“Take control now. Forget about the negative thoughts which others have told you – that you are too old or too young. Stop letting the thoughts of others rule your life; stop being weak and cowardly, blaming your lack of progress on those negative programs. If you begin now and become a do-er, you will have earned your right to remain here.”

- Thomas D. Willhite

via Clutch Magazine  

I realized I am getting at least one thing out of this

online dating thing, even if it isn't any actual real world dates. I am doing something that terrifies me. I am doing what this cute little bit of sidewalk advises passersby to do:

Reblogged from 18° 15' N, 77° 30' W

And it can be hard sometimes. And it can be intimidating. And okay, I still blatantly ignore men who are obviously not worth my time and attention, so sue me. But, I am TALKING to people I don't know--I'm even having long and substantive conversations across a wide variety of topics with a couple of them. One guy even publicly left a compliment on my page about my conversation skills and how easy I was to talk to last night. And yeah okay maybe part of the difficulty I generally find in that is removed when your communication is via message or text, but I'd like to think that having these digital conversations with men I don't know will give me at least some practice, some idea of what to say and how to begin and how to not be the most awkward thing ever when someday I see a beautiful specimen on man in a coffee shop (or at the train station, or at the student center) and want to introduce myself. And so I think I'm going to keep doing it, at least for a little while. I don't really think it can hurt. It might even be doing me some good.  

My best friend asked a guy out on a date

and I just want to take a small moment of time to say how incredibly proud I am of her. I made a small suggestion about something she should do last week, not thinking for a second she'd actually go for it, and she has already surpassed my wildest expectations. This is called grabbing this bull called Life by the horns and making it be your bitch. This is called having control, rather than a passive say. This is called taking a chance. This is called LIVING. I'm so happy for her, regardless of what comes from it, just because she took the initiative and did this.

I feel like I need to catch up, haha.