But think about it!

Today as I was driving (quite hastily by the way) to get a now very good friend of mine, Stephanie, to the airport in time to catch her flight to Calgary so she could spend Reading Week with her mother and sisters, I started thinking about the "Ripple Effect" of this crazy thing called life we all lead.
Now, bear with me, this is the story that led me to refer to Steph as a now very good friend of mine - read it and then I'll get to my point, if you want to call it that.
Steph and I grew up in the same town, went to the same elementary school (for the most part), and had the same best friend - of whom we fought over and about tirelessly. We both have very strong, loud, crazy, and driven personalities...and we both wanted the same girl as our best friend. This rivalry that started between us at the young age of about 7 stuck with us all throughout elementary school. Funny thing is, as we got older and had developed friendships with other people in our little cliques, and even though our mutual friend was friend was no long the object or subject of our battles: everything else was. Thankfully, it wasn't as loud, violent, or just plain awful as it once was.
BUT WAIT! It gets better! We got to high school and we had our very first class together: Gym with Ms Link, still to this day one of my absolute favourite teachers and dearest role models, might I add. Being the only other familiar face, Steph and I were partners by default - for everything. Slowly we began realizing that our differences weren't so different after all. By grade 11, I'd say we considered the other a friend and by our victory lap (grade 13 for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about), we'd become really good friends that hung out and talked on a regular basis.

Want to know the best part? 

Those same very strong, loud, crazy, and driven personalities got us, against all other odds, to university. And the same university at that.
We've become such great friends over the last few years that we cook, laugh, drive, party, cry, and just so, so much more together. Ultimately, we came to realize that we couldn't get along as kids because we both had so much going on in our personal lives that we could never take enough of a breath to realize then that we were both very broken and hurting little girls - of whom later in life would cry together about the same shared insecurities, fears, and worries, and would laugh at the same jokes and belt out and love the same songs...
In hind sight, I suppose Steph and I could've been great friends had we not fought all the time. BUT!
That's what brings me to my actual reason for this whole spiel: the show Touch.

It always amazes me to think about how we as humans, societies, civilizations, you name it - how we even exist. But that's a another topic for another time.
For right now, let's talk about how we affect one another. It's crazy to believe that the smallest actions we make on a daily basis could affect someone on the other side of town, in another city, or even on the other side of the world.
Now, I told you the story of Steph and I not only because I really started thinking about this while rushing her to the airport this afternoon but also because I started wondering how our lives could've taken very different courses had we ended up recognizing our similarities as similarities and not differences as children.
Emily and Stephanie are the best of best friends and are completely inseparable. Steph even lives with Emily's family while we're all not away at school. Had Emily and Stephanie not become such good friends, and Steph and I had instead, the world would've had a pair of crazy, crazy girls and no one would've benefited from that at the time. There's a very good chance, had the two of us been friends as kids, we would've grown up getting ourselves into all sorts of trouble which over the long term could've been terrible - criminal maybe. But the thing is, Emily is Stephanie's source of stability - to a reasonable extent. Just like my best friend is to me. Had I ended up being best friends with Emily (of whom I am still very good friends with), I never would've ended up being best friends with Faith. Which, depending on who you ask, may or may not be the greatest thing that's ever happened in my life. She's the best and I have no idea what I'd do without her!
To many of you reading this, I'm sure the use of the term "best friends" may seem juvenile and over done, but I assure you, that we are best friends in the truest and purest sense of the term.
All these the events in my life got me to where and who I am today - and I can't necessarily or easily say that I would change any of them or take any of them back... because quite frankly - my life is turning into quite a beautiful adventure.
However, I would really, really like to know one day what the affects of my actions have been in the lives of my friends, my family, and of complete strangers. Like when I held open the door for that man in a rush the other day, did he make his meeting or wherever he was going on time? or was he still late? did it matter?

Our lives are a giant interconnected web of love, loss, heartache, and joy. The good and the bad - it's all related. An example from the show that really touched me, (aha get it?! Touch, Touched aha I'm so clever), the father interrupted a phone call, which made a man miss his flight, which meant on his way home he was able to save children from a burning bus like the retired firefighter that he was.
What if we all play a part in being like that father who interrupter the phone call or the retired firefighter..
I believe we do. So what are you going to do with your part?
Every one of our actions has to mean something...
Just like how my action of procrastinating while writing this will later affect my mark on my science article summary. Which I should get to... eventually.

Cheers.

new beginnings also known as RIGHTNOW

Alright here's your visual: I'm sitting on a chair much to tall for me at a table much too tall for me, in Starbucks watching the cars drive down the busy street, drinking a caramel macchiato, and listening that Tracy Chapman, Colbie Caillat and Serena Ryder. I should be studying psychology, but I digress.
I found myself thinking that I couldn't wait for this term and more importantly, this year to be over, just so that I could be home working, make some money, just to be passing the time waiting for next year to start. Now, as much as I am truly excited for next year and all the adventures, classes, and boxes of kraft dinner that I'm sure will accompany it... what's my hurry? I know that I'm excited for this next stage in my life with my first official apartment, potentially living with my best friend, and overall the new beginning, but this is where I become a total hypocrite. I've always been a firm believer that if you want to change something: Do it - and here I am sitting in a Starbucks day dreaming about how wonderful next year will be.
Hello Alyssa!
You can have your fresh start right now! Duh.
*face palm*
So here it goes, I've had goals, aspirations, and dreams sitting on the back burner for far too long. I've been waiting for other people, been held back by other people, and for what? Nothing. That's what.
This is my life, not theirs. I've been focusing all too much for far too long on all the people and obstacles that told me I couldn't do it instead of all the people and possibilities that told me I could. I've been listening the voices that told me I wasn't good enough, instead of the ones that said I was more than enough.
That was silly. That stops now.
I'm taking the reins of my life, I'm embracing my potential and all the opportunities (and even the struggles) that come with it.
I use the username "alyshines" for almost everything, does anyone else see the hidden word there? Just in case you can't see it, it's Shine. Yes, that means Aly Shines. It's about time I start living up to that. Because if you take the S of the end of Hines, throw it at the beginning, you get Shine. And I can do that, and no, I'm not just talking about my oily skin in the sun.
Today is the first day of the rest of my life - I'm gonna make it count!
(Here's a minuscule apology to all of you out there that have been telling me forever I can do anything I put my mind to and that I have some serious potential. I'm going to do my best to believe you from here on out. Aside from an apology, this is also me asking for all you out there to hold me accountable and to slap me upside the head when I start slide backwards - because believe me, you know as well as I do that it is bound to happen.)
Well, now that that's out of my system I should probably get back to, and by get back to, I mean start, my psychology reading.
Cheers.