It’s safe to say that I’m a big sap. I’m a helpless romantic, frequent dreamer, hopeful wisher. I love motivational quotes and those beautiful stories that bring tears to your eyes. (I often tear up at things. I get that from my mother.) So it should be no surprise that sometimes I spend my time looking up inspirational stuff online. Sometimes you just need a pick me up! Or a pep talk. Lucky for me (and now you!) I found just the thing to cure a bad day.

Most people have heard about the internet sensation, Kid President. He gave a pretty famous “pep talk” last year that blew up YouTube and trended on Facebook for months. Well he has another video that I stumbled upon, and I think it’s pretty great. Even though it’s meant for a newborn baby, it’s pretty applicable to everyone when they need some encouraging words.

Click here to watch it! I hope it brightens up your day :) I only wish that I can have as much wisdom as this seven-year-old someday.

Here’s to living louder & loving life.

“Mind if I join you?”

Startled, I looked up from my psychology book. An older gentleman, with a white wool-knit sweater over a plaid button down, was waiting for me to respond.

(I couldn’t really say no, could I?) “Um, sure.” I sorta smiled, awkwardly.

“Why thank you.” He smiled, genuinely. He left his leather briefcase on the chair and headed to buy some lunch.

I’m not sure why I was so startled by his request. As soon as he left, my mind started racing. Do I have to talk to him? Why is he sitting with me? All I wanna do is my work… is he going to leave me alone? I had such an adverse reaction to a kind stranger joining me for lunch, which sort of disgusted me. When did I start rejecting company and conversation?

The gentleman walked back over to me and set his lunch on the table. He had a cup of soup and a fruit bowl on his tray, and I immediately thought that I never knew there were trays available. I could have avoided clumsily carrying too many lunch items this whole time. This guy was smart.

“You know, I’m not just sitting here because you’re a pretty young girl,” the man chuckled. “Frankly, there are no empty tables and I just really need to eat some lunch. I hope you don’t mind.” He had kind eyes, like ones you imagine a literary grandfather having. I smiled for real this time.

“No, I don’t mind.” I set down my high-lighter and closed my book. Maybe I needed some company after all.

I learned that my lunch partner is named Bill Brookes. He’s a retired high school chem teacher (he taught for 40 years at a very prestigious private school) and now he sits in on Villanova classes twice a week, just for fun. He even does the homework, even though he’s not required to. His favorite classes this semester are Quantum Physics and some other sciencey class that makes my poor Communication-major head spin. He tried to convinced me that it was just like simple trigonometry and calculus, but I didn’t believe him.

When he’s not in class, he’s learning how to play the clarinet or spending time with his wife, Linda (and his two girlfriends on the side–kidding of course). He’s Jewish and served in World War II. He told me to look up all these old war songs that he’s learning to play on the clarinet, but I’ve forgotten their names already. Bill has traveled the world, mostly solo, and told me about all the concentration camps he visited in Eastern Europe. He has a few daughters, some grandkids, a son-in-law whom he really doesn’t like, but deals with anyways. He rather eat a hoagie than a bowl of fruit, and prefers sparkling water to flat. Sometimes his old students contact him on Facebook. He gets frustrated when he can’t figure out math problems on his yellow legal pads.

I sat with Bill for an hour and a half, sometimes talking, but mostly listening. He’s a sharp guy with funny stories. I appreciated his company a lot more than I thought I would. Before I got up to go to class, he gave me one piece of advice.

“After graduation, don’t get married. I mean, get married eventually, but don’t get tied down too soon. Go see the world instead. You have time to get married later.” Coming from a guy whose generation is categorized by early marriages and tons of babies, I think I’ll take his wise words.

As I got up to leave, I told him that it was a pleasure meeting him, and truly meant it. He simply tipped is drink at me and smiled.

Walking to class, I realized that spontaneous conversations and familiar strangers is lost on our generation. We’re too plugged in and tuned out to be open and appreciate someone’s company. For Bill, he’s been asking people to join them for lunch for decades. For me, this was the first time a stranger approached me with that question.

I’m not saying that we should make friends with every stranger we meet. (That would go against every “Stranger Danger” lesson we learned in preschool). I think we should just have the courage to chat up the business man sitting next to us on the train, or ask the young mom in Starbucks a question about her day. Talking to Bill was probably the highlight of my week. I got to learn so much about him, no strings attached. We chatted for the sake of conversation, to be a little less lonely for an hour of our day. We’ll probably never run into each other again, but at least we had a nice lunch together.

Who knows what you can learn from people. But if you don’t ask, you’ll never find out.

Here’s to Bill & the gift of company.

8am yoga. Yea you read that right. 8am yoga. I do 8am yoga now (who am I?). Not only do I do early morning yoga, my teacher is a priest.

One of the perks of going to a Catholic school is having a slew of Augustinian brothers to get to know. Some people get to know them through classes. Some just hear them say mass. Call me creative, but I’m getting acquainted with one through yoga. Father David is basically a celebrity. It’s hard to pinpoint his personality but it’s a little something like this: theatrical flare, mixed with a positive, spiritual, uplifting energy. He exudes contentment. Just by being around him, you can tell that he enjoys life in a simple, yet extremely meaningful way. I’ve been hearing people rave about his early morning yoga practice for 5 semesters and now, my schedule finally aligns with his.

That’s what motivated me to get out of bed at 7:30am Wednesday morning. I knew that going to yoga so early would be worth it. I dragged my friend Maria along and was pleasantly surprised to see the entire room PACKED with other yoga-zen-seekers. The second I stepped onto my mat, we were moving, breathing, internalizing. While some people were obviously experts, I was simply committed to keeping up.

Now, I’ve done yoga before, but I was a tad out of practice. Yoga is hard! Don’t let anyone tell you differently. You have to move with your breath and anything you do with your body has intentionality. You’re uniting mind, body, and spirit into a calming state of serenity and gratitude. But to do that, you have to concentrate. Hard. It seems a little counter intuitive, but somehow it just works. At first, you’re consciously performing each pose; each breath is thoughtfully drawn in and released. But then all of a sudden, you find a flow. Your body just moves and you’re so present. Instead cursing your inflexibility or wondering if anyone’s judging your form, your body seems to know what to do. Flow.

Besides Father David’s encouragement to find intentionality for the day and the physical relief of deeply stretching out my stress, I think I  most enjoyed the vibe of everyone else in that room. There we were, a bunch of girls (and a handful of guys!), with no make up on, in ratty t-shirts and yoga pants (which were actually worn for the appropriate activity) at 8am, doing yoga. We came to find meaning. We came to find joy. And I think we each left feeling a little bit lighter.

Needless to say, I’m going every week.

“This practice is for you. Make it yours.” (Father David)

Here’s to the coolest yoga instructor & working on my flexibility.