Freedom

"Star Trek" was so much better the first time. I'm still really confused as to why I was almost...disappointed. *gasp* I don't want to think about it.

Chekov <3

Well, my mom left for *ANOTHER* practicum today. She'll be getting back on Thursday, but I'll already be gone to the weekend camp. I'm really excited about that. I've honestly never been to a sleepaway camp. Yeah. EVER. Sad, isn't it? It's not that I'm sheltered, I just never remember to sign up for anything, lol :)

Speaking of not remembering, I made a list of all the stuff I need to take to camp just to make sure I don't have a brain lapse and forget my tooth brush or something crucial like that, lol! The list is forty things long. Yeah. Forty. And--

OMG, I forgot to list PAJAMAS!

THAT would have a crisis. For me.

Anyway. Sorry.

My sister (Lizzy) and I made up a dance to the song "Arabian Nights" from "Aladin". I choreographed it, and it's awesome, if I do say so myself ;)

Then we watched some of "Aladin", which is, if you don't already know, the greatest Disney cartoon ever made. Just getting that out there.

I'm in an odd mood today. Kind of...hyper-minded and typical-teenaged-girl-y.
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Ate dinner, went to get ice cream, now I'm back. And I'm not in that weird mood anymore, so you don't have to run screaming or anything :) I got a strawberry fruit-juice-pop thing. It was good. I don't ususually like stuff with fruit chunks in it, though, so I was sort of surprised.

I just remembered that today is Word Day! Alright! My word for the day is...

Freedom.

It's such a powerful word, you know? I don't even know how to reach down deep enough to get the full meaning, but, as always, I'm gonna try.

What IS freedom? Freedom is the power to make your own decisions. But it's more than that. Freedom is something we as human inherently crave. Something in all of us wants desperately to make our own desicions, to control our own lives.

There are so many different types of freedom. Freedom of speech, religion, press, and then more obscure freedoms: the freedom not to feel intimidated at school, the freedom to be yourself, the freedom to learn and stretch your mind.

America is built completely on the idea of freedom. America is all about freedom. We fought and died to earn it, and we will fight and die to keep it.

On the other hand, while America is all about freedom and theoretically being yourself, unfortunately its citizens are constantly pushed to regulate themselves. Not by any government inforced law, but just by society itself. I know sometimes I don't feel free to be myself around my friends. I'm sure we all feel like that sometimes. That's where the smaller definitions of freedom come in.

Freedom is all around us, all through us. I'm not really sure why, but it's human nature to crave freedom. And there are so many different types of freedom, which means there are so many types that people can take away, and so many ways to do that.

We need to guard our freedom carefully. Especially we Americans because with the government making more and more restraining laws, I think it's really important that we all maintain a sense of self and of who we are, what we want, why we're here.

Freedom is so important. If it gets taken away...we aren't even ourselves anymore. Freedom is what makes us able to be ourselves. I'm free to be me, you're free to be you. If that freedom gets taken away, essentially individuality will go with it. Freedom is who we are. I think the word and the concept mean something a little different to each person.

I sort of feel like I went on a bunny trail this whole post, but I hope you sort of understood what I was trying to say?

Freedom is everything, but different for everyone at the same time.

What's freedom to you?

For me, I think, it's the power to carpe diem every day--however *I* see fit.

Torrid

It's the first weekly WORD DAY!! Aside from quote day, I think this is going to be my favorite :D

Just to give a little introduction to the Word of the Week posts, I want to say this: I think some weeks I'll have a long, crazy word that I've recently learned or something, and then maybe sometimes I'll try to dig deeper into a word that I've known forever.

Word of this week: TORRID

Apparently, this word has a negative connotation that I wasn't aware of until a few months ago, but the actual meaning isn't bad at all. This is my favorite word ever, but believe me, the negative connotation has nothing to do with my liking it. Basically, it just means really hot. No, not like attractive hot (although it probably can be used that way); like burning, scorching, and sometimes passionate.

The word "torrid" comes from the Latin word "torrere" which means "to dry with heat." (Don't thank me for that, thank dictionary.com :D) I thought that was cool.

Anyway, torrid is my favorite word, and it has been ever since I found it when I was looking for a word to describe a character's eyes. "Torrid" is the perfect word for eyes I think. I don't know why.