Don’t let fear hold you back.

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. This week, I would like to talk about my plans to integrate dance back into my life. For thirteen years of my life, I danced at Natchez Ballet Academy. I started ballet when I was three years old. In the beginning, I hated it, and over time, I grew to love it. I quit last year to go to school at MSA. I had the opportunity to audition for the dance discipline, and I did not take it. I didn’t audition because I didn’t believe I would get in. My dancing abilities were not as honed as some of my peers. This is no one’s fault but my own. Had I put more effort and time into dance when I had the chance, maybe I would have been confident enough to audition for dance. But the past is in the past, and now I have the chance to try again. This time, I will try harder and push myself further than I ever did before. I know I have the potential to be a great dancer; anyone does. Being a great dancer is a matter of dedication. I didn’t have that before, but I do now. My time away from dance showed me how much it truly means to me. The saying “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone” is a saying for a reason. Last week, I wrote an article for the newspaper Rise about the Alice in Wonderland dance production and the Spring show auditions, which I will be attending. I encourage anyone interested to go and give it a shot. The worst that can happen is you’re turned away. It’s a fear many people have, me included, but I made the mistake of letting fear hold me back once. It won’t happen again. Embarrassment is fleeting; it will go away. Rejection only shows someone what isn’t meant for them. My mother once told me what’s meant for you will never pass you by. I think dance, in some way or another, is meant for me. Want, desire, whatever you choose to call it, is there for a reason. I desire to dance again, and I will. So, the overall message of this post is do not let fear hold you back, go after what you want. Otherwise, you will regret it, and who knows, maybe you won’t be as lucky as I was and get a second chance.

Hi.

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks on Winter Break, so I figured I would talk about that. My Winter break was tame. I was sick the first week and on Christmas, which sucked, but it is what it is. I spent the Holidays at my grandmother’s house and visiting family. How did you all spend your break? Are you all excited about the New Year? Scared?

I can see people, at least in my age range, being scared. Each day that goes by, we get closer to becoming seniors, graduating, and going off into the world on our own. I wouldn’t say that I’m scared, maybe more so relieved. I understand that there are trials that come with adulthood, but adulthood offers me more freedom than being a child ever did. I’ll be free to make my own mistakes, pave my own path, and become someone other than someone’s daughter, grandbaby, or niece. I will simply be myself, Lela Reed, and in being an adult, I get to choose who “Lela Reed” is. Maybe she’s a lawyer, an engineer, a nurse, a businesswoman. Maybe she’s an author, or a famous actor or singer. I’m not sure yet who she is, but I do know I can’t wait to choose.

On another note, being back at school feels good, refreshing even, but I’m not going to lie, my writing skills feel a little rusty. Actually, a lot rusty. I haven’t written anything in a while, and nothing I wrote before my break has met my standards. I am someone who expects perfection from myself, which includes every piece of work I put out there. and that is something I do not see changing as time goes on. I just feel like I’ve hit a standstill in my writing and that I haven’t improved in my time here. Only those who have seen my work and critiqued it will be able to tell me for sure, but if someone were to tell me, I would appreciate honesty. I believe that being “nice” when it comes to important things gets you nowhere. How is someone meant to improve if you tell them they’re doing fine the way they are when they’re not? It’s a setup for failure.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to say on this blog. So, I’ll wrap this up by saying I hope you all had a great Holiday, happy New Year, and have a wonderful day.

Getting Vulnerable (Ew).

Hello everyone, in this week’s blog post, I’m going to talk about someone very special. Me. I’m going to get vulnerable, sort of, and if you know me at all, you will know vulnerability is not my thing. But for the sake of getting some advice, here I go.

My problem is that I’m a girl who likes a lot of things, who wants to do a lot of things, but I can’t seem to pick just one to be my thing. I mean, I used to be a dancer- ballet to be precise, and then I quit to come to MSA to write. Sometimes I still like writing, I know that I’m going to write an essay for fun as soon as I get all my work done. Sometimes I want to be an astronomer, other times a lawyer. I guess what I’m trying to say is I have a passion for everything and nothing. Society tells you to grow up and go to college, which I fully intend to do, but society also tells you to pick just one degree and go live your life invested in this one field. How can I do that when there are so many different paths to go down? I have a million lives I want to lead, and still I’m stuck with just this one.

I won’t lie and claim that money is not going to be a motivator in whatever path I choose. I do not want to be broke. Sure, money isn’t the only thing I care about, but it sure is up there! Whether we like it or not, money is what makes this world go round. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if we woke up one day and suddenly had to pay for the air we breathe. Which is why when people say that stupid phrase, “follow your heart”, I want to gag. I would rather follow my brain, my brain makes more sense, and it’s telling me that I need to go for what will support me, my future cats, and, I guess, my family members. (That was a joke.) (Not really.)

So, if anyone reading this has any advice, drop it in my comment section. Until next time, bye.

TW: My Opinion

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog! I hope your week has been going well. Today’s topic has been one that’s been on my mind for a while, but I haven’t posted about it because I didn’t want to offend anyone, even though I don’t care if someone gets offended. I just don’t want to deal with that person being offended. Make sense? So, Disclaimer: this is just my opinion; you are free to agree or disagree. Either way, I couldn’t care less.

Taylor Swift. It feels like a name you shouldn’t say unless you want a horde of middle school to thirty-year-old women, you can guess what they look like, coming at you. I was a fan of Taylor Swift from middle school until my sophomore year of high school, so until quite recently, I would stream her songs and perform her concerts for my friends. Even to this day, I think some of her songs are good, and I won’t lie and say she doesn’t have a couple of decent albums, but in my opinion, I don’t think she’s as good as people make her out to be in any way, shape, or form. I say this because she began her career as a mediocre performer, most artists do, but it doesn’t feel like she’s grown all that much in the nineteen years she’s been in the industry. With all the money she has (because I won’t let anyone forget this woman is a billionaire and, despite how you feel, she is a part of the problem), she should be able to afford the best singing and dancing coaches the industry has to offer. I’m not saying that she hasn’t been working, but if she has…

It’s not only her performance skills that, in my opinion, are mediocre, but also her lyricism. I’m not denying that she is a gifted writer, but her writing doesn’t really go beyond half-baked metaphors and the use of big words to make herself seem smart. Now I am not the best writer in the world, and clearly neither is she, but if you’re going to claim yourself an English teacher and write songs about Shakespeare’s Ophelia, then at least get the story right. Ophelia’s problem was not that she didn’t have the right man; her problem was men, and I fear anyone with basic reading comprehension could come to this conclusion, but what do you expect from a male-centered woman?

And this is not to hate on anyone who enjoys Taylor Swift, you love your white feminist, (look up the definition before you get mad, and no, her support post of former Vice President Kamala Harris does not mean anything when it came too late and after she was basically forced into it by her democratic fans, and it certainly doesn’t mean anything after letting Donald Trump use her song and not saying anything about it, hanging out with MAGA men, etc.), high school loving even though she’s thirty something, personality based off the men she dates and the people she’s around, (she called herself a Mirrorball don’t even), billionaire popstar. And that is perfectly okay, my respect for her is just in the negative numbers.

Blue Food.

Hello, welcome back to my blog. Once again, I have relatively nothing to write about so I’m just going to yap. After all that’s what you’re here for. So, I don’t really have a lot going on right now, I’m drinking a Monster Energy Drink. It’s Ultra Paradise and I have a bag of Sour Patch kids. I love sour patch kids, when I was younger, they were my favorites. I used to get the really big bags of them from the dollar general and take them to ballet with me. I know everyone’s favorite is blue, which is totally understandable, but me personally, I like the red and green better. Maybe people just like the blue sour patch because it’s blue, did anybody ever think about that? Is blue flavored food actually good, or is it good just because it’s blue?

I know a girl that loves blue, so she might have something to say about that, but it’s just something to think about. No but actually, think about blueberries. In my humble opinion blueberries are disgusting, and technically they are a blue food. So, is blue food even really good? Sour patch kids went as far as to put out an entire bag of just the blue sour patch. How rude is that to all the other colors who I could argue are just as good. It’s the same problem with Jolly Ranchers; the blue jolly rancher gets all the hype when really the green one is probably the best in the bag. I think society has seriously molded us into believing that blue food is “better” when in actuality the food is just blue.

Rick Riordan has contributed to this problem. I used to be the biggest Percy Jackson fan ever, so I remember very clearly Percy’s obsession with blue food. Yes, I know it’s because he’s the son of Poseidon and blah blah blah, but in writing it that way Rick Riordan contributed to lying to an entire generation about the superiority of blue food. Blue food is not that great. This theory of mine really needs to be looked into because I know I am correct. Society has been lying to us! Society has brainwashed you all into believing blue is better, but blue is no better than red or green or even orange!

I am asking all of you reading to open your eyes and see the truth. All color food stands together, in unity, in equality, in justice. No color food over the other.

Yap Session

Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog. This week I wasn’t sure what to write about, so I’m just going to write whatever comes to mind first. Flowers. My favorite flower changes quite frequently, as does my favorite color, my favorite everything really. As of today, my favorite flower is a red rose, but about a month ago if someone asked me “what’s your favorite flower” I would have said a carnation, or a dahlia. I know my mom’s favorite flower is a hydrangea. For her birthday last year, I went on a manhunt- flower-hunt rather, trying to get her a hydrangea plant. I’m not quite sure if that plant is still with us, probably not. Plants die relatively fast in my household. Anyways, whoever is reading this, tell me what your favorite flower is, I’m curious…I’ve ran out of things to say about flowers.

Next topic! Cups, mugs to be specific. I love mugs, I should really start collecting those, but the problem with me collecting mugs is I’d have no place to put them. I also don’t really use mugs; I don’t drink coffee or anything someone would put in a mug that often. I prefer energy drinks. Okay new-new topic, Energy drinks! My favorite thing on the planet, not really, but one of the top five if I do say so myself… and I do. I mainly drink from three brands, but sometimes I’ll branch out and try something new. My top brand is Red Bull. Always and forever. Their sugar free drinks are the best. I had one this morning, I’ll have one tomorrow morning too. At number two, a very close number two, is Monster. I love a good sugar free monster. They are so delicious and amazing, I love them. Number three, Alani Nu. I used to drink one every single morning, and I do mean every single morning, but as I branched out and tried new things, Alani’s have moved down my favorite’s list. They’re good, just waiting for them to be great. Did you catch the reference? I bet you did.

This brings me to my final topic, Dance Moms! Dance Moms was such a good show, until the Zieglers left. That’s just my opinion! I love all the other girls (sort of…I’m looking at you Kendall, Kalani, mhm…) Early seasons of the show were the best seasons, and the new reboot…it’s not doing it for me. I didn’t even bother watching it, but I’ve seen clips, and from those clips everything looks very staged and just a big no. My favorites on the show are kind of all over the place. I will need a whole post dedicated to Dance Moms to get across my feelings. My feelings on Dance Moms are pretty impassioned.

Anyways, thank you for reading this week’s blog post. As always I hope you enjoyed reading me yap.

Things I Love

Hello everyone, this week’s blog is going to be about the things I love, simply so that I can yap about them. This post won’t include all the things I love, just a few.

First things first,

Phone Cases

I love phone cases, I love to get new phone cases, I love looking at phone cases on Pinterest. It’s kind of an odd fixation of mine; phone cases just make me really happy. I should probably start a collection. There’s really not much to say here so moving right along…

Perfume

I also love perfume. Perfume is probably one of my favorite things in the whole wide world. The ones I love to reach for are Mon Guerlain, Mugler Alien, and Good Girl perfumes are great too, Versace Bright Crystal, so on and so on. I really really want to get my hands on the Delina perfumes. Even just one singular bottle would be a dream come true.

The Nutcracker

Back when I was in ballet Nutcracker season was my favorite season, not even Christmas. Just as soon as we started practicing for the Nutcracker, I was one happy girl. Everything from Mice to the Land of Sweets is perfect in my opinion. My favorite roles were Flowers and Snowflake, I think those were the best roles I ever got in the nutcracker, but I will say that Porcelain Doll was a close third for me. The role I always wanted to get was Dew Drop, Arabian is such a beautiful role, but the flexibility required is not for me.

TikTok

Call me brain dead all you want, I love TikTok. My feed is hilarious, the edits I see are great, and you can learn so much from TikTok if you know where to look. Trust me.

Colors

I love different colors. I can’t really talk about a specific color because my favorite color is constantly changing, but I love color in general. I hate millennial grey. There is nothing that enrages me more than when I see someone buy a beautiful home and destroy it buy taking all the color, personality, all the life out of a home and replacing it with grey.

I hope whoever is reading this enjoyed listening to me yap and maybe even got a few solid perfume recommendations from me. Please, if you see me in the hall and ever want to chat perfume, pull me aside. I would love to.

A Killer Nurse

So, this week’s blog post is going to be a bit different from the weeks prior. I am going to tell all of you reading about a True Crime Case that I happen to find very tragic and that floats around in the back of my mind. Please sit back and try to relax while I tell you about Chester Hospital and it’s “Killer Nurse”.

Lucy Letby is a thirty-five-year-old former neonatal nurse and a serial killer. In August of 2023, Letby was convicted of murdering seven infants and the attempted murders of seven others. It is likely this killer has murdered or assaulted many more infants. Letby would go about her crimes by giving the infants too much insulin, ripping out their breathing tubes, or injecting air bubbles into their bloodstream.

Colleagues, before Letby had been convicted, reportedly called her an “angel of death.” This is because every time Letby was on shift, an infant would suddenly get sick. It didn’t matter if the infant had been doing well, getting stronger, or was strong already. When Letby was near no infant was safe.

While Letby was still working at Chester Hospital she was also known as a bit of a nightmare. Letby was one of those goody-two-shoes who “wanted to do her job and yours too”. During her time there Letby began to obsess over a married doctor, who during trial was referred to as Doctor A. It is a theory that Letby’s motive to kill these innocent babies was to gain Doctor A’s attention and sympathy. Pathetic right?

There were rumors that Chester Hospital was haunted, or cursed, due to the number of infants dying. There were theories that the water was tainted. Come to find out the reason behind all the lives of the Nicu babies being cut short, was one evil woman. It’s truly terrifying to think that the people who hold the lives of the most vulnerable people could be like Lucy Letby. It makes you wonder if there are others and they just haven’t been caught yet? If there were others and they got away with it? Horrifying, don’t you think?

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading this and if you all would like me to continue writing about true crime cases it’d be cool if you’d let me know. Have a wonderful day, and if you’d like to learn more about this case, I suggest Stephanie Soo’s “Rotten Mango” podcast. You can find It on YouTube or Spotify.

My Week/Game of Thrones Update

Hello everyone, hopefully whoever is reading this is doing well. So, I know in my last post I said that I was reading A Game of Thrones and that I would give updates on how I felt about the book in this post. I know that I said that, typed it, whatever. However, I am a big procrastinator, like a huge procrastinator. I could win awards for how much I procrastinate. Because of my procrastination skills I have put off reading the first chapter of Game of Thrones, but I think I’ll have an actual update next week.

So instead of how I feel about A Game of Thrones you all get to hear about how my week has been thus far. It feels good being back at school even though it was nice to have such a long weekend. Does anyone know when MSA’s next break is? If you do, please let me know. Anyway, I got to come back to school with a bunch of new stuff, and some gifts for my friends. Giving gifts is my love language. I won’t say what I got my friends because I still haven’t given them yet, it’s supposed to be a surprise. Unfortunately, one of my friends has guessed the surprise multiple times but I just keep on saying it’s not what he thinks it is. I guess I’ll have to be more creative next time, or more secretive. One of the two.

My week hasn’t been too exciting; I got my math grade up though. Can I have a round of applause? I went out to eat with my friend/roommate. We went to that pizza place down by Betty’s called Ciero’s and then we went into this bakery. I got the biggest cinnamon roll I think I’ve ever seen. Today I’m going to check out and go back. After the bakery we went to dollar general and then came back to school.

Upcoming me and my friends are going to see two movies. Or we’re planning on it at least. The plan is to see the new Conjuring movie which I’m beyond excited for. I love horror movies. We also plan to see Hamilton, which I’m also beyond excited about because I love musicals.

Thank all of you once again for reading my yap session, have a lovely day, and hopefully my next post will be more interesting.

A Game of Thrones

Welcome back to my blog, I hope everyone reading is doing well. If you couldn’t tell by the title today’s topic is Game of Thrones. To my knowledge it’s a very popular series, the show being a bit more popular than the books. Don’t quote me on that I don’t know for sure. Anyways yesterday I went to the library and checked it out. My cousin Jordan is a big fan of Game of Thrones, like a really big fan. She’s a big enough fan to buy themed charms for her pandora bracelet. From her talking about it (and seeing edits on TikTok) I gradually got interested. So, I’ll let y’all know how I feel about when I finish the book or maybe a few chapters in or maybe I won’t talk about it again at all. We’ll just have to see.

I’ll tell you what I know about Game of Thrones going into it. There is an extensive family tree, a lot of people with white hair, death, dragons, swords, and there’s a lot of really messed up traumatizing stuff that happens to basically every single character. I know that there’s braids, that too. Please wish me luck with my reading journey and possibly watching journey if I ever get HBO. There’s a lot of books for me to through, and if the books are any good, I might even join the fandom alongside my cousin.

I think Daenerys will be my favorite character, mostly because she’s played by Emilia Clarke and I love Emilia Clarke. She’s one of my favorite British people, along with Emma Watson. Has anyone reading this read or watched Game of Thrones? If so let me know and tell me what you thought about it.

I really want to watch some more edits of the show, but I feel like if I do that, I’m totally going to get spoiled. Not even just watching edits, I feel like if I look up anything regarding the show or the book on social media, I’m automatically going to get spoiled.

I heard that there’s also new spin offs being made so maybe I’ll check those out. I don’t know who the new spin-offs follow. To be completely honest I don’t really even know who Game of Thrones follows. Is it all about Daenerys or is she just a fan favorite? I reckon I’ll be figuring it out soon, once I open the book.

Thank you for reading this week’s blog post and please do return to listen to me yap.