Life Goal

My new life goal is to be an advocate for depression and suicide awareness.

I finally got an idea of how to make a difference.  Kevin Hines wrote a book about his life.  My life doesn’t have any major interesting events like his, but I have a unique point of view.  I have had depression and I understand what it’s like.  I like to look at depression through metaphors.  So I’m going to write a book in metaphors.

I’m going to have multiple metaphors in the book, but only one at a time.  For example, on a 2-page layout I’ll have an explanation of the metaphor on the left side.  On the right side will be a comic strip showing the metaphor in action.  It seems kind of hard to explain, but I’ll have some rough sketches soon that I’ll be able to post as pictures.

I’m really excited about this project, and I’ve been getting a lot of supportive comments and messages on FaceBook.  People keep telling me that because I know what depression is like, I can relate to other people who have it in a special way.  I don’t think I’ve ever thought of that before.  My goal when I thought of this book was to help people who don’t have depression understand what it’s like, but maybe having someone to relate to in this way will help other people who have depression.

I’ll post pictures when they’re ready.

~Lindsay

Swiss Lake

This beautiful water was right next to a castle that we toured.
I had the chance to spend about 10 minutes just sitting by the water appreciating the beauty around me. The water is such a beautiful color; I don’t think I’ve seen it anywhere besides the Caribbean. The scenery in Switzerland is just gorgeous, no matter where you go. It was such an amazing place to visit. While I was there, I wondered if the locals appreciated the beauty as much as I did, since what was so unusual to me was everyday normalcy to them. It made me wonder what there was at home that I was missing. What would they see in my hometown that I don’t?
Visiting Europe was such an eye-opening experience. Since I’ve come back to the States, I actually have been able to better appreciate the beauty of where I live. Everywhere in the world is uniquely wonderful, sometimes you just have to look a bit harder than you have before.

Fall Leaves

I am always amazed by the beauty of fall leaves.
There are so many colors everywhere during the fall. Just when you think all of the colors are gone, other trees start to change. Driving down the highway in the fall is one of the prettiest things. There are so many kinds of trees planted along the side of the road.
Trees’ leaves don’t need to change color. They could just turn brown and fall down. Our world is so beautiful. It goes through so many changes, every one of them gorgeous in its own way.
I think the earth can show us things about our own lives. We all go through changes, but change isn’t a bad thing. Change can make us and our lives more beautiful. Every change happens for a reason, and we can learn from everything that happens in our lives.

Swiss Cuckoo Clocks

Switzerland was by far my favorite country that I visited in Europe.
I took this photo just to show my parents how many cuckoo clocks were in this store, but I really love the artistic side of it. All of the different kinds of clocks are so unnecessary, but it’s beautiful. The time and creativity that were put into all of the designs and creation. I don’t know if the clocks are still made by hand, but they’re all still so beautiful and unique. Well, almost unique, but they’re still beautiful. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like this in America.

Downtown Paris

This is one of my favorite photos from my trip to Europe. I love the graffiti. Normally, I think graffiti is just an eyesore, but the way I managed to capture it in this photo just pops.
Paris is one of the most dangerous places as far as pickpocketing and small crime, but this view of the city, though not of the traditional Eiffel Tower, shows the simple beauty of it. Europe is so much older than America, and it’s amazing to see the hard work and detail that people used to put into the architecture. Now, everything is all about fast, sleek, simple, and easy. Sleek does have its own kind of beauty, but sometimes I think society needs to go back to a time when people put time, thought, and care into their work. Our society now is so concerned about time, and it pushes people to their breaking points. People in Europe seem to still appreciate taking their time. It was a beautiful experience to see the differences in lifestyle.

About the Title

Probably one of the harder parts of starting a blog is choosing a title.

Starry-Eyed Owl is a combination of two of my favorite things. I love owls. I loved them before they became popular and stores started selling all sorts of owl-themed stuff. Owls are beautiful and have long been considered a symbol of wisdom, but they are also fierce predators and are sometimes even associated with the spookiness of Halloween. But even the wisest of owls can never know everything that the world holds, and that’s where the stars come in.

I have always loved the night sky. Where I live, it’s hard to see very many stars because of all the lights outside, but when my family would go on vacation, we were often in places where there were no lights. I saw millions of stars. It was always such a beautiful sight, no matter how many times I had seen it before. Stars may be one of the most mysterious things in the world. We can see them, but we never see them in real time. The light that we see is thousands or millions of years old. We never really know what the sky looks like at the time we are looking at it.

There is so much in the world that we don’t see or appreciate to its fullest. Being “wise” can even further limit our ability to appreciate the world. We think we know so much that we don’t need to look at the world around us. But even the wisest owl can learn something new from the world around it. And what it learns just might leave it starry-eyed.

About the Owl

It would fit that my first post be a little bit about me, the writer, the Owl.

I’m 18 and should be in college, but instead I’m stuck at home getting over mono until the spring semester.  I’m busy sleeping, watching HGTV with my mom, and house training my brand-new puppy, Gypsy.  I figured blogging might give me something productive to do with my life, so here I am.  I’ve never done something like this before, but I’m excited to give it a try!