Between The Lines Of Life

By Claire Enos I will admit, I haven't been very regular with my blog posts. I tend to write whenever I think about it or feel like it. If I'm going to be a good blogger I need to make a regular schedule and stick to it. So, here is my New Year's Resolution (which I've made before, but this time I swear it's going to work): Write and post a blog post every week for Winter semester. Winter semester is January 5th-April 10th. So, that's 14 blog posts. I can totally do this.  Write at least 500 words a day for a whole month. This is more of short-term goal (okay, so is number 1, but this one is shorter). I am trying to get in the habit of writing every day. If I want to be a serious writer, I need to do this. So, in keeping with the writing theme and my quote above, this one is about reading. Stephen King says a writer needs to read a lot, so for this one my goal is to read at least one book a month while I'm in school, and one book a week while I'

I was going through Pinterest posts and came across a 30 Day Challenge called: 30 Days of Inspiration. Since I hadn't posted on this blog in a while (I've been busy focusing on other blogs lately), I thought I'd do the challenge on this blog. So, the first challenge is: "Be the magic. In what ways can you be the magic in your life and the lives of others?" I think the best and easiest and hardest way (yes it can be all three) is just by being myself. I can be the magic by being myself and not changing who I am for anyone else but me. I think a lot of times we are scared to be ourselves because we're afraid we'll lose our friends, but if a friend is scared away by you being yourself they aren't really a true friend. So, be yourself, no matter what. Find out what being yourself means to you. And then just do it. <3Claire

I started blogging when I was this girl: I've changed a lot though. When that picture was taken I was a soon-to-be high school graduate. I had a year of high school left. I was excited at my prospects in life. I hadn't yet discovered who I was. I thought I had everything figured out, but I didn't. Now, I'm this girl: Nearly 23, learning to accept myself for who I am. Learning that I don't have everything figured out, and even though I only have a year left of college I'm coming to accept that it's alright not to have everything figured out. I'm learning to accept my friends for who they are, and to tell the difference between friends I can count on, and friends who are only around for a season. I am learning what's important in life. I am learning to love. I am genuinely happy, and not just from moment to moment, but all the time. I was me. I am me. And I am becoming me. Past, Present, and Future: All are me! This, is what life is all a

By Claire Enos I can feel it. I can feel the tugging from all directions. The random comments from friends saying I need to do this or that. The comments from people I don't know saying that a woman needs to do this or that. "Get a job." "Finish your schooling." "Don't worry about dating." "Get a good Career." "Take care of yourself." "Pay off those loans." "No one wants to marry someone in debt." "Choose a better major, you won't be able to get a good career with that one." And, for some reason, I listen. I begin to change my view on life and the things that make me who I am. I start making plans to finish school, go on a mission, go back to school, and work in between. I start worrying about my loans because somehow it might keep me from falling in love and marrying some man I might meet in the future. My whole focus begins to change, from my spiritual goals to my material goals.

By Claire Enos A year ago, I never would have imagined that I would be where I am today. Sitting here, blogging, making plans for my future, based on other events that happened to me within the last year which I definitely would not have imagined as well. In fact, I could write a whole post about everything that happened and I still wouldn't be able to cover the whole year. But, this isn't about reminiscing. It's about saying goodbye to my past. Shutting the lid on the 2013 box, and shoving it into the closet. Maybe I'll look back on it one day and laugh, or at the very least smile, remembering all that happened. But for now, it's over and it's time for me to move on. My friend JG and me a little over a year ago, before he left on his mission. I'm going to open a new box. I already have a few things to put into this new box, so I better make it a big one because I plan to put a lot more into that box. I'm going to write 2014 on it, and it's

By Claire Enos Pretty soon, I will be traveling to Mexico and Belize with some students and teachers from my school. This has been a dream of mine for years: to travel to places I've never been before! And I love learning about new cultures. Like many people, I have a list of things I want to do with my life, visiting Mexico is just one of the many things on that list. It feels so good knowing that soon it will be one I can cross off, and an experience I can add to my list of experiences. So, the other day I got to thinking, and decided that I needed a separate list of things to do in my life in case some of the things on the first list don't happen: like getting married and having kids, at least for now. So, my new list is as follows: Graduate with my Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing from BYU-Idaho Pay off my loans and save up money for a Master's Degree Graduate with a Master's Degree in Theological and Cultural Anthropology, preferably from Eastern

By Claire As I sat down to write this blog post, I realized that I had no idea how to start. I almost opened a new tab and googled how to start a blog post, then I realized that was exactly what I sat down to write about. My inability to think for myself. I've become so used to just having the internet at the tip of my fingers to turn to for "advice." Except I don't really go to google for advice, I go for how I should think. When did this happen? When did I give up thinking for myself in favor of having some super smart person think for me? The answer? I don't know. I don't know when my brain decided to switch off, only working at the lowest levels possible. You want to know why ? It happened gradually over the years. Suddenly, all those articles I read in my English 201 class make a lot more sense. The ones about deep reading, and about how the internet (while definitely having its good points) is slowly killing our deep reading and critical thinking s