Author: Taylor Lafayette

Has anyone told you that you are appreciated? Have you been told that someone is proud of you for your accomplishments? 

Well, if no one else has or if you’ve received these words of affirmation in abundance, let me introduce myself. Hi, I’m Taylor Lafayette and I want you to think of me as your friend for a second. The person reading this may be a close friend, acquaintance, or a complete stranger, but I must let you know you are valued and I appreciate you. 

Kindness isn’t something shared in this world often enough. We turn on the television and find countless slanders and remarks of negativity. We turn to social media only to have yet another issue made clear. We turn to our friends oftentimes to see that they too struggle. 

If you are the strong friend of the group, you are often turned to for advice and guidance and are more than willing to offer it. But, oftentimes, your friends see you as “strong” so much that they don’t feel the need to return the favor. It’s not that they don’t care, they just don’t realize you also need the affirmation and appreciation.

I’ve learned that the reliable friend yields their emotional needs to tend to everyone else’s, and in the middle of it all, often forgets to check on themselves. Please, be selfish sometimes.

I am not saying completely ignore those around you, but do focus on yourself. Take time to make sure that your needs are addressed and that your emotional and mental wellness is up to par. How can you possibly take on everyone else’s problems while ignoring your own? (yes, I AM CALLING YOU OUT!!)

Trying to solve everyone’s problems but your own can be seen as a way of you avoiding yours. This is not healthy behavior, friend. I want to see you at your best self. I want your mental and emotional health to be at the highest it has ever been. I want you to find the value in yourself and appreciate it.

You are loved.

You are valued.

You will be successful and live out your dreams.

But, you must focus on yourself. You must learn to take care of yourself. You must remove yourself from the back burner and move it to the very first. 

Friend, 

You are already great and today and everyday from now you add to the world a beauty almost overwhelming. And we welcome it.

Remain Kind,

The Strong Friend.

11:11 on 11/11, I find myself reminiscing my life as a middle schooler as One Direction’s “Story of my Life” plays quietly from my phone. I remember when I would watch the music video on TeenNick’s Top 10, and sing each lyric in what I would hope was perfect harmony in the living room. Oh, to be that child once more. (sighs) Once again, much like most of my time, I find myself asking, why do we have to grow up?

As a small child, most can’t wait to grow into adolescence and then adulthood. The ignorance of reality that comes with being a child is a true blessing in disguise. No worrying about politics, laws, and presidential elections, just wondering if there is enough snacks to last the whole movie.

Oftentimes, I have taken my youth for granted. I miss being naïve and needy. I miss being cared for and looked after. I miss being simply clueless. But, I will only have to miss those things because now is the time where I must teach the naïve, care for the youth and make sure they aren’t too clueless.

The world’s changing and most children don’t have the luxury of being children anymore. They have to wave at their parents behind bars, never knowing when they can be held by them again. They have to be taught at a young age that they aren’t socially accepted. They have to worry about things no child should  ever have to worry about.

I know for a fact that me and many other teens of this generation can say that growing up is scary. The inevitable fate that is right around the corner mocks and taunts us. With each passing day, I become closer to that inevitable fate. But, I will not worry about it.

I will enjoy being a teenager. I will make mistakes that I will learn from. I will enjoy each moment with no regrets because each moment will be celebrated. Those moments will become memories that I will look back on to tell the next generation when they fear they’re growing older. 

I will be kind to those around me who struggle. I will try with each living breath in my body to make the world a little more tolerable. No kid should have adult fears while they are barely out of diapers. I want the next generation to experience the luxury of teenagehood. I want them to find their song that brings great memories and joy. I want to change the world so that my younger siblings won’t have to worry how I worry about them.

One Word. One Smile. One Change at a Time.

Don’t forget to moisturize for youthful skin friends,

A Girl Who Refuses To Be Afraid

The land is vast and stretches for miles. And it all belongs to me. I am no queen or empress with a vault to my riches. But, I am rich. I am rich in love and harmony. Not love for a person, but love for myself and the nature that surrounds me. The sounds of nature soothe me. The steady stream of a whirling river is behind me and behind it stands a lush forest with the greenest of greens. The wild flowers that grace the land below it are grand in size, profound in color. The colors vary from wild fire orange, to ruby red, to mustard yellow and the palest of pinks. Any royals would envy me if they saw the beauty in the world around it. Nothing belonging to nature is trimmed down and made domestic. I stay in nature and nature stays in me. 

I have no reason to take a home from the honeybees. For this is the honeybees’ home and they have found it in their buzzing hearts to let me stay.

The neighbors call me crazy and never by my name.

Maybe because it is as enchanted as the stories I speak. Before I was here, I was neither here nor there, but everywhere at once. Because I am nature and nature is me. I follow the course of the whirling river right above the smooth rocks below. The fish gurgle at me as I pass and the beavers are thankful for the breeze. Hard at work until sundown thankful for nature as it provides for me. The sky above me remains blue with stray white clouds looking lost and searching. My meal for the day is made solely of greens and the tea I drink fresh from the trees. Because I am thankful to nature as it provides for me. 

Like many other days in my life, I found myself overcome with both stress and boredom. (yes, I was procrastinating, mind ya business lol) I decided that I didn’t want to just float from app to app on my handy dandy phone, so I did the next best thing. I scrolled through my camera roll.

I hope you all can relate when I say my camera roll is full of not only pointless videos and memes, but also screenshots and countless backyard photoshoots. I constantly get notifications about the lack of space I have. But, I simply refuse to scavenge through my camera roll and delete the things I KNOW I don’t need. Enough about me being too lazy to scroll and delete, aren’t you guys interested in what I found???

Well, when I first opened my photos app the first thing I saw was a few saved TikTok videos. (please, don’t ask.) Next, I found random screenshots that would probably come in very handy someday. The likeliness of me ever using those screenshots is still pretty low considering how pointless the conversations were. If I continue to scroll I then find even more pointless memes and videos. (I swear, I actually take pictures, friends)

Now, here comes the cute stuff. I continued to scroll for what felt like ages before I actually see pictures. The first picture I see is simply me doing one of my infamous backyard photoshoots. As I continue to scroll, memories of this summer come flooding back in. Due to Covid-19, I couldn’t really have a “proper” summer vacation, but I still enjoyed it to say the least.

When the summertime pictures came along, I knew that I was nearing the end of my camera roll adventures. I upgraded my phone during the summer of this year. My very first picture is a backyard photo of me and my youngest brother. (AWWW!!)

I experienced many different emotions scrolling through my camera roll today. It was a journey to say the least. I saw with my own two eyes my confidence increase while my sense of humor continues on its own downward spiral. At least I have my camera roll to look on. It’s nice and interesting.

Once again, I find myself staring hopelessly at a once blank document as my tiring mind tries hard to think of something original to produce. Creating art through words and freely expressing myself is simply what I love to do. 

I discovered this growing passion for writing around late elementary or early middle school. I can’t remember exactly the time the events took place, all I know for sure is that is when I produced my very first song writing. 

Now, I’m not going to lie and say that this song could be Grammy Award Nominated, but I’m definitely not going to knock its potential. Song writing was a passion of mine before the actual idea of storytelling even crossed my mind.

From my middle school life up to now I have filled around two and a half composition books with nothing but completed songs and poetry. This is simply my favorite way to express myself and truly vent. I haven’t been writing in those composition books as of late, but I do plan to soon start back.

I’m glad that I still have access to my earlier works. It shows that there has been great improvement of my craft. Of course, as any true artist knows, your improvement of you craft is never really complete. Their are always things that you’re going to want to change and edit. And that’s perfectly fine, but please don’t spend too long on a single piece. I find that when you do that, you lose vision of the original meaning for the work and it soon becomes pointless to you.

I don’t know exactly what this blog is about, but I hope at least one artist’s soul can relate to this in some way. Until next time friends, remember your authentic nature.

     Inspiration was yet to strike the young artist. Minutes passed. Then hours passed. Eventually, days had passed. Hands were twirled. Sentences were typed. But, none felt inspired enough. 

     So, naturally the artist did what anyone dedicated to their craft would do, she procrastinated. She made brownie cookies. (yummy btw (:) She rearranged an entire home. She even attempted to watch paint dry.  Finally a light bulb went off over her head. She would write about procrastinating, one of her favorite past times. Quickly she reached for her laptop and began to type. 

     Fingers danced across the keys elegantly to push the ideas out of her skull so she wouldn’t get distracted. (she was still distracted) Her eyes were fixed the screen like it was a binge-worthy show. After a few minutes, maybe hours of working she let out a satisfied sigh. Here’s the finished result of the poem. The following poem is the original work of Taylor Lafayette titled, “Procrastination.”

I  will  do  it

One  day 

What  is  such  a  task  that  demands  my  efforts?

One  day 

It  shall  get  done

But,  now  is  NOT  the  time

The  sun’s  too  low 

And  I’m  feeling  ill

Excuses  accumulate  in  my  lap

Not  a  bone  in  my  body  wants  to  be  put  to  motion

So  I  rest  them  now  and  pending

If  my  position  changes 

So  does  the  weather

I  will  do  it 

One  day 

But,  Today’s  not  that  day 

What  is  such  a  task  that  demands  my  efforts?

     Sometimes procrastination does work. Keep procrastinating friends, just pinkie promise to not tell your parents or teachers I said that. (it’s our little secret, u pinkie promised)