33 Ways to Stay Creative

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11 Reasons to Read a Real Newspaper

1. You retain information better when you read it in print. A study at the University of Oregon found that readers of the printed New York Times "remember significantly more news stories than online news readers." The study also found that print readers "remember significantly more topics than online newsreaders" and that print readers remembered "more main points of news stories."

2. When you read a hard copy of a newspaper you are more likely to read information that does not pertain to your natural line of interest or bias - making you a well-rounded person. Reading online means you click on what you like, rather than holding the pages of a newspaper in your hands and reading a wide variety of stories.

3. If you care about having good, accurate and trustworthy news - pay for it. As readers continue to absorb news online without paying for it, newspapers are forced to make staff cuts and the quality of reporting goes downhill. Nothing is truly free, and as fewer people pay for their news, quality will continue to suffer. Investigative journalism will fall by the wayside and we will not get solid information. Instead you'll just be getting super fast blips of news without the meat that makes it complete.

4. Am I the only one who loves cutting things out of newspapers? Grandma Shank's newspaper scrapbooks are awesome. If you're not a nerd like me, at least have some sentimentality.

5. Reading the Sunday newspaper with people around you is cozy and wonderful. It's way better than a room full of people on their laptops or phones. Be present.

6. Staring at a screen too long is bad for your eyes and posture.

7. Subscribing to a local or national newspaper is great for the economy. Printing newspapers keeps a lot of people employed who will all lose their jobs if newspapers continue to spiral into oblivion - suppliers, printing companies, deliverers, and so on.

8. You know how some people are boring to talk to? If you don't know anyone like that, there is a chance you are the boring one. Or maybe all you ever talk about is yourself and how busy or stressed out you are (newsflash: everyone is, get over yourself) and while there may not be a solution for annoying-ness, boring-ness can be fixed by READING. Automatic conversation ammunition.

9. Local newspapers clue you in to not only local news, but local culture and activities.

10. Going paperless isn't necessarily "greener." Newspapers are easy to recycle, plus this study in the New York Times found that "the most ecologically virtuous way to read a book starts by walking to your local library." Go figure.

11. If you're saying: calm down, there will always be people buying newspapers, I can keep reading online and someone will subscribe to the old-fashioned paper, I'm betting you're a twenty-something like me. Do you know anyone around our age who subscribes to a daily newspaper? Who reads a hard copy newspaper on a regular basis? If you have lots of friends our age who do, let me know, because I'd like to be friends with them. But if not, please consider the distinct possibility that in about 30 years there could be no more newspapers.


I am fully aware that everyone has different media needs and preferences, and I realize that I am very biased in my own. I also realize I'm writing this for you to read online. My love of newspapers is steeped in sentiments, and to someone who did not grow up reading a newspaper, my arguments may not carry much clout. Observing my family read fostered my own desire to learn. I like to know what's going on and newspapers are a reliable way to take in the news. If you're not aware of what's going on, how do you pinpoint where to take action?

"Journalism is an act of faith in the future." [Ann Curry]

quirky full circles

i used to think being able to see the future would make things better. then i waffled back and forth with whether i'd like that or not, before finally reaching the point where i am today: content with where i am. and laughing at the idea of wanting to see the future, knowing that i probably would not believe it if i saw it.

sometimes life comes full circle for me in the funniest ways. on friday at work i was sent on an errand to buy cigarettes for someone (not even kidding). it was the first time i ever bought any (still not even kidding). i was embarassed to be buying them actually - smoking disgusts me. when i see politicians smoking in front of the capitol, i want to tap them on the shoulder and say, "really? it's 2012 and you're still smoking? you do realize this makes it ten times more difficult to take what you say and do seriously, right?"

i brought the cigs back to the conference room, interrupting a meeting to give jack his fix as he thanked me and the man next to him said, "hey chelsea's going to be a reporter, she'll write stories about you so you'd better be careful around her." (i got a full-time job as a reporter and start next week! woop woop!) then he told me he has a summer home in holtwood, along the susquehanna and wants me to do a story on the waterskiiers.

would i have believed it if someone had told me when i was growing up in holtwood that someday i'd be working with someone who had a summer home there? if someone had told me as a kid writing my pretend newspapers out on lined notebook paper with crayon drawings and who knows what news headlines, that someday i would be a real reporter, what would i have said?

driving into church this morning it struck me again how much my life really does intertwine. the sign at the elementary school where we meet read "good luck to our spelling bee participants!" i squealed and got excited for all the kiddos. that was the same stage i stood on each year for the district spelling bee.

in fourth grade when i took second place and my pal brittney won, i felt like i had eclipsed the sun. life wasn't about the hokey pokey - this was what it was all about, and i had made it. second place in the district spelling bee, and another year had passed where i wasn't one of the kids who put the whole thing on hold by puking on stage, and i couldn't ask for more.

a moment where it sure seems like a glimpse of the future could have offered some beneficial clarity is at my seventh grade spelling bee. i evidently had a very stupid idea that being smart was not cool. i was one of the top two finalists, but i panicked about how dorky i'd look for winning the spelling bee and i spelled abdomen wrong on purpose. ugh.

i like to think that seeing my 24-year-old self would have been encouragement to embrace being smart. maybe then i would not have worried about what my fellow middle-schoolers were thinking - which probably wasn't much of anything since they were most likely in the same boat of self-consciousness as me.

i read about a lot of people in their thirties and beyond who say they love their age and being out of their twenties, because your twenties are rough. i love my twenties, but when i consider the clarity and growth that has come in the past ten years of my life, and continues to come, i can certainly get excited about what lies ahead.

i can laugh at the quirky moments life feels like it's come full circle. i can smile at how much i've grown and how much has happened. if someone had told me that i would not only get to go to hawaii, but live there for one and a half blissful years, i wonder what i would have said? it makes me want to dream about the next ten, twenty, fifty years.

i like making predictions when i go to a party, like - "well i guarantee if so and so is here, he will not remember meeting me and will ask for the twentieth time if i know the bosley twins and i will groan and tell him again that yes i do." (repeat conversations are the worst!) maybe i'm cynically writing people off as predictable, but predictability can be completely endearing and i love it when it's not repeat conversations.

as much as i love goofy predictions, i am not going to make predictions of my future. but i am going to dream and wonder what will happen that will be absolutely amazing and make me want to squeeze God and everyone around me for how blessed i am!

what dreams are lying dormant inside of me, waiting for the time to be released? what will happen this week and this year, that will make me go - wow God, you really did hear my prayer! You really did see my heart and you gave me the thing i was hesitant to even ask for! maybe God is smiling at me, and the angels are cheering for me, knowing that i will become such a famous actress that i will have to hide out at my summer home in holtwood ...

you can do anything

i love when men say that they "married up." i feel like that is one of the top ten compliments a husband can give his wife. who wouldn't want to hear that? what better way to honor your wife than with a heartfelt compliment like that?

an older italian gentleman who has succeeded at many different career paths (he taught high school and started nine prospering naturalizer shoe stores, plus he was a state legislator!) before ending up as one of the top dogs at the lobbying firm where i am an intern, said that when he first told me about his wife. he also tells me every friday night about how much he is looking forward to "date night" with his wife. he recommends amazing restaurants that make me drool, but are completely out of intern budget. i have them tucked away in my memory for later when i have a triple digit salary like him.

of all the perks and benefits of this internship, watching my confidence grow might be the best one. i had no political background or experience, and was shocked to be offered the position. i had applied thinking it would be a long shot. when they said they wanted me i almost did not take it. at the time i'm sure i had a list of reasons why i shouldn't, but looking back now i'm sure it was nothing but fear hiding under a pile of excuses.

right before i was going to email them to decline, i did not feel peace about saying no. i tend to be a mess (a.k.a. freak out) when it comes to making major life decisions. that "tend to" is added in the spirit of optimism and believing this will change, and i will become confident to the point of making decisions without fear.

as i prayed and started going through my journal, suddenly something i had taken notes on about confidence popped out. when you assume that someone else is better than you, you automatically limit yourself. but when you explore areas of your life where you have said you're not good at something, you will learn to walk in confidence and understand that the Lord really trusts in YOU. the Lord has more confidence in you than you have in yourself - that alone should free us up to try new things.

oh boy. i decided to take the internship. and you know what? i have loved it. it was overwhelming and took time and stress to catch on, but i realized i could do it. succeeding at something i was scared of makes me feel like i can do anything. but no matter what the success, or even whatever the failure is, that realization that 'i can do anything' is true for all of us. you and i can do anything.

one of my favorite parts of andy byrd's message at church this morning (the whole thing was amazingly-spectacular-phenomenol-too good to put into words) was when andy had us all dreaming with him about a culture where cynicism, criticism, gossip and negativity are wiped out and replaced with positivity and life. imagine the freedom we'd step into if all we could speak was life?

let your mind run wild with dreams of a culture where truth is agreed upon and sin is acknowledged as the opposite of what is true and good. yet instead of shame and condemnation for that sin, there is a freedom to fail along with an appropriate response of joy-filled repentance. joy-filled repentance. how did i never think of that before? isn't it a joy to be able to walk away from a sin and start fresh? to align our ways with the Word of God? when did repentance become a nuisance instead of a delight?

what i really wanted to reiterate from andy's message goes along with the fact that nothing is impossible. not only are the things that the Lord wants to do POSSIBLE, they are INEVITABLE. is it possible that we could have the same embarassment over abortion that we do over slavery? (watch the movie "the help" if you haven't seen it yet, i bawled my eyes out and got ten times more excited to be a journalist!)

is it possible that human trafficking and abortion could end in our generation, in this country, in this world? YES. it is possible, and if it's not then the gospel must not be true. big gulp. might wanna read that again, because it's a major reality check on whether what you say you believe is really what you believe. i can't help but get completely pumped up for living life when i listen to andy byrd speak! (you can go here to listen to it) he truly brings the Word of God to life.

fear doesn't have to hold you back. negativity from the world around you does not have to hold you back. your circumstances are not forever and they do not have to limit you. you have everything you need to accomplish whatever the Lord has called you to do - in life and on this day.

graduation

as i said in my last post, graduation was a surprising ton of fun. if only my dad or colby had been there for some photos, my hulking presence would be less confusing to people who see my mom and wonder which samoan island i was adopted from. just kidding, plenty of people think we look alike so there is never confusion. i just like being little next to dad and colby.

missed lance very much, but president mcnairy gave special recognition to everyone serving overseas who couldn't be with us, and i almost cried. almost, because i held it together in light of the constant camera flashing. and yes, i did find some very humorous pictures of myself on facebook later - i look lost in every single one because i was searching for my fam the whole time. but i have a silly 'i know there are cameras everywhere' smile pasted on my face, so they still work for me - if someone didn't know me they could easily believe i was born in hollywood, not holtwood.

a verse i'm loving - another reminder to me of the power of words.

“Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways. When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then he will save the downcast. He will deliver even one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” [Job 22:21-30]

college = done

i graduated from college this weekend! it feels amazing and it's still sinking in. sinking in a very good way, not a quicksand way.

college graduation was so much fun, way better than high school. but my whole life is better than high school, so that may not be saying much. to quote mindy kaling's hysterical book: "is everyone hanging out without me?" ...

“Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing else going on in her current life. What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.” [Mindy Kaling]

sooo wonderfully fair. a shout-out to anyone wondering why high school or even college (or maybe any number of hyped up things?) isn't all that it's cracked up to be: don't sweat it. don't let life be what people tell you it is. life can be whatever you decide to make it each day.

people will tell you something is impossible and you'll achieve it. they'll tell you something is easy and you might fail miserably. that's okay. life isn't about what people tell you, and it's not about what anyone else thinks.

what i'm saying is take everything with a grain of figurative salt. or literal salt if you're a potato chips kind of person, but i'm more of a dark chocolate kind of girl.

be the friend who loves, not the one who judges. that's a big something i'm still learning. someone told me (okay so it was eric johnson in an ibethel podcast and i've never met him but i'll keep pretending it was a message just for me) not to worry about measuring myself day by day, or by the week or the month. THANK YOU.

i can easily get myself into a panic around "church people." i don't know why i put that in quotes and make them sound like creatures of the swamp. i put this pressure on myself to have answers, or some kind of progress report to give, but why? why the constant church anxiety? i have to remind myself to relax, and not get uptight or down on myself.

while week to week i may have doubted myself or been disappointed in the mistakes i made, now that college is over i can see that i have grown A LOT. i have changed and learned A LOT. for instance, i went from someone who thought she had it all decently together and didn't make major mistakes, to someone who made major mistakes and realized she didn't have it all together but that's okay. no one does - and don't let them trick you into thinking they do.

i will miss college. i love learning and being in classrooms listening to people's opinions even if i think what they're saying is completely idiotic. i love listening to professors who are passionate about what they're teaching. or passionate about the rabbit trails they go down, giving you a glimpse of where they'd rather be or what they'd really like to be teaching instead. i loved meeting so many different people, hearing their stories, seeing how they balanced everything to achieve their dreams or get to their next place in life.

i will miss watching the turnover in people's relationships. that sounds terrible and i guess it is, but it's fun to see who people date. and to watch relationships start and progress and sometimes end.

i will miss the gym - especially classes like boot camp. i will miss the pond with the fountain and swans and ducks and squirrels, and the moms with strollers. which sounds creepy, but it's just that seeing cute kids when you're studying something stupid is so wonderful because you remember that this isn't all there is to life. what you're studying is usually nothing more than what you're studying, so breathe easy.

i will miss listening to people complain about school. watching someone ELSE have a meltdown can be quite entertaining. watching my OWN would be mortifying, but definitely fodder for an entertaining movie montage for you.

i will miss the sidewalk chalk notes written all over campus. besides stall talk - the posters hung in bathroom stalls with trivia - i think sidewalk chalk notes are the best way to advertise.

as much as i hated working in the snapper office every tuesday until the wee hours of the morning, i will miss it so much. i will miss interviewing people for fun articles and having a guaranteed byline (or three) every week. i will miss wandering around campus asking people my random weekly question, then taking their picture and listening to the same "oh i look terrible right now" from the girls and laughing at the poses so many of the guys came up with.

working together on something that seems so important, for absolutely zero money or reward other than the satisfaction of a job well done, really pulls people together. i loved the crew of people i got to work with and treasured my college newspaper way more than necessary.

i will probably not soon forget the night i overheard a girl relentlessly bashing the snapper and attacking a typo i had made in a headline. (prrsa instead of prssa ... it was 2am! and my editor missed it too! sigh.) i was devastated to the point of tears (i hate you pms, i really do) and thought maybe journalism is not the route for me. they say you need thick skin. i may have a thick skull and abnormally large head, but thick skin? not so much. it's funny how in the midst of rave reviews of my writing from my professors and nearly everyone i interviewed, what stuck out was one girl's rant. about a typo.

it's even funnier that while we were putting that edition of the paper together i had defended that very girl's face when people were calling it u-g-l-y. but listening to her that night my perception of her went from beautiful blonde to ... something else. beauty is fleeting. words hurt. and i need to be aware of my own words, because besides alligators, does anyone really have thick skin? but even if we don't have thick skin, we're resilient. and we can choose to make life whatever we want it to be each and every day.

a bunch of randomness ... and lance

do you ever have something you need to do, but because you don't want to do it, you keep putting it off? and in it's place you find a hundred other things, less urgent, to do instead?

i need to write a paper but i'm feeling uninspired. my last semester of college has been exhausting, to say the least, and even though i know i will miss it and it's been an amazing season, i'm ready for it to end. i have seven major papers (10+ pages apiece) and several other minor ones to write before graduation in three weeks.

you'd think i wouldn't want to write on my blog too because i'm on writing overload, but i'm hoping some random word vomit will get me into gear. most of the time i am too tired to write on my blog too - hence the lack of posts, so i apologize.

and now for the word vomit ...

• i was afraid that my almost nonstop gym clothes wearing phase (aka the last two years of college) would yield negative results, but it has turned out to be just the opposite. people say if you wear sweats all the time you will gain weight and not notice. nope. i've been whipping out the old business clothes from my banana republic style phase for job interviews and such ... and they're too big! love that.



• i'm still learning the power of words. a major theme in my life. sometimes i want to be a motivational speaker. sometimes i mess up MAJORLY and realize without a doubt my words have an effect. it's easier for me to notice the negative effect they have than the positive. i really need to be careful. while i feel like i do exhort people, the nasty side of that is when i get angry i say awful stuff. this post at the sanctified pearl blog spoke right to me.
  



• why why WHY do people in lancaster drive so slow? this is a great time to practice holding my tongue. thanks for the setup God, very funny. ;-)



• another thing i'm learning is to guard myself. i'm not sure if this is good or not, it's something i'm processing and trying to "find the balance in." i feel like in the past i was too quick to pour out my soul to just about anyone who would listen. and get carried away. this goes along with the power of words thing.
  



• politics, schmolitics. i am so over all the legalities and formalities everyone dances around. i am so disgusted by the systems set up to supposedly protect and serve the people. reformation is needed, along with deep conviction and a willingness to stand up for truth every single day! here's an article from the nytimes that made me think - especially the challenge he poses at the end: let's ask ourselves "how to overcome our natural tendency to evade and self-deceive."



• whenever justin bieber and selena gomez show up on my computer i feel OLD. i am about to turn 24, i'm way too young to feel old.



• handwritten thank-you notes are NOT out of style and should not be ignored. etiquette is timeless. a huge thank-you to brides who actually still write thank-you's because it means something and it's worth your time no matter how annoying or silly it might seem.



• parenthood is my new favorite TV show, even though i've only had the chance to watch it once all season. i've realized that family is my passion. i love my family, and i can't wait to have a family ("can't wait" is a terrible phrase i overuse by the way - i can definitely wait, i will not go get knocked up after i type this blog, all i mean is that i am extremely excited for that time of life), but i also love hearing about other people's families and observing how they've been shaped by their families.



• i was highly disappointed to learn that plato thought families should be dispersed and everyone should live in community, with women mothering everyone - instead of children in specific family units with parents in monogomous relationships. maybe 'disgusted' is more fitting than 'disappointed,' especially because he thought once women became mothers they became inferior rather than equal to men. i was thisclose to raising my hand and expounding about the nobility of motherhood, the inestimable importance of family, and the fact that a woman can be very intelligent and still "just" want to be a mom. insert a mental snapshot into your mind of a livid chelsea, because that discussion put me on edge.
  



• an obnoxious plea as christmas approaches: don't buy too much junk! that cleverly packaged whatever-it-is might look great in the store, but do you/they really need it? working at thrift store is fun, but also eye opening to how much junk people have. you might want to stop reading because here comes the grinch: all those $5 gift exchanges you coerce others into (or are coerced into) ... just think about it. in terms of practicality and how money adds up and the big picture and who that money could be helping.



• along with that: don't donate mattresses, used peanut butter jars, broken appliances, dirty socks (dirty anything really) or jean jumpers to thrift stores. jean jumpers never stop coming in and i don't understand how people still have them. there are certain things that just need to be taken out of the cycle. throw it out. and if you're wearing a jean jumper while you're reading this, i don't know what to say.
  

and here's my boyfriend and me after a 5k we ran for fun. that was obvious when i tapped someone next to me at the start of the race to ask, "this is just three miles right?" that made those serious gameface runners laugh. people take things so seriously, i don't get it.

lance is home for two blissful weeks before he is deployed to afghanistan again. pray for him and everyone else in the military whenever it crosses your mind. he is a man who goes above and beyond in everything he does. the level of discipline in his life seriously inspires me and motivates me to work harder and reach my highest potential. one of his things is taking care of people - he will do anything for anyone, he is so incredibly generous with everything. i have a lot to learn from him. and best of all he makes me laugh all the time - even when he's not around, i start laughing just remembering something he did or said. love that.

i don't want to sound too much like a hallmark card, but i think it's already too late. oh! and he writes me the greatest cards and letters ever. he's an awesome writer and all-in-all amazing communicator - great at drawing stuff out of me, and handling me at my worst. handling me all the time for that matter - best, worst, crazy, quiet, "normal," whatever. my mom made the comment that i "wear it on my sleeve" that i love him so much ... i think that's a good thing? ;-)