The School Year in Books

 Warning before you read my past book reviews: Guys, we were all twelve once. We all were. Please forgive me.
Hello, my friends! This is a very important day for me. It is a very important day for a lot of you. This day is the LAST DAY OF MY JUNIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL. Dang, it was hard. But we DID IT.

Alright, so since it has been awhile since I have written something literary on here, and since I didn't read terrible books this school year, we are going on a literary adventure of all the things I read for my English class!!!

The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The well-known play about the Salem Witch Trials, based on McCarthyism during the Cold War. This play is actually running a Broadway revival right now and is nominated for a few Tony awards, including Best Revival of a Play. I had heard things about The Crucible, which is one of the reasons it's great to have an older sibling go through school before you, and the things I heard intrigued me. The fact that everyone in a town can go crazy over things they have no actual proof about, and that they can accuse everyone, and if you don't agree with what they say you die, and almost no one actually was a witch but if not everyone agreed then most of the town would be dead? Can we talk about how this play was based on actual events? I don't know, that's just insane to me. But upon reading it, it's even better. The motives of the people in this text are insane... as well as the people themselves. I wrote an essay for the class that I almost shared with all of you, about Arthur Miller's idea of the common hero, how you don't have to be extraordinary to do great things, how John Proctor was a hero and just an average man at the same time. His desire to do good is absolutely incredible. I kept the book so I can read it again.
Alright, so now I am going to tell you about something that is rarely seen in the public English classroom: overachieving. I made an attempt that I really shouldn't have. I was going to finish reading The Forgotten Locket by Lisa Mangum before I started a new book for the quarter reading project. Stupid mistake. I did not use that book for the reading project like I should have. But anyway, it was still a good book and a good trilogy, one that was so complex I would probably have to reread it to fully understand it since I can't remember a good portion of the details as is, but one that I don't have enough interest in to reread. If you want to read my full review of The Forgotten Locket, you can find it here. So since I wasn't doing that book for the first quarter project, I needed to read the next book on my list very fast. Luckily, that was easy. It was a very short book and all I had to do was read nonstop: Christmas at Harrington's by Melody Carlson. It was a lot like a Hallmark movie in that it was a soft storyline that wasn't great or exciting but wasn't terrible or boring. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but I wouldn't un-recommend it to anyone. You can read my full review of that book here.
During second quarter, my class read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Which is considered a must-read universally. At first I didn't quite understand the hype, but about halfway through, the hype made sense. While the rate my class had to read it at was wayyyy too fast, it was an insanely well-written book. However, this does not mean we all need to go into the insane Austen literary cycle where we all cry about why we're single. (The lesser reason that Austenland by Shannon Hale wasn't worth it.)
For the personal quarter reading project, I continued reading the next thing on my list. I started an attempt at the Sherlock Holmes series. Which was a great idea, but being a junior in high school, who has the time to do that? So instead I chose a book I had already read. (Something a little more common for a high school student to do.) The point of this project was to find a common motif in the book that we chose and in Pride and Prejudice. I had already wondered how I was going to do that with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, so maybe not finishing the book was a good thing. Instead I just thought of a book I could use that had the same motifs as Pride and Prejudice. I decided on Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. That's a really cute and high-quality story. It was a good book, and both books had motifs of marriage and social status, so it made a good book to analyze for a good grade. You can read the full review of Princess Academy here.
For the third quarter, the class read The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. While a good number of hipsters hate on Shakespeare because he's too cool, friendly reminder that he's one of the most witty writers of all time. Don't hate on Romeo and Juliet just because it's popular. It's quality.
With that quarter, I had to read a book off of a list that my teacher had made, books that were also movies, then watch the movie and write about the book and the adaption side by side. I chose Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. (That book was seriously overhyped. I didn't hate it; I wouldn't un-recommend it, but it's only kind of worth it. Maybe it was too much character for me, if that makes sense. I loved Morrie, but it was written with the intention that I would love him more than I did, and perhaps that's why I was bothered by it, because I didn't like him enough.) This was good for me because I'd read it before plus it was a super short read, so I would just reread the book, watch the movie, and write my paper on the two. I started rereading it, but the movie was near impossible to get ahold of. The only way we could find to get the movie was buying it for about fifty dollars, so obviously I chose a new book. I went with Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, because I had read that book before and seen that movie before. (The one starring Winona Ryder. So I reread a chapter or two of the book (Ten out of ten as far as slacking goes) and watched the movie again. I wrote a paper on the way Beth's character differs between the book and the movie, which has bothered me since the first time I saw it. I hated it less this time, though. Maybe it just takes more time to understand. You can find the full review of that book here.
Yay! I made it to last quarter, by some miracle. We read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A book I'd always heard about, but I wasn't sure it would be that interesting. But it was intriguing enough just because I didn't know anything about it. A rich guy in the 1920's? Okay, sure. Why not? Yeah, it's a little bit bigger than a rich guy in the 1920's. The fact that no one knows who he is, and all the chaos that happens to them all once they do know. It was a really good book. I enjoyed it very much. But the whole thing is so screwed up, I don't think I'll read it again. Everyone and everything in that book is an insane amount of distorted. For my final exam I have to write an essay on that book. I'm talking about the color symbols (which are truly amazing) and how they represent the women that Nick and Gatsby admire and how they are viewed by each. Since I'm writing this post the day before I publish it, I have still yet to write the rough draft of that essay. Procrastination at its finest. However, I have a bomb thesis and some pretty good notes.
The plan really was to do a project on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes this quarter, but again, who has time to read? So I did another book I had read, one that would just be easy to do a project on. So I chose I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter. This was a really good book, and the series as a whole is even better. Everyone thinks I'm crazy when I say this, and even I thought I was crazy when I thought it for the first time, but the Gallagher Girls series is the best-written series since J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. The way everything fits together is so impressive. Well done, Carter. You can find the full review of that book here.
Yeah, it was a good year, it was good literature. But that class was so dang hard, I'm glad I have time to read and write for myself now. As difficult as it was though, I actually learned a lot from it about writing and literature. (Don't tell my friends, they will make fun of me forever.) And I can only figure that it's helping me with all of the English classes I'm going to be taking in college. (Because I'm probably going to be taking A LOT of English classes in college.)
See you later, guys. I love you!
--Lizzo

Happy Three Years!

Hello my beautifuls! Okay, thank you to all the friends that tell me how much they love the blog all the time. Telling me that whenever you see a post you have to read it, that legit makes my day. You guys are the best. So to friends and strangers alike, because strangers you are friends too, thank you for supporting the blog! Because blog is lyphe.

Alright, so that's kind of the point of why I'm writing today, is that May twenty-seventh marks three years of the blog! Thanks to the newcomers and shoutout to you guys that have been reading this thing from the beginning, because dang did I suck at writing when I was thirteen. Thanks for watching me progress and go from producing trash to at least producing decency.

For this year's It's an Adventure! Day post, I thought I would tell you guys what "It's an Adventure!" actually means. Because yes, it does have some significance to it.

Most of you know that the blog is based off of a love of literature. Originally, the only posts I ever made were literary comments and analysis. Those are still things I like to write. But that was the entire idea of the blog when it was created. I love writing, and back in the day blog posts that weren't on Tumblr were still borderline existant, even though I was probably the last to join the party. So my mom encouraged me to make a blog; I could write about books and such, all the random things that my family had to deal with hearing all day. We spent a lot of time the day we made it trying to figure out what we should call it. I guess nothing was working for me. But I believe it was my mom who said "It's an Adventure!", and I knew right away that that was the perfect name for this beautiful creation.

Why? "It's an adventure!" was something I would always say back then. The idea of the phrase was that we had to make everything like an adventure in a book. If something was even borderline dangerous or anywhere near unusual, I would yell, "It's an adventure!" and proceed to encourage everyone to go with the unordinary option. My blog being about literature, "It's an Adventure!" seemed the most fitting title, as concept was to make literature and life the same thing.
Over the years that phrase has died out. For years I didn't even say it at all; I've picked it back up from time to time now, but I bet that most of my friends have never even heard me say that. "It's an Adventure!" became more of a concept than a phrase. It stayed alive in my first game of capture the flag, when I felt like I was in a Percy Jackson book at Camp Half-Blood. And in times where I had to "sneak" into my sister's work and pretended I was a Gallagher Girl on a mission. But that's the thing, guys. I didn't really have to sneak at all. I just had to step in and talk to her at the front door where she worked; I guess the only risk was she couldn't look like she was talking to family? It was not dangerous. It was not a spy mission. Yet it was at the same time, because literature has blessed my life enough to make me believe that life is a whole lot better and harder and more beautiful than a good number of people in this world think it is. "It's an Adventure!" is the reason every day is great. It means that life is exciting, but that's only true if we make it that way. It's only true if we live like we're the hero of the story.
Thank you for supporting the blog. Writing is the reason I am alive. And writing means a lot more to me than just puttinh words on a page. But I guess that's a story for another time.
I love you all so very much!
--Lizzo
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Kyle and da Boys Day!

Hello fandomeers! The response I got from the last post was insane. I got a lot of super nice messages and comments. I was actually afraid of the pity comments I thought I would get from writing that, but you were all very nice. Thank you so much.
So many of you may have noticed that for a time there was a date in my Instagram bio for awhile (Please follow @itsanadventur): April ninth, 2015. Why did I have this date in my Insta bio? BECAUSE THAT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER BECAUSE THAT WAS THE DAY KYLE AND DA BOYS WAS MADE AND I LOVE KYLE AND DA BOYS.
So what is Kyle and da Boys? The award-winning Independent World winter guard that likes to go on adventures together. You've probably heard of them because literally everyone wants to be them, they are the coolest. Kyle and da Boys is my best friends ever in the whole entire world: me, Kyle, Carter, and Isaac.
Also you've been warned because in the reality of the thing I JUST REALLY LIKE PICTURES.

 Kyle is our fearless leader. He's been the first chair tuba for the All State band for three years. He does video game stuff that I don't understand. He is the chillest person alive.

 Carter is my donut advocate and the creator of yoloism. He likes physics; his favorite color is green but the shade of green depends on his mood. He's Batman.

Isaac's favorite color is purple; the shade of purple changes every week. He loves Hufflepuff and Canada. We can never tell when he is being sarcastic or serious.
So I won't go into the entire reason I really love Kyle and da Boys Day because that's a personal story I don't need to share here that I've only ever told Carter. So basically we were on our choir trip and the first day everyone surprises me and we go see my favorite musical, Newsies. I was the only one (Well, except Eli, haha) and I was wayyyyyy excited. The show was amazing.

Yeah, so that was pretty great. The show was great. But due to some things happening in my life I was really frustrated. But that was okay, it was nighttime and we were in L.A. and we got on our bus and it was all dark and chill and I'd just seen the newsies and so yeah I was hanging in. And then my friends that I now refer to as Kyle and da Boys started talking to me and it was super fun. Somehow color guard came up. If I remember correctly I was saying they don't know much about color guard; they're not on one. Carter told me that yeah they are. They were Kyle and da Boys. They'd beat Fantasia plenty of times. Somehow I got let in on Kyle and da Boys. I'm super happy about that.
Now many people ask why it's called Kyle and da Boys when I am not a boy. Many people claim that I am the "da" in Kyle and da Boys. THIS IS NOT TRUE. I am still one of the boys, even though I am not actually a boy. You see, when Kyle and da Boys did their tour in Spain they were called Kyle y los Chicos, meaning Kyle and da Kids. When we went back to the United States, it was mistranslated to Kyle and da Boys. And it stuck.
So yeah, that night we created Kyle and da Boys and we chilled together on the trip a lot, we went to Disneyland and kept breaking up the team and getting back together. Dang, Kyle and da Boys broke up a lot.
But yeah, Kyle and da Boys has become famous at our school, not to mention everywhere else. Even when Isaac moved away, Kyle and da Boys still lived on and became famous on the Internet. Facebook (Don't forget to like It's an Adventure) loves Kyle and da Boys.
They are my best friends and I love them so very much.

Just as I love you, my readers! Have a fantastic life!
--Lizzo

Taking Control of Your Mental Disorder

Hello, fandomeers! It's been awhile since I've written something, hasn't it? Well, today I am here to talk about mental disorders. Why? Because mine has kind of been getting to me. I did not know I had an anxiety disorder. Or maybe, like a lot of people, I didn't know anxiety was a mental disorder. Anxiety is kind of like depression in the way that it is viewed by people, and in the way that everyone is involved in such diseases. Because everyone has felt depressed in their life, but not everyone has depression. Same with anxiety; everyone has felt anxious, but not everyone has had anxiety. Maybe that's why I didn't know anything was wrong with me. But I started reading more about thw symptoms of this disorder, and I realized a lot of my behaviors matched with the symptoms of anxiety, especially social anxiety. I didn't realize it wasn't necessarily normal to plan out how I'm going to walk across the classroom five to twenty minutes before I get up. Or that it is semi-weird to make sure you do everything perfect all the time because someone might be watching you. People with anxiety worry over tiny mistakes for days that everyone else forgets about in seconds. They plan weeks ahead and double check constantly. They're hard on themselves. They apologize a lot. The way people see them is everything. They worry and worry and worry. Essentially, people with anxiety are constantly feeling afraid, even when they know they're not actually afraid. It is constant paranoia.
That is my disease, anxiety, especially social anxiety. Those of you suffering with a disease, mental or physical, know that the torture I just described or whatever torture is described in your disease's symptoms is not an everyday thing. I am still a completely happy individual! That's the scariest thing about my disorder. The anxiety usually comes in attacks. Sometimes they're small; I'll stare into space  worrying and my friends will wonder what's wrong with me. Other times I'll hyperventilate a little bit; other times I will cry, and there are various levels anxiety that send me into various states. I recently had the worst attack I've ever had, way worse than any of the other ones I described; that was one of the scariest things I've ever been through. I think I am mostly just afraid of something like that happening again, but that's the thing about the attacks, which are usually not that bad. They are not constant. They could come at any time and in any level. I could be on the moon one second and panicking the next. That's the worst part about mental disorders. When I'm happy, I wonder why I ever thought my problem was a big deal. And when I'm not, I remember why I thought that. This has been a pretty hard thing for me to overcome for the past few months. So, my friends, these are some things I have found that make it easier for me to handle my problem. I hope it can help you handle yours. I am mostly going to speak about anxiety because that is the mental disorder I most understand. But whatever yours is, see if this helps for you too.
1. Distract yourself. When you're having a bad day with your disorder, you can feel trapped in it and lost, and sometimes it's all you can focus on. That is when you try to distract yourself. Whatever is your happy thing, somethig that will release worry from you and not let it in, that is what you should do. Something that really calms you down. It can also help to do something organizational, such as cleaning your room. I know this especially helpful for anxiety because people with anxiety like to feel in control. Not only that, but having an unchaotic space can help influence a chaotic mind. I have heard that breathing deeply and slowly helps; that's what I did to calm myself during my worst attack. Try closing your eyes while you do it to block out other surroundings. For anxiety, I had always heard that you look around you and find things: five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. The idea is to help you feel in control of what is happening around you during an attack. The idea of doing that always made me feel silly, but one time while I was testing the theory I realized how calm I felt in the middle of finding all these things. It can even help to just hold something like a stress ball. Also listening to music can really help. (BUT GUYS, make sure it is GOOD MUSIC. Like, POSITIVE MUSIC. Listening to negative music just makes me feel awful. It might make you feel good temporarily, but trust me, it will not be good for your mental health in the long run. Music does indeed have an effect on you, no matter what people say.)
2. Do not let it become you. This is hard. I know this is something I struggle with sometimes. And I know there are days that it consumes you and you feel trapped. That is okay, that happens. But this is not something that has to define you. And when things get really bad with the disorder, you feel like that's all you are anymore. It is not. This is not the only thing you are. What I've done is made a list of things that are beautiful about me, starting with "I am a daughter of God." Every day, add one more thing. A list of things that are awesome about you, and show you how much more you are than a disorder.
3. It's okay to just be happy. Once upon a time I was messaging my friend. It had been a rough couple of days. And I felt so simply happy. And I realized it, and I wondered why. And I actually thought about it for awhile, like, a really focused, almost agitated focused. Why was I so bothered about being happy? I thought about it, and I realized, Lizzo, you've being struggling so much to be happy the past few days. It is okay for you to just be happy. So pretty much, don't overthink it. It's okay, I know it's hard, but just try your best to stay chill.
4. Be patient. With yourself, obviously enough. It may take awhile to learn how to be in control. But I really mean other people. I sometimes get frustrated about all the people that don't care about me
and what is happening in my head. But then I realized it's not that they don't care about me. They do the best they can, and they are learning how to help me just like I'm learning how to help myself. Some people understand better than others, but it's not really their fault, they can't understand it perfectly. So try to understand other people, just like they try to understand you.
One last thing to remember: As I told you earlier, I recently had the worst attack I've had, ever. It was terrifying. It has been a hard few weeks, months, not sure. Since the attack about a week ago, I have felt broken. People keep saying it's okay, they love me anyway. Sometimes I believe it. But sometimes I wonder if people think I'm weak, think I just need to gain control of myself, think I am not trying hard enough to be happy. My greatest feat is people getting annoyed with me and tired of me and leaving me. Since the attack, I have felt so terribly broken.
But I am feeling better, I am learning how to stay in control of my life. And want to know a comforting thought? If you feel broken, remember that you are not the only one with your disorder. It's so easy to feel alone, because each is personal, and you might not even know of anyone who faces the same general disorder. But there are people who have your disorder too. That's why it's a disorder; someone defined it because a lot of people were facing the same mental problem. And besides that. Do not feel broken. Just because there is something mentally not normal about you. Being broken is not bad. It feels ugly. It feels worthless. It feels  hopelessly broken. But this is no longer about just mental disorders; do not feel broken, because everyone has a problem, and everyone feels broken sometimes, because their problem makes them feel worthless. It is okay. So to you, you are okay by me. People do still love you. And I love you so very much.
Thank you for letting me write this. You know what I realized? I was trying so hard to be okay for everyone. My fantastic mom helped me realize how unhealthy that was for me. I felt so pressured to not let anyone know, that it was making my anxiety way worse. So forgive me for needing to be honest about it, but honesty as a general rule is good, and if it's helping me be healthy that's even better. And hopefully, this helped you, with whatever's happening. Love ya, mean it!
--Lizzo

My Christmas Hype

Hi fandomeers, and happy Christmas! I hope you've all had a great day!!!
Even with all the ish going on, the past month I've still been able to feel the Christmas hype. Christmas is great: as a musician, me and my choir are singing all over town all the time, and there's a lot of other musical things going on; it's so great. My friends are home from college, and my family all comes together and it's awesome. These all get me super hyped about Christmas.
But guys, I gotta tell you about something that totally upped my Christmas hype.
One Sunday morning I was watching this video about Christmas, and it totally changed my life. You have to watch it, Why We Need a Savior.
I had always understood that Jesus Christ was the Savior of the world, and that because of Him, we were all able to live again. But I didn't think about the depth of it. Literally nothing would be able to heal. Like, for example, I start to write something here for all of you, and then I don't like it, I wouldn't be able to go back and revise what I wrote. It would just be stuck there in imperfectness. And us, as imperfect beings that make a lot of awful mistakes, would be destined to live forever in sorrow. Every time we made a mistake, that's it.
Because I have learned from my mistakes and have been able to grow, this is very important for me. Because of Jesus Christ, I am able to be forgiven.
I have a friend who is very dear to me that I used to hate. Because of Jesus Christ, the burden of anger has been taken from me. I am able to forgive.
Because of Jesus Christ, I can make my own choices. I can be a writer, friend, sister, daughter, section leader, musician, and so much more; God made a plan for us to come to the world and live and make choices and mistakes and learn so we could live with Him again, and to pay for all our sins and to feel all our pain, He sent His Son so that everything I want to do is now possible.
So all that before-mentioned Christmas hype, it still exists, and I still believe in it, but it's a lot deeper than that. When I'm caroling at the mall, it's more than just singing; I see people's faces light up and make their day way brighter, helping make someone feel love, something Christ would want me to do. Spending time with my family, something Christ would want me to do. My choir teacher said at our winter concert, he always sees bad things happening in the world, but he sees good in the world every time he looks at us. And that's what Christmas is about too, being the light in a dark world.
Basically, all those things, and the fact that everything is just happy all the time, that's what Christmas is. They call it the Christmas spirit. The spirit of happiness. Just remember that this time of the year really is that magical, and it really is that happy, and that special, and the Christmas spirit is very real, because it is the spirit of Christ, His spirit of love and joy in the world.
I love you all very much, and here is one more awesome Christmas video because I'm obsessed with this one too.
Love ya, mean it!
--Lizzo

To Ms. Groberg

Hey fandomeers, I got something very important to share with you. Many of you know I'm in choir at my school. We recently got a student teacher; her name is Ms. Groberg. Tomorrow is Ms. Groberg's last day with us. She is seriously the coolest, and before she left I intended to write a note for her, but then I realized a lot of the things I needed to tell her I also needed to tell you guys. So I'mma print a copy of this post for her and give it to her; this post is for her.
Ms. Groberg, I am so glad you came to Basic for your student teaching! You have become a really good friend of mine; you are so fun, we both love Phantom of the Opera, and we have matching boots. I'm genuinely super heartbroken that you are leaving. For some reason I've gotten it into my head that you're going to be staying here forever. You just seem like so much a part of the choir family.
I overheard Mr. Duff (our choir director for those of you who don't know) talking to you in your earlier days with us. He told you that the feeling you get when a student finally understands a concept  is indescribable. It's indescirbable for me too; when I get a concept I am so excited. I've also seen some of the girls I am section leader for finally understand something, and seeing their happiness at grasping something is so amazing. I know that is the kind of teacher you'll be. I've seen you take joy in out triumphs. You are going to be a great teacher.
I hope the biggest lesson you learned from us is to bring your students together. There's no questioning the family connection in our choir program. Ms. Groberg, when you teach at your own school, I just want you to know that building your program to be like a family can make a big difference for the music. There is nothing better than singing with the people you love. But not only that. I hope you know it makes a big difference for the kids too. Being in Mr. Duff's choir program has changed my life.
When I was in sixth grade I made the definite decision to be a writer. Looking back on it, my understanding of writing was much less. I only knew that I wanted writing to be the rest of my life, I wanted to make a career of it, and I was writing all the time. I auditioned for the Basic High School Chamber Singers at the end of my eighth grade year, to go into it my freahman year. I was one of three freshmen who made it, and the only girl freshman. I loved choir; I had done it all three years in junior high. But being in this choir, this changed my life. Why? It taught me about the two things that make writing, make stories, the center of every story ever written: love and people. Love and people are all writing is about. Everything that happens in a story, is based on a person's emotion. And almost all emotion is based on love. This is not a concept I understood. But Mr. Duff, Mr. Duff teaches people. Mr. Duff always says that the most important thing is making sure the people in our lives know how we feel about them. He says we need to make each other feel loved. That blew me away when I finally understood it. I saw everyone take care of each other. I got amazing friends, that without our choir program I would not have been able to have. I became friends with Mr. Duff and his classroom is now a home to me. I learned a lot of things from this program. One, how to become a better singer; my musicianship has improved in unbelievable ways. Two, I have learned how to be a true friend and how to love people; I am way happier because of this. I learned how to write; I've watched my writing quality, my character quality, my story quality, all vastly improve. This program has been life-changing.
Sadly, I realized not every teacher is like this. Mr. Duff is an amazing teacher who uses music to teach me about life. Some students do not get the same fantastic choir experience I am getting because they are not being taught properly. Ms. Groberg, I've seen you teach. I know you will teach amazing things. I've seen you make connections with us. So I know you will take this first piece of advice: become friends with your students. Kids love feeling connected to their teacher. You are great at this already! The only other piece of advice I can give you is to try to make your students friends with each other. Obviously not everyone is going to like each other. But do your best at teaching the kids that the people they sing with can become their family. Teach them that love is the best thing to put into their music. Make your choir a family. To be honest, I think that it is the willingness to accept people into our choir family that made me so get so close to you in such a short amount of time. You became part of our family. It makes me sad to think that you won't be a part of it anymore.
Ms. Groberg, that is the kind of teacher you will be, a teacher that teaches more than just how to sing well, a teacher that teaches how to be a great person and how to completely change your sound. You have taught me new things in your time with us and I'm so thankful for your knowledge, your personality, your style of education. I have watched you grow so much learning to become a better teacher. You will get a job! Don't doubt it for a second, because anyone would be crazy not to hire you. It breaks my heart to see you go. I can't wait for you to come back and sub for us, and to see you with your own choir in the near future. Don't get discouraged if you can't figure something out right away; it will take time to build your choir. Mr. Duff learns more every year, you will learn as you teach too. I hope that your teaching career is as beautiful and awesome as you are. We will never, ever, ever forget you. I hope I see you around and we stay friends, because you have become a very good friend of mine. I love you!!!
--Lizzo

Disney Princess Series: Snow White

Hey fam! I'm finally getting to the next post in our Disney Princess series! This one's about the first Disney Princess whose movie came out 1937, originally voiced by Disney Legend Adriana Caselotti, the princess I watched every day when I was a child, my princess, Snow White.
Okay, so let's start at the very beginning of Snow White, how she was the princess and her mother died. And then her father remarried and then her father died. And then after her father died her stepmother, well, I would say that her stepmother abused her. But that is not the right word for it. She treated her as less than she was. Dang, that kind of blows me away. She wasn't just forced to do chores and wear worn-out clothes and take care of everything. She was a princess being forced to do all those things. Her stepmother would have her believe that she is less than she is.
First reason Snow White is a hecka strong princess: no matter what people would have her believe, or no matter the lack of people caring about her, she still thought highly enough of herself to carry on. Too many people don't have this attitude. Everyone has natural insecurity, but dang, if you're going to have insecurities about yourself, make them based off of what you think of yourself, not what other people think of you. Carry yourself no matter what people will have you do.
And that's not all, friends. What's even better than that is the fact that she probably had an incredible life, the life of a princess no less, then is thrown into this chaos without love and still found a way to remain sweet and innocent. Beauty and innocence was a choice she made; she could've easily given in to being treated like a peasant but she remained beautiful. Choosing innocence is the strongest thing you can do. Ever.
Alright, so that happens, she meets the prince, and he's in love with her and he's cute but Snow White ain't about that life, she's too shy. The queen, her stepmother, desperately wants to be the most beautiful person in the kingdom but the Magic Mirror constantly informs her that Snow White is the most beautiful. This makes the queen crazy jealous and so she tells the huntsman to go kill Snow White. The huntsman goes to do it but he can't, because Snow White is that beautiful of a person. But get this, he tells her that it was the queen's idea. And Snow White is surprised.
Guys, that is so fantastic! This woman that never loved her, that forced her to have less than she was worth, that mistreated her as soon as no one was in her way anymore, wanted to kill her. And she is surprised about this. No matter how horribly that person treated her, she still chose to believe the best about them. I wonder if she was even so pure and beautiful that she was oblivious to the queen's evil personality, but when I think on it there is no way you can be blind to someone mistreating you like that. She just decided that she was going to think good things about her stepmother no matter how bad she was. Holding grudges isn't the stuff, guys. You feel so much better when you don't do that. And to be honest, the strong decision is to choose to forgive and let yourself heal, because if you think that there are some people that have never had a hard time forgiving someone, you are dead wrong. They just know it's the better choice.
The huntsman tells Snow White to run, so she runs. This is where things start to get real. Snow White shows us that strong people are human.
We thought Snow White's life fell apart when her parents died. Now, she can't go back home, or she will surely die, as well as the huntsman. She has nowhere to go. She runs into the woods, and when people get upset, everything seems a million times worse. Snow White was terrified, and so being alone in the woods was terrifying. Snow White completely breaks down.
But this is why I love this. Because Snow White breaks down and all the animals in the woods gather around and are like "Oh my gosh, what's going on?" And Snow White realizes all these animals are watching her sob her face off and what does she say? "I'm sorry. I'm so ashamed."
Call me crazy, but I think that is the strongest thing in the world. Everyone has moments of weakness, needs them even, but when you completely lose control of life and realize it later, it's okay to realize you were weak. And the strong thing is realizing it and being ashamed about it and deciding to be better. Strength is not being perfect all the time. It is knowing who you are and acknowledging that you are a human being that is weak and being sorry about that and choosing to move on from that and forgive yourself and make it better.
Because Snow White does make it better. She picks herself up and makes herself happy and she and the animals go into the woods and they find a house. Snow White is choosing to be strong yet again by taking control of her own life and deciding that she is going to rebuild her life and take shelter in this cottage! I guess she didn't figure that someone probably lived in a cottage that was just chilling there, but that's okay.
She uses her skills to clean the house that's a total mess. Judging by the things around her in the house she figures the house belongs to children. Which she finds very nice, but she then wonders where their mother is. She realizes, they probably don't have one. That saddens her terribly.
Most people feel bad for orphans. Considering Snow White has lost both of her parents and her stepmother turned out to be evil, naturally she would feel this way even more. But with no thought of herself, or her situation, or anything at all that has been going on in her life, Snow White laments about that then decides to help them with their housework. Is that not the sweetest thing?!
So Snow White is tired so she goes to sleep and the dwarves, the residents of the cottage, come home. They can clearly see that someone has cleaned their house. They go upstairs and Snow White is sleeping in their beds. She wakes up and is surprised. She begs them to let her stay, and they do once they find out she'll cook and clean for them. Guys, self-reliance is just the coolest thing to me. Working to get what you need and taking care of yourself. Dang, that's awesome.
Snow White took joy in her new life. Meanwhile, the queen was still trying to ruin it, because she found out Snow White was still alive. She made a poisoned apple that would kill Snow White.
As anyone would, the dwarves grow to love Snow White and after all the time she is living with them, they finally find out why she's there. They say she's not allowed to talk to anyone while the dwarves are at work. Well, one day while the dwarves are at work, an old woman comes to the door and is let into the cottage because Snow White is willing to help anyone who is hurting; the old woman was attacked by the animals who knew she was the evil queen. Once she is inside, the queen convinces Snow White that if she takes a bite of the apple any wish she has will come true. So Snow White takes the apple and dies.
After all of that, the dwarves chase the queen off a cliff, they mourn the loss of Snow White, but her true love the prince wakes her with true love's kiss and they live happily ever after.
Taylor Swift once said, "To me, fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death."  I feel like that perfectly represents Snow White's story. No matter what hardship she was facing, she just continued to be her beautiful self. That is real strength. It is doing you and not letting anyone break you. Not letting anyone break YOU. Not letting anyone take who you are.
I'll have the next one for you all soon! Love ya, mean it!
--Lizzo