I always feel like I need to keep moving once I finish something big. The sudden lack of something that takes up all of my free-time completely disorients me and makes me feel like I am wasting so much time. It always takes a few days but I eventually realize that I just need to slow down because I don't have as much to do and what I do have doesn't need to be done at a break-neck speed. If i could focus all of the attention that I am spending trying to figure out what to do with this extra time onto one project, no matter how small, whatever it is I want to get done would be done. And it would be done well.

Whenever I do something major in my life, I always feel the pressure to do more. I tend to think that the life I was living before that event is meaningless and that I should be doing more with myself. I guess that really isn't a bad thing, but it adds a pressure to my life that I could really live without.
The way I try to get rid of that pressure is by assuring myself that no matter what I do, I will try to be a good person.
My goal in life is to impact as many people as I can with love and support and I always have an extra bit of motivation after a major life event to accomplish that goal.

I feel ya! I'm in the middle of my A-Levels right now. Post-GCSE's is a weird feeling, but - above everything else - it is very freeing. Good luck with the exams you have left lovely :)

Definately after you've done so much it's hard to just suddenly stop and calm your life down. Although I've never been on a national tour, I know what it's like to have an amazing life even and want it to change everything about you and define your life.
I think that though it may not be a concious realization these major life experences do change us and our lives, but maybe not as significantly as we would like.

Well done on the tour, it was amazing and you guys are all so talented and awesome.

It's funny to read that, because I was thinking about it just yesterday. It's been a week I left NYC, the trip of my dreams, and once I got home, I started to feel weird. Sad. Worried. The thoughts inside my head were: "what if in the future I won't have a good job to provide me money to trips like that? I gotta do something! Why am I doing nothing?"
But I AM doing something. I'm studying. I'll be mastering HR Management in one year. Why this urge inside my chest then?
I believe everybody feels it after a big life event. You're feeling weird after the tour just like I felt after coming back from NYC. It's normal... and it's going to pass.
Meanwhile, just keep moving. Respect your own pace. Everything's going to be alright.

Being healthy is also about keeping your mind healthy and sometimes our mind just needs a rest. I know, your family and lecturers only want the best for you but you are the only one who can ever decide what that is and who knows what you really need. So if you feel like you need a rest, have one, charge your batteries and then be amazing!!! It's worth it.

I was talking to friends when you posted this and the first things I said were: "Awwwww Jaime, let me love you. I also don't know what to say. Like I have no idea. I wish I had because I'm gonna need it after this summer."

This is when I started to think and I realised that I never really had something that left me into this kind of state. I always had something to look forward to. I always had something that kept me trying to be the best that I can. And I always had something worth going on.

So maybe that is the solution - to have something worth going on, to have something that will still make us glow*, to have a goal, something to achieve, to know that there are still things that make us happy.

I'm now gonna take a note in my travelling journal to remind me of that the moment I'll leave England after two months of awesomeness. It's gonna be hard but so many other things will come to my life that the sorrow would just not be worth it.

Don't be sad that it is over. Be glad that it happened.

"Never fear shadows, for they mean light is nearby."

I hope everything gets better for you soon sweetie xxx

"Things may not turn out the way you thought they would, but they will always turn out the way they should."

I'm so sorry you're having a bad week and I hope you feel better. But think about it this way: in order for there to be amazingly good weeks, there's got to be some bad weeks too right? Just know that something good is on it's way, and things will turn out alright in the end.

I love how I can always come here to be inspired by all of you. With that being said, I have just finished my second year of college and the stress of finals and passing my classes is always tough but no impossible. Now that I'm off for school for the summer I begin to think a lot about where my life is going, maybe over think too much and I sometimes feel this pressure from myself that I should be doing more with my life.

First of all, I'd like to say that you all did a FANTASTIC job on tour. I saw you all in Indy. I'm pretty sure it will forever be one of my greatest concert experiences. I don't think there is anything that can live that down. Between the meet and greet, the atmosphere, which was just indescribable, and the love you guys gave us crazies after the show was just mind blowing. When it hit that it was all over, I was super duper bummed! Like, I had just met this amazing group of people and then it was just OVER! But I just gotta remember, it's not forever :-)
Anywhozles, I do the same as you do, Jaime. I tend to put pressure on myself to do something greater than I just did or somehow out-do whatever I just did. I think I put this pressure on myself because after these major things happen, at least the really amazing major events, I become upset and just blue. I want to keep that great feeling alive within myself that I had while on whatever adventure I've embarked on.
The best remedy to keep these pressures at bay, I find, is to surround yourself with the people in your life who genuinely care and do the things you enjoy. Reward yourself for getting through whatever you just did. After moving back from college where I had a whole new large group of friends, where I was dependent (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and not to mention 300+ miles away from the closed-minded people that inhabit this small town, I found myself down. I was restless. I eventually dove into new work and looked for new projects. I also enjoyed time with a few friends, those who supported me. I spent time with one friend and her newborn son, my nephew. Taking time for yourself to relax and enjoy yourself is also good because you may find inspiration in your time off.
And for a little off topic rant, I love you all and would like to thank you for the support you've given me over these past few months. This is the best thing that has happened to me this year, this family! You are all AH-MA-ZING!!
xoxo
Lindsey

I love this because I feel like it fits perfectly into my life right now in a rather different way. I just finished my first year of college which was this amazing adventure with new people and so many things to do and will forever be in my memory etcetera. And now that's over... and I really didn't know what to do with myself. And because I didn't know what to do instead i did nothing, which is pretty much worse because i was unintentionally depriving myself of the things around me that I could do. So instead of doing THAT, I plan to use the rest of my summer to make myself better despite being away from everything I have spent the past year immersing myself in.

I love this. I really do. The part where you said that turning your expectations into motivation is really important, I think. Expectations make us feel trapped in our own head while motivation sets us free to do great. And I think that's wonderful.

This year has been about change for me. So I can't say what I do now, as I'm still discovering that for myself. But what I used to do was cut myself off from the world. I would talk to a few of my closest friends, and that was it. I literally felt like it was the end. I had no inspiration, no motivation, no positive influence. It was like there was a wall between my feelings and what was really happening. But now, thanks to Glow*, a few other people, my blog, etc, I actually have inspiration. For the first time in my life, I can say I'm happy. When things end, I "let it be." I pick myself up and move on.
I hope this made any sense at all, it's a confusing subject :P

I've been dancing since i was 18 months old, but as of the past year, there are days when I dreaded going to dance and I finally realized, dance isn't what makes me happy, horseback riding is. So, come Sunday, I have decided that it will be my last recital. It's the end of a very long road.

Joe Tremaine once said, "Dance training is life training." and I agree. Though I have fallen out of my love for dance, the dance world is what I grew up in and what has shaped me. Even though it is the end, I will always carry with me the respect and perseverance that I have gained through dancing.

Congrats on graduating, Rebecca!!!!! I'm sure you did a fantastic job!

And hun, you deserve a little rest, and some you-time, and some shopping, and hanging out and doing what you like. Give yourself some time, breathe, and then run into your next adventure.

The big life event for me was going to Apocalyptour and meeting all these people that I have talked to online and formed such strong bonds with because of Starkid. Finally getting to talk to them in person and hang out was an amazing experience! Another part of that was being surrounded by literally hundreds of people just like you who love Starkid and singing along to these songs that you usually sang by yourself in your room when you're home alone in a concert venue not only with the people who made the songs possible but with the fans as well, I will never forget that. Now that it is over I feel like I need to do something to keep these bonds I have formed with these people in fear that without the excitement of Apocalyptour we will lose and I really don't want to lose them. Instead of doing that though, a group of us have come together in a group on FB Called the MA Starkids or MA Superfriends and are planning to write a play/musical that showcases all of our talents from performing to tech to instruments as well as another meet up so we can see each other again and its kept my mind off the sadness of being over, and now i'm focused on these amazing plans and ideas we have! :D

I hadn't thought about it like this, but I feel like this is exactly what's happening to me now. I just finished university a couple months ago. After six long years, I am finally done my degree, and I guess for some reason I feel like I should have something more to show for it, or something more exciting in my future life plans than working to make some money so that I can eventually afford future plans. It's gotten so crazy that my boyfriend and I are talking about moving in together even though we're not financially ready for it (we're mostly basing it off the jobs we assume we're going to have soon (he may be promoted soon, and I may just have a better job)). I think he's going through the same thing. His graduation was just last week, and not only was he talking about us moving in together (which I do want, and is one of the things I'm saving for, by the way, it's not like he's pressuring me or anything. I'm just hella broke), but he's been looking at apartments that are bigger and fancier than one's I had ever considered. He even at one point suggested buying a super fancy condo.

I'm really excited for all of this, but in a way, I'm glad that we're both too broke to afford this stuff. It will keep us from putting too much immediate pressure on ourselves (hopefully) to have this amazing post-degree life the second we get handed our diplomas. We'll still have the little bit of pressure to start saving money for our awesome life together, but this way there's less risk of us jumping into something crazy and then being disappointed that our life isn't awesome yet.

Thanks very much, Jaime. I will work harder to remember now that awesome, exciting stuff can still happen between exciting point "A" and exciting point "B"; that none of this is really the end or the beginning, jut more cool stuff happening in between.

While you guys were off touring the nation, I was apartment-hunting. It started off as fun, but quickly grew stressful, especially as the end of my current lease grew closer, and my personal deadline for finding one did the same faster still (I wanted at least a two week buffer between finding a new apartment and having to move out of the old one.)

The thing was, not only had I never actually had to apartment-hunt before (I had always just known someone who was leaving a great place who gave me first dibs, or was in need of a roommate), I found myself, for the first time, looking for an apartment in which I would be the only occupant.

I finally found an apartment, one that felt like home when I stepped into it. One I fell in love with. The next day, I was told someone else had applied for it a mere few hours before me. The day after that, I got a call saying the someone else was running into credit check issues, and to drop off my own fee. If mine went through, and I paid the deposit before the someone else, the apartment was mine. That afternoon I was riding the train back to my current apartment, staring at the receipt for the deposit on my new apartment. My new studio. The one I would be living in, alone, for the next year.

To me, it was a relief; I prefer to live alone, and I've had the responsibility of paying bills. Roommates, to me, were not necessarily friends, but often a means to lighten a financial load. But to other people, it was a huge deal, like it made me more of an adult.

And I'm sort of feeling it now that the thrill of my one true apartment love has worn off. The realization that all the furniture belongs to my roommates. As does most of the cookware. Wait, didn't the old tenant already move out? Can I transfer their gas/electric to my name or do I need to schedule for that to be turned on? And oh god my manager just texted me and apparently I'm training the new girl next week...

I keep adding and subtracting numbers in my bank account, trying to estimate how much money I will have if I work so many hours, and how much I can spend on furniture if I never want to dip under this or that in my account. It may seem obsessive, but it's actually very soothing to me, doing math and such, knowing what I have and how I should be budgeting things. It gives me a plan. A goal. I've also been trying to get into an exercise schedule that I haven't been able to maintain in my current place. From the exercise came a plane for healthier eating, and from the two came a newer, brighter outlook on things. I had a small epiphany regarding my own spirituality because of this new outlook.

So my apartment was a load of stress, and remains so and will remain for the next few weeks...but I can't deny that finding it has been the means for my happiness to grow. I'm happy just remembering how I felt walking into it. I'm happy because I feel confident that I can keep up a fitness routine there. I'm happy because I don't want to mess up my fitness by eating crap, so I'm eating better, and feeling better, and, honestly, I love and always have loved my fruits and veggies, and it's a legitimate joy to eat them consistently.

I'm happy because, now, I know where I'm going, and that I got there myself, and I'm always happier when everything is organized and planned and coming together.

It's the end (for now) of me living with other people. It's the end of my first year in Chicago. It's the end of this apartment.

But it's the beginning of something completely new, and I've never been this excited. Nor this happy.

Anytime I finish with something major, and I feel antsy to work on another project. I try my best to keep my mind busy because sometimes when I get antsy to do another project and nothing is coming up, I tend start telling myself I won't work on anything for a while. So now, I just take that time to relax, recollect myself, and explore new things, and new ideas, and finally when I find something that feels right I work on it. I always like listening to new music, painting, and yes even coloring in color books when I'm trying to I guess wait in between projects. Because it really helps relaxes and calms me.

The only "project" currently in my life this is giving me a bit of stress grief is working on transferring to a new college. I've got all these doubts about my mind, but I'm a worrier naturally.

I guess I would say find something that will make relax you and help you recollect yourself. Cause at least for me when I work on a project, I completely pour myself into it, and when I'm done, I need to recollect/recharge. So maybe you just need to recharge.

Any who, I wish you the best of luck <33

Looking back on all the things that I have done (and its not much, I'm only 13), I have this urging feeling that I have not had GREAT events in my life. If I take a look at what other women have accomplished with their life, I can only worry that mine will not make much of an impact. Take Eleanor Roosevelt for example. After her husband's death, she continued to be an author, speaker, politician, and a leading activist. She worked to enhance the status of working women. She even opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women. How can great history like that be reflected in my own life. Or Rosa Parks; she refused to obey the bus driver that told her to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon and collaborated with civil rights leaders. After pondering over this question of how to make as big of a difference as these or any other women have, I realized something. I was completely setting myself up for failure. I can't aspire to something or someone that already was, I have to be somebody who NEVER was, and COULDN'T HAVE BEEN. That is why I propose we stop obsessing about being "as good" as the greats of out past and present, and start being the new of tomorrow. Then and only then, can we truly feel like we have created large accomplishments in our lives!



(Sorry it went a little off topic, but I just have been thinking about this all day, and wanted to post it!)