Who Says?

     So as I was getting ready to work at my church yesterday evening, a commercial came on the TV for Selena Gomez's new summer movie Monte Carlo. The background song was ever-so-catchy, and I figured since it's a Selena Gomez movie it's probably her music as well. Let me point out that you know you've either been working with children far too long, or you have young daughters of your own, when you actually know who Selena Gomez is. I looked her up on iTunes on my iPhone and found the song that had been playing, Who Says? Needless to say, I bought the song. Yes, I did buy a Selena Gomez song. And I listened to it on repeat on my way to Gateway and on the way home as well. I must say that the message the song is trying to get across to the listener is that we are all different and to be ok with who you are as an individual.
     I think that this is a problem more young girls have than boys, just my opinion though. But girls are more likely to try and be like everyone else and follow fads and the like. Boys, to me could care less, but it may be more true now than when I was growing up. When I was growing up the "in" or "cool" places to buy your clothes was Limited Too. Of course they are no longer in business, but Justice is the same type of place that Limited Too was when I was in middle school. Growing up in Fort Myers, Florida I don't think we even had a Limited Too. So it wasn't until I was in the eighth grade and living in Winter Springs, FL- outside Orlando- that I learned what a Limited Too even was. Then I graduated from Limited Too and onto American Eagle when I was in high school.
     It's hard enough being a teenager but to try and keep up with the ever changing fashions, fads and what's cool and what's not, well it's confusing! I was never really in a clique as a kid or as a teenager, try as I might I just did not seem to fit in with the popular crowd. I most certainly was not a tom-boy, or a jock, I wanted desperately to be a cheerleader my freshman year of high school. I didn't make the squad- which, looking back is an excellent thing. Not that I'm putting down people who were cheerleaders or whose daughters are, it's just the girls I knew on the squad were cut-throat and mean-spirited. No, I was a bit of a geek really. In middle school I had braces and wore glasses and was not really into make-up or boys, or anything along those lines. In high school I wasn't really itching to get my driver's license, I didn't go to prom or Homecoming or any of the high school dances. I went to my high school's home football games, along more often than not, sometimes with a friend. If I did go out on the weekends, it was to my church's youth group that I was involved in or to babysit. I was never a "mall rat".
     I had little self-esteem, I certainly was no social butterfly like my younger sister and somewhat kept to myself. I think I had the most friends when I lived in Winter Springs, and just about all of them were from our church, Northland Community Church. I was teased growing up, not a ton; I wasn't bullied like kids you hear about in the news these days. But I was picked on. I think a majority of kids are, sadly. So this song struck a chord with me.
     I'm glad there are songs like this one teaching girls and boys alike that it's OK to be different and you don't have to try to live up to anyone else's standards. And that no matter what anyone tells you, be it a teacher, fellow student, a coach, parent, whomever- you are important, you matter, you are worth it!

 Who Says

Selena Gomez

I wouldn't want to be anybody else


You made me insecure
Told me I wasn't good enough
But who are you to judge
When you're a diamond in the rough
I'm sure you got some things
You'd like to change about yourself
But when it comes to me
I wouldn't want to be anybody else


Na na na na na
Na na na na na na
I'm no beauty queen
I'm just beautiful me


La na na na na na na na na!
La na na na na na na na na!


You've got every right
To a beautiful life


Who says
Who says you're not perfect
Who says you're not worth it
Who says you're the only one that's hurting
Trust me
That's the price of beauty
Who says you're not pretty
Who says you're not beautiful
Who says


It's such a funny thing
How nothing's funny when it's you
You tell 'em what you mean
But they keep whiting out the truth


It's like a work of art
That never gets to see the light
Keep you beneath the stars
Won't let you touch the sky


La na na na na na na na na!
La na na na na na na na na!


I'm no beauty queen
I'm just beautiful me


La na na na na na na na na!
La na na na na na na na na!




You've got every right
To a beautiful life
C'mon


Who says
Who says you're not perfect
Who says you're not worth it
Who says you're the only one that's hurting
Trust me
That's the price of beauty
Who says you're not pretty
Who says you're not beautiful


Who says
Who says you're not star potential
Who says you're not presidential
Who says you can't be in movies
Listen to me, listen to me
Who says you don't pass the test
Who says you can't be the best
Who said, who said
Won't you tell me who said that




Who says
Who says you're not perfect
Who says you're not worth it
Who says you're the only one that's hurting
Trust me
That's the price of beauty
Who says you're not pretty
Who says you're not beautiful
Who says

If I Had the Chance to Do It All Again

     As I drove home from work today I had my iPod music playing from my iPhone and a Barbara Streisand song came on. It was automatically added when I had synced my iPhone with my iTunes library from my laptop. My dad had put it on there when he was making a video for my maternal grandmother's 80th birthday surprise celebration last month. The Barbara Streisand song was called "The Way We Were" from her album "Memories". There is a line in the song that goes like this, "If we had the chance to do it all again/Tell me - Would we? Could we?" Which got me to thinking, if I had the chance to re-do my life, would I? Over the years this has been a question I've asked myself and I always used to answer, yes. If I could do it all again I would do this different or I would change how this happened. But driving down Continental I realized that I wouldn't do that much different. Because if I did, then I wouldn't have met the people I have over the past 27 years, I wouldn't have lived in the cities and states that I did. I wouldn't have those experiences that have shaped me and made me who I am today.
     I have moved six different times, lived in seven different cities and a total of four states throughout my 27 years of life. Each time I had to leave behind either family, friends or both and then travel to the new destination and basically restart my life. In the beginning, when I was young- the first time we moved I was four- I didn't really understand much of what was going on. As I got older, I realized just what moving would entail. And I became more and more against it, of course I didn't have much of a choice and ended up going along with my parents and siblings for the most part.

     Despite these things, I wouldn't change my past. It defines me, makes me who I am and helps me walk down the path and into the future. That said, there a few things that if I could, I would change. Mrs. Sales, one of the teachers from the elementary school I attended, died in a car crash when I was around ten-years-old. If I could go back and change that I would. When my friend Kalyn High died from osteosarcoma at age seventeen, I'd change that as well. And then losing contact with friends from the different places I've lived over the years. 

Me at age 3 around Halloween on the front steps of our first house in Westtown, PA

Our house in Fort Myers, Florida- it was a Polaroid, hence the white bar on the bottom with the scribbling

The Greeley's circa Christmas 2005. Back when my mom was a blonde, Janine wasn't married and Jordan, well, no he's still like that!