the truth.

the most solid advice for a writer is this, i think:  

try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep  try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell.  and when you get angry, get good and angry.  try to be alive.  

you will be dead soon enough.

-ernest hemingway

i've been trying a little harder to just live.  to spend each day breathing a little deeper and enjoying a little more sunshine and happiness.  my life may not be what i imagined 10 years ago, when i was a high school sophomore, traveling abroad with my french teacher and classmates, but i've made the choices that have taken me down this road, and i will stand by them forever.  but, i think i'm finally starting to understand that it's not necessary to be so guarded, that letting my "wild-child" out every once in a while is ok and that laughter really is the best medicine.  

also, i can't believe that i will be 26 at the end of this week.  wtf???  i feel like i'm still that 16 year old girl, a little too frightened to speak french in france and taking pictures of the most random things (i swear i have a bajillion pictures of french and spanish carousels from that trip).