In my mind, home is not one singular place but rather many different places or experiences.
For some it may be a hometown or a childhood house. For others, the sound of a Ford truck starting up or a local skating rink.
Home isn’t always a place. It can be a smell, like a cinnamon apple candle. Or a person, like a mother or a spouse.
I think that home is something that can only be defined by an individual. It means something different to everyone.
What is home to you?
– A.B.
What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
There are many aspects from different cultural influences in my life that I find interesting. My Southern American heritage is something that I experience nearly everyday of my life with the food I eat and the words I say such as, “Y’all.” The importance of family, having fun, and working hard are all things I’ve learned through my southern culture and I find to be important in life.
Farther back in my heritage, my Scottish and Irish ancestors have always been fascinating to me. I’m proud to be descended from a culture of people who fought for what they believed in and never let oppression keep them down. They took pride in their family name and found honor in bravery, which is something I admire.
– A.B.
I try not to dwell on the future very often, as I don’t live there quite yet.
But I find myself smiling at the thought of all the things I’ve yet to do and experience.
All the sights I haven’t seen.
The foods I haven’t yet tried.
The laughs I haven’t yet had.
The people I haven’t yet met.
I can’t wait to see the children I pray to have, and how both their parents will be present and loving.
The lifelong goals I’ll reach when it’s time for them to happen, and the success I’ll feel when that day comes.
The joy I hope to experience when I can look back at my life and remind myself that I made it through the hardest parts.
There are so many things I’ll continue to look forward to for as long as I remain on this earth.
I believe it’s true when they say that the best is yet to come.
– A.B.
What would your life be like without music?
I truly cannot imagine my life without music, especially since I’m a singer and pianist myself. At best, I think it’d be pretty miserable. Music has gotten me through some of the hardest times in my life. It’s something I feel very connected to and that I love dearly.
It’s hard to imagine not belting out my favorite songs as I do the dishes. Or playing a vintage vinyl record from my collection. Music is very therapeutic, and I believe it’s beneficial to all people.
Life without music would be boring, I think. It’s something that connects people and makes them feel understood. Music is one of the most beautiful parts of life and I would be unbelievably distraught if I had to live without it.
– A.B.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
Back when I was getting my Associates degree at a local community college, I was taking a French class that had a project where you had to make a French dessert from scratch and bring it to share with the class. Bringing anything homemade was an automatic A grade regardless of what the food looked like, but I really wanted to do my best and create something good.
I decided to make chocolate choux pastries, thinking they would be pretty simple. The filling was easy to make, but the pastry dough was a different story. Instead of getting the classic risen, airy choux dough that I anticipated, I ended up with flat, misshapen pastries with chocolate spilling out of them.
After speaking with my class instructor (who was originally from France), I realized what I’d done wrong with my baking, but that didn’t make the whole experience any less frustrating. It did bring me some comfort, however, to see that some of my fellow classmates also struggled making sweets that they were unfamiliar with.
I can look back at that moment from where I am now and laugh as I remember how awful my poor pastries looked despite how disappointed I was when it happened. I haven’t attempted to make dough from scratch since then, and from that experience I realized that there’s nothing wrong with store bought dough when you need it.
– A.B.
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
One thing I wish I would’ve learned earlier on is life is that an individual’s self worth is not determined by those around them. I, like many of us, spent my teenage years obsessing over how I would be perceived by my peers and people I considered to be cool and/or popular. I placed my worth in their hands and let them be the judges, which is something I didn’t even realize I was doing at the time.
That is why when I was bullied as a teen, it took a big toll on my mental health. I couldn’t stand the thought of people seeing no worth or value in me as a person because at the time, I valued the perception of others much more than how I viewed myself. It was a hard lesson to eventually learn, but I’m certainly glad for it.
As an adult, I am able to love myself and appreciate the things about myself I didn’t used to value. I now know my worth does not lie in the hands of fellow humans, but rather in the Creator of the universe. If I am precious in His sight, then the world’s opinion has no impact on me and my life. It’s a very freeing feeling to finally be happy with yourself and give yourself the love you needed all along.
– A.B.
I always find myself fascinated by the new discoveries I make every time I venture into my ancestry/genealogy hobby. It’s always even more surprising when I find family history from hundreds of years prior just miles from where I grew up.
Captain James Kell is my 6th-great-grandfather. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1760 and moved with his family down to Orange County, North Carolina as a young child. He was also in the militia, and fought in many battles during the American Revolutionary War including Camden, Lindley’s Mill, and most notably to me, Charlotte.
I was born and raised near Charlotte, so learning that my own ancestor fought against General Cornwallis in 1780 in what is essentially my hometown was mind-blowing to me. He was also married at and briefly lived in the town I currently reside in, which is even crazier to me that I have at least two familial ties to a place I never knew was connected to me in that way.
Capt. Kell’s other family members also have some fascinating history. His great-grandfather, Jean Postell, was a French immigrant, known in the 1600s as a “Huguenot,” who fled to Charleston, South Carolina with his parents, wife, and children to escape religious persecution happening in France. The Postell’s held to their Protestant faith, and fled along with thousands of other like-minded individuals to escape the catholic government that posed a threat to their safety.
I definitely plan to dig more into the small bit of information I’ve found so far so I can better understand the history and the lives of my ancestors. Thank you for reading!
– A.B.
What are you doing this evening?
This evening, my husband and I went out to play disc golf after he got home from work. We drove about twenty-five minutes away to a beautiful course that plays around a small body of water.
Although I’m not athletic whatsoever, I like to walk alongside my husband as he plays which gives me exercise and fresh air. I also love all of the different animals and plants I observe walking through the woods.
Today we saw at least thirty Canadian geese, a pelican, a bunch of tiny frogs, and a few butterflies. I also noticed the leaves beginning to fall from the trees and all sorts of mushrooms and other plants sprouting from the ground. Taking a walk through nature is one of the best ways to clear your mind, at least in my opinion.
Then on our way home, we picked up fast food for the first time this week instead of eating at home, but it felt nice to treat ourselves. All-in-all, an unremarkable yet enjoyable Wednesday evening.
– A.B.
What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed more traits and characteristics in individuals that I try to avoid being around. While narcissism, dishonesty, and apathy are all major red flags to me, pessimism is the one I dislike most.
Being around a person who is stuck in a negative mindset drains me mentally. In my experience, pessimistic individuals tend to be stuck in their ways and refuse to see thinks from a brighter, positive perspective. No matter how much optimism and insight you try to give them, often times they’ll only react with negativity.
I try to distance myself from pessimists, as their attitude tends to bring down others around them to join them in their negative headspace. I avoid it for the sake of my own mental and emotional well-being.
I feel empathy for these kinds of people, as they’re stuck in a miserable cycle and do not allow themselves to find joy in the little things in life. How I see it, the positives always outweigh the negatives. Changing your view on life has the potentional to change your entire life!
– A.B.
I first heard about author Colleen Hoover on social media due to many women around my age saying how much they loved her books. “Verity” is the first story of hers I read. And even though I didn’t love it, I still found it more enjoyable than her other stories. One qualm I have with this book, along with all of her others, is that the female main character has no interests or real personality outside of being obsessed over a toxic man. I find it difficult to get into a story when the narrator feels unreliable, which is what I experienced with this book.
I enjoyed the first few chapters very much; the mystery and suspense of the story was captivating. However, I found it difficult to visualize the characters since the author does not go into great detail about physical traits. I also felt as though the main characters, Jeremy and Lowen, were morally gray from the start when it seemed like the intention was to portray them as protagonists.
Despite the book being less than three-hundred pages, the pacing made it hard for me to stay enveloped in the story since it tends to lull until the very end. The ending is intense and startling, but I also found it rather confusing. I don’t know whether Lowen was supposed to be an antagonist all along which is how I viewed her after finishing the book, or if the author intended for her to still be a protagonist despite both her and Jeremy’s poor decisions.
Although it is not my favorite piece of literature, I think this book is a good choice if you want an easy-to-read thriller. It’s one of those stories that I didn’t love, nor did I hate. But in my opinion, it is a much better story than author’s other works such as “Ugly Love” and “It Ends With Us.” I can definitely understand why so many young women love her books, but for the most part they just aren’t my cup of tea.
– A.B.
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