It's Just An Expression: Fashion

Hello all my fellow Fearless Catholics! I'm so excited to announce I have a guest blogger for ya'll today. She is a beautiful, outgoing, funny fashion-ista and is one of my best friends in the entire world! This blog post is all about Fashion and we both hope you enjoy it. Please follow her fashion-gram on Instagram down below and tell us what you think in the comments! Enjoy :)

 

 Hello, my name is Bethany, and I was honored to be asked by Sammy to write a fashion post for her blog.  What is fashion,  What is it like to be fashionable?  Fashion is the demand society has placed on us to dress the way they think is fashionable.  So to be fashionable is to go along with all the demands society places on your appearance.   

 

Fashion makes it hard for people like me, to fit in.  A few months ago I found out that I have loose ligament in my ankles. This means I don’t have enough support in my ankles, and I am really prone to sprains.  To help my stability I got orthotics.  The only bad thing about this is my orthotics don’t fit in all my shoes, and when I am going to be on my feet for a prolonged time, I need to wear my orthotics.   

 

Well I am a dancer, and they do not fit in my dancing shoes, so I have to wear black ankle braces when I dance.  It’s hard to wear the braces, as much as they help, because I know my outfit looks so much better without them.  It’s taken a while for me to be able to put my braces on and not care, and I still struggle with caring about how I look with them.  

 

 It’s made me very aware of all the other people who are struggling with this.  There are so many people who have to wear knee braces, wrist braces, and other things that don’t even involve braces; like, not feeling like you have the right body, all the things that make you feel like you don’t fit in with the fashion world. Well this goes for all of you, if you are in a brace of any kind every time you put your braces on look at yourself in the mirror and know that those braces show strength. They show that you have to live with pain, they show that you have the strength to go through that, and to put them on every time knowing that you wont fit in with what society has said is fashionable.   

 

For all of you who struggle with feeling like you don’t have the perfect body I want to share a Marilyn Monroe quote with you, “To all the girls that think you’re fat because you’re not a size zero you’re the beautiful one it’s society who’s ugly.”  Fashion has placed such a high demand for looking just right.  Whether that is not wearing braces, or having a body that is just right.  That is not right. 

 

 What’s not right is that we have a pressure not to wear our braces, and to physically injure ourselves, so that we are not emotionally injured. Maybe we feel the need to body bash ourselves because we don’t look like the people we see in magazines.   

 

This is where style comes in. Style is what is unique to each of us. Style is you deciding to wear your favorite shirt because you love it!  It is you deciding to wear a dress when you know everyone else will be in jeans.  Style is how you present who you are on the inside, on the outside.  When people on the street see you they are going to get a feel for the type of person you are by what you wear.   

 

So I suggest that the next time you don’t know what to wear, wear YOU so that even the people you don’t know, can get to know you.  You are beautiful, you are unique, and you are very very stylish.  As for me, what’s my style?  Well, black ankle braces of course J!

 

That’s all for me!  I would just like to thank Sammy again for letting me post and share with all of you on her blog!  I hope you all enjoyed this and got something out of it!  I have an Instagram account exclusively for my outfits, I would love if you followed it, @1998styles! J

 

“ Style is very personal.  It has nothing to do with fashion.  Fashion is over quickly.  Style is forever.” – Ralph Lauren 

 

Bethany is an amazing friend and has helped me know my fashion sense is me and that if I feel good in it and if I like it then that's what should matter not what other people think. 

"Unique and different is the new generation and beautiful. Style is what makes you individual. Different is a good thing, never think it's bad." - Taylor Swift

 

Like A Country Song (Is It Just The Twang In The Music?)

 All my friends are music lovers! They either love to sing, play instruments, or just listen to music. My siblings are very talented, my sister has played guitar, piano, trumpet, and has had voice lessons. My brother has played drums and bass. I haven't taken up any instrument yet but I would love to learn how to play the banjo which is like one of my favorite instrument.
Whether we sing in the car, dance while washing the dishes, or even listen to songs in the most crucial points in our lives music is really important to us. Is it because the guitar is just right, is it because this is our best friends favorite song, or maybe this was someones favorite song who is no longer with us? Whatever is the answer to why we listen to music there is a story behind it.

Anybody who knows me knows I'm a HUGE country music junkie but I wasn't always. I didn't ever really have a genre I loved until I was ten. I just watched Disney Channel I listened to the songs on High School Musical or Camp Rock or something. (Yeah I was one of those kids....) When I was just about to turn ten my sister told me I needed better taste in music because now that I look back I realized how did I ever think that stuff was good? She introduced me to Country music which was the music she loved and listened to at the time.

Not long after that I bought my first country album, Play On by Carrie Underwood and never turned back to listening to Disney tunes. Carrie Underwood has a crazy strong voice and I loved her. I then researched more into the country scene and got into Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, and Blake Shelton whom I still enjoy till' this day. (These names may or may not sound familiar to you.)

When I was 10 1/2 I was shopping for CDS and there on the shelf was a golden CD, no literally it was the color gold. There was this really pretty girl on the cover and she had long curly hair. I wasn't going to get this CD because it was more expensive than the other CDS I was looking at. My sister persuaded me into getting it.

On the way home from the store the lyrics, "Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you been here all along so why can't you see? You Belong With Me."blared through the speakers of the car and that was the beginning of my love for Swift.

Flash forward into life, I'm now 16 and still listen to Country Music. I still love Taylor, (In fact I'm going to the 1989 concert with two amazing girls.) It's really funny how your music taste change. If it weren't for change and my sister begging me to listen to better music I would probably still be in my bedroom listening to Hannah Montana.

There was a point and time though when I was fifteen and my friends begged me to expand my taste in music. I was very persistent because I had tried one time and I'm not fond of Nicki Minaj or One Direction. I just stuck with my country music but the again due to change I did find some other bands I liked.

One of my friends really likes Maroon 5 and she lent me there most recent CD at the time, Overexposed and Adam Levine is just so handsome and how can you not like, 'Sugar?' I then started to go more and more to different genres and found that I like Lorde, Ed Sheeran, Meghan Trainor, and Fall Out Boy. I still find different songs I like from different genres than Country that I like.

While some of you like pop, or some of you like Christian music, (I do too, who doesn't?) or maybe some of you are trying to find some different music to listen too. I've put together a song playlist of songs that aren't very popular but they are from all kinds of genres. I've posted it below but before we move on I would like to share a short story with you and a poem I've written. I promise this will be short.

Not a lot of people I know like Country Music. There are very very few people I know that like it. I'm really into Country Music I love everything from Hunter Hayes and Raelynn to George Strait and Reba McEntire. I think some of the best songwriters are Country musicians because if someone can transport you to a certain place or time and feel the same thing they are feeling that's pretty amazing! I never understood why people didn't like Country Music like I liked it. It's not all beer bottles, broken hearts, and farms. It's Happiness fishing with your friends on the dock of the lake, Sadness loosing your old huntin' dog, it's every emotion put into words. It reminds us that we aren't alone and it reminds us about God once in awhile. I wrote this poem to tell people why I like Country Music and it wasn't to change their opinion on genres they like but to simply change their views on Country Music.

 

      Stetson’s Under Broadway Lights

                              I am very fond of this particular subject and many aren’t

                                          Every time I hear it I think of beautiful art

                       Imagine the strokes of this painter’s hand and the creative piece

                    in his mind this kind of beautiful art may just save someone’s life

In each of our lives sadness arises in sorrowing ways but maybe it wouldn’t be hard if we knew someone else is feeling this way. The burdens we carry are like His cross and the loss of my son the soldier doesn’t mean he is really gone.

                                      I will take you back in time to the 1920’s

      where strings of guitars were getting  pretty costly.

     where cowboy hats were the thing, and cowboy boots

    were the so called ‘bling.’ it seems Nashville was the home

   too so many stars it’s where Presley died and Parton got her start.

            You may think you know this music of beer bottles, broken hearts, and trucks but do you really know what’s in the music that I love? It’s so much more than the twang we here it’s about trusting God when you feel he’s not here. It’s a little boy who lost his dad but they meet again in Heaven alas. It’s the place you grew up but your parents sold, it’s about remembering the soldiers who have died souls. It’s the breeze of trees on a hot summer day and the cold ice tea in the old oak tree shade, it’s the good times, and bad times which we all go through it’s something we can’t let go of or the things we let go of too soon.

                                    I understand your reasoning with genres you like

                                        I am not asking you to simply pick a side

                                       I am stating some facts that are true Country

                                           Music are the stories of me and you. 

Playlist

Kiss Me- Lucy Hale - Country
I Got The boy- Jana Kramer - Country
Yellow Flicker Beat- Lorde - Pop
Bad Blood- Taylor Swift- Pop
I Can Just Be Me- Laura Story - Christian
Careless- Raelynn- Country
Both Of Us- B.o.B (Feat. Taylor Swift.) - Rap
Misery - Maroon 5- Pop Rock
Everybody Loves Me- One Republic - Pop Rock
Each Coming Night-Iron & Wine - Indie Rock
Something In The Water- Carrie Underwood- Country Christian
We Fall Apart - We As Human- Rock Christian
Photograph- Ed Sheeran- Indie Pop
Hotel Ceiling- Rixton- Pop/ Rock/ R&B/Country
A Guy Walks Into A Bar- Tyler Farr- Country
Dear Future Husband- Meghan Trainor-Pop
Carry On My Wayward Son- Kansas- Rock
Falling- Iration-Reggae
Everybody Drives Drunk- Love & Theft- Country & Folk

I hope you all enjoyed this post! Please comment your favorite songs so I have some new music to listen too, as well. God Bless ya'll and look out for VERY special news coming out soon.

Fearlessly,
Sammy
 

Mama Mary

Hey Everyone! I've been really praying for you these past weeks that God will strengthen you in work, finals, school and mostly....life. As we all know Mothers Day is May 10th.  It's known worldwide as we celebrate all of our fabulous mothers. Our moms, grandmas, even aunts, and maybe some family friends who have kids of their owns. Our moms are the most awesome people in the world that's why we celebrate them. A lot of the time we forget about our BEAUTIFUL Mama Mary up in Heaven.

I know a lot of people have a special relationship with our Mama and some strive to have a relationship. I never knew why it was so important to have a relationship with Mary until the last few months of 2014. In honor of Mothers Day I decided to write about our beloved Mother and my story about how I've become to look up to her and love her with my whole heart.

I've grown up in a devout Catholic home. I'm really into my faith and each day I fall more and more in love with Jesus, the saints, and Mother Mary but that wasn't always the case. When I was little I knew Mary was the mother of Jesus and I knew all the stories about her, I knew she was called by God to have his son by the power of the Holy Spirit, and I knew many miracles that have happened about her. I never payed much attention though. (I really regret that now...)

As I grew older I heard many people in my church speaking about our amazing mother and how awesome she is and just what a great relationship they had with her. I loved our Mother don't get me wrong she brought our Lord into the world but I didn't have a connection with her the way so many other people did.

I didn't know what to do or where to begin to have a relationship with our Blessed Mother. I didn't know how to build it up. I wasn't sure how so many people felt like Mother Mary was with them in their every day lives. They were so filled with Joy because of it. When they talked about Mary they had huge smiles on their faces and everything they said about Mary was so enthusiastic and they were so on fire. I would look at them and be like I want that but how do  get it?

At the beginning of Confirmation 2. (I am aware I start off every paragraph off like this when I have this aha! moment. Confirmation really changed me and really deepened my faith.) I was just browsing on the Lifeteen store online when I saw this book on our crazy awesome Mom. It was called, 'That One Girl.' by Christina Mead. (Amazing read!)

It was then that I got the book, flipped through pages so deeply interested, and really wanting to get and grow a relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mother that I realized I had a relationship with her all along I just never took the time to acknowledge her.

I learned so much from that book and from then on I now look at Mary as a teenage girl who was called on by God. I just always had a hard time wrapping my mind around that. Mary was a regular teenage girl, guys. Mary went through heartaches, struggles, and temptation. Think about it....the devil, Satan tempted Mary the most because she was the Mother of the person he hates the most....God.

I'm going to take a little piece of the book and stick it here. Mary went through suffering, the Blessed Mother did not have an easy life. She rode a donkey when she was nine months pregnant! (Most pregnant women I know complain about lying in bed; Can you imagine how much worse prego life is on the back of a slow moving animal?) She had to give birth in a stable. (When Jesus deserved a 5 star resort.) Then, when she and Joesph brought Baby Jesus to the temple a couple days after he was born she was dealt a pretty rough hand. Then enters Simon who at first probably admired the precious Savior who had a glowing face but then old Mary, "Oh by the way your heart is going to be pierced by a sword." (Luke 2:22-38.)

I bet sometimes we think Mary had it great. God was totally on her side because he picked Mary to have his only begotten Son so she didn't have to go through any of the things we have to go through. She was born without original sin, Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul, and she's the Mother of Jesus! Like I have to say that one more time.

Guess what, though? Mary did suffer. She watched her son die on a cross for our sins. The debt we couldn't pay Jesus paid for us. Mary watched her son get spat on and she couldn't do anything about it. When we suffer in our heartbreaks we need to remember Mary watched her son that she loved so much die. Mary was probably disgusted, heartbroken, and a little mad.

Quoted from the book: It's okay to feel emotions. It's okay to feel anger, it isn't a sin. Jesus even felt angry when he overturned the tables people were buying and selling things on in the temple. I love imagining Mary as a feisty, passionate, full-of-life young woman. Why wouldn't she be? Since God wants us to be fully alive wouldn't he want our Mother to be like that, too? We so often reduce The blessed Mother to a statue or a beautiful somber woman standing in the clouds as the Queen over Heaven and forget to come to the realization Mary was still human and had a wide range of emotions, even anger.

Our Mother up above in Heaven watching over us, listening to our prayers, and interceding to Jesus, and protecting us in her most protective mantle is human, like you and me. She wasn't free from sadness or anger. God let her feel those emotions because he wanted us to relate to her, to love her, and to feel free to call on her. Because after all she isn't just Jesus' mother, she's ours too. 

Friends, I know it is hard to believe in things we can't see. I know it is hard to have Faith in the unseen even more to have a relationship with those we can't actually talk to but in reality they aren't unseen. We have so much proof that Jesus, Angels, Saints, and Mary are real! They were flesh and blood and now they are preparing a GREAT place in Heaven for us once we do our duty on Earth.

I wholly encourage you to have a relationship with our Mother Mary. She's Human she knows it's hard to be humans. She knows anger, she knows sadness, and she even knows purity. She understands us girls more than anyone, but for you boys she understands your sufferings too and she wants to help because she loves us, after all she is our Mother.

It was a great deal to me to have a relationship with our Mama! If you are striving for it too, please say the rosary, call on her because she wants to comfort you, dedicate a journal to her and write in it every so often thanking her, telling her things that are bothering you, and asking her things. She is your Mother and she loves you so much, oh my gosh, she loves YOU!

Until next time Mother Mary is praying for you all the time, I am praying for you, and so are all the Angels and Saints in Heaven. May God send his wonderful blessings down on you and that you may live in them like a Child of God.

Fearlessly Living Catholic,
Sammy

"As Sailors Are Guided by star to the port, so are Christians guided to Heaven by Mary." -St. Thomas Aquinas.