lisalucyliu

Today started not-so-good. Everything I was afraid would happen did.

For the past 2 nights, I’ve been getting sick. This morning, I felt disgusting and I still do right now. I was in a really rotten mood and the parents weren’t happy. I couldn’t hide my crankiness very well even though I clamped my mouth shut. 

Logically, I know that this is just a small cold and there’s no way that being moody is going to solve anything. But also, I’m frustrated because I feel gross and there’s no other way to express it. 

I’ve also come across a sticky situation regarding my summer internship(s). The lady who I interned for during the semester said that she purposefully gave me little work during the school year because she wanted me to come in during the summer. But I’ve already accepted another internship during the summer… do I have to quit one? Could I handle both? Aigooooo I’m confused now.

Today went really well! Everything went smoothly and everyone in the family is in a good mood.

I took some time while we were driving through Arkansas to doodle some Korra drawings. They started out decent and degenerated rapidly afterward so I got really frustrated. Also, drawing in the car started making me nauseous so I stopped.

I think I made progress by not turning into a grumbling teenager today. There are a lot of things that my parents always do during these trips that I never appreciated before. I’m glad I can now see this and make an effort to not add more to their stress.

Actual human contact is coming tomorrow! I pray for my attitude and much more. I also hope that I can find more interesting things to write about :)

We be driving to Michigan starting tomorrow :) I will be trying to blog small tidbits during the week and keep my thoughts God-centered.

It’s gonna be hard for me because I normally hate travelling, especially with the family. I think I somehow regress to an angry, sulky teenager on family vacations. I will be trying my very best to be on my most energetic, optimistic behavior this time and to keep reaching for the Lord in times of stress.

Also, I need to keep up my appearance in order to bolster the family image (mostly for my dad). Contacts and makeup and maturity every day, le sigh. 

Allons-y!

From rewatching bits and pieces of season 3, I can safely say that my favorite character by far has to be Zuko, although not for the reasons that one might think.

I think I love the entire cast of this show and all the production values. It’s just so well put-together. Every character has a facet that I admire: Aang’s optimism, Sokka’s ingenuity, Toph’s determination, Katara’s loyalty. But what I really like about Zuko is that he’s stupid.

I’m not kidding. The kid is STUPID. He’s got a terrible home life, true, but right behind him every step of the way is his loving, supportive Uncle Iroh but he can’t see his blessings and keeps working for the approval of his abusive dad. He makes stupid, awful decisions then and gets right up and screws everything up again. Of course this is completely oversimplifying Zuko’s complicated situation, but the point still stands.

This kid has made some horrible, horrible mistakes and I cringe when I watch him make them and as he suffers the consequences. Yet he learns from them. He apologizes and learns and changes a couple degrees toward his rightful destiny. And he gets up and tries again and again and again. His stupidity sets him on the right path, however painful the lesson is. 

I really wish I could do the same. I don’t wish to be stupid and pigheaded and suffer through a traumatic childhood, but I do wish that I had the guts to do what’s stupid and honestly learn from it. What I tend to do is this: get all stressed out beforehand and try to do everything right the first time, then mess up badly the second time, then deny that the second time ever happened because I’m too ashamed to face my own mistakes. Then, the cycle happens again and again.

In one episode, Zuko remarks that his mistakes have been the way that he arrived as a powerful ally for the Avatar. That was pretty profound for me. I always like to hope that God will work through my failures but I hadn’t seen it applied so clearly. Thank you, Avatar :)

For now, I appreciate stupid, dorky Zuzu and I’m slowly getting around to Korra although I really don’t want to let go of Avatar quite yet.

I find it appropriate that I finish watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on the day of a solar eclipse. (although I didn’t know it until just now since I spent the whole day indoors)

OH MAN that series is awesome. I don’t think I’ll ever come across a children’s animated series as epic as this one. I’m astounded that it just got so many things right!

(I literally did this during 80% of the last two episodes)

The need to do fanart is strong. The need to read fanfiction is also strong.

Korra can wait. AVATAR FANARTING NAO KTHX.