfes a Happy 17th Birthday :) Please and thank you!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

WPA


WPA. For those of you who don't know what it stands for, WPA means Women Pay All. It's a dance that our school hosts each year during the month of March and it's a little less formal than Homecoming. High school dances have always been fun for me. I love getting all dressed up. I love wearing dresses. I love getting my hair done. I love being tan. I love going out to eat with a huge group. I love wearing a corsage. I love pictures. I love dancing all night long. Everything about a dance makes me happy and WPA is just another one of those dances that I love. This year, I'm taking my neighbor Cody and I'm pretty pumped about it because we're just friends. You see, the past couple years I always took someone I was talking to, or a boy that I liked but this year I decided to take my neighbor for two reasons. One, because he has never been to a school dance and as much as he hates to admit it, I think he regrets not going to any dances and he really wants to go to one. Second, because we're neighbors and JUST friends and so I know there's no pressure for us about becoming something more after the dance. Okay, I'm not gonna lie to you when I first asked Cody I maybe had a teeny crush on him but I've realized that I do truly just want our friendship to stay the way it is. In the future, maybe there's potential but for right now my life is solid with just his friendship. I feel kind of bad though, because I think he misinterpretated me asking him as a sign of me liking him. But, after talking to his friends and what not I think he got the picture that being just friends was what I wanted, and eventually now I think he's okay with it. I'm really excited though because my dress is super gorgeous. Now, usually my dresses are super gorgeous anyways but this one is in top three for sure! It's white and has sparkly sequins at the top, a satin strip of white in the middle, and ruffles all the way down to my knees in white. There's a picture of it above, but that one is the black version. Anyways, I have super tall high heels, cus Cody towers over me, and some cute earrings, bracelet, and ring! I think I'm getting my hair done at Cost Cutters and just wearing it curled and down. We're getting pictures and eating dinner at Elmcrest Country Club, in a big group of people that both Cody and I are friends with. I'm excited to see the other girls dresses and even more excited for pictures. I already told you about my spray tan, and I have to either get a french manicure or just paint them silver. I don't know yet. I'm super excited!! And now I'm rambling and I ought to get my other work done so I'll talk to you all later :)

Spray Tan

Normally, I'm pretty pro-tanning. I don't think it's too harmful to occasionally step inside a tanning bed and touch up the pasty skin. I don't think I'm going to die from it, develop skin cancer, or get a disease. I think it's not only a self-confidence booster but it makes me feel a hell of a lot prettier. I hate how fakely tan some girls can get, so that's why I only use it on occasion. Plus, as I'm sure you know it costs money for minutes and with my skin type, I usually have to use alot of minutes anyways to get any results so hence, I use the time I do buy wisely. That being said, WPA is just around the corner. Okay, now literally it's two days away but a week or so ago when I began stressing about the issue that my dress is white and body being white matching that just wouldn't do, I didn't think a week would be enough time to get to the ungodly tan I wanted to be for the dance. Normally, I go tanning for about three weeks before a dance that way I have a solid base tan, and then the week before I go almost everyday to get a nice, good color that looks awesome for dances. This year, I just honestly wasn't thinking ahead and did nothing about it. Knowing that I was leaving for Florida, however, I didn't think much of it and decided the tan I got in Florida would probably be sufficient enough. However, I seemed to have missed the fact that Florida isn't ALWAYS sunny, despite it's preconcieved notions of being the sunniest place on Earth. So, it rained nearly 2/3 of the time I spent down there, and needless to say I came back with little, if any, added color to my skin. Now, it was time for panic mode as the day for WPA doomed closer and closer, and still my body was not the color I wanted it to be. As the saying goes,

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

I was thinking my only options were to go in to my tanning place, buy a shit ton of minutes, and go tanning every single day for the next four days that I had until the dance. However, I knew that not only would this cost me probably $40 (tanning minute prices are crazy these days, I tell ya), but it still wouldn't get me to the color I wanted to be. So what's a girl to do? I needed a quick fix tan and fast. So, I ended up coming to the conclusion of getting a spray tan. A spray tan is exactly how it sounds. You stand in a tanning bed and let this bronzer-looking substance spray all over your body for about five minutes and VOILA you have beautifully tan skin in a matter of minutes that lasts 7-10 days. I'll admit I was a bit skeptical to get one just because my first one I got freshman year was a disaster. The tanning place didn't know how to work the machine and I ended up being sprayed with water a couple times before I got the orange, nasty look that it gave me. I wasn't impressed nor pleased with the results, and that's why until now I had completely banned them from my tanning scene. But as the saying goes, I needed it to be done. So, I took a chance. I went to a place called TanWorld, known for there great tanning beds and lotions and got a spray tan there. Not only am I satisfied with my color, but I smell good (thanks to adding drops of coconut lime scent to the mixture), and look good too! The color turned out fantastically. No streaks, no anything. Just beautiful and bronze. Now, I can't WAIT for WPA to be here already. I'm super excited! So for girls out there having issues with tanning, try a spray tan out. I'd recommend TanWorld.

Make Up Work=DEATH

I HATE MAKE UP WORK! It's death to my entire life. No joke. Not only am I drowning in homework that has to be made up from the three and a half days I was gone from school, but the teachers decide to work at a rapid pace to get us to some point they'd like us to get to before Spring Break, and they're piling on the tests and work all together. Now usually, I'm a pretty good student. I told my teachers well in advance and got most of my make up work for when I was going to be gone and I thought I'd get a majority of it done on the nationals bus. Unfortunately, I underestimated the fact that the bus is super uncomfortable and bumpy, hard to see in it, and the noise level was obviously at an all time high except for at night time. So, I didn't get as much as I had planned on done on the buses not a big deal because I thought I was going to be staying home from school tuesday. Keyword: thought. You see last year when I got back from Nationals, around 8 PM, I was completely exhausted and wanted nothing but sleep. My parents let me sleep in and when I woke up I got to spend the day recovering and doing the homework I didn't get done. So I assumed this year would be the exact same, obviously I was wrong. This year, we got home at about 730 PM. I got home, still exhausted, and went to bed after a little time chit chatting with the family. I went to sleep without setting my alarm because I assumed I'd be sleeping the day away. Anyways, my mom came in at about 630 AM to see what time I wanted to wake up for school. I laughed because I thought it was a complete joke. I thought she knew I was sleeping in for a while and then I'd eventually get up and do all my homework. But she thought it was just absurd that I was going to be staying home so she preceeded to get my father to come in and yell at me for being irresponsible and not going to school. So, despite the fact that I had close to none of my make up work done, I went to school at 11 am and attended all but two of my classes. Then, I got the pleasure of working all night and coming home and staying up until 1230 am trying to get just half of the work done, most of which failed and was very unsuccessful. So anyways, now I'm desperately scrambling, two nights before spring break, to get myself caught up in all my classes and thus far, it's going shitty. I thought I'd take a break and get my mind off school for a while by writing this blog but instead it's taunting me, telling me to go get my homework done!! So, I'm going to go study for some tests and quizzes that I hopefully don't completely bomb tomorrow.

PEACE.


P.s....................................................................................
Listening to music helps me get in focus when I do my hw.
Go to www.youtube.com and type in any song you want to hear. I guarantee you'll be happy.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

POP CENTURY-Remember When....

So, Nationals 2010 is officially over. Yep, that's right. finished. Home from Florida. Back to hell. Yeah, i'm sure you all get it. Wanna know how we did? Well, let's see. Ask the judges what they prefer: slutty shimmies, wild hair flips, or embarrasssing sweeping the floor motions? They'll apparently answer all of the above AND MORE. So basically, Iowa Elite Senior Coed was undefeated all season right? Right. We never once got anything less than first place and we rocked the shit out of every competition, getting grand champs at all but two. I'm blesssed to be on such an awesome cheerleading team. Now I know I wasn't expecting to get first at nationals (okay maybe I was), but I was expecting to get better than 8th out of 12. But guess what? We didn't sell our routine enough for the judges apparently, because the teams ahead of us, while lacking in skill didn't lack in the area of cockiness but it was more than just that it was downright, absurd, we run this shit routines. It was horrifying watching other teams being placed in front of us, especially when we've worked our aces off to get here. Not saying that any of the other cheer teams there didn't work just as hard as we did, but I felt like we really deserved more than what we got. This year we took down the most tumbling we ever have. That's the amount of flips in the routine. Then, we have the largest team we've ever had going down there too. Well, tied with last years but this year with much more talent. And we also brought down what I thought was the absolute best routine I have ever seen in a very long time from us. It's little to say that I'm bummed, I'm pissed off, yeah I'll admit it. But not because we got eighth. Well okay yes because of that but because I don't understand it. If I thought the other teams that beat us deserved the spots they got, I'd be okay with it. If I knew our routine difficulty level and skill was nowhere near the others I'd get it then too but what upsets me the most is that our routine was just as difficult and more often than not, more difficult than the other teams in our division. We had over seven flyers in the air at the same time hitting the same skills. We had a killer pyramid, awesome dismounts, and super flexibility with our flyers. We had so many flips you couldn't count 'em all. The first place team had ten all together. But what we didn't have enough of, I guess, was cockiness. We knew this the first day we competed as the judges pre-ranked us. So, we took the advice, added the stuff that made us look like the other teams (the shimmies, the hair flips, the sweeping the floor motions: all ridiculous I'm well aware), and we STILL placed eighth. Our routines were perfection. We had one minor flaw the first day and a bigger than minor flaw the second day so I knew enough not to expect first but eighth, come on 8th!??!?! Might as well just hand back the trophy and say goodbye to the judges. We all decided to let our emotions run wild Sunday night after competing, we cried as a team, we talked as a team, and for the first time ever I finally felt like we all truly were a team. It was the best. At those moments in time, nothing mattered anymore but being together. We ended up trashing our trophy on the bus ride home. We covered it in silly string, put garbage all over it, wrote our names on it, made it look like crap and you wanna know what? We had the funnest time doing it! We didn't care anymore about getting eighth place, we knew, no matter what the judges said, that we deserved ALOT more than what we got. But oh well I guess, there's always next year. Then again though, that's my last year to win one of those ugly national champion black jackets I've wanted for sooooooo long!!!! WE MUST WIN :)

Here's a link to watch our routine down at Nationals. While looking, take a quick peak at the other large senior coed level 3 teams, and see how you'd rank them, and let me know!!! Maybe you'll choose the way we did and put Iowa Elite in top three:)

www.varsity.com

Monday, March 8, 2010

In Preparation

Countdown: 2 DAYS!!!!!!!! That's right. Just two. Forty eight hours. I'm so excited! And in case you absent-mindedly forgot what is in two days (It's okay, I'll forgive you just this once), I'm leaving for Orlando, Florida for cheerleading nationals. We had our last practice yesterday and it went really well and it makes me even more pumped because we nailed all of our run-throughs. I felt bad though because all of our seniors were crying at the end. Our very last routine was the best out of all of them and even though it was the last time we would ever perform in our own home gym with this AMAZING team, things for me weren't as sad as I expected them. You should probably know first off that I'm a pretty emotional person (inherited from my mother) and I cry at almost everything so I assumed I would be waterworks also. But, I just couldn't cry and that's a good thing. I was so happy, there wasn't room for tears because when I think about the season this team has had, I can't help but smile. We've gotten first at every single competition we've been too and grand champs at all but two. We've rocked the score sheets, we've acquired some screaming fans, and we've grown closer as a family and a team. I would give anything for anyone of my teammates, I love them all and even though the season is coming to an end alot of the friendships I have made will last a lifetime. But enough with all the gooey crap, it's time for me to tell you all about preparing for my second trip to the sunniest place on Earth.

Last year, was my first year there and I had no idea what to expect so I packed practically my entire wardrobe, and then some. This year, I know that I'm probably not going to need more than a good solid five outfits, most of which consist of t-shirts, soffee shorts, sweatshirt, sweatpants, and a pair of jean shorts. But I'm also going to be bringing more: hairspray, bobby pins, hair ties, make up, socks, underwear, etc. I also have to have an extensive collection of food for the 23 hour bus ride (yuckk!) and for my roomies. I am blessed to have an awesome group of roommates: Chelsea, Kassiani, and Laura all of whom I'm really close friends with both in and outside of cheerleading. I guess it makes me even more happy about going up there! Anyways, for food I plan on bringing: peanut butter M&M's, Chips Ahoy chewy cookies, Granola bars, strawberries, juicy juice juice boxes, goldfish, fruit snacks, Vitamin water, chips, pretzels, and money for fast food on the way up and back. I plan on packing everything in my closet that's black, orange, and green and Iowa Elite related. I have to bring lots of money for food there and for nationals clothing!! That's probably the best part of it all is getting to go shopping at the clothing store for cheerleading nationals because there's soo much stuff it's impossible not to find a million things and more that you want! Plus, I have $50 of my own secret stash that my rents don't know about that I plan on taking with me to spend on clothing since last year I was conservative and didn't spend alot on clothes, but now I'm gonna!!

Anyways, I'm doing alot of rambling with this blog. Most of which, needs to stop because I'm going to be leaving class in about five minutes. So I guess I'll conclude with our team quote which is also placed on our nationals t-shirts, which has stayed true our entire season. Oh, and please wish us GOOD LUCK!:)

"A dream is a wish your heart makes...it takes the strength of a team to accomplish a dream."