20 Things I've Learned From My Sister

There's just something about having a sister that makes the world a little bit better. 

Today, my sister turns seventeen. She has made me laugh and cry and try to figure out how to be a better person. She inspires me to be better than I am. I couldn't be more thankful that God has given me a sister that has also become my best friend. 

Today I wanted to share with you 20 things my sister has taught me.

1. It's okay to be bold. 
2. Dancing around like a lunatic in public is okay...and very fun.
3. Taking risks is something that everyone needs to do sometimes.
4. You can still have a kind heart and stand up for yourself.
5. Not everyone is the same, and that's a wonderful part of life.
6. Anything can become an adventure.
7. Following your dreams is something that everyone should be allowed to do.
8. Happiness is determined by you, not what you have or the circumstances that you're in.
9. Everybody deserves a chance to be a friend.
10. The world is just waiting to be explored.
11. It's okay to indulge in doughnuts sometimes.
12. Dying your hair crazy colors is definitely rad. 
13. Having a creative spirit is good...utilizing it is better.
14. Even young people can make a difference in this world.
15. Being a friend is hard and it takes work. 
16. Apologies are necessary––sometimes even when you don't feel like you did something wrong.
17. Those boys who weren't here to stay aren't worth your time anymore.
18. And how to gracefully let go of them, even if it hurts a little bit. 
19. Friends come and go, and that's okay.
20. And most importantly: nobody will ever be able to compete with the friendship that I've found in her for the past 17 years (jeez) and in all of the years to come. 

Happy, happy birthday Merci! Thank you for all that you've taught me. I can only hope that I've taught you some things along the way too.

-Shi.

My Biggest Fears

Something that I've always struggled with is fear.

I'm not exactly sure why I struggle with it, and I've tried to overcome it many, many times throughout my life. I've even grown to take the word 'fearless' as my life motto. Because I want to live a fearless life.

But today, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about my biggest fears, and why I have them. They're personal and real, and it is something that I don't usually talk about.

I think it's good to talk about them, though. Because if you talk about it enough, maybe it'll become less scary. Maybe it'll become less of a threat. Here are my top 5 fears:

1. Tornadoes. This one is sort of silly and I'm not exactly sure when I became afraid of it. I remember when I was little sitting in our living room watching the news as a tornado was headed right towards our house and being petrified. Ever since then it's been bad. When there's a thunder stormy that's the first thing my mind goes to. It's even worse now, since the house we're living in doesn't have a basement. I just hate them and never want to have to experience one. Ugh.
2. Getting in a plane crash. Also irrational. I know. I've just always been afraid of this. Again, maybe it was from watching the 9/11 stuff happen on the news when I was 5. I'm not sure. I just know that whenever I get on a plane, I'm nervous.
3. Never falling in love. My dream in life has always been to fall in love, get married, have kids. So my absolute biggest fear is that it'll never happen. I know that I have to trust God with it, and I have been trying my best to, but it still terrifies me. 
4. Letting my parents down. The idea of letting anyone down is horrible to me, so letting my parents down would devastate me completely. They've done so much for me throughout my life that I can't even imagine doing something that would really hurt them. 
5. Never getting my dream job. The idea of never being able to be a stay at home mom and write books scares me. I don't want any other jobs than this. I don't know if I was cut out for anything else, so the prospect of not doing that scares me a lot. 

So, yeah. Some of those are probably pretty silly, but they really do freak me out a lot. I just hope that one day I can defeat the power that fear holds over me and laugh in its face. 

I really, really, really hate fear. 

xoxo, shi

ps. what are your biggest fears? let me know in the comments.

Here Comes The Sun | Vacation 2014

//Andalusia, Alabama
June 6-13, 2014

thank you pinterest for this lovely. 

So this summer we got the privilege of going to visit some of my extended family in Alabama. It was such a nice little break from the constant happenings of life and, if I may say so for myself, we made our own adventures for everyday that we were down there.

On Sunday we basically just had a family day. Nothing too exciting; Church and then just some catching up. My dad preached Sunday night, and it was the first time that I've ever got the chance to hear him. It was fantastic.

my uncle keeps strange pets around...Hadley was brave enough to hold one of them.

Monday was our beach day. We all got in our vans and drove down to Destin, FL for the day. It was my second time there, and let me tell you: it's. gorgeous. I've never seen such beautiful water and white sand. It's lovely.

destin, florida is absolutely breathtaking

While we were in Destin, we decided to stop for some sea food because...why not? Joe's Crab Shack for the win! Am I right?

I love these lovely ladies. 

After a long day at the beach, we went home and, well, slept. (Long car rides are exhausting). 

Tuesday we went and saw Blended (excellent film by the way). My cousin drove us around her old college town and showed us where she went to school. We stopped and got some Sonic (because what else do you do?) and then we went back to my aunts house. Later on that night, we decided to go bowling. 

bowling shoes selfie...wait what?

It was such a good time with my family. After bowling what did we do? We got some more Sonic. (It's a reoccuring thing throughout this whole trip, just bare with me). 

WEDNESDAY WE DID PUTT-PUTT. Holla! 

This was actually so fun though. I don't know what else to really say about it. 

Wednesday night we had Church again. 

Thursday we went to this really cool zoo that had so many awesome animals. The guy who ran the zoo was, like, freaking close to all the animals. Like, he would feed the bears marshmellows out of his mouth...like WHAT?

selfie with some ponies...cuteeeee.

 He also had snakes....lots and lots of snakes...which he made us hold... EW! I will never hold a snake again in my entire life. Agh.

Merci had a slight panic attack.

holla!

i swear this one was trying to kill us!

(We got more Sonic on the way home from this...just thought you should know). (We love happy hour a little too much).

I don't have any pictures from Friday. But on Friday morning we went swimming in a family friends pool. It was so nice to be able to just enjoy the weather and relax in the sun. The water felt amazing (it was like 100 degrees down there). So it was nice. 

Friday night my aunts Church hosted a game night and it. was. awesome. We played this game called Battle of the Sexes and it was madness. It was so funny to watch all the guys vs. the girls and to see how competitive we could all get. (Girls won...both games). 

On Saturday morning we drove home. So not too much excitement that day. I literally slept the whole way. But overall it was such a great vacation. I learned so much and tried so many new things. It was incredible. 

We vlogged some of it, so if you would like to see our crazy vacation adventures head over to youtube.com/abeautifulpath - we would really appreciate it!

xoxo Shi

What kind of vacation did you go on this summer?

So I Graduated | High School

// Wright State University

May 27, 2014

insta that i shamelessly stole from someone in my class. oops.

So, yeah. I graduated a while ago and haven't really had much time to post about it. What better time than the present, am I right?

There's really not too much that I want to say about it other than IT FEELS SO GOOD. 

I'm beyond ready to move on to college and focus on furthering my writing skills and getting new opportunities. I couldn't be more thrilled. 

the yellows' cute, right? ha

My high school experience wasn't the best...by far. But I am so grateful that I got the opportunities and chances that I did while I was there. And I thought that I would go ahead and share some of them with you. Nothing too much (we'll save that for later), just some of the things that really stick out to me from my four years there. 

+ I met my best friend in the seventh grade. We weren't friends for a portion of our freshman / sophomore years, but we became close again and I couldn't be more thankful to have this girl in my life. She has been my rock through so much this past year and a half. I've been blessed by her. 

her dad is seriously good with a photography too. so that's cool. 

+ I learned how to be more vocal and open with things. I was always a shy kid. Like the cry-when-a-stranger-talked-to-me type. It was bad. But throughout my years of high school I learned to be a lot more vocal and talkative with people. And now I can pretty much talk to anyone who comes up to me. I'm not a shy little girl any more and I am so grateful for that.

+ Some of the best lessons I learned in high school weren't in math or english or history. They were just by simply observing people. I learned that everyone you meet is a little bit broken or a little bit in need of a friend. Life is messy and that's okay. But we have to learn to take it on at full force and give everyone we come into contact with a chance. Because that's what love does. 

+ I found out who I was. It's rare for someone who just got out of high school to say that they know who they are. And to be honest with you, I probably don't completely know who I am either. But I'm better than I was. I know who I want to be, now I just have to figure out how to become her. 

we always have to be goofy.

i love my family.

+ Most importantly, I learned that the people who are always going to be there for me are my family. They support me through everything that I do and I couldn't be more thankful for them and the impact that each of them have made on my life. They are the best friends that I could have ever asked for. God blessed me. 

Overall, high school may have been difficult, but it was definitely worth it and I can't wait to see where my life goes next. 

Congrats class of 2014.

We did it. 

xoxo Shi

How many of you guys graduated this year?

Here Comes The Sun | Spirit Song 2014

//Kings Island
June 26, 2014

concert panoramas are my absolute faves.

So, this past Thursday I got to experience Spirit Song for the first time ever. (I've been wanting to go for, like, five years now). And let me just say...it was fabulous. 

We got to the park at around 9:30 because we wanted to spend the day riding rides before the concert actually started. 

mirror selfies for the win, am i right? 

So, once we got there we decided to hit up planet snoopy first for the little kids to try out some rides. (Just so you're aware, the yellow roller coaster in planet snoopy in the front seat is the best...at least for giggles). And after that we did the carousel. Absolutely no shame.

Once we were done there we decided we wanted to go to the racer, because why not? (Again, the best seat is the front. Just trust me on this). 

It was so much fun to spend the day riding rides and spending time with my cousins and my sister. They're beautiful and funny and amazing. I'm thankful that God blessed me with them. 

this is zoe; she rode her first roller coaster. i was proud.

my darling sister. i'm thankful for this one. 

Then we ate lunch and ya know. Boring stuff. 

But after that I took Allie to ride the beast for the first time. 

BEFORE. she was nervous.

AFTER. it was fun even though it beat us up. (ignore my excited roller coaster face--yikes).

Once that was done we went and met up for the concert. It was my first outdoor / festival type concert and it was so awesome (despite the heat). We partied extra hard. Tenth Avenue North was my favorite of the night, although the rest of the bands were fabulous as well. 

When it started to get dark, Allie and I decided we wanted to go ride a couple more rides and on the way back we danced around the park like lunatics. 

awful pictures but they really just capture who we are and i honestly couldn't love them any more. 

Ended the night with a crazy glow stick / beach ball dance party with Chris Tomlin. 

It was fabulous. 

I honestly don't know what I would do without getting opportunities like these in my life. I'm so thankful for the smallest adventures that I get to go on and the memories that I have been making. They've been pretty freaking amazing so far. 

I am blessed. 

xx Shiloh