Amazing Courage

This is going to sound like a random post and I suppose it is, but one that is necessary nonetheless. My English class this semester is about "Mapping" and our current section is about mapping one's self. We read Julie and Julia - I won't rant about Julie Powell here, I've talked about her much more than I'd like to - and looked at blogs and why people write them/read them. My paper for this unit looks at different diary/blog writers throughout the centuries and how writing gave meaning to their life. One person I stumbled across in my research was Anne Frank. This girl was AMAZING. We all read her diary in grade school and know her story and hopefully how truly incredible her story is. This was a girl who at 13 years old was put through absolute hell and found her only source of stability and happiness in her diary "Kitty." She poured her heart and soul into it and showed such courage in a terrible terrible time in history. Take a look at this excerpt:

"I haven't written for a few days, because I wanted first of all to think about my diary. It's an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I - nor for that matter anyone else - will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Still, what does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart." (from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, 1952)

Because she had to experience things that no child (or adult for that matter) should ever have to, Anne was much older than her age. She had no idea that her writings would be published for all the world to see, and that's what makes them so pure, honest, and sincere. I couldn't even imagine living through what she lived through, but she still found the time to talk about crushes and the normal happenings of a teenage girl. Being reminded of her story just helps you put your life in perspective and see the little, good things in life. Anne Frank was truly an awesome girl.

Fit as a Fiddle

This summer I want to get fit. As in basketball pro, looks amazing in a bathing suit, you could grate cheese on those abbs fit. That's why I am debating doing this...

or this...

or even...

(Just kidding about that last one (:)
I am tired of not feeling my fastest/strongest/hottest and it's time to do something about it! I can't wait to come home to just turn my life around and get to work. It's going to be a struggle no doubt, but with the right mindset - and my mom's constant questioning of "Are you sure you want to eat that?" - I should be able to do it. I want to come back to school next year to amazed ohs and ahs from my teammates from how good I look and hopefully how well I play on the court. I'm thinking of doing two-a-day workouts everyday; one swimming workout in the morning and one weight training/basketball workout in the afternoon. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with this workload, stick to my Weight Watcher's regime (it's a family affair for the Petersons this summer!) and be on the path to a fit body. Look out world here I come!

P.S. Any suggestions or tips how I can reach my goal? Know any trainers/diets/exercise routines? Please let me know :)

Housing Mayhem

The Lehigh housing lottery is a mess. A drama-filled, hectic, political mess. Not that it has to be, but we all make it one (or at least I do in my own head). What happens is Lehigh assigns us all random numbers, which came out this morning, and you can either pick quad/apartment-style housing or regular dorm housing. Then we all go into a large lecture hall and the housing people start calling the numbers in order, and like a big BINGO game, we watch as people choose a room and cross it off on our little diagrams of the buildings. It is going to be a madhouse. Obviously most people want quad style housing and you have no hope of getting one unless you have a number lower than about 100. If you are one of the lucky few with such a low number, you can pick a quad and bring your three friends into it and live happily ever after. However, if you are not one of the lucky few, you get stuck in traditional dorm housing. How did I do you ask? I got number 564. There are only 648 possible numbers. I am THAT lucky. Unfortunately all of the athletes that I know also got bad numbers and will be in my same boat so I can't really cling on to them. We have all pretty much decided on the fact that we are going to live in a floor on Drinker (a terrible name for a college dorm I know) and whoever is lucky enough to get a single we will all hate and shun for a little bit but then get over it.

So now that leaves the question, who to room with? Everyone I asked is so vague about the whole process which leads me to one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate to harp on negative things and think it brings only more negative things, but since I brought it up I must continue. I am a planner. I like to get things settled right away and see them through. I am also a very trusting person, so when someone tells me they are going to do something I think they are going to do it. Unfortunately not everyone is a planner. I have found this out the hard way many times, and the housing process is yet another example. I've been asking around seeing what everyone wants to do and no one will give me straight answers or get my hopes up and say that they want to do a certain thing but then change their minds like nothing happened. It gets a little frustrating. Fortunately, their are good people in the world like one of my basketball teammates who said if she doesn't get a single (we've all come to an agreement that anyone who can get a single should take it by all means. We all understand. We'd all do it), she will pull me in as her roommate in Drinker. It was so nice of her and she was upfront about it and I definitely appreciated it. Since everything depends on what everyone else picks, there are going to be a lot of spur of the moment decisions, so I'm just going to stop worrying about it and hope for the best. Very hard to do for a planner...

Unparalled

Before I finish my blogging for the night, and keeping to the same category, I wanted to give a quick shout out to the Uconn Women's Basketball team. You are INSANE. Women's sports has not seen anything like this ever, and if they keep winning and pass UCLA men's record of 88 straight wins, all of sports will have seen nothing like this. They are currently at 74 straight wins and with Miya Moore and Tina Charles only juniors, they are going to win a whole lot more. In the three games they've played in the NCAA tournament thus far, they could have used only their first half scores and still beaten their opponent's full game score. That is unheard of. They are simply amazing and although it makes women's college basketball a little anti-climatic, they sure are fun to watch (also makes losing in the tournament a little easier to swallow since, let's be honest, everyone else is ultimately going to lose too).

Taking the boys to school

I LOVE playing pickup basketball with boys at the gym. This is how it goes down (based on my experience last Friday which is exemplary): I'm shooting hoops by myself, working on some moves, shooting, dribbling it up and down the court, and then some guys come in and start shooting around on the other side. More guys keep trickling in until there's 7 or 9 and they realize they need another player. A couple of them will start to casually watch me shoot around, draining threes and pull-up jumpers of course, and then they decide that I seem to be able to play and they ask if I'd like to join. I used to decline and continue on with my shooting, but lately I've been saying yes and it's been a lot of fun. We shoot for teams and everyone is amazed when I make the shot and get on the team with the "good guys" and heckle their friends a little bit because a girl beat them out. Oh guys, this is only the beginning.

Then we start to play and I kind of just run along, play some defense, run the floor and make some good passes to start. My defender always sags off of me at the beginning because they think there's absolutely no way I will shoot it. Little do they know. About the third time down the court I catch the ball on the wing, pull through, and notice my defender is yet again three feet off of me. I pretend to look for an open man, square up and let her fly. Swish. My teammates are all AMAZED that a girl can make a shot (with a guy's ball mind you) and congratulate me a little too much. As the game went on I ended up stealing the ball from the guy I was guarding (same guy that was guarding me) in the open court and taking it down for a layup, BLOCKING HIM when he drove to the basket (man did he get heckled for that one), posting him up and hitting a right-hand hook, and shooting a couple more threes in his eye. Poor guy.

Afterward when we were getting water, everyone was introducing themselves and one guy asked if I was on the women's basketball team. Then the guy who guarded me responded: Yeah you crushed my hopes of ever playing division 1 women's basketball! It was so funny and he was such a good sport about it. Although I enjoy schooling boys on the court, I would enjoy it even more if pickup led to some off-court hanging out...basketball players are cute! Hopefully my mad skills won't drive them away. Maybe I should take it easy on them...

Life of a Rockstar

(Yes, that is Stephan Jenkins the lead singer right there. I was THAT close.)

The Third Eye Blind concert tonight was AMAZING. It was in a small little venue in Allentown and I was literally 20 ft. from them which made the whole thing even better. I'm not a diehard TEB fan or anything but every knows a few of their songs from the late 90s (Jumper, How's it Going to Be, Never Let You Go, Semi-Charmed Life, etc.) and I loved their new stuff I heard tonight. Everyone was packed into the club and we all nodded our heads, jumped up and down, and threw our hands in the air like you must do at a rock concert and it was great. I went with Alex and Diz and that made it all even that much more fun since those two are the greatest and awesome to be around.

The whole experience made me think of how awesome it would be to be a rockstar. Imagine the thrill you'd get from going on that stage every night and having people sing along with you and love anything you do. You're basically just having a party every night, traveling the world, and making memories (along with millions). It would be quite a life. Think of Taylor Swift. She is 20 years old, has a world tour, writes her own music, plays guitar/piano/sings, dated Taylor Lautner, won a few Grammys...pretty normal right? It would be an awesome life. I don't know if I could keep up with all the fans and paparazzi all the time though. It would get old fast. That's why I stuck with basketball; athletes get the fame and money while still being able to live a pretty normal life (not that I'm turning away cameramen at my door or anything). I am still a little upset at my mom though for not letting me get a drum set or a guitar growing up. Still a sore spot along with my trampoline and hot tub.