Sunday, August 12, 2012

wearing recovery on my sleeve.

I've wanted a tattoo probably since I was about 16-years-old. I've had a lot of different ideas come through and a lot of designs I've wanted and actually still want.

When I was in treatment circa 2007, I decided that once I could deem myself "fully recovered," I wanted to get this tattoo you see here to the right. That would be my official gift to myself.

I've come to realize some people don't understand why a person would want to permanently mark themselves for any reason, so I'd like to express why this was not only incredibly important to me, but something I truly felt I needed to do.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

self-injury awareness day 2012.

Today is Self-Injury Awareness Day.

This is a true cause that needs attention brought to it as it is extremely misunderstood and often (if not always) ignored. People are aware of breast cancer 365 (366 for 2012) days a year. People are aware of juvenile diabetes. Don't get me wrong; these are both extremely important causes and I will strongly raise awareness for both (especially diabetes), but today is truly about awareness. It is about drawing attention to something people want to pretend isn't there.

Self-injury makes people uncomfortable. People prefer things that are "normal" and hurting yourself is just not normal. You have to be "crazy" to hurt yourself. You must be an "attention whore" if you're hurting yourself.

So, allow me - if you will - to take a few minutes and educate you so that we can scratch away at just a little bit of the stigma that surrounds SI so that it doesn't have to be a taboo subject. Therefore, those that suffer can get the help they need.

Why do people hurt themselves?

Monday, February 20, 2012

the real "hearing impairment": an essay.

Observations of a hearing student entering the Deaf culture.

A brief background.
For those who don't know me: I'm a hearing college student studying psychology in conjunction with Deaf culture and American Sign Language. I'm currently in ASL II. I've been fascinated by ASL since I was 10 when my Girl Scout troupe had to sign "Heal The World" by Michael Jackson. True story. I believe it was later that week that I stole my first library book (unintentionally, of course), a now-outdated ASL dictionary to start teaching myself the basics.

It was sometime around mid 2009 when I decided I would return to school to continue working on my college degree and knew that ASL had to be worked in there. Coincidentally, this was right around the time one of my best friends was pregnant with my niece that, unbeknownst to us, would end up hard of hearing due to birth complications. This, of course, only inspired me to throw myself into an already growing passion that much more.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

book review: the compound effect.


The Compound EffectThe Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Going to be honest, I'm pretty sure this book was written for me.
The Compound Effect is a motivational book about what he calls - wait for it - the Compound Effect. The concept is basically to say that smaller steps over a long period of time will have a greater, more beneficial and successful effect on your life than bigger steps in a shorter period of time (that most people will not stick to). I am the type of person that gets revved up to make a change, is all-in for about a month (tops), and then I "don't have enough time," or "I'm too tired," excuse, excuse, excuse.
This book gave me such a different way to view behavior modification as well as changing life-long bad habits (of which I certainly have my fair share). Reading it just before the start of the New Year gave me a lot to think about and I have put several of his suggested methods into effect already.

I would highly recommend this book to basically everyone. Whether you're looking to change a behavior, a habit, build a business or even think that things may just be fine as they are, it's a great (very quick!) read that will really have you reevaluating the way you look at your life and considering even the smallest changes that may end up making all the difference in the long run.


View all my reviews