thebabyperks

The past few days of last week were dedicated to brainstorming for our next issue of the newspaper. My lovely friend Maddie pitched the idea of "starting over", which got me thinking.

Whenever someone asks the questions, "if you can change anything in your life what would you change?" or "if you had to start over, would you?" The immediate, stereotypical response, is no because that means you wouldn't be where you are today. We believe in the butterfly effect so essentially we don't want to mess with the past because of how it may effect us in the moment today.

Let's ignore all of that. I'm sure there are things we'd all love to change if we had the ability to. So I am just going to forget about the big picture for a moment (which is hard for me because I always look at the big picture). Here are a few things I would change.

1. Stop Holding Grudges: There are events in my life that I know the general premise for why I'm mad but forget the finer details. I need to let things go and move on with life. Most situations aren't worth getting repeatedly upset over.

2. Keep in Contact With People: I admit, I suck at keeping in contact with people. I think this is partially why my friend group has changed every year in high school. I don't mean to do this, I just don't think about it until it seems too late to me. At the same time, though, the past two years my friend group has been comprised of seniors, so I've had to make new school friends because they go off to college. Anyway... I want to keep in touch with my friends more because whenever we do catch up, it is like we never left. Some of my closest friends this year are people I knew from elementary school. For example, one of my best friends, Imani, lives down the street from me. We were really good friends in middle school but lost contact freshman year. It's funny because she admits that she's bad at keeping in contact with people, too. If we would've kept in touch, I would've also known one of my other best friends, Natira, longer.

These Polaroids are on the last day of first semester before Natira moved.

Ignore my finger covering the photo. I don't even know how that happened

This photo was taken after Natira moved and we tried to cheer her up with this glorious selfie. Also, I'm really proud because Natira, Imani, and I text everyday so I'm improving.
3. My Over-apologizing: As you may know, I over-apologize for just about everything. Over the past four years, I've definitely improved but I still catch myself doing it unintentionally. My friends call me out when I do over-apologize which has led me to stay accountable. My friend Anya was telling me that at one point during freshman year I would apologize so much that people would start just putting the blame on me for things I didn't even do because they knew I would say sorry. I can proudly say I've improved, but I wish I wouldn't have let it happen to begin with.

Okay so those are some things I would like to change/start over if I could. Hopefully you all enjoyed this post and I'll see you all soon.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

I can't disappoint you Mr. Haines, or as you corrected me on Twitter, Dr. Haines, so here's a blog post about soccer. I used to play soccer, but as time went on I realized I'm not that competitive. 

Here's a picture of me, I'm the one on the very right looking as happy as ever. 

See, I was representing #Ambush before I even knew what it was/the team was  even formed. 

My soccer "career" started at the young age of three and continued until fifth grade, where I scored a total of three goals in my lifetime.

Here's another photo, sorry it's really blurry. I'm the fifth person from the left in the front row. I do have to admit, I look way happier here. 

I've only been to one St. Louis Ambush game so far, but when you come back in town I'll be able to go to 2 more (which I'm super excited for). I can't wait to see you all in person again!

Thank you for your tweets tonight, they made me laugh! I hope you had/have a good night! I also hope you enjoyed this blog post!

-Taylor

There is a somewhat large debate over New Years resolutions. Some people live for making them and other people scoff at those who do. I'm somewhat in the middle. On one side, people say that New Years resolutions fizzle out mid January, early February. However, other people stick with them and make a complete lifestyle change by the end of the year. 

Last year I wrote a blog post called "New Year New Me" explaining that you don't need the beginning of a new year to change things you'd like to change about yourself, although it does bring a seemingly "fresh, new" opportunity to do so. 

I see my resolutions as "goals" because essentially that's what they are. I also think that our minds stick with the term "goal" better than "resolution" because we usually associate resolution with short-term, unattainable, and goals as something to strive for.

With all this being said, resolutions have to be rational. Someone who's never exercised before (or at least recently) probably shouldn't make it their goal to run a marathon in March. Someone who hasn't exercised could, however, make it their goal to start walking every day, then gradually start running and eventually train for a 5k. 

While having a specific goal gives you a target, it can also be discouraging if you don't reach the goal. Have smaller "stepping stone achievements" along the way could make you less likely to abandon your plans. Here's another health related example, you may want to start eating cleaner. If you're used to eating junk food and guzzling soda, trying to eliminate everything at once may be difficult and then lead you falling back to your old ways entirely. Use moderation. Maybe start with cutting back on soda and increasing your water intake. Then, cut the potato chips and candy. Almost everyone has cheat days, and I think that goes back to balance. We aren't going to be perfect 100% of the time (or at least I'm not). 

Okay, now for my resolutions:
    1. Confidence: This was one of my resolutions from last year. Confidence is always going to be an area I can improve on because I'm really self conscious and I constantly worry about what others think of me (I know it doesn't matter but I still worry about it, also who doesn't think of what others think about them, it's human nature to want to be liked?).
    2. Stop Biting My Nails: Also another resolution from last year. I'm up and down with this, some points during the year I had enough self control to completely stop but I always slip back. My issue is that I do it subconsciously or as a nervous habit and I don't realize I'm doing it until it's too late. But this year maybe I'll finally stop.
    3. Eating Cleaner: Overall my family is known as the "healthy" family because we don't stock up on candy or soda or really any massive amounts of junk food. However, I bake a few too many desserts which in turn leads me to eat a few too many cookies, brownies, etc. Eating cleaner will probably help boost my confidence, too, because I'll be feeling better about myself. Overall, I do eat healthy, but I just want to be more aware of the food I'm consuming going into 2016. I also have a strong love for sour gummy worms when I'm stressed out during layout week for newspaper... So maybe I should find a substitute for those...

Those are going to be my main three resolutions for 2016. Do you make new years resolutions? If so, what are they?

Until next time,
Taylor xx