First day of school (and deeper)

so.

Yesterday was my first day of school

It was my first day of High School.

Meaning: new ginormous building, tons of new people, and not knowing how to get to class.

But all in all, it was alright.

And today was definitely better. 

And I do have jaya to help me out...

which is awesome! 

Jaya and I are spending this whole year together! 

#stoked

First day of school is always nerve wracking and exciting and fun..

It was so fun to see friends from last year and have classes with each other.

It was definitely strange to be walking into that building and knowing I'm in High School..

since age 6, when we moved in, I've always just looked at that building and thought:

"oh, thats the high school"

and assuming that cheerleaders carried around pom-poms and wore their uniforms all the time.

assuming that all the "jocks" wore letterman jackets 

and shoved nerds against lockers, forcing lunch money out of them.

assuming that there was always a mean girl with followers who wore high heels 

and made fun out of normal people...

so Disney Channel in a nut shell (;

I'd always look at that building and think, 

"I can't wait for high school.

When I'll be a (dreamy sigh) teenager.."

Now that I am a "teenager"

I've really noticed how much little kids look up to us as teenagers.

We're the big kids, the cool ones, we can date, we can drive.

We hold the example to the little ones.

Who really aren't dumb.

They're smarter than one might think.

And they just do what all humans do...

Look up to and follow those above them.

If the big kids are nice to everyone, the young ones want to be.

If the big kids gossip about others, text 24\7 , disrespect everyone, bully the little ones,

The little kids assume thats what a teenager is.

And they want to be a teenager.

I've seen it.

I knew one girl who had little sisters.

This girl dressed immodestly.

The little sisters looked up to the older sister

 and couldn't wait to become a teenager and wear "cute" clothes like the sister

referring to the immodest clothes the older sister wore.

I couldn't help but think how sad it was that that was what her little sisters looked up to.

Because as the younger sister, the older sister is always looked up to.

Always.

As human beings, we are normally the ones doing the admiring.

We usually don't realize we could be the ones admired.

We don't realize our actions may be watched and our words may be heard.

Especially as teenagers, we get so wrapped up in ourselves and our own worlds,

that we don't usually realize that people are ALWAYS watching what we do.

There is always someone watching, whether you know them or don't.

Whether someone admires you or not, someone always sees you.

I think it's important to always uphold an admirable reputation.

Sometimes I even have to ask myself, "Am I someone I'd want to look up to?"

To me, someone admirable is someone who:

respects themselves and others, who is kind, courteous, strong, courageous, confident, loving, a leader, diligent, ambitious, hard working.

I do hope I AM someone admirable.

Walking through that door yesterday, I never ever thought I'd walk into that building 

as the person I am today.

A person I am proud to be.

I wouldn't want to be anyone else.

Not in a million years.

To be honest, when I was younger, I wanted to be the cheerleader. I wanted to be the popular girl.

But I am not a cheerleader, and I'm really not too popular, and I'm most definitely not the mean girl.

And I'm okay it that fact.

I smile at everyone that looks at me, even if they don't smile back.

I try my hardest to treat everyone as children of God.

I want to make people happy. 

To lift others up, not bring them down.

I want to be someone others admire and try to be like for the right reasons.

Not someone others feel insecure and intimidated around.

I want to be a light to others.

How I became this way, you ask?

most through experience, but some part was looking up to someone.

This someone is my older sister, Jaya.

see? I told you little sisters always look up to their older sisters. always.

And thats not always a bad thing. 

Both my mother and Jaya and the most admirable women I know.

There are others of course (:

But I'm so, very grateful for Jaya.

For being the kind of sister to look up to.

So. High School. Another adventure.

Thanks for bearing with me through this post.

I know is inexplicably long...

And hopefully you got something out of it (:

And hopefully you don't feel like you just wasted time you'll never get back.

So, enjoy this video.. It represents everything I've said quite nicely.

It shows the qualities of someone admirable.

I love it.

find more videos like this on lds.org

Thanks

-tali