the liebster award

Hello friends! This is a response post for being nominated for a Liebster Award by Jo Smith (by the way, thank you so much!). The Liebster Award is for bloggers who have under 200 followers and is given as a way to acknowledge and encourage new bloggers. Being nominated means a lot, so thank you to everyone for reading and thank you Jo for nominating me!

The Rules

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to his/her blog
• Answer 11 questions from that blogger
• Give 11 facts about yourself
• Nominate other bloggers! (Max 11)
• Ask 11 questions for them
• Ask them to give 11 facts about themselves

Here are Jo’s questions:

1. Would you change your name? If so, what would it be and why?
   1. – I would make Marie my middle name because its a family name. It is my mom’s middle name as well as my grandmother’s, great-grandmother’s, etc. on up the family tree.
2. Do you believe in luck? If so, why?
   1. -I believe in fate which I guess can be interpreted as the same thing. I believe that whatever is meant to happen, will happen. Sometimes these things may be a surprise and seem lucky, but I think everything is part of a bigger plan.
3. Where would you prefer to live besides where you live now?
   1. I’m actually in the middle of making this decision for my 20’s. I’ve been brainstorming about where I may want to move after I graduate college and I think I may want to live somewhere like Savannah, GA. It’s beautiful and artsy and in the south, so it doesn’t get too cold.
4. What book or magazine are you reading currently?
   1. I’m reading Beautiful & Damned by Robert M. Drake. It’s a book of different stories. I bought his poetry book, A Brilliant Madness, (which I highly recommend just FYI) a couple months ago and I love his writing style and how open he is with his emotions. I buy every book he writes now. This is the link to his Barnes & Noble page where all of his books are listed if you are interested: Robert M. Drake
5. If you had another blog, what would it be about?
   1. I would have a travel blog. I love traveling and having the opportunity to travel and write about it would be amazing. If only I had the money and time.
6. Would you live in a tiny house? (100-500 sq. feet)
   1. Nope. Can’t. Won’t. I’m incredibly cluttered and I get really claustrophobic. I feel like those two would not go together very well in a tiny house.
7. Which decade are you most? (20’s, 30’s, 40’s, etc.)
   1. I was slightly confused by the question, but I’m taking it like which decade I like the most. I think I would have loved the roaring 20’s. The flapper dresses and all the excitement going on would have been fun. However, I love the swing music from the 30’s and 40’s like the Boswell Sisters and the big bands.
8. What is your zodiac sign?
   1. I’m a Virgo! My birthday is August 25th.
9. Which time of day do you prefer most?
   1. Nap time and sunset.
10. If you had a chance, would you meet up with your readers (for your blog) for coffee?
    1. Of course! I would love to meet all the people I have had the privilege of interacting with through my blog.
11. If you could go back in time, which period would you go back in and why?
    1. For those who have read my blog before this won’t be a surprise, but I would go to Ancient Egypt. Seeing all the architecture back then instead of the ruins now would be AWESOME.

11 Facts About Yours Truly:

1. I love to run, but that is as far as my athleticism goes.
2. Pineapple is my favorite fruit.
3. I could eat pasta every meal of the day.
4. I was Drum Major for my band in high school.
5. I am an only child.
6. I’ve moved 11 times in my life.
7. In the summer of my sophomore year in high school I went to an Indian wedding in London and it was the coolest thing ever.
8. I have an extra bone in both of my feet.
9. I love spicy food.
10. Peacocks are my favorite animal.
11. I took piano for years and then I forgot my song midway through my concert and quit because I was so embarrassed. I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, so don’t judge.

My nominees:

One Millennial Girl – I love how you tie in your sense of humor into your posts! You have a very encouraging blog.

Karina Pinella– I especially love your poetry. You’re very creative and your writing is unique.

Life of a Writer – I love how you aren’t afraid to speak out about your beliefs. I also love how you write about what you’ve been through in order to connect to others.

My questions to you:

1. What is your favorite animal? Why do you like this animal so much?
2. What was your favorite childhood TV show?
3. What is your favorite TV show now?
4. What is one thing you want to accomplish in your lifetime?
5. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
6. What is your favorite song as of this moment? (Mine changes pretty much everyday so I understand the difficulty of picking one)
7. What made you create a blog?
8. What word would you use to describe yourself?
9. Name a person who has significantly impacted your life. How have they impacted you?
10. What is your favorite sport?
11. If you could trade places with any celebrity for the day, who would you choose?

Comment a link to your answers below and don’t forget to nominate your own people and say 11 facts about yourself!

I love you all. Be adventurous. Chérir la vie.

Ellie X.

 

 

range of beliefs

Today I made the drive back home after finishing my freshman year of college! Pray that my GPA was high enough to keep my scholarship. College was amazing and I miss it, but I’m happy to be home. I always visit my best friend from high school, Eliza, when I come home and her college best friend, Kelsey. Today we did the normal catch up on drama in our lives, visit taco bell, and talk about boys, but after we caught up our conversation found its way to religion. Eliza and I went to the same private Christian high school. Now, Eliza and Kelsey attend a Christian college and I’m at a public college, so we’ve all been involved in religion courses. We started off just talking about how professors we took all taught from different perspectives. For example, we discussed Martin Luther and how some professors taught that his nailing of the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg Castle Church was fact and others taught that depending on how you look at the evidence it can be debated whether or not Martin Luther was the one who posted them. It was interesting to me mainly because both professors were people I considered to be highly intelligent, but why did they not agree if they were both “experts” in their field? It got me thinking about religion in a general sense.

I have never met two people who agree on absolutely everything. Ever. I do not think it’s possible to find two people who have the same values, beliefs, morals, political views, etc. There are just too many options for people to decide on. Someone once described modern religion to me to be similar to a buffet line. Imagine the buffet line is all different religions: Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic, Mormon, Protestant, Sunni, Shiite, and all the ones you can think of. Then as you go down the buffet line, you pick out each thing you like about the different religions. If you like to have your sins forgiven through confession, then you choose that from Catholicism. If you believe in karma and meditation to channel the God within then you choose to have that from Hinduism. You continue down the table until you reach the end and you have your plate which is now your own personalized religion. Society has caused this mindset of “I do what is best for me and what works for me” and I’m not saying that is right or wrong. That isn’t the point of this post. I just think it’s interesting compared to religion over the past several centuries.

I’ll start with the Egyptians (because for those of you who don’t know I have a slight obsession with Egypt and I have a lot of useless knowledge about it). The Egyptians were polytheistic, meaning they believed in more than one God. They actually believed in MANY gods and they were constantly changing depending on who was Pharaoh. The gods only communicated to the Egyptian people through the Pharaoh, which basically gave him all the power because who would know if he/she was lying? The regular townspeople of Egypt were not even allowed inside of the temples because they were the “dwelling places” of the gods. Egyptian history had different phases: The Dynastic Period, and Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. Before the Old Kingdom in the Dynastic Period, the gods were very often portrayed in animal form along with human form. In the Old and Middle Kingdoms the focus shifted from animal and human forms of the gods to the sun god Ra. Ra had temples built to him along with a small pyramid. While the other were still an important part of religion, it was the first time that a non-animal or human was the focus. Then in the New Kingdom, the Pharaoh Akhenaten decided to do away with polytheism and make Egypt a monotheistic society. However, this decision was not so popular and after Akhenaten’s death polytheism was immediately brought back. Tradition dies hard. I find it interesting because Egypt prospered for about 3000 years and their religion changed and shaped itself throughout that time and has now (to my knowledge) died out. So, what about all those people throughout the 3000 year period who devoted their lives to worshipping these gods that don’t exist in the modern world? Were their efforts in vain?

Another, more current, example is the Zoroastrians. Zoroastrianism is the pre-Islamic religion of Persia that has been around for 3500 years and is still being practiced today. I do not know as much about this religion as I do about the Egyptians, but I do know that they are having a problem because they are dying out. Traditionally, Zoroastrians only marry other Zoroastrians and they do not consider converts appropriate for marriage. From the information I could find there are only about 190,000 left around the globe. Considering there’s 7.125 billion people in the world (give or take a few) and we are constantly growing, 190,000 is not a lot. They have had to make to make changes to their strict rules in order for their religion to survive. The more traditional Zoroastrians are upset by the change in this ancient religion, similar to the anger felt by the Egyptians in the change from polytheism to monotheism. My question is will this religion die out like Egypt’s?

What happens to the people who dedicate their lives to worshipping gods, but then their religion dies out. Civilizations like the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians whose gods are no longer worshipped and only mentioned in history lectures. Was it all for nothing?

I’m not necessarily looking for answers. This was mostly just food for thought to get the gears spinning in your head. I’m not trying to offend anyone or make light of anyone’s beliefs. I highly respect what people choose to consider the truth and I have my own things that I believe. I just wanted to write about how religions have changed and morphed in different societies over the centuries.

I love you all. Be adventurous. Chérir la vie.

Ellie X.

P.S. If you’re interested in what I talked about, here’s places where I’ve learned information from.

http://www.aldokkan.com/religion/religion.htm

http://www.religionfacts.com/zoroastrianism

I also have several Egyptology textbooks that I’ve bought off of Amazon.

Zoroastrianism picture: https://thenoblequranofallah.wordpress.com

Egyptian picture: http://cultureblogmrbz.weebly.com/

 

 

i’m still alive, i promise

hello friends,

I’m writing this to say I’M FINALLY DONE WITH EXAMS! Thank God. I’m sorry I completely dropped off the face of the earth. I took 18 credit hours this semester so I have done nothing but work for finals these past couple weeks. I promise I will be posting regularly again, but for now I’m going to sleep for the next 48 hours. I just wanted to let you know I’m still here! Until next post…

I love you all. Be adventurous. Chérir la vie.

Ellie X.