Future, What Future?

What do you do when you begin to wonder if you're truly cut out for the career path you've started down? What do you do when you begin to question everything that you've been striving for? It seemed so clear initially, everything made sense. But as time passes, it becomes less and less clear. I went for the more practical career, the one that was respectable and made sense. I've always loved animals, always been good with them. But the science of it all makes my head spin, makes it hard to enjoy what I'm doing. So I start to wonder, is it for me. And then I come back to, god, what a failure I would be again if I gave it up with just two semesters to go. But then, what does it say when I dread going back and trying to wrap my mind around all these complex procedures. I love animals, but is that enough? And more and more, I'm thinking not. I find the science interesting, fascinating even, but the understanding of it often eludes me.

It's All Her Fault

https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/photos/a.102107073196735.4429.102099916530784/1673118259428934/?type=3&theater

So I realize that I'm opening a huge can of worms with this post, but it's something I feel quite strongly about. I've honestly avoided talking about this issue because it can be so controversial, but after reading something earlier, I feel the need to share my opinion. Also, this is MY opinion. You can agree or disagree, but please don't try to change my mind. I'll respect your opinion so please respect mine.

Earlier this afternoon as I was browsing through Facebook, I came across a post from a page I follow called Humans of New York. If you don't follow it, I would highly recommend it. It gives you a whole new perspective on other people's lives and cultures. It is truly my favorite page on Facebook and the one that is the most thought-provoking for me. It has been responsible for changing my opinion on various topics, one of those being the Syrian refugees. His pictures of and posts from the refugees changed my opinion from being mostly against the refugees and allowing them into America to now having mixed feelings leaning more towards allowing them in, but also taking precautions. But that's not what I want to talk about. My point is that his pictures and the stories that go with them can be very influential and eye opening.

A Pause, Not A Stop

I've been considering getting a tattoo for quite some time, however, I've hesitated because of the cost  and also because a tattoo is so permanent.  I didn't want to get something in a spur of the moment decision that I would regret later.  If I was to get a tattoo, it would be something that had a lot of meaning to me.  There was also the issue of where I would get it since I didn't want it to affect my ability to get or retain a job in the future.  I also knew that I wanted something small.  While I admire the incredible artistry and skill involved in some of the massive tattoos that cover a person's entire back or chest or arm, I personally prefer something much smaller.

I hadn't given it much thought in a good while until today when a young lady I know shared a link on her Facebook page about the 3rd Annual Semicolon Tattoo Project.  I'd heard of the growing popularity of the semicolon tattoos but hadn't really looked into it all that much.  Curious, I finally decided to check it out.  Suffice it to say that I am about 99% sure I have found my first and possibly only tattoo.

For those of you who don't know, the point of Project Semicolon is to "start a conversation that can't be stopped about mental illness, suicide, depression, addiction and self-injury."  A semicolon is a pause, not a stop, a sentence the author could have ended, but chose not to.  As the founder of Project Semicolon stated, "The idea behind the tattoo is to say that your story isn't over yet.  That you are the author of your story and you are choosing to continue."  As someone who has had and still does have major struggles with depression, suicidal thoughts, self-injury, and addiction (to food, not drugs or anything like that!), I can't imagine another tattoo that would so perfectly fit me or have so much meaning and depth.

My first thought was to have the tattoo behind my ear where it would be fairly unnoticeable and easy to hide.  But the more I thought about it and saw pictures other people had posted, I decided that if I do it, I'll get it on my wrist.  My thought was that, 1) I'll actually be able to see it to remind me what it stands for, and 2) weird as it might sound, it just seems an appropriate place considering the scars on my wrists.  So while I haven't decided 100%, I have decided that even if I don't get the permanent tattoo, I will get a temporary tattoo.  I think the movement behind this tattoo is amazing and absolutely awesome.  Creating awareness for certain things can be really difficult, but I hope this one continues to gain more followers and reach even more people.  I don't think I'll ever look at a semicolon the same way again!

Innocent or Not?

Update:

So, just a very quick update here about this post.  This will probably be the only post that I publish out of chronological order, but due to another blog post I read earlier today about someone's views on The Hobbit and other similar movies/books, mine and others opinions about said post, and the fact that several of us mentioned that this person should have targeted other films (I mentioned Twilight), we were all challenged go write our own piece about the films we mentioned.  Since I already wrote mine, I decided that I would re-upload it at this time.  So here it is again and for now, just ignore the beginning part about Harry Potter since I will publish that post in due time.

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Alright, so I did a Harry Potter blog post, now I'm going to do a Twilight one, mostly because I've had several friends recently ask me why I dislike Twilight so much.  Now I'm just going to talk about the books.  If I did the books and movies, it would be a novel, seriously.  I do want to state right now that I'm not trying to judge anyone or make anyone feel bad about liking the books or movies, but I think there are some very real issues here that need to be addressed that are cleverly hidden in what most would consider a typical teenage romance series.