It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

I've never really been one to stand up for myself.

Usually I'm content with just going with the flow, which can be a good thing. It's good to be flexible and to just go with it. But sometimes being so passive can result in letting people walk all over you. I'll admit it: I've let people walk all of over, take advantage of me. I just let people do what they want, and I go along with it simply because it's easier than standing up and making waves. And usually I've been okay with that, but lately I've started speaking up more.

If something's bothering me—whether it's with my friends or my roommates or my classmates or my professors, even—I've started voicing my opinion. I'm not that great at it yet, but I'm learning how to stand up for myself day by day.

Confrontation is still not my favorite thing in the world. In fact, it's probably one of my least favorite things. But I've learned that it's a necessary life skill, so I'm trying to become better at it.

Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.

A new year at school means a new motivation wall! You may remember a post I did in the spring on my wall of quotes in my apartment last year. It's something I decided I wanted to do every year, and I also decided to make every wall different. There are some of the same or similar quotes to ones I've had before, but all of the graphics are different. For today's post, I thought I'd go through all of the quotes on my wall and explain why I chose them.

Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created.
This is the quote with the floral design in the upper left corner. I had this quote last year, and it's been one of my favorites ever since I came across it. We spend a lot of time, particularly as teenagers and young adults, wondering what our purpose in life is. We spend this time thinking about what we want to study, who we want to be, what we want to do with our lives. We get so caught up in these thoughts that we sometimes forget to notice what's happening right now and how it might affect us and our futures. Every single thing that happens to us happens for a reason, I firmly believe that {hello, serendipity}; and I think this quote speaks to that. We are all meant to do such amazing things, so every moment is important in the course of our lives. Every single moment or action has a specific purpose. Every moment counts!

When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.

The wall above my desk in my room at school this year.

Last year, when I was a freshman in college, I was very, very homesick. I spent the first couple of weeks just sad and unmotivated. I missed home and my family and my friends.

Then one day, my aunt sent me a quote: “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Theodore Roosevelt said that. I kept reading it over and over again. I kept remembering it in the couple days that followed.

Then it hit me: I should make a quote wall. I should gather quotes that inspire me and motivate me and hang them up in my dorm room.

So I did it. And I felt better. And that Theodore Roosevelt quote was right in the middle. Not only was I inspired every time I looked at them and read them, but they just made the room so much more cheerful. They turned the blank white wall above my desk into something colorful and bright and happy.