A-B-I-G-A-I-WHAT? (The real one)

AHHH! I posted the wrong version of this! Sorry! I fixed the one with the bullet points, but I never saved it, so here is the good post.

I know you want me to say, "My name is the Southwest Northern-eastern European language for peace, and it symbolizes the long journey my Great-great-grandmother made from Mauilahanolili, a small town in the country of Hoobidyshlabidy on Mars."

But unfortunately, that's not quite what happened.

My great-grandmother. I would have liked to know her. A kind, compassionate woman who loved her grandchildren more than anything else in the world.

Betty was her name. My middle name, Bayla, came from her name.

At school, some people say it like it's garbage. They say it as if they were holding it with their index finger and thumb as they carried it to the trash can to try to rid themselves of the overwhelming stench.

But in my house, my name is a song, a wonderful word to describe myself, a good thing. I like to focus on this one. :)

I like my name, and I have no interest in changing it even if I could. If I had to I would change it to Emily, but that would only be if there was no other option, and I couldn't find any loopholes. If I was a boy I would be Ben. If I wasn't Abby I would be Rachel. But, I like my name and I'm proud of it, too. :)

How Does A Homework DOING Machine Turn Into A Homework GIVING Machine?

I have been asked to write about what job in a school I would be best at. This post will be a bit similar to my "Where I see myself in 10 years" post.

     I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, (I think I have) but I want to be an elementary school teacher when I grow up. I have known this ever since I started going to school, and I recently narrowed it down to either third or fifth grade.

     I want to do this because I love to help people, spend time around little kids, and help others learn.

     We recently took a quiz in class about what strengths, or gifts, we had, and how we could use them. We rated how much we liked a specific activity from one to five, and we added our scores up at the end.

     My lowest score for a category was 8 out of 15, and my highest was 14. I had four categories that got either a fourteen or thirteen, and they all are important traits of a teacher. I will share them with you now.


Interpersonal (people):  This is definitely important for a teacher, since I would be interacting with a lot of people daily

Body-Kinesthetic: Being a teacher, especially an elementary school teacher, I need to move around a lot, so this is very important.

Musical-Rhythmic: This one is a bit of a stretch, but some teachers use songs to help their students remember information.

Verbal-Linguistic: Teachers talk a lot, so good speaking and communication skills are important.

     

It's Not Happy People Who Are Thankful, It's Thankful People Who Are Happy

I'm sitting on a blue blanket, watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade with my family, and I realize how grateful I am for such a wonderful life.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and especially around this time of year, I think about all that I'm grateful for. There are a lot of people in this world who don't have as much as I do, which motivates me for all of my favorite things/people/places in life.
 This gratitude list is not complete. There is not enough time in the world to list every single thing I'm grateful for, or even everything I can think of. I will try to be as general as I can.

1. My Wonderful Family  From my parents who support me, to my sister who hangs out with me, to my cousins who I look up to, or who look up to me, to everybody else who I love. I would not have such a long list if it wasn't for you. (I know this list isn't that long, but the list in my head that I can't put into words is. 😊)
2. Eden  I am thankful for my best friend in the whole entire world, who has helped and supported my since I was six years old. She's the type of person who I can be laughing until my stomach hurts with one minute, and having a deep conversation with the next. Love you tin can!
3. My School Friends Although small but mighty, my school friends have been standing (or sitting, I mean our legs get tired sometimes) by me through everything I have gone through, as you might know, I can't keep my mouth shut, so I talk to them about every tiny thing that happens to me (from "I got a solo!" to "Melissa jumped out the window!" (by the way, here's a link to Melissa's blog.) ) but that's not the only reason they now are experts on my life. They are so supportive and easy to talk to that I know I can tell them everything. 
4. My Camp Friends I love my camp friends more than I could possibly say. They know me better than I know myself. There's something about living together for eight weeks that creates this special bond that you can't get anywhere else. At camp, there is no judgment. Another thing about living together, you can put on a smile for a few hours a day, but you can't fake it all summer. So, there are times when all those negative emotions kick in, and everybody id right there next to you...LITERALLY! One night, I was really stressed out about our play, and my entire cabin got out of bed to stay with me until I felt better.
5. My Dance Friends At the beginning of last year, I joined Starbound Dance Company. I was very excited to be a part of the group that I had been watching since I was 4. But, I felt very out of place. I had never really had friends at dance before. Everybody was just kind of there. It felt weird to be a part of a group that had such a strong bond and I felt out of place being "the new girl". But that didn't last long, because all of the people at dance helped me feel like part of the team, and now I talk to some dancers up to four years older than me like I have known them all my life.
6. My Teachers As I frequently say to my friends, "I like school, but not all the stuff that comes with it." This basically means that I love to learn new things (if that makes me a nerd then I'm proud of it!) and I love art class, and chorus. But, I don't like all of the other things that come with school. (The judgy people, the fads, the tests) Without my teachers, the bad parts of school would take over, and I'm very thankful for the people that teach me new things every day.
7. Food, Water, Shelter, And All That Stuff  These are usually the only thing on people's gratitude lists because "you can't survive without them", but I like to think more deeply than that. Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for these essential resources. I wouldn't be here without them, but I'm saying I like to focus on the less obvious things.
8. The Ability To Help Others I don't think I need to explain this, but I will. This is really hard to put into words, but helping other people is very important to me. One time, my sister asked me what the goal of life is. It may have been worded differently, but that's beside the point. I responded with, "to help others". Not just random acts of kindness, but also normal acts of kindness. I'm thankful for my ability to help my sister with her homework, open a door for my dog when he's trying to go somewhere, and all of the other everyday things that I do.
9. Words Speaking is very important. In our society words are used a communication, and as art. When I am feeling sad, I sing, when I'm extremely irate, I sing. Words are a way of life for me, and I'm very grateful for my ability to speak, sing, and write.

Coca Cola + Wisconsin Dells = A Really Funny Blog Post

  Hmmm. Where should I start? Well, I'll start by giving a shout out to my blog buddy Jessica for the awesome post about blogging tips. I tried to make my title more interesting this time. Also, before I begin I would like to apologize for the delay on my posts for my Wow! Really? page. It has said "Coming Soon" for a couple of months now....whoops. I'll get to it as soon as I can. Make sure you keep commenting on it!

Okay, okay, I'll start now. It was January 1, 2016 and I was in the Wisconsin Dells with my friend Eden, her sister Kayla, her parents, and my family.

Some important back round:

1.   When I was little, my parents wouldn't let me have pop because they wanted me to hate it when I finally did try it. (They didn't want me to like it because it is super unhealthy.)
2.   It worked.

      Kayla was drinking coke, which I hadn't had before because of my deep hatred of carbonation. (It feels like my tongue is being poked with a million needles!) I mentioned that I hadn't had it before, so she asked me if I wanted some. I said, "Sure."

     Well, I sipped the drink while standing on the floor of the water park. (Don't worry. I wasn't in the pool.) I was so disgusted by it that I didn't even think about my location or common sense or any of that. All I knew was that this brown, fizzy drink was causing great pain to my tongue. So, I followed my instinct. Well, no. I didn't follow it. My instincts took over me, and without thinking, I spit the liquid pain onto the wet floor next to the concession stand. 

     I don't exactly remember how we cleaned it up, but both of our families laughed hysterically, and I have been offered many cans of cokes since then as a joke. 

Blues Clues!!! (A Childhood Favorite)

 When I found out I had to write a blog post about my favorite childhood  TV show, I thought of Blues Clues without hesitation. I had a small obsession with this show from when I was about three or four, to kindergarten (when I had a new obsession: Hannah Montana). I had a blues clues backpack, a few blues clues stuffed animals, and a few blues clues    books. The picture on the left was my absolute favorite book. It was about Blue's thanksgiving feast, and I had to "help Blue set the table". I asked my parents to read it to me so much, that it got to the point where they had to hide it from me! One time, my sister was sick with strep throat. I remember going to Walgreen's with my dad and getting her a stuffed animal of Magenta, another character. I think I only got it for her because I wanted it myself. :) Magenta was always my favorite because she was pink, and she celebrated Hanukkah. :) Magenta had glasses, and she sang a song about it called, "Now that I've got glasses". It was my favorite song. Here's a link to it. I'm very surprised by how much I remember about this. 

By the way, everything started going downhill when Steve went to college and Joe took his place. :)

Miss Abby (Where I see myself in 10 years)

  I want to be a teacher when I grow up. I have always wanted to be a teacher. I started playing school with my pretend class in kindergarten, and now I plan out how I am going to do certain things based on what I experience at my school. I think about what I love, and what I know I would change if I could. Now, going back to when I was younger, the names of my pretend students were quite interesting. Some of them were just the names of people that I knew, and some were just a lot of gibberish. Some examples of the very odd ones are Sepilacka (pronounced sheep-oo-lock-uh), Zooz (pronounced like the plural of zoo), and Zoz (like the wizard of Oz with a Z). I won't give examples of the names that I got from people in my class at the time, because I don't want to be creepy. :)
       I'm not exactly sure how I will do this yet, but I really want to somehow incorporate dance and music into my career. These have become more than just a hobby for me. They have become a passion, and I can't imagine just stopping after high school. As I said, I'm not sure how I'm going to keep these going after high school, but I intend to. (And no, I do not want to combine teaching and singing and become a music teacher. I want to teach third or fifth grade.)
      And last but not least; this is a little bit sooner than 10 years, but I am looking forward to the end of the year this year. I am hoping to receive the National Choral Award at the eighth grade awards assembly this year. I have been in chorus since I was third grade, and show chorus since fifth. I love to sing, and I'm hoping that when the chorus votes on who will get the award, I will win.

My Blog Buddy!

I have my blog buddy now! I am very excited, because I got a really awesome person. Her name is Jessica R. Here's a link to her blog! Go read it and comment! You will be in awe of her excellence! :)

The Most Suspenseful Vacation

  Every year, I go to the Wisconsin Dells with my friend Eden and her family. We always go to the Wilderness Resort, and our favorite ride is the Hurricane. It starts out pitch black, then it gradually gets lighter, and before you realize what's going on, there is a huge drop! It's so steep that the inner tube is flying in the air! Sorry I'm using so many exclamation points, I'm just really excited to be telling you about this! Anyway, it's a four person inner tube, but it is a two-four person water slide (depending on the weight of the person). After the drop, you are in a gargantuan (vocab word!) cone shaped thing toilet seat room-like place. It's really hard to describe. Look at the video I'm linking to this sentence. You move back and forth until you come out the other side. Eden and I have been on it 22 times.
     So, we were in line for the hurricane on January 1, 2016 with our dads. We were there at night, so the Hurricane was dark inside, because the light was natural. Our dads were talking about how we scream way too much on the Hurricane. Eden's dad said that he would buy us a pound of candy from the store we had been begging them to take us to if we were completely silent the whole time. My dad said, "Oh, there's no way they can do that." Eden's dad said, "You're right. Let's make it ten pounds!" My dad said,"No, let's keep it at one." It is an approximately thirty minute line each time, so we had plenty of time to work out the small details. From the second the lifeguard touched our inner tube to push us down, to the second the lifeguard at the bottom grabbed out tube, we couldn't make a single peep. Eden and I were both really nervous that we would ruin it for each other.
     It was eventually our turn, and we got in the inner tube. We didn't make a single noise the entire time, but my dad was screaming his head off! :) Our dads were surprised that we actually did it, and our sisters were mad when we came back to the hotel room with a half a pound of candy each!

The Best Quotes In The Entire World

I found this quote while searching Google for something

awesome. But, even though my method seems effortless, I

immediately chose this one when I saw it, because it applies

to me perfectly. I think that all of the singers out there can

relate to it as well. Singing gets me through every emotion there is.

I sing when I'm happy, sad, excited, and angry. This may seem 

fake, but it actually helps me feel a lot better. I think that this

quote reflects this perfectly. (Also, I like the sheet music in

the background.:) )

This quote is definitely one of my favorites. I discovered it while listening to a song, because it is actually a lyric in "Keep Your Head Up" by Andy Grammer. This quote describes how you have to get through all of the bad situations in life in order to reach the good ones. This quote is very similar to the quote, "This too shall pass". These two quotes help me get through difficult times, because they help me remember that I only have to put up with it for a little bit longer, and my situation will improve very soon.

As you know from reading my about me, (cough, cough, read it) I love to dance. So, my first thought when I read this quote was, "So it isn't just me." I'll explain this further for all of the non-dancers. If a person is truly passionate about dancing, then they lose themselves in the movement. Dancing isn't just dancing! It releases this feeling that temporarily takes you out of reality, to a world where nothing matters. A world where all you have to do is dance, and feel the movement and emotion within you. This is the reason that Contemporary is my favorite type of dance. It isn't because the moves look cool. (Well, partly because the moves look cool.) It's because Contemporary has no limits. The choreography can go wherever you take it. When I'm doing a Contemporary dance, I truly feel free. Click here for the song my favorite contemporary dance was to. You may recognize it. :)

This quote relates to the last one a little bit. I like this quote, because it recognizes something that most people overlook: You must be an athlete to dance. Dance is a sport. I wish it were an Olympic one. And no, gymnastics is not in any way the same. Only a true dancer, or a very well-informed person know that. Dance takes the exact same amount of athleticism (if not more) than other sports. Dance is not just a useless sport where sweaty guys beat each other up to throw an oddly shaped brown thing through a weird U. Dance is beautiful, and dance is meaningful. Dance is a sport and an art. Which leads into my next point. Anyone can do the disco, and anyone can do the sprinkler. Anybody can dance, but only a dancer can make it as meaningful, and full of emotion as it should be. It takes an athlete to dance, an artist to be a dancer, but both to be a good one.