Melodies making Memories, Soundtrack to 23!

Soundtrack to 23

Last year I made a soundtrack to 22 which seemed so appropriate since music is a big part of my life, I listen to it so often. I've complied a list of 23 songs during my 23 year that meant something to me.

In no particular order...

 

1.Age of Worry-John Mayer

 

"Alive in the age of worry Smile in the age of worry Go wild in the age of worry And say worry, why should I care?"

This song came to me in a very pivotal moment early on in my 23rd year and it truly helped me accept my young adult life. I picked a little clip of the song, but truly, this whole song is so fitting to the time of my life. There are so many opportunities that I could go to negativity and worry, but this song is a simple reminder that there is no need to worry, and growing up is all about living your life and if you make mistakes it is okay! I also wrote a whole blog about it :)

 

2.Catch my Breath-Kelly Clarkson

"Making time for the ones that count, I'll spent the rest of my time, laughing hard with the windows down, leaving footprints all over town"

Lauren & I decided that this would be our anthem for 23& it most definitely was. I also wrote a blog about this song on her birthday and in the blog I wrote about what I thought our 23rd year would be like, and I was right. We are stronger. We are family & close friends oriented. We make sure to relish in the little joys in life. We also did what we wanted to do, & we didn't allow anyone else define us. I am proud of us.

3.Beat this Summer-Brad Paisley

"The sand on the beach is like an hour glass and I can just feel it slippin away and babe I can already say as long as I live, whatever I do, as great as it is you know what's a bummer I ain't ever gonna beat this summer"





This summer I had the incredible opportunity to work at Harrah's and Harveys Lake Tahoe in the HR Department as an intern and this summer changed my life. For the first time I lived alone. I grew passionate about the HR profession. I was surrounded by a great group of individuals who made up one of the best teams I have ever been on. I had my Tahoe family and they were truly amazing. My summer went by all too fast and I will cherish every moment I had. I also had some great visitors along the way who made my time in Tahoe have a little taste of home. This was one great summer. Thank you Lake Tahoe!

4.Crash my Party- Luke Bryan

"I can be on the front row of the best show"

This summer I got to see LUKE BRYAN front row! I was there with my sisters, cousin, mom, and some of my best friends! As soon as I heard this single released I bought it. I obsessed over it. This was the song that held me over until his Crash My Party album was released. I have listened to this song so many times, especially on my trips back and forth from home. One of the coolest parts about this song is that I got to watch him perform it live acoustically in a VIP concert before the show. I think if people could really turn into puddles from melting I would have. My hope is that 24 brings me to another Luke Bryan concert with incredible seats so I can truly enjoy every moment and not forget a single second! If I could, I would pay front row for him, every year. He's truly an amazing performer and is undoubtedly the entertainer of the year!

 

5.Daylight-Maroon 5

"We knew this day would come, We knew it all along, How did it come so fast?

For my 23rd year I knew it would be my last year at UNR. It was so crazy how fast the last spring semester flew by. This song came out around graduation time and each time I heard it I said it was my song to Reno and College. Reno gave me so much and it is filled with so many wonderful memories. I was blessed to have an internship quickly following the end of the spring semester but that led me to Tahoe 3 days after graduation. My months in Reno were filled with spontaneity, school spirit and fun!  The line that also gets me is the line that says, This is my last glance that will soon be a memory. I love living back in Hilmar but sometimes I do get sad to think I won't get in my car and drive back to Reno for school any more. Thank you Reno for the ride, I enjoyed every day and night.

6.Roar-Katy Perry

"Now I'm floating like a butterfly Stinging like a bee I earned my stripes I went from zero, to my own hero"

Never in my life have I been so happy in my own skin. I've never felt so confident and so complete. I don't need to be defined by boys or anyone for that matter. This song was like an anthem. It was like a comeback song. I felt like at 22 I was making my way back to me, but I finally feel like I am exactly where I am supposed to be. There was a time when I started at UNR and I was pretty lost. There were times I felt all alone, I felt like there was something or someone missing. I learned how to be alone without being lonely. I learned to let me be enough. I learned to let go.

 

7.Story of my life-One Direction

"The story of my life"

The lyrics to this song so much don't read into exactly a theme song of my year, but they were the lyrics to the song that made me open my eyes to a band. I know it seems silly but I was watching GMA concert series before work one morning and I heard them sing this song and I thought 'Oh my gosh I think I just became a One Direction fan' and I was okay with it. I listened to this song on youtube or put in on the pandora station just so I could hear it and it seemed so ridiculous to go through all that trouble for just one song, so I decided to buy the album on iTunes. I fell in love even more. Their Midnight Memories album is absolutely wonderful, and I am without a doubt a Directioner now...all I need to know is their names haha

8. Heart of Dixie-Danielle Bradbery

"But she didn’t know ’til she hit the road, deep in her soul, She’s got the fire and the fight of the gypsy, Ain’t nothing stronger than the heart of Dixie"

This year I became a fan of the show Hart of Dixie on the CW. So much so I watched all of the episodes on Netflix in a couple of days. I got caught up enough to be able to watch the season while the episodes were airing. Hart of Dixie isn't a show that I really have to think when I watch it, its just happy, sometimes I get emotionally attached to couples on the show more than I should admit, but all in all it just makes me happy when I watch it. The cast is all so simple and charming with their southern accents and Rachel Bilson. Danielle Bradbery was on the last episode that aired singing Hart of Dixie so this makes the list on my soundtrack!

9.Frankie Ballard, ‘Helluva Life’

"Well we all have faith, and we all have hope, But we're all a little lost in the same damn boat. It's a helluva life, it's a helluva life"

When this song came out I fell in love with it almost instantly. It is just a song that describes how life can sometimes get messy but we can still love life and enjoy it. Sometimes we think that we are the only ones who struggle but this song shows us that we aren't alone and not to take it too seriously and to be in the moment with people when we are with them, and that's how I've lived my 23rd year.

10.Eli Young Band, ‘Drunk Last Night’

"Might've been a song on the radio Might've been nothing, baby I don't know Might've been a little too tired to fight Might've been I got a little drunk last night"

This is song is so perfect to any person who have ever even had a crush on someone at some point. I'm surprised I never went ahead and called anyone up after our Bachelor drinking games nights, Bachelor+Alcohol pushes girls on the show over the edge in wanting to be loved and it can do the same to girls who watch. I can proudly say I never made this mistake while drunk, trying to contact a crush or an old flame while 23, but I would crank it up every time it came on the radio, and I still do. This song also brings up a funny memory when I told my cousin that when I hear this song and I'm around drunk people I feel like making poor decisions :)

 

11The Band Perry-I'm a Keeper

 

"Your daddy is a pistol, and you are a son of a gun, I could be the daughter that he never wanted"

My internship in Tahoe allowed me to work the Rascal Flatts and The Band Perry Outdoor Concert during Celebrity Golf week. The Band Perry was the opening act and they sang this song and I was cracking up...especially this line, it is so clever. I do enjoy the music of the Band Perry and after that concert especially I became a bigger fan than I already was. If you get a chance, listen to this song its funny!

12.Hayden Panettiere-Hypnotizing

 

"I try to fight it, but I'm powerless, I'm no match for what I'm up against"

Nashville is my TV addiction, okay one of my many, but it makes top 5 for sure, but I am a fan. Hayden Panettiere's character Juliette is something else, but I love her songs the most. This song is so fun and catchy and it can be so true when two people are meant to be, I've seen it in a few of my friends this year, when they've found their person they are hypnotized by love. I love it!

13.Gary Allan, ‘Pieces’

"But I’m not hiding where I’ve been Gonna let the light shine in What I don’t need Gonna let that, let that, let that go"

Every lyric to this song is so fitting to where I am and where I've been this year. I even wrote a blog about this song. This has to be one of my favorite lyrical songs of the year. Every single line hit me straight in the heart. I'm so thankful for every person who has ever came into my life, the people who have stayed, the people who have left and the people who have yet to make their entrance, I am so thankful for you all!

14.See you again-Carrie Underwood

"I will see you again, This is not where it ends I will carry you with me, Til I see you again"

 It is hard for me to come to terms with the fact that my Great Grandma Mary has passed away. She's been in my life for 23 years and has played a big part in it. I really am thankful for the opportunity of the time when my Grandma lived with us. I feel selfish if I say that I am sad that she has left because I had so many years with my GREAT Grandma and some people don't get the privilege to even have one. I know that I will see her again I know she is back with the love of her life, my Gramps.

 

15. Play it again- Luke Bryan

"She was like oh my God this is my song I've been listening to the radio all night long, sitting round waiting for it to come on, and here it is."

The day the Luke Bryan Crash My Party CD came out I was the first person at Target, and first person to purchase the CD. I drove down to Carson City from Lake Tahoe just so I could listen to it before work and have it in my possession. I was immediately drawn to this song when I heard it, it is one of my favorite tracks on the album because it was one of those songs I could just picture myself in. I, like most girls, tend to say when I'm out and a good song comes on, Oh my God this is my song! I did even used to listen to the radio, before all the technology we have, just so I could hear my favorites. I love Luke Bryan.

 

 

16.Running out of moonlight-Randy Houser

 "Come on baby, let me take you on a night ride Windows down, sittin' on my side Tick tock, now we're knocking on midnight Me and you girl, runnin' outta moonlight"

My friends and I play this game when we are in the car called "the radio game" and we ask the radio a question and whatever the answer is, we do. I was texting someone while I was in Tahoe, and I wasn't sure if I should say yes to a date. I got in the car, asked the radio what it thought I should do and told myself that whatever it said I would follow along, because what did I have to lose? And I went on the date because this song came on. Now I'd like to tell you he was something short of prince charming, but he wasn't, there wasn't a second date, but that was okay, because it was nice to be taken out for a date, and it was an experience to put myself out there. 

 

 

17. Mine would be you-Blake Shelton

"What's your all time high, your good as it gets?"

Like I said before, I like the radio. The radio and CDs are what got me through long drives back and forth from Reno, Tahoe and Hilmar, as well as my sidekick Lulu there for awhile :) I heard this song probably 5 times and then I thought, hey I wonder what my answers are. So while the song plays on the radio, I tend to answer Blake Shelton's questions, most of the time getting sidetracked by my answers that I don't even finish but its a little something that I love to do in the car, maybe you can try!

 

18. Luke Bryan-That's my kind of night

"Put in my country, rock, hip hop mix tape, little Conway a little T-Pain, might just make it rain."

Zac Brown Band can suck it. I absolutely LOVE this song. It is such a fun, going out song. I remember the first time I heard this song and I was in awe, I mean he was performing it live, but it was just a fun song. Not all songs need to be earth-shattering, with profound lyrics, although I am a fan of those, I think that this song is also a necessity. I like country music, I like the things Luke Bryan sings about in this song. I don't care if he talks about pick-up trucks, tailgates, boots, beer, etc. those are the things I like, I am a fan of Luke Bryan and I stand by him and the songs he releases...I'm fiercely loyal, what can I say? :)

 

 

19.Country Girl-Luke Bryan

"Country Girl shake it for me girl, shake it for me girl, shake it for me"

I had to pick this song because my nieces LOVE IT, my niece Ellie especially. When this song comes on she instantly starts shaking her hips to the sound of Luke Bryan's voice.  Our dance party moments mean more to me than she can ever imagine and I'm so thankful that I am back at home and get to share more of them with her

 

20.Night Train-Jason Aldean

"Got a moon and a billion stars, the sound of steel and old boxcars, the thought of you is driving me insane, lets go listen to the night train"

Hearing my nephew Jaxon sing this song is absolutely priceless. This kid is obsessed with trains and this song talks all about them! The way that he sings the chorus and what the words he thinks they are crack me up. He's growing up so fast and every time I listen to him sing the song he knows more and more of it!

 

21.Big Green Tractor-Jason Aldean

 

"We can go slow or maybe go faster, down through the woods and out to the pasture long as I'm with you it really don't matter."

My other nephew, Daniel is obsessed with tractors, John Deere ones especially. His mom used to sing him this song when he was a baby and now he can say almost all the words to the entire song! The line I chose is my favorite part that he sings, it is just so cute!

 

 

 

22.Hank It-Justin Moore

"You gotta hank it, can't sip whiskey gotta drank it."

Those were the words that started playing when I lost my phone and my ringtone for my brother-in-law went off on my phone from him trying to call me to help me find it. Alise, my youngest niece, stopped what she was doing and started shaking her hips, she was instantly a fan of this song. If she is ever fussy, just start singing or playing this song and 9/10 she will start shaking her hips and smiling along. Its funny because the lyrics aren't something I wouldn't want my niece to make into her favorite song, but she loves it, so I play it for her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

23. Sober- Little Big Town

"I wanna walk that line a little crooked And live my life a little on the rocks Laugh at every time I fell Not afraid to make a fool of myself And keep on dancing when the music stops"

This song is absolutely one of my favorites from the entire year. It came on a country awards show and I got a text message from my sister saying this song reminded me of her. At first I thought, well that's funny since out of me and my sisters, I'm the one who drinks the most since I'm the youngest and only single one. Then I actually listened to the lyrics, actually I looked them up, and thought, this is a deep song. It ended up being a sincere compliment that this song reminded my sister of me, because this is truly how I want to live my life. I think we all get so caught up in how things are supposed to be, we don't accept them how they really are...I actually could talk about this song so much more, so it will most likely become a post on my blog soon enough!

 

Thanks for bearing through the 23 songs, I hope I introduced you to some new songs you've never heard of, or brought back some good memories you've shared with me, or anyone else. Take time to listen to the music, take time to dance to the music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2013 -- Blessed.

I sit here in awe as I am typing these words when I reflect upon the year I had for 2013.

Never in my life have I ever felt more complete than I do in this exact moment.

I feel like I've finally have reached that place of fully loving myself.

This year was a big year for me.

I graduated college.

I had an incredible internship and spent the summer in Tahoe.

I made many memories with so many wonderful people.

I moved back home.

This year I celebrated a lot of things.

I've celebrated love, as I attended two weddings.

I've celebrated numerous birthdays.

I've celebrated my nieces both being baptized.

I've celebrated 100 career wins and the best season in Hilmar Football history coached by my dad.

I've celebrated accomplishments of family and friend members.

I've celebrated the life of my great grandma Mary who I lost this year and although it was so heartbreaking to watch a woman who has helped shape me into who I am today leave our world, I can't help but feel thankful I was blessed with her for 23 years.

I feel so normal being this happy, and it should scare me that I do, but I don't.

I should feel anxious about getting  a full time job or curious to see if this year will bring me love, but I'm not.

I truly feel in this moment whole.

I feel completely wonderful.

I have some very special people that I hold dear to my heart who aren't doing so well, but I'm taking the moments I am still blessed to have with them and cherishing every single one. I am trying not to think about when God is going to take them, and trying to be happy in the moments I get to share while I still can.

God has given me so much this past year.

I am so thankful for all of the memories, the accomplishments, the laughter, the tears, the sadness, the failures, the celebrations, the moments, everything. All of it can sum up into one word...Blessed.

God is good. Even when there is sadness. God has a plan. God can be trusted. God will take care of you.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Bad Timing with the Perfect Person

I have used and heard the expression over and over again that "it was just bad timing"

When I finally stopped and thought about it, saying that expression goes against my beliefs and faith in God's timing.

Normally the term is used when a person thinks they meet a person that is good for them and then it ends up not working out and we blame it on "bad timing" but is it really bad timing?

Sometimes our investments in certain people cloud our judgment, we end up making excuses for the reasons why it isn't working out or didn't work out. We think that it must be the timing that is off.

Really who came up with this expression?

Bad timing is not the reason the "perfect" person for you ignores you.

Bad timing is not the reason the "perfect" person for you cheats on you.

Bad timing is not the reason the "perfect" person for you lies to you.

And so many other excuses we give to these people we are too scared to let go of because we think that if it was a different time maybe it would work out. Maybe if we spend time apart we realize how much we love the other person or maybe if we were a little bit older and more mature.

Really?

Really?

Why are we allowing ourselves to wait around for the right time with people who willingly choose to walk out of our lives?

God brought me back to realizing that HIS timing is the best timing.

This faith in His timing has brought me to such a beautiful place. A place where I don't sit around pining for a guy to text me back. If a guy can't pick up the phone that is already glued to his hand and use it to communicate with me, he's not the guy for me.

It's not the timing that bad, its the relationship between the two people that isn't right. Don't blame the timing, sometimes two people who try to be together aren't meant to be together. That's life. Don't sit around and wonder if the timing was different what life would be like. Trust in God's timing and be strong enough to let go of a person who you thought was perfect, if it was "perfect" it would have worked out.

Adventure draws to an end.

For the past two and a half years I've been on an adventure. I've learned so much about myself, life and relationships. My adventure took me to Reno and South Lake Tahoe and so many places in between. I have learned what it is like to be independent and granted, sometimes it does get lonely, it has been such a blessing. I've grown stronger in my faith, my happiness and I have seen more value and worth in myself than I ever have before. I stopped letting boys define me and determine my fate. I have met some incredible people and have made some great friendships. I have put many and many miles on my car and every mile has been worth it. On those drives I thought long and hard about where I am in my life, who is in my life and where my life might go. Those drives have also been a way I've grown up. I've not let distance come between me and the ones I love. I've made the people I love priorities and tried to have my college life and still be able to come home and celebrate the people I love and the holidays with them. Bittersweet is the feeling I currently have, I am so thankful for my summer internship in Tahoe which has ended up being a part fall internship, and being still close to my cousins and it will be sad to leave my co-workers and the short drive to see my cousins but its so exciting that I will get to move back home. I will finally be able to spend quality time with people I love and not feel rushed to move on to go visit the next person. Although I don't know what job I will be getting, I do have faith that it will all work itself out. God has His plan and so far He has shaped me into a changed woman, I'll be going back to my hometown where there are a lot of memories and history, but I'm not going to be living in the past, I'm only going to be focused on the present and the future. I am so thankful to where my past has brought me, but as I turn the page in this next chapter of my life, I'm not going to dwell on the past, the hardships, the people I've wronged and the people who have wronged me, I'm going to enjoy the moment, make new memories, create new history. My time is now quickly coming to an end in Nevada, I'll miss it that's for sure, but as this adventure ends, I pack up and get ready to move to my next adventure, it might be in a familiar place, filled with people I love, but there is so much to be learned and to do and I can't wait to see what God has in store!

Choose Happiness.

Choose Happiness.

This is the only life we get.

Unfortunately we can't give God a phone call and receive instant responses on questions we might be asking. His plan for us is such a masterpiece and I will be honest, I was struggling with His for me.

I am a recent college graduate, I landed the perfect summer internship that taught me so much and everyone has been nothing but good to me. My heart was leaning toward moving home, back to my little town where my family and friends are. My head was leaning toward staying in Tahoe, getting a more permanent position with the company I am interning for, its a great company, I work with good people, the price of living is really high and my closest family is over an hour away but I was willing to work with the bad, put in my time, and then get some killer experience. That job opportunity opened up in Tahoe, to stay, get paid a decent amount of money, and the job itself seemed like a really neat thing to do, but wasn't exactly the field I had in mind. I was trying to justify staying, trying to justify leaving but through it all I just kept praying that God give me a sign. God give me some kind of answer of where He wants me to be. I had a phone interview for a great company back down by my hometown and it was more of a fielder call, to see if I was interested and if they were in positions that might be opening up in HR and when I started talking about HR my passion started busting out of me, I was going on and on how I loved the work I had been doing and wanted to keep learning more. This interview was my sign. My sign not to settle for something I didn't have my heart into, something that would just be letting me get by. I am happy every day I walk into work in Tahoe, the work I'm doing as the HR intern has truly been a great experience, but it seems that although I'm happy while at work, being in Tahoe something has always been missing. My people. My people are who make me an even happier version of myself. Although I've been truly thankful for phone calls and texts and even Facebook messaging, nothing can compare to going out for frozen yogurt with my cousin and best friend, getting hugs and kisses from my nieces and nephews, watching Hilmar Football games under the Friday Night Lights, spending time with my sisters watching trashy reality tv shows, sitting on the couch and talking with my parents, being minutes away from my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, driving with the windows down through the country alongside a loved one, and so on. Tahoe is one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL places in the world, and at the risk at sounding cliché, nothing compares to my small town of Hilmar. Most people who leave it never want to come back, me? I left it but had every intention of returning, Hilmar is my home, Hilmar is where my family is and where I spent my adolescent years. Now that I've done some maturing and growing into the 23 (almost 24) year old that I am, I'm ready to move back. Although I'm unsure exactly what career I will have, and what company it will be for, but I know I will be happy. I'm choosing to be happy. Happy so that even when I'm having the worst day, I can go see one of my people or take back road to clear my head.

Although I know, by opening up and saying I turned down a job offer to move back to my hometown I will probably get people thinking about how I am crazy, dumb, pathetic, and so on but I don't care.
God knew that  this is what I wanted deep in my heart, and He knew it was the best move for me, so He showed me when I was ready to listen.

I chose happiness and I'm so thankful God showed me the way.

Choose to be happy.

Value and Worth.

"Your Value Doesn't Decrease Based On Someone's Inability To See Your Worth"

 

Heartbreak sucks.

 

As much as we all hate failed relationships they are blessings.

Being in a relationship where someone doesn't realize how wonderful you are is not a relationship worth having.

Break-ups can make you feel like the lowest of low, like trash on the side of the street, like gum on the bottom of someone's shoe, like the last one picked for teams in elementary school. As hard as it is to realize it in the moment when the wounds are still fresh, and your heart is being torn into pieces, you deserve better. You deserve someone who does think that you are the best looking person in the room, someone who encourages you through your success and will stand by you when you fail, someone who will be there to adore you and watch you be all you were meant to be. Someone who makes you your best self. Although I truly believe that there is that person out there for everyone, it doesn't mean that you need that person to realize it for yourself.

You are valuable, your life matters.

You are part of this messy world, and you are a star.

You mean more to this world and the people in it than you can even fathom.

Just because someone doesn't want you or thinks that you aren't good enough for them, doesn't mean that you are aren't good enough for the world. You are more than good enough, you are the best. There is no one else on this Earth who is you. Nobody on this Earth can be you, its your job to be YOU.

Don't think that because one person or people don't notice how special you truly are that you aren't special, because you are.

You are valuable.

You are needed.

You are loved.

You are the only YOU.

 

Don't let anyone take the shine out of your light.

Fearless.

Yes Fearless is a song and album by Taylor Swift, but this blog isn't inspired by her.

It is inspired by the word in and of itself, FEARLESS.

Fear LESS.

Why do we allow ourselves to get so scared of the world? To not be our true selves or to not let people in?

I could tell you a lot of reasons why actually, the pain, heartbreak, embarrassment, self-doubt and so on.

I love God with all my heart, He has created such a wonderful life for me, it has been a life that has known pain, heartache, sorrow, loss and shame but it has all shaped me into who I am.

I can get so caught up in creating these scenarios in my head about all the reasons why I shouldn't do something or try to plan my life or worry about giving my heart away.

These are all things that I can fear. I can fear that if I pick one thing, I might end up wanting something else. I fear that if I don't over analyze or strategize my day, week, month or year that nothing will work out how its supposed to. I fear that if I give my heart away to the wrong person they can destroy me and break me in ways I've felt before or even worse. These are all fears that I have. But now they are fears that I HAD.

I have written blogs before about keeping faith in God and His plan and His timing. He has never lead me astray.

My heart can love because its known pain. My heart can forgive because is been wronged. My heart has been damaged but it always gets repaired. All of the things I've been put through were meant to happen to me. God planned them out, not as a way to get back on me for my sins, but to teach me and help me learn.

Why do we fear the unexpected? Life is still going to go on, if we plan it or not and if we take the leap to fall in love or stand back too afraid on the sidelines, it will keep going on. It will not stop until we take our final breath on Earth. What is going to happen, will happen.

Be fearless by being faithful.

God has seen you broken, God has the right tools to fix you. God can move mountains and move your soul.

Let Him in, release the fear.