Getting Meta About Subtweets

Today's topic is a problem I deal with often, considering the age group I am generally surrounded by.

That problem... is blame.
"Ms. Glass, why did you give me a zero on this assignment?" Why didn't you DO the assignment?
"My parents took away my phone for no reason."  Really.  NO reason? Drug use had nothing to do with it?
"I was just a few minutes late.  I don't understand why I'm tardy." Because, by definition, late equals tardy.
ETC.

These, and other statements, have led me to appreciate just the kind of person my parents raised me to be.  My parents raised me to be responsible for my own actions.  A zero on an assignment is not the fault of the teacher.  Sorry parents who call wanting to know why your child has a 13%, but that's some clear lack of assignment-doing, which, contrary to popular belief, is NOT MY FAULT.  My parents always taught me to own up to my decisions and/or indecisions.  This applied in all aspects of my life.  First of all, they didn't stand for my decisions embarassing me or them. I needed to stand up for what I believed in, not be an idiot.  Second of all, they taught me real quick to admit when I was wrong.  It just gets worse if you don't, especially in the real world.

Now, this is not to bash any of my students or their parents/guardians.  Because I see it all over the place.

I know so many people who turn to social media and say "I hate this about my life, I hate this about myself, I wish I had this opportunity."  This doesn't exclude me.  Let's be real.  What is this blog?  Accountability for weight loss and travel. A documentation of my journey. I wouldn't need that documentation or that journey if I had changed my life before now.  Honestly, my Twitter is basically a long string of subtweets.  I'm working on it.

The most interesting thing to me is when I first started losing weight. I lost a decent amount of weight (I guess) over a summer, but it didn't seem significant to me.  What was interesting about this is that even though I only lost what seemed like a small amount of weight to me, people were asking me what I was doing.

Is weight loss a miracle?  I mean.  Yeah.  It can be hard to lose weight.  Especially if you're completely set on not giving up dessert every night and your daily cappuccino/coke/energy drink.  Some people can still eat those things and add vegetables to lose weight.  Others find it easier on a plan of some sort.  I just tracked calories, avoided pop (like I have for 5 years), and worked out like a beast (also known as swimming for an hour a day.  With SERIOUSLY moderate effort).

People are still asking me this.  The answer hadn't changed until very recently.  Which is fine.  For a really long time, my weight was plateaued (due to the answer not changing) even though I was eating healthy and excercising.  I understand being in a weight loss rut.  I had to break that rut, and I had to be serious about it.  So I decided to try this LC (forevermore the abbreviation for Low Carb) thing.  When I tell people I'm trying that for one hundred days, their faces really intrigue me.

It always starts as an interest in my losing the weight, how they want to lose weight, and then... the question.  How'd you do it?  They are generally interested and ready to jump off the deep end, drink the punch, whatever they have to do. When we get to "Give up bread," though, everyone balks and bails. I'm not saying LC is for everyone.  I'm not even saying it's right for me.  I still love pasta.  And bread.  And ice cream.  I'm saying I think it's interesting that people want something as difficult as weight loss without changing any habits.  I don't ever know what they want to hear from me if they don't expect working out and changing what I'm eating as my answer.  Did I find the magical weight-loss unicorn? Am I hiding said unicorn in my shed so that I can braid its mane everyday to lose a pound and I won't have to share with anyone?

Same goes for travel.  Inevitably when I actually travel, people will say to me, wow, how did you afford to go to those places while getting your Master's AND living on teacher money?  Or when I inevitably travel alone, they will ask me, weren't you scared to go to that place by yourself?  The answers will be things like I didn't go to movies.  Or really anywhere.  And my splurge purchases, made so that I could feel like I was getting somewhere in life, were useful for travel.  And UM OF COURSE I'm afraid to go somewhere alone.  I struggle to order PIZZA by myself.  My fear, though, is always--  if I don't go now, when will I ACTUALLY go?  I can't live without seeing the world, so I'll make a few sacrifices of comfort for some amazing views.  Plus, maybe going somewhere by myself will help me realize I'm capable of pushing a button at Sonic to order an orange tea all on my own, like an adult.

My point is- Yeah.  YOLO is too much.  In all honesty, though, we DO only live once.  I only get one chance to be healthy and see the world that God so beautifully provided for us, so I'm going to do something about it.  Start small and DO SOMETHING about whatever it is in your life that strangles you.



Teenage Proverb of the day-
"BROmance is not ROmance."


*I know this song doesn't really say exactly what I'm trying to say, but I am extremely inspired by the line "Everything that drowns me makes me want to fly" from One Republic's "Counting Stars."*