Nos Vemos Pronto

Today, I'm off to college. Out of state. My Adventure starts here. My Journey continues...

I'll be back as soon as i possibly can. I Love you all, thank you for your support.

Best,

Ashes

Close your eyes

“Music is a visual thing. Close your eyes… you will see.”

Post of lovely things

"Enthusiastic people are the ones who actually get things done in this world. Enthusiasm is what turns any idea into reality. And enthusiasm is linked closely with happiness".
— Roy Sheppard


"I don’t care if the whole world is against you or teasing you or saying you’re not gonna make it. Believe in yourself. No matter what. They laughed at the Wright brothers. They laughed at Thomas Edison. They laughed at Disney. Study the greats and become greater."
— Michael Jackson


"Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself."
— Mary Schmich


"Know yourself fully before making promises to another. Make many mistakes so you’ll know the right decision when it really matters. Know when to hold on and when to let go. Love hard and often, and without reservation. Seek knowledge. Open yourself up to possibility. Keep your heart open, your head high and your spirit free. Embrace your darkness along with your light. Never mislead anyone, especially yourself. Have the courage to admit when you’re wrong. Awaken to the brilliance of ordinary moments. See goodness in the world. Strive to be your best. Be bold. Be grateful. Be wild and gloriously free. Be you."
— Jeanette LeBlanc


"We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions."
— Isaac Bashevis Singer


"After each experience, you grow up, you get enriched with something, and you don’t know how you’re going to be in six months, you don’t know what you’re going to want, what you’re going to need."
— Audrey Tautou


"World peace will never be stable until enough of us find inner peace to stabilize it"
— Peace Pilgrim


"We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out."
— Winston Churchill

"Life can be a constant struggle, filled with hardship and obstacles. Or it can be a grand adventure filled with challenges and intrigue. Every second of every day, it’s entirely up to you how you live it. It all ends the same way. How you feel when you get there is the only thing you have control over."

I've been up to..

My best friend thought it would be nice to have a road-trip so i could take pictures and make memories before leaving. It was pleasant and amazing.
Officially in 4 days, I'll be on my way to my new home. Off to start college. Im anxious about it, making friends, discovering new places and ideas, living my life wisely...So many things flow to my mind.

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life [Matthew 6:27]
(thanks Gaby)

I also have been to the movies recently. I saw My Life in Ruins and The Ugly Truth, and i might add they're both fun and quirky. I'm looking forward to seeing the following flicks:











I'm sure many of you have heard of FML, but being the optimistic that i am, I have found alternatives to that site. GMH & MyLifeIsG celebrate the great things that make life rock. I mean, sure it's funny (and let's face it, you feel better about yourself) to hear the bad things that happen to others, but is that really what we should focus on?

Alice in Wonderland

Can't help not be ecstatic for it!

Mcbook.

“Sometimes it’s the fight that makes a thing worth having.”
— Richard Paul Evans (Finding Noel)

Im getting a macbook pro very soon. I'm excited! It's worth the wait.









[Click each image for the source]

Living to the fullest

“You wanna know what living life to the fullest actually is? It’s waking up on a Monday morning with no complaints. It’s knowing you always deserve to laugh. It’s doing what feels right no matter what. It’s doing what you want to no matter how stupid you look. It’s about being yourself, because no one can tell you you’re doing it wrong.”
— Unknown

Did i hurt you with my silence?

“Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins.”
— Carlos Santana


“Books have led some to learning and others to madness”
— Francesco Petrarch


“Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.”
— Jessamyn West


“Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person’s face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. There are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing.”
— Miranda July


“Things will happen in your life that you can’t stop. But that’s no reason to shut out the world.”
— Now and Then


"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
— Philo


"Change is never easy. You fight to hold on. You fight to let go."
— The Wonder Years


"She fell, she hurt, she felt. She lived. And for all the tumble of her experiences, she still had hope."
— Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby


"It is what we make of whatever we encounter that determines the outcome. what we choose to see, what we choose to save. and what we choose to remember."
— Linda Olsson


"Love each other, or perish , it’s good, no? And it’s so true. Without love, we are birds with broken wings."
— Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie


"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
— Winston Churchill


“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.”
- Rosalia de Castro

[for image credit, click on each picture]



Things I Love Getting:
+smiles
+hugs
+emails
+texts
+packages
+gifts (unaware to me)
+compliments
+getting paid after earning it
+books
+invitations
+comments (in my blog)
+friends
+flowers (dark red roses are my favorite)
+clothes
+slim jims
+love letters
+new music
+movies that evoke meaning
+feedback on my photography/art/writing



For those of you wondering what i did this past week, here's a video about my whereabouts. You'll notice it's in spanish, but there will be parts in english for you to understand what's going on.


I was at a retreat. I much needed it. I met new people. I prepared to embrace new changes. I was loved. We were all ONE. Together. Juntos.

Be creative and achieve

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
— Ayn Rand

T.T.W.

I've been trying got get my hands on the book for a while. I'll probably read before college (if i find it). When i knew my favorite actress would be playing it, I even got more excited. I'm not sure if i should read the book before the movie, since i did with My sister's keeper and i was left a bit unsettled.


You can see the trailer here.

Have you read the book?

Let's talk hope

Hope is a dream in the mind of what can come


Hope gives you a future whatever has passed whatever done


Hope is a light that breaks through the darkness that us surround


Hope helps us find our way through to safer loving ground


Hope fights for you when things get so very tough


Hope means keeping going when you have had enough


Hope though dims on times stays through your sorrow


Hope brings you through by dreaming of tomorrow


Hope tries to console you when your eyes glisten with tears


Hope gives you something to keep going whatever your fears


Hope is free beautiful may fade but never dies


Hope is always there even if its light seems dim on times


I don't know who wrote that poem, but it's beautiful. Today i woke up with the feeling of sharing my life with someone special. I feel that all the nice things i'm able to achieve need to be witnessed by someone whom i should care for. But that's not the case. I just miss that.

[For the sources of the pictures, click the images]

Palabras de aliento

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.”
— Thomas Gray


"The heart is a muscle like any other and the best exercise you can do for it is called picking yourself up off the floor."
— Anonymous


"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."
— Ernest Hemingway


“A legal kiss is never as good as a stolen one”
— Guy de Maupassant


“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
— Walt Disney


“We fear violence less than our own feelings. Personal, private, solitary pain is more terrifying than what anyone else can inflict.”
— Jim Morrison

[For picture source, click each picture.]

The Odds

"Never let the odds keep you from what you know in your heart you were meant to do"
- H. Jackson Brown jr.

It was impossible for me to go to the college of my dreams. Financially, unaffordable. Physically, my mother wasn't liking the idea at first (everyday i get a comment to stay from a friend or someone i know). Spiritually, i felt prepared for it. And after many months of prayer, years of dreaming, a God thats amazing, a supporting family, help from the university and a stronger will later, the door was opened. The boyfriend i had never supported the idea (maybe he would miss me a lot, or selfishly didn't want me to follow my calling, who knows), & most of my friends didn't (& still don't) understand. Everything that could make me want to give up happened. all the odds were there for me. I second guessed myself, doubted God could even do it and my parents seemed to never have a assurance wether I was going or not. But God came through. I still cherish the words the lovely Brisni said encouragingly:
Just remember, if you are seeking God's will, He will guide you

And let me tell you, it's 100% true. If He brought you to it, He'll get you through it. And In just a few days, I'll be embracing one of the biggest change in my life. Starting College away from home. I won't be able to see my mom and dad as much as i want to, only in vacations. My church and the people in it that helped me grow into who i am today will keep moving forward, working in the community without me. Im gonna miss them so much. I'll be adapting to the new culture, making new friends and enjoying my college days. It's a bittersweet feeling, But i'll be following my call and at this point, i kinda have to, since I know how much sacrifice my parents have made for this to be financially possible; And how God put the right people in my path to help me through the process of being accepted in college. He'll walk me though this. I'm sure. But this is what my heart was meant to do.

Im so sorry If i have to leave you behind in the process.

Love always (and sincerely).
Ashley

Skin

"In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject."
— Henri Cartier-Bresson

Small preview of my most recent photo shoot.

bravo andy, bravo

“Weight isn’t important the way magazines make you think it is. I know a girl who just looks at her face in the medicine cabinet mirrior & never looks below her shoulders, & she’s four or five hundred pounds but she doesn’t see all that, she just sees a beautiful face & therefore she thinks she’s a beauty. & therefore i think she’s a beauty, too, becasue i usually accept people on the basis of their self-images, because their self-images have more to do with the way they think than their objective-images do. Maybe she’s six hundred pounds, who knows. If she doesn’t care, I don’t. ”
—Andy Warhol
[Picture Source]

Couldn't have said something better myself. And i completely agree.

Roadtrip.

Roadtrip today. Let's see how everything goes. I have to wake up in 5 hours. Long day tomorrow.

[picture from here]

My sister's keeper

"Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them"
Jodi Picoult


I finished reading My sister's Keeper, by the lovely Jodi Picoult. let me tell you, the movie is good. But it does make the book justice. There's so much truth in this book, that I highly recommend it.
[Picture from here]

Jueves en la noche

The thing to remember is that that the future comes one day at a time.
— Dean Acheson
[Picture here]

For some reason, i find myself wasting time. I barely sleep, i stopped being on top of my reading list, i don't seem to accomplish much and I know i'll regret this when i start College. I'll barely have time to sit down and take a sigh. But i want that to change. Starting now.