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ejridener

~ "This above all; to thine own self be true." – Hamlet, William Shakespeare.

ejridener

Category Archives: Travel

30-day writing challenge: Day 23

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by ejridener in Art, Challenge, Travel, Uncategorized

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Tags

abroad, art, cat, challenge, dog, future, goth, personal, rescue, Tim Burton, writing

Day 23: A letter to someone, anyone

It’s a high school cliché to do this but why not? I’ve decided to write a letter to my future self seeing as I’m young and full of ideas and dreams that will likely fall to the wayside when life gets in the way.

Dear Future Self,

I swear if you turned into a square I will be so pissed.

Remember when things were much simpler? Back in the day in elementary school when you chose your friends based on whether they liked NSYNC or The Backstreet Boys? When you didn’t have to worry about bills? When you dreamed of traveling the world and taking enough pictures to fill a room’s worth of photo albums? Or when you swore to be the eccentric aunt who taught her nephew how to draw and cling to imagination because at the end of the day that’s one of the few things that we will always have.

Taken right after I had the dark teal peek-a-boo highlights put in.

Taken right after I had the dark teal peek-a-boo highlights put in.

Hopefully, you didn’t forget. I do hope you’ve traveled the world and filled each of the 22 slots in your memory card carrying case. I hope you choose friends based on whether they watch Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead. I hope you don’t worry about bills because you always pay them in a timely manner rather than at the last second. Finally, I hope Austin receives a scholarship to an art school because his talent and passion is so great.

Mostly, I hope you’re happy. Maybe living somewhere you’d never thought you’d visit or working for a magazine you’d thought was out of reach. Maybe there’s a guy, maybe there isn’t. But there better not be any cats; I forbid you. Rescue a dog.

Consider this a wake-up call from the ghost of your former self. The person looking through the window during a thunderstorm. The dreamer whose only surgery has been wisdom teeth removal. The student who hates partying and only drinks when curled up in front of her Macbook. The aunt who declares Wednesday a no-go for working because it’s the day she spends with her little man. The artist whose hair is black with dark teal peek-a-boo highlights. The Goth who goes to the grocery store looking like a Tim Burton character because she loves to turn the J.C. Penny loving housewife’s heads. And lastly, the writer who types for life.

Stay weird,

2015 Emily J Ridener

P.S. Seriously, if you have a cat there’s no hope for my future.

30-day writing challenge: Day 18

19 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by ejridener in Art, Challenge, Family, Life, Literature, Movies, Music, Travel, Uncategorized

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Tags

art, books, challenge, Edgar Allen Poe, Game of Thrones, Hawaii, Ireland, literature, London, Mexico, My Chemical Romance, Nikon, photojournalism, Richard III, Shakespeare, Tim Burton, writing

Day 18: Post 30 facts about you

I’m going to treat this as a “meet to admin” type situation. Every year in the “Notes” section of my Facebook page, I post a “30 things about me part…” since my senior year of high school. The reason I have continued to do it is because it’s funny to see how things change and how I’ve grown from senior in high school to fourth year college student. I recommend doing it because it’s a nice thing to look back on after a few years and it provides a little flashback to who you were years before.

giphy-31.I used to want to be a vampire

2.I name my technologies

3.My iPod, Vlad, is like a lifeline, pacifier and addiction all wrapped in one

4.I love to travel and have visited most of continental United States and Hawaii along with Cozamel

5.I have a dream of visiting London, Ireland and Paris

6.I identify as Goth

7.I am a literature nerd

8.My favorite Shakespeare play is Richard III followed by Coriolanus

9.My nephew and I almost share a birthday

10.I love to cook but rarely do so

A blanket I made as a baby shower gift for a close friend.

A blanket I made as a baby shower gift for a close friend.

11.I knit to relax

12.I think I’m a 70-year-old trapped in a 22-year-old’s body

13.I have a coffee problem

14.I consider myself a straight ally

15.My bedroom looks like a crypt complete with black-out curtains, black bedding and enough skulls to rival the Paris Catacombs

16.My favorite Edgar Allen Poe work is “The Tell-Tale Heart”

17.I am a huge Game of Thrones fan and, spoiler alert, am still a bit emotional at Jon Snow’s death

18.My favorite artist is Kevin Llewellyn

19.I love my Nikon I bought for my digital photojournalism class, even though I struggle with the manual setting, and love to take pictures of just about anything

20.My mom and I, even though we are incredibly close, are like Doris Day and Wednesday Addams…guess which one’s Wednesday?

21.My alarm clock is my foe

22.My favorite composer is either Thomas Newman or Danny Elfman

23.My favorite director is Tim Burton

24.My iPod has 2,220 songs and counting

25.I love thunderstorms

26.I prefer nighttime and avoid the sun like the plague

27.I have my mother’s Irish skin until I venture into the sun where I burn once and my father’s Native American heritage holds my tan for at least six months. No, I’m not happy about that

28.Our Yorkie, Kitty, and I used to have a severe case of sibling rivalry until Jules passed and we mended the fence because we lost our friend

29.My favorite book is Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

My Chemical Romance in the music video for "Teenagers."

My Chemical Romance in the music video for “Teenagers.”

30.My all-time favorite band is My Chemical Romance

30-day writing challenge: Day 13

14 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by ejridener in Challenge, College, Family, Life, Travel, Uncategorized

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Tags

career, challenge, children, family, future, graduation, marriage, travel, writing

Day 13: What are you excited about?

I know many people talk about how excited they are about the future because, depending on the point they may be in their lives, graduation, career, marriage, children, etc. is within their grasp. I’m two years away from graduating college with a journalism degree and English minor but that’s not what excites me.

lights-photographyI’m excited for my future because I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m typically very well organized and during semesters I have to plan out my weeks carefully in order to make sure I have the time to complete assignments and work. Though not knowing what is around the corner of time makes me twitch because it’s hard to plan for, it also sends a thrill through me because whatever is lurking could be amazing or heart breaking. It’s all a part of life and hopefully, at the tender age of 22, I still have quite a bit to live through and experience.

The few things I do know about my future is my hands will likely be cramping from the amount of typing I’ll be doing. I know my eyes will burn from lack of sleep be it finishing an article or stalking my Twitter feed to track news updates. I know I could land anywhere in the world. I know my family will support my decisions. Ultimately, I know no matter what happens, I’ll take it one day at a time and power through it whether it is good or bad.

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