high school | cardigans and necklaces

So I know it’s been a while but… I GOT INTO THE BETA CLUB!!!. When I first got the letter I was way excited and humbled because only a selected few get chosen. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was (I know, what rock do I live under), but I’ve always heard about how great it is for college applications so I knew this was going to be a great opportunity for me. I read the long and somewhat boring letter to find out more about the club but the gist of it is that it is an educational youth organization that encourages academic achievement, character, leadership, and service so it requires students to do work around the community. You earn points based on the service you do and for how long you do it. I was pumped when I heard about this because I’ve wanted to do community service for a while now but I’ve never seemed to get around to it. The best part is that I’m doing community service with some of my other friends so we get to be able to share these experiences with each other. They give you a certain amount of points that you must withhold in order to stay in the club as well as keeping up a 3.5 average or higher. When you sign up for BETA, you are given the option to attend the induction. At the BETA induction they talk about what you do in the club, a bit about its history, who are the officers, we pledged to stay pure (ok, that is not what we pledged), and induct new members into the club (I know, it sounds like a huge snooze fest). We had a dress code to go by, which they basically described to us as: “dress as you would if your grandmother was going to church”. To them that meant no jeans, t-shirts, tennis shoes, and any other informal wear of the sort. Wouldn’t have been easier to just say casual elegant?

Before the induction ceremony started my mom and I went through the halls of the school and took some pictures of the outfit. I also caught up with a few of my friends that I had not talked to since school started because we no longer have classes together. There were over 170 new sophomores being inducted that night and it was a long process. Trying to line up 170 chatty teenagers in alphabetical order was difficult and no one seemed to want to pay attention to the poor teacher who kept yelling over us to get our attention. I will say that he was not the man for the job, most of the students were taller than him and to top it all of he was sick, so yelling was difficult for him. They should have had some of the cheerleaders bring out their megaphones and allow the man to use it. The induction process was longer than I expected and it got sort of boring, then finally they started pinning kids and giving out certificates. Of course as the socially awkward person I am I went out there walking as if I was the tin man from the Wizard of Oz and needed oil in my joints. I thought I did completely fine just walking and smiling, in fact in my head the walk went down as if I was walking a catwalk or something… and then I saw my mom’s pictures. I wasn’t really smiling, and my walking was stiff and all over the place! But what can I say, at least my outfit looked good and took some attention away from my actions or at least I hope it did.

What I wore was a navy blue dress that had an open back which was covered with lace. I also wore a pearl necklace that had different subtle colors such as a pearl white, light grey, and a soft gold. The bracelet was pearl white as well as my earrings. My shoes were a nude color and brown to go along with the necklace. I made sure to keep the outfit more on the simple side because it was a semi formal event and I didn’t want to wear a color that wasn’t appropriate for the setting. The dress was very comfortable, especially since we were there for more than two hours. I started looking around at what some of the other girls were wearing and I saw a lot of the same things. I saw a lot of maxi and skater dresses paired up with long over sized cover ups. I also saw a lot of girls wearing sandals, I understand it’s still hot outside but this is a semi formal event people! I don’t know about you but when I think semi formal, sandals are definitely not the first thing that comes to mind. Yep! I’m up to a good start this year.

Loved the back of the dress!

FFF: Fab Fifty Friday by teen fashion blog

The post today it’s an accurate representation of how intense my week was. This is only the second week of school and I have been going to bed past 11 PM every day and that’s just homework for God’s sakes! Going back to school can take a toll on your overall emotional wellness. It is not only the stress of classes and grades and fitting in, but it also means having to deal with people, the good, the bad, and the in between (the ones that just don’t care).

I understand not everybody will have my same opinions and I respect that, however that won’t stop me from dissecting other’s opinions (at least in my head). The other day at lunch, I overheard a group at the table talking about the Ebola outbreak in Africa and the two Americans that were brought back to Atlanta for medical care. I guess that because we live so close to Atlanta it was a very passionate discussion. The consensus pretty much was that the government did wrong and that they shouldn’t have brought them back to the US and risk an outbreak at home.

I couldn’t help but cringe as I heard them talk. I do realize that there is politics behind the whole decision and that it is probably more complicated than what I can even begin to imagine or understand, but in my opinion it was the right thing to do. Call me naive or stupid but to me it is an expression of moral and humanity at it’s best. That doesn’t mean I am not afraid, we all are but these kids are so consumed by their own fears that they would rather abandon people than provide a helping hand. Now, if that is not losing humanity what is? I got emotional, they were discussing the lives of two people, not lab monkeys (although that is pretty bad too). These two inconveniences and takers of their good night sleep are our citizens, our missionaries. They represent the goodwill of our nation and they represent each and every one of us. They stand up for causes that we are too scared or inconvenienced to take on. We should be grateful to them, they do the work that nobody else wants or cares to do. They are heroes! Oh, but it is so easy to criticize others. It is so easy these days to not feel empathy for others. Why!!!??? What went wrong? When as a society did we lose it? When did it start? I know it is probably a combination of my personality and my parents teachings but I feel for them, I feel for their families. I asked myself as I continued to listen to their ramblings: “I wonder if they would say the same thing if it was one of their parents/siblings/grandparents?” I felt defeated. These people are the future of this nation! What is next? No army because they are too selfish to care for anybody else?

I hope that something good comes out of this. I really do. Think about it. How long has this virus been around? How many people has it killed? Who cares, right? It was poor African people, it was not us. As we bring these two Americans home we are confronted with the realization that we have to do something. It’s not a third world country anymore, it’s us! There is money for research now, companies are willing to work on a cure now… the irony. Too poor to be saved. I apologize if we don’t share the same opinions, please know that I do respect yours and that in no way I am trying to offend anybody that differs from mine. I am so glad I got that out of my chest!

I can’t deny my mood has been somber since that conversation, so writing this post is my way of releasing those emotions to start working on my positivity again. The outfit represents my view (at least this week) of the future. A bleak, black and white one, no colors, not even gray. Good vs evil. In or out. The FAIL cap was the piece that brought everything together. We FAILED! Forget about the latest dystopic novels, in our future, there is no more humanity among or within us.