Lately, my life keeps mirroring this whole idea: you put yourself out there, you try to do something to advance yourself in some way or another that you discuss with your friends (Go to a Casting Workshop To Network To Book Jobs!  Join Tinder To Find Cute Boys!  Free Write Every Day!  Doodle!  Reblog Pictures of People You Admire and Inspirational Sayings! Don’t Eat Crap!  Actually Try To Find A Job You Can Do While You’re Recovering From Surgery!) but yet you end up falling on your face one way or another and the answers are nowhere to be found.  Yet for some reason, the less we talk and the more we do, even if it’s something we would rather stab ourselves with a fork than actually doing it, things comes together.  Like driving to Marin County on a whim because you want to do theatre up there.  Or creating a project with a friend that, with little fanfare, is almost done.  Or even just showing up for a party that you may have thought was going to suck and there was a Law & Order: SVU marathon on and HOW can you miss that sort-of situation.  How is it that in some circumstances we try and try and yet no matter what you do, the answers still don’t appear and everything turns out worse than the third Hangover movie, yet in others when you just do something you couldn’t give a damn about and you do it ANYWAY, you’re handed something on a silver platter? Do you abandon your dreams for the thing you’re apathetic about yet you’re given all the comforts in the world?  It seems kind of terrible for the universe to play this trick on you, like you want to Do Something and Make Something but yet the world just sits there laughing like “Look at this fool trying to be Someone Great, they should’ve just gotten that desk job.”  So what’s the solution?

Treat Everything Like It’s An Adventure.

Even if that means trying a brand new way to draw your favorite doodle or write a different way or a different genre, adventure is about doing and being okay even if you end up back at square one with nothing but a gum wrapper and a dog-eared copy of your favorite book.  Taking risks and just DOING things means that at least you’re doing something with your life.  Moving across country on a leap of faith.  Taking a chance you never thought was possible.  Hell, even in the face of adversity we’re given the opportunity to adventure and advance ourselves and pick ourselves up from chaos and madness.  It’s the great unknown, and if we don’t take the opportunity, we’re wasting precious time because “Adventure is out there!”  Like this still from season 2, episode 3 of Girls:

If we stay in our comfort zone and just talk about all the things we’re going to do, we’ll never actually leave and see what magic will happen when we take a leap of faith.  So, friends.  Let’s join together and make things happen.  we gotta get out there and do something.  Even if we fail.  We have to go make things, do things, see things, try new things, eat new things, drink new things, ALL THE THINGS, because at least we can say we did something, even if it ends up going down in flames.  As a college professor once said to me, “fail big.”  If you’re going to go down, at least go down swinging and put up a fight.  Because all adventurous women do.

-Kylie Sparks

Videos:

Blogs:

A List of Really Attractive Female Fictional Characters Who Are So Much More Than Really Attractive

Friends of Wonderly:

Carly – http://www.youtube.com/carlyfriesen

Nadia – http://www.youtube.com/user/ieatdumplings

Jessica – http://www.youtube.com/user/jurassicaaaa

Megan – http://www.youtube.com/megathornberryy

Nicole – http://www.youtube.com/otterborealis

Allyson – http://www.youtube.com/parsamend

Amy – http://www.youtube.com/user/shoutame

Jenn – http://www.youtube.com/technicolormoments

Jocie – http://www.youtube.com/thenameisjocie

Gabriella – http://www.youtube.com/Timelordsandwizards

Brianna – http://www.youtube.com/weirdsoundingvoice

Amy - http://www.youtube.com/amyinthebluebox

Anna - http://www.youtube.com/annalichty

Choncey - http://www.youtube.com/user/spiffinglycino

Sam - http://www.youtube.com/user/BeTeamUnicorn

Kelly - http://www.youtube.com/liverpoollights

Beth - http://www.youtube.com/bethshake

Carly – http://www.youtube.com/thatcarlymay

Jessica - http://www.youtube.com/jessicalestrange

Mallory – http://www.youtube.com/malarayofsunshine

Rebecca – http://www.youtube.com/rebexington

Susie - www.youtube.com/readsusieread

Madeline – http://www.youtube.com/manicmads

Holly - http://www.youtube.com/thisisnotholly

Ingrid recently posted a video of her without any makeup on. She went on to explain that she used to get terrible anxiety even thinking about leaving the house without makeup due to problems with her skin. She has since learned to be comfortable with herself and let her inner beauty shine!

We love Ingrid’s DIY, or in her words GIY (Glam it Yourself) tutorials. They are simple enough that the beginner crafter can do it and never fails to add just a little bit of glam to your everyday life. In this video she teaches us how to add hearts or dots to your tights. It made us want to rush out and try it on every pair of tights we own!

While hearing about great products is nice, sometimes you want to know about those that were a HUGE let down. Ingrid shows us which products didn’t quite work the best for her, in the sweetest way possible.

Now that we have you obsessed with Ingrid, be sure to check out the new episode of the Wonderly Way below and subscribe to her channel!

This is my most prized possession, and was completely made by me! (I bought the badges, and the fleece, but other than that, rock on me!)

In a way, it’s kind of my family’s way of doing Alex Day’s Lifescouts. My grandmother started hers when she was 21 when she met my grandfather and basically it’s a plain fleece blanket, very simple, and then everywhere you travel, and whatever you do, you collect a badge for it and sew it on.

My grandparents’ is full of places they went together, and things they did together and there isn’t a spare inch left on their well-worn grey blanket. It was my favourite thing at her house as a child. I’d wrap myself up in it, and if I was lucky, she’d come and sit by me and I was allowed to pick a badge and she’d tell me a story about her and Grandpa when they were younger, jettisoning off to foreign places and making fools of themselves and being in love and making memories.

There is a little name patch on the bottom of the blanket; the name of my grandmother. I never thought it was anything special until I asked her about it and she said it was the name badge off her old nurse’s uniform. It was her most treasured badge because she met my grandfather while working in the hospital. He was there for months and months recovering from a car accident and she used to look after him. When he fully recovered, he asked her to marry him.

I started my blanket when I was ten. I painstakingly worked on making the base, and then my grandmother gave me a few of her badges to start me off; boring places where we went yearly on family holidays, and cute badges of pretty faces, or ballet dancers, or things that I liked at the time. Then when I learned to waterski I got a badge of a girl waterskiing to sew on to it. We went to Italy when I was ten. We went all around Australia when I was 14. I went to Paris and London and Germany and Italy again when I was 16.

This blanket is a record of everything I’ve done and everything I’ve seen and everything I’ve loved and I’m proud of how covered in badges it is. I’ve lived a lot for only 18 years. And I absolutely cannot wait to start a new one with the people of my future; my partner, my children. And I definitely can’t wait until a little grandchild of mine sits wrapped up in it and asks me to tell them a story. A story about my life.

-Steph

I’m Steph, 18 years old and a complete weirdo. I read books, drink coffee and take lots of selfies because they’re good for the soul. I also write terrible poetry.

I am a big believer in immersing yourself with the town or city around you. People, including myself until I was about 15, get so caught up in the notion that where they live is boring, that they’ve seen it all and done it all. In most cities, there are awesome things going on all year round! In Seattle, I am currently spending a lot of time (and money) on movie tickets in the Seattle International Film Festival! They are the same price as a normal movie ticket, but are films you may never get to see elsewhere. Loads of earlier releases, indie films and some really unique, brilliant pieces of art that just don’t make it to mainstream cinemas. If you live in the area, be sure to catch one or two (or ten!) I am especially excited for ‘The Spectacular Now,’ which starts future Tris in ‘Divergent’ and Hazel in ‘The Fault in Our Stars,’ Shailene Woodley! Check it out here: http://www.siff.net/festival-2013/spectacular-now – Kayley Hyde

What to Listen to:

I found The Summer Set through iHeartRadio’s rising star contest (spoiler alert: they won.) Their latest album “Legendary” is my jam. The title track taps into the feeling of wanting to do something great with your life, something I feel like everybody can relate to. Too echo How I Met Your Mother’s Barney Stinson, this album is , wait for it, legendary. – MichelleTells

What to Buy:

But let’s face it! I have neither a driving license, nor the prerequisite trust in people to hitchhike my way across the universe. Not to mention the non-negligible financial side to my little, innocuous adventure!

This irritating desire to decamp from our comfort zone is, nonetheless, an indispensable part of being alive. It is the measure of madness, contained in all organisms, that moves them in strange, inexplicable ways. Everything begins with a preposterous suggestion which once implemented inaugurates a blithe aberration. Sadly, seldom are we are brave enough to leap at such an absurd proposal as crusading museums, or crossing the world.

So should we just keep on disregarding the irrepressible urge to indulge in the freedom and spontaneity of bare, simple life? Wouldn’t our lives be hollow should we never deviate from the beaten track – school, uni, job, matrimony, motherhood, and explore the intact wild appendage of the world?

Fortunately, once every year, we get to break away from our mundane routines and emerge ourselves in the hues of history and geography at the mere expense of foot pain. The Long Night of Museums offers us the thrilling opportunity to travel through space and time without the assistance of the Doctor and his Tardis. Like real independent women!

It quells our wanderlust in a nerdy way and it is an inexorable source of inspiration and knowledge. Plus, it’s free.

I have never been an avid museum-goer. I’d rather scroll through Google images and read Wikipedia articles for I actually learn interesting facts instead of simply staring at historical objects and surmising what they might have been used for. However, strolling along all those galleries, displaying picturesque photographs from European capitals; brutal images from wars, revolutions and prisons; abstract paintings and brilliant paper art, I experienced an unprecedented connection with the exhibited subjects.

There was no screen between me and what was illustrated. My overactive imagination easily transported me into the surreal realms of the inner world of eminent artists. I was in 19^th-century Saint Petersburg, overhearing the rumours about Karenina’s despicable disgrace. I participated in a riot in Kenya and I felt the intransigence and insurgence in the air. I took care of an amputated boy and as I was brushing away the tears from his dusty face, the noise from the gallery drained out. It was just me, him and flickering hope on a filthy street in Afghanistan.

The Night of the Museums was an incredulously profound experience. Even though at some point I felt reminiscent of my mahogany desk and, as a rabid nerd, I wished I had at least my laptop with me, I stunted the litany of complaints incrementing in my mind.

I was no grumbling Bilbo Baggins that night. I was a time-traveller who roamed about a cemetery of momentary epiphanies, forgotten souls and disregarded afflictions. I was an explorer of the world who crossed boundaries with the creaking of doors.

I was a museum crusader.

-Mery S.

I am a frail dandelion and one day the wind would scatter me away, but until then I’d read and write and aspire to greater heights.
Of course, by that I mean: attain a Nobel prize in Biology, travel with the Doctor, pen a profound bestseller, win the Hunger Games, meet Ayn Rand, attend VidCon and escape from my paper town.

From a metaphysical standpoint, sense is almost a moot point. Logic is limited in its capacity to do justice to all the incredible phenomena of life. The magic, the spirit, and the uniqueness of everything beyond even what my mind can rationalize. As a poet (albeit an amateur) I’ve been burdened with many questions, unfortunately none of which have given me the mercy of also being amateur. Most recently I’ve been thinking about this: where does logic end and intuition begin?

This is the premise of my poem titled “Like You”. In an ongoing process to question my own take on intuition and logic, I started reading a book by Osho called “Knowing Beyond Logic” which helped me to dig deeper into the intuitive relationships all around me, and perceive the things I could hardly even notice before. You can read my blog post where I delve deeper into the topic. Alternatively, you can read more of my writing here.

“Like You” was inspired by this book but also by romance, and is a product of my inquiries about intuition in regards to love. It culminates as a kind of love story between pairs of simple things that just intuitively belong together. As the Dead Beats Literary Blog described it when they graciously reviewed my poem (in a FB post):

“This poem is a crystallization of feeling into couplets that enjamb and roll into one another to show that a feeling is never single faceted.”

EXT. – SIDEWALK – AFTERNOON

EMMY holds the camera in front of her as she walks down the middle of a street. There is a slight breeze, which causes a chunk of hair to blow in her face, repeatedly, while she talks.

EMMY

(fights with the chunk of hair, then points to it)

It’s breezy.

(fights again with the hair)

Today is field trip day. It’s super fun and important. Also known as the day my boss sends me on errands because there is a world in which “receptionist” is synonymous with “personal assistant.” I don’t live in that world. But my boss does.

(shows a lengthy to-do list to the camera)

Number one on the list is pick up dog treats from the wholesaler downtown and deliver them to the doggy day care. Because the day care doesn’t have organic treats and, no, my boss’s dogs cannot eat anything but organic treats.

EMMY grimaces at what she just said. She starts to speak again, but is interrupted by a SECURITY GUARD up ahead.

SECURITY GUARD

(slightly out of breath)

Hey! Watch where you’re going!

STACY, the SECURITY GUARD, pulls EMMY to the side of the road.

EMMY

Sorry, Stacy, I’m working here.

A CAR whizzes by; they both watch.

STACY

You’re working?

STACY takes a swig from his bottle of soda.

EMMY

(fights with the hair again)

Yes.

STACY

(sizes up the situation)

This is important work?

EMMY

Everything I do is important.

STACY

(takes another drink of soda)

Is that what you call those moments  when you make me harass young people in their cars? Moments of importance?

EMMY

(straightens shoulders)

It’s not harassment. It’s for the better good of humanity. Besides, they shouldn’t have been going at it in the company’s parking lot.

STACY

How do you know that’s what they were doing? Were you in the car with them?

EMMY

(disgusted, but still poised)

I don’t need to be in the car with someone to interpret condensation on windows and a low-lying bass pumping from the speakers.

STACY

Aren’t you too young to recognize  what that kind of situation means?

EMMY

Aren’t you too young to pretend they don’t show that stuff on TV?

STACY

TV will burn through your brain cells.

EMMY

TV will forever be my lifeline. By the way, I passed a human slumped against the building as I left the office. He’d probably tell you he’s just napping, but the stench of alcohol will convince you that he needs an intervention. Care to douse him with the hose?

STACY

One day your coworkers are going to realize it’s you that’s pulling the strings around here. And when they do, I hope I’m far away from the ensuing explosion.

EMMY

That’s how I plan to make my millions.

STACY shakes his head and squeezes EMMY’s shoulder. He then turns toward the building and the drunk human. The camera remains on him as we watch him empty his soda bottle onto the drunk guy’s head. EMMY turns the camera back to herself and shrugs, then turns it off.

THE END.

-Emmy Benson

Emmy is a Wikipedia enthusiast, cheese addict, and struggling plant owner. She writes young adult stories from a closet in Los Angeles, and is proud to claim her first story was published when she was in first grade. It involved a bunny with mammoth strength and opposable thumbs. You might want to follow her on Twitter, because AARP The Magazine does and they once published one of her tweets. You can find her at emmytheofficegirl.com or @emmybenson.

It’s a fairly well known John Green quote but no one I was expecting to lead with when I started thinking about this post. I sat down late on Thursday night with a big cup of tea and a pen to write a poem about nostalgia to upload onto YouTube in May. I thought about all the 80s or 90s cartoons I rewatch every time I get the flu or my shelf of childhood fantasy books or the fact that I keep any stupid thing my brothers ever gave me. I was determined to give the theme my full attention.

Ah but here’s the rub, my finals in university start on Tuesday and I am woefully under prepared. I’m sure there are lots of people who can relate. Tis the season for procrastination, right?

But no, my channel is important and that’s the reason I’ve checked my email and twitter seven times or more in the last hour, of course. I’m not obsessing over analytics I’m just taking my goals seriously.

But I should probably be taking my degree seriously too, right?

I successfully ignored the sensible part of my brain and returned to the theme of nostalgia. I started to write out things my mother used to say to me as a kid. The most memorable definitely was: “when I have more time”. Mam worked full time and every time she had to put a hobby aside she would sigh and say that she’d get back to it “when I have more time”.

I realised that I had said that very phrase to a friend at lunch that day. I was talking about future and all the things I’d finish once I had more time again.

So enter “imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia”.

I escape any stress or responsibility in my present by running off to my dream-come-true future which is just as invented as the nostalgic polish people can apply to the past and either way it stops us from seeing things clearly.

So in the end I did write a poem, just not the poem I’d expected to write. But I like being surprised like that. In fact that’s just what obsessing with my future and my “goals” can harm. It could make me miss the unexpected opportunities fate throws under your feet now and again that takes you in an unexpected direction. Hell, that’s how I got started on YouTube in the first place.

Nostalgia has its place, no doubt. I’m still going to read through my box of old love letters and have marathons of kids’ cartoons but if we gloss over our pasts too much we can’t learn any lessons from what we’ve lived through.

So it might be 1 am when I’m writing this and exams are looming but this is still my moment and this is what I’m choosing to do with it for better or worse. Nostalgia for the past or the future can never be as important as the decisions we make in the present, because that’s all we can really control.

-Orla-Jo