Guest Author: Difficulties

Short Bio: 

My name is Alyssa I am 18. I was born in the USA and I am a German American. Most of my mother’s side still lives in Germany and I’ve been out to visit them only a few times. I love being in Europe, specifically England, it’s my home away from home. My mom likes to joke that I was British in another life.

As such I enjoy tea far too much for my own good. Some of my other interests include writing and art, as well as a plethora of other things that you’ll just have to riddle out for yourself.

“Lines are very difficult to learn.”

Reading Easel by Anna Langova

                                ~Benedict Cumberbatch

Granted this quote is technically applied to actually lines from a T.V.  Show, play, or movie, but we’ve all had those times when we’ve had trouble with lines, or rather, learning how to interact with our world. Nobody ends up going through life with a perfect understanding of what’s going on, and knowing that is the key to success. I am always able to perform my best in awkward situations when I remember that everyone is just as nervous as I am. They just may be better at hiding it.

And for the record I’ve never actually had much trouble memorizing actual lines. It’s a talent.

Tiring Reality, Simply Dreams

“You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams.”

― L.M. Montgomery

Reading An Old Book by Talia Felix

Tire of reality. I suppose it's too early in the school year to officially be tired of it, since I started last Wednesday... But golly can I tell you it has felt like a month! My brain seems to be in a continuous state of brain fog. As summer habits die hard, which, unfortunately for myself, involved staying up waaay too late. Luckily I've trimmed off an hour or two. But I sure am glad for my dreams, though I have less time to sit mindlessly and picture them. Right now they are also considerably less elaborate; read a book for hours on end again, sleep in decently after staying up late, perhaps going somewhere just for fun... and on and on. My other dreams are still there, and I feel them skipping around inside me, hoping they get to live soon. Someday...

School or Education?

"I've never let my school interfere with my education." 
-- Mark Twain
 

Time To Study by Peter Griffin

This week I started school again... (I would cheer but I feel that would be misleading.) As it is, I'm also going to Education Week. My schedule looks something like this: Wake up 6-7am. Get ready. (Pack lunch and dinner.) Get to school before 8:45am. Classes. My Mom picks me up a few minutes after school around 3:30pm. She drives my sister and I straight to BYU campus. Classes. Get picked up around 9:30pm. Drive home. Do a few random things to prepare for tomorrow. Sleep... until the alarm interrupts it, + 5-10 minutes. Yes, I'm going to school. Still, I go to education week. Crazy? Maybe. But Mark Twain sure got it right to some extent, and this counts.

Excuses, Excuses

“The most profitless thing to manufacture is excuses.”

-- B. C. Forbes

This is a particular favorite of ours. One we often site to each other when one of us (sheepish grin) is showing a certain skill for creating a long list of excuses. So you see, though I agree with this quote, I do not exactly live by it. (As I am quite good at manufacturing excuses and am quite loathe to part with that skill.) However, it really is a profitless art. Many times I have talked myself out of an experience which would have been a great one filled with learning and much benefit. And, being a great procrastinator, I often exercise excuses much more than I ought to. However, as time goes on, and I realize the petty profit (if any) of my practice, I have come to a more determined attitude to complete things and carry on with a positive attitude in life. Put on my smile, take hold of my courage, and step forward into the rest of my unknown life. -- Kenzie 

Steps - Black And White by George Hodan

Repentance

"If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less in which to repent."

-- Mason

I don't know how to add on to that. The statement is simple and to the point. I've heard stories of people who deliberately wait all their life just to get baptized and enter Heaven clean. But as I think more and more about it, not only does it not make sense to wait that long, but why should we spend all of our lives waiting to feel cleansed, only to feel that way for a moment before death? I'm so glad that I don't have to keep adding days to my burden of mistakes, thankfully, I accept Mason's statement, and gratefully put it in action. 

  

Stand Up to your Work

For that is the thing a man is born to... to expend every particle of strength that God Almighty has given him in doing the work he finds he is fit for; to stand up to it to the last breath of life, and to do his best. We are called upon to do that... I would bid you stand up to your work, whatever it may be, and not be afraid of it.

-- Thomas Carlyle

Work Boots by Alex Borland

Conversation

“Conversation is the art of telling people a little less than they want to know.”

--Franklin P. Jones

Talking On Mobile Phone by Petr Kratochvil

This quote gets me laughing every time. Jones pinned it right on the nose. Even today, in every conversation I had with someone, whether in person or through the internet, this quote manifested its truth. Sure, eventually I got something out of them, but it did take an awful long time to get there... Oh we are funny people, dying to tell someone, but taking an extra amount of persuasion before relinquishing the information so vainly sought for. Yet we converse ever more, just as artful at telling a "little less than they want to know."
--Kenzie

This quote is wonderful. It humorously tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Whether you are chatting, discussing, or explaining, the trick is to tell a little less. A question will be asked, and again, the words you speak will add up to a little less than the full answer. This is the way a conversation holds the interest of both parties. When looking to spice up a weak conversation, this is your prescription. And as Mr. Jones so aptly put it, it is indeed, an art.
-- Emily