Excitement

This weekend I will be seeing my brother, sisters, and parents all at the same time for the first time in over 2 years!  I can't quite put into words how exciting this is.... but I'll try anyways.  

Every summer of my childhood I spent a good 2 weeks packed into a van, with all of my siblings and parents, driving to and from Nova Scotia for the summer.  That was excitement.  We were all so anxious about getting to the beach where we could run around and play all day, walk to Craig's for copious amounts of ice cream on a daily basis, swim in the ocean, and be with our friends and family for the summer.  Little did I know that the drive to and from would be one of the greatest parts of the whole vacation.  Four kids, two parents, a dog, and whatever filled our suitcases at the time would ride up in a minivan for 4-6 days straight.  We would visit relatives and friends along the way, stop at various hotels for the night, play the ever-beloved license plate game or eye-spy, sleep on each other, and listen to various books on tape.  By the end of the drive we'd seen about 10 states and 2 countries, and we were ready to get out of the car.   

What I wouldn't give to spend that much time with my family these days... even if it had to be spent packed in a minivan.  Our time together has grown scarce, yet all the more cherished.  Our places of residence include Wyoming, Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Ontario.  Notice the fact that there are 5 different places and 6 members of our family.  Growing up is ever so bittersweet due to these inevitable times when we all find our own pathways.  However we'll always have that set of memories that our parents facilitated during our migratory travels to Nova Scotia every summer to unite us.  We'll always be the Mahoney family, and we'll always love each other.  

Times like this approaching weekend, when we'll all be together to celebrate as an extended family, really make top priority in my book.  Although I hate the fact that I get to spend such little time with my siblings, it makes the time when we are all together ever so anticipated and valued.  My family has come to grow separately, but never will we grow apart.   

Needless to say, I am filled with excitement for this weekend right now.  It's the same kind of excitement that I was filled with as a kid going up to Nova Scotia on a roadtrip with all of my siblings, but this time it's for something more similar to the car ride itself.  

Statistics

I've been studying for my statistics exam all day and night, and now I want to blog.  I would go to sleep right now but I still have remnants of the wings that my Red Bull gave me earlier.   So I decided that I'd blog, but I would talk about statistics so as to not completely lose focus before taking my test tomorrow.  Great idea, right?  

I thought I would come up with a list of interesting statistics to share, and in search I found this website called worldometer.  It is informative, interesting, striking, saddening, angering, aggravating, and capturing all at the same time.  Part of me just wanted to look and see which numbers were moving the quickest, but that resulted in great despair when I saw that in the "Health" the number rising at the fastest rate is the number of abortions this year.  The steady increase of the number is striking to say the least.  I think this website does a great job of putting the statistics of our world into a visible and perceivable sense.  

I think if we all saw how the actions of our world look as a whole, we would think a little more about our own personal actions and how they affect the whole.  This website has certainly made me think about what I am doing to contribute to any of the rising numbers.  The idea of humanity acting as a whole captivates me, and this website is a prime example of the religious idea that "although we are many parts, we are all one body."  Maybe tomorrow, when I'm acing my test, I'll stop for a minute and think about how the computations and calculations I'm making can increase everyone's ability to see the choices that our world makes as a whole.  Maybe tomorrow I'll reach down to my rosary-ring on my keychain while walking to class and say a decade for all of the unborn children that will be stripped of their opportunity to live that day.  Maybe tomorrow I'll say a prayer for the people who died of hunger today and wonder why that number even exists considering the number of  "tons of food produced" is racing out of control.   

Let the blogging begin!

The start of a blog is a bit intimidating.  I have a great desire to come up with something hugely revolutionary to begin my blogging and engage readers... but right now I've got nothing.  

Thus, I'll start with my reasoning for this blog.  Over the past couple of days I've been trying to re-evaluate myself.  This was sparked by a recent psychology homework assignment in which I had to compare my "ideal self" with my "actual self."  I scampered through a number of exercises that provoked thoughts about how confident, dependable, independent-thinking, good-looking, talented, motivated, intelligent.... I am.  The list was far more extensive but all the more thought-provoking.  Anyways, long story short I came up with my own little theory through this exercise.  That is this:  by pretending to be the ideal version of yourself you'll develop into your ideal self.  I want to be my ideal self!  All day long I've been acting in ways that my "ideal self" would act.  Her name is Kelly, and she is a great gal.  You should get to know her, because I am enjoying doing so myself.  

My actual self is currently far too out-of-touch with her family and friends that extend throughout the North American continent.  My actual AND ideal self also loves to write and talk to others.  My actual AND ideal self loves her family and friends very much, and wants them to be "in the know" about my life. 

So, all in all, this is my effort to keep in better touch with the people I love very dearly, and maybe even show parts of myself to those I don't know so well.  I mean, it is the internet after all, and I'm aware that anyone can read this.  So I hope this serves as a form of information, entertainment, laughter, thoughts, prayers, and overall communication with anyone who reads this!

Now I'm off to finish the scrumptious baked sweet potato that I cooked while I was at conditioning for frisbee practice and hit the library (leaving something in the oven unattended... may or may not be a bad idea)!