I'm a Belieber

I used to mock all victims of Bieber Fever. I even used make fun of his hair, but I didn't know any better then. I had a change of opinion when I saw the movie Never Say Never, a true masterpiece. I went in thinking it would be a fun movie and I might even get a few laughs out of it. I tend to go into movies with low expectations, that way I never feel as though  I've wasted my time. But this was no waste. First of all, he can actually sing. Not like all those people whose voices are all auto tuned. His singing is all him. The way he became famous was pretty cool too, he wasn't just a rich little brat who wanted an album. He actually had to work a lot to get his music out there.

He honestly seemed like a real person in the movie, and he was pretty cool and funny. I think one of his concerts would be really cool to go to. Especially if I was chosen as the "one less lonely girl" for the song. Holy shit that would be crazy. Besides a charming personality and dynamite hair, his songs are pretty good too. I must say his first hit "One Time" may be my fave, though "Never Say Never might have trumped it. I think people when they learn that a sixteen year old boy wrote a song, people try to pretend like they don't like it or it's "stupid". Yeah, okay, whatever you say guy-who-has-"Baby"-on-his-ipod. People just hate on him because he's rich, talented, and girls love him. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT NICK CHO.


I happened to have a dream last night involving Justin Bieber. In my dream, I went to one of his concerts in this small, flowery-patterned (I don't really know why) arena and it was packed. I don't remember much from this concert, but apparently we went the next day again and there weren't very many people, so me and my cousin got to go on stage. It was super great, but the best part was I  got to hang out with him after the concert (I distinctly remember a part walking in the grass across from near a Steak N' Shake and hoping we wouldn't go in since I had recently sworn off Steak N' Shake food due to its high calorie count), and I invited, and slightly begged,  him to come over for dinner and he, amazingly, agreed. So we went to my house, and I swear during all of this I was convinced it wasn't a dream, so I went upstairs to get my camera to get pictures with him. Then I woke up. I was quite upset. Not only did I not get to eat dinner with him, but I also didn't get pictures with him.


I mean, honestly, just look at what I missed out on.

A Week Down Yonder

While contemplating what to write for my next blog post, I happened to grab the school laptop labeled "Mississippi". How convenient. I recently spent a week down south in the Mississippi Delta area in Clarksdale, Mississippi on a habitat trip, so I'm going to accept this little prompt from the universe and take this opportunity to tell you about it.

I initially thought it was going to be pretty straightforward: go down to a really poor town in Mississippi and do some good and help build a house. It turned out to be so much more. Yes, we did help to build a house and got pretty far considering we only were there for a week, but we also got to experience a whole different side of how people live. The first thing that really struck me was how welcoming and nice everyone was to us. When a couple friends and I spent a morning volunteering at the Care Station, a soup kitchen, the head of the kitchen, a woman named Vern, hugged us all and told us she loved us when we were about to leave. That was so crazy and cool to me; she had only known us for four hours yet she treated us like we were practically family. It was hard not to be sucked into it all and start returning all the love you received to other people you would meet.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was playing with the neighborhood kids that would hang around the house. Even after we were all tired from working hard at the work site or just spent our entire day around kids while helping out at the school, we would still go out and play with them and let them climb on our backs and try to run as fast as we could around the house however many times they begged us. They were all too sweet and adorable to say no to. This one girl that came out to play with us on the third day we were there was my absolute favorite. Her name was Nateria, but she wanted to be called Coco (they all had their little nicknames), she was five and was the cutest of them all. During hide and seek games she would run up to me and grab my hand and say "Come hide with meee!", then we would run off to her favorite hiding spot behind the abandoned semi truck. She was so sweet and affectionate and wanted to be with us all and liked to do our hair and never got tired of riding on our backs. I kept asking her if she would remember me when I came back next year, and she invited me to her Justin Bieber themed birthday party. Though she probably won't remember me, I know I'll remember her.

Though we went to give, we inevitably took a lot away with us as well. Seeing all the poverty and the conditions of some of the houses that people actually live in really convicted me and made me feel grateful for what I have and where I live. Even the poorest neighborhood in Champaign is in better condition than  alot of the houses in Clarksdale. I felt really complete and happy in Clarksdale. They really let us into their community and treated us as their own and were so thankful to us even though we were only down there for a week before we went back into our own rich town, nice school, and luxurious homes. I was really sad to leave, but I know I'll be back. I can't wait to be back.

                                                  Nateria (aka Coco)