Creating My (Unconventional) Dream Life

Chantelle
August 27, 2019
Healing / Manifesting / Personal Development / Unconventional Living

When I was younger, I was always asked what I wanted to be when I was growing up. I always answered something different every time I was asked because what five year old knows what they want to do to support themselves as an adult? I feel it's the same now, except I'm now thirty and it isn't adorable anymore to change my mind every year with my interests. Regardless of what hobby I'm learning that year, my dreams have always been unconventional. I'm now accepting the fact that this means I'm not going to live a conventional life. I battled the thought of doing the norm. Respectively, I tried college a few times, and really pushed myself to be the 9-5 "cubicle normy" that was expected of me. I found out after years of depression and crippling anxiety that wasn't what I wanted for myself. I tried hard to be that person, to the point where it almost killed me, and have slowly been peeling off the layers of…

Avoiding Conformity

Chantelle
May 20, 2019
Addiction / Mental Health / Personal Development / Sobriety / Unconventional Living

Many of us go through life following the path that many generations before us have been following. Society criticizes anyone who tries to walk on their own path and break away from the life of conformity. Stepping out of the traditional path is challenging in many ways, but what is more rewarding than living the life you want to live? It has taken me a very long time to get to a point where I feel comfortable stepping out of conformity. Maybe some of you can relate to this. When I was a kid, my parents were pretty strict. I had a lot of rules and lived a pretty sheltered life. I lived with my parents as an only child in suburbia. Both of my parents worked a lot growing up and I was alone often. I watched them work their way from a studio apartment with a pull out bed to a 2400 sq ft home. I am actually extremely grateful for my upbringing, and that I had such…

Why I Actually Hate The Holidays..

Chantelle
December 1, 2018
Minimalism / Personal Development / Vegan / Zero Waste

The older I get, the more I hate the holidays; Especially Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a holiday that essentially celebrates genocide, and we do this by killing 300,000,000 turkeys a year. That’s right... Three hundred million! Then, before the night is over after we get done saying how grateful we are, we go and spend a shit-ton of money on gifts for the people we’re grateful for. Some of us even put ourselves into debt because of this. It’s a huge consumerism trap, and I’m finally breaking free. Some people may think I’m just crazy, but hear me out. Without giving a huge history lecture, basically, a group of white refugees came to a new country fleeing their corrupt government. The natives greeted them with a feast and blessings, welcoming them with open arms. Then the white men went on to almost wipe out their entire race, raping their women and stealing their land. Now, we celebrate these events by buying a turkey. Here’s a little history video about that. After…

Final Days In The Hospital (Pancreatitis Series #3)

This blog is the third part of my Pancreatitis Series. If you haven’t, you should read Part 1 and Part 2 first to get caught up. I have explained the start and the beginning to my time in the hospital. Now is all about the final days of my hospital stay and the confusing conclusion to my diagnosis. (Warning: This blog is a little longer than normal.) October 12, 2018 (FRIDAY cont.): Finally, Things Start Looking Up Today was full of surprises. My stay here so far has been absolutely horrible, painful and terrifying. I was lonely and scared. I moved to Oregon from Illinois with nothing but my dog and whatever would fit in my Saturn Ion at the time. When coming here, I knew that I was going to be alone, but I also have never been really sick before. I’ve never spent time in a hospital so I didn’t know the feeling of lonely you get from being there. When I found out my mom was blessed…

Unexpected Life Lessons

Chantelle
October 5, 2018
Addiction / Healthy Living / Personal Development

Life has a funny way of teaching us lessons. It is almost never easy, and it is usually never how we think something is going to happen. I wanted to talk about a couple of my recent unexpected life lessons. I have always been a planner; Making lists for everything, and researching something down to the most insignificant details to be the most prepared for whatever the situation may be. I get it from my mom. This trait is a blessing and a curse. Those of you who carry this trait will understand what I’m talking about. I would get so caught up in planning for these grandeur dreams I have, and would create these unrealistic expectations of how smoothly my plan was going to go. This lead to utter disappointment when things kept going “wrong.” Some of you may know that I lost my job a few weeks ago. Luckily I was able to find a filler job quickly within a week, waitressing at a diner. This job isn’t…