Journal Challenge Day 12: 10 Favorite Things And Why You Love Them

  I'm super excited about this prompt, I really love talking about my favorite things. So here goes!

1.  My favorite song: "Mended Souls" by Casey Hurt is my absolute favorite but "Cover Me Up" Morgan Wallen is a close second. I love "Mended Souls" because of how it makes me feel. I don't really know how to describe the feeling though, it's like no matter how loud I play it's just never loud enough. Like how you feel with people sometimes when you really love them, you'll be all snuggled up with them but it's not close enough. It feels like you want to be inside them, that sounds dirty but that's not what I mean. You just crave them and their touch I guess. I wonder if there's a name for that. That's the feeling I get when I listen to this song. It's a religious song but I'm not religious, it talks about death in such a beautiful way, and I love that. Everything about the song is just perfect to me; his voice, the words, the music, everything.
2. My favorite movie: I have two, "The Lion King" and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". I actually have a lion king tattoo on my arm, my best friend has one too we got them together. I like "The Lion King" because of the lesson it teaches, that no matter what you've been through, no matter the hardships you've had or the mistakes you've made, none of that stuff defines you. It's your past and "the past can hurt sometimes, but you learn from it." I love the "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" because I feel connected to Charlie in many ways. It teaches us the same thing "The Lion King" in the sense that we are not whats happened to us and all we can do is just try to move forward. It teaches other lessons too though, like that even if you do bad things, that doesn't always mean you're a bad person. It illuminates the fact that we should be kinder to everyone because everyone has things going on, and you never know when that one nasty thing could be the straw that broke the camels back. My favorite part of the movie is an interaction between Charlie and his English teacher. Charlie asks him "Why do good people pick the wrong people to date?" and the teacher responds with "We accept the love we think we deserve." I fucking love that so much. It's so easy for us to think we're not good enough or don't deserve good things and happiness and maybe that's because we've been told that or made to feel that way by someone. When you're told enough times not you're not good enough sometimes you start to believe. We need to learn how to be the protagonist in our lives and build ourselves back up, stop letting old wounds reopen.
3. My favorite animal: An owl, 100%. I have absolutely no idea why I love them so much. Maybe I'm still just waiting for my Hogwarts letter, who knows. I feel like I should be terrified of them because I used to have this reoccurring nightmare about an owl, it was just an owl sitting on a tree branch and staring at me. It was creepy as hell though. I haven't seen very many of them in person, I've seen them in Zoos and then only a quick glimpse of one in the wild. 
4. My favorite season: I think Autumn is the most beautiful time of year, but I love Winter. Real winter though with snow, not the nasty, depressing, bullshit, rain winter we have in Washington. That's gross. Where I grew up we had snow for about 8 months of the year and I mean it freaking snowed. We would have snow up to the roof of our house sometimes. Freaking ridicules. But I love that shit. Nothing beats a day for playing out in the snow and building snowmen, or snow angels, or snowball fights and then coming inside and having hot chocolate with whipped cream, marshmallows, and sprinkles. That's the perfect day. Also I love being snuggled up with blankets and fuzzy socks. Cuddling is also way better in the winter, I'm a cuddler for sure. I love rubbing my perpetually cold feet on my snuggle buddy.
5. My favorite food: A spaghetti dinner complete with Ceaser salad and garlic bread. That's been my favorite for as long as I can remember. I used to sweet talk my mom into making it for my birthday. I made that poor woman slave over a hot stove all day in the dead heat of summer so I could eat spaghetti. What a trooper she is. 
6. My favorite place: I love Oregon, Astoria, or Depot Bay I would gladly live in either of those towns any day.  I would spend every day at Cannon Beach. feeling the sand between my toes and listening to the waves crash onto the shore. How beautiful are those moments, when you just want to stay there forever and pause time? Another one of my favorite places is a lot closer, it's in Canada it's called Mill Lake and it's just a little lake in the middle of town. No matter what season is it always seems to be beautiful there. I used to go there all the time and write poetry when I had something on my mind. 
7. My favorite TV show: Either 'Criminal Minds' or 'Grey's Anatomy'. I've binged both series multiple times and every single time it's just as great as I remember. They're so easy for me to get wrapped into. 'Grey's Anatomy' touches so many feels and as dramatic as it is I wouldn't want it to change one bit. 'Criminal Minds' absolutely fascinates me because I LOVE true crime and I thoroughly enjoy watching the team decipher the brain of a killer. Also, Derek Morgan exists so that's a plus.  
8. My favorite pass time: Painting is definitely the best way or me to pass time. I get way too wrapped up in it that I'll lose hours just trying to get one little detail to look the way I want it to. I don't really have a preference on what I paint, I like to be challenged though. I have a friend who wants a painting every year, he has quite a collection going on now and he keeps getting more detailed with what he wants. One year he wanted a dragon, on a castle, with a sun setting over mountains in the background. That was probably one of the best paintings I've ever done.
9. My favorite thing to do with friends: I love being outside with people, it doesn't seem to matter what we do. Hiking and camping are always a fun time, same with swimming or trips to the beach. I just like the way nature makes you feel and I love sharing that moment with others. It's time to disconnect and enjoy the moment. The other thing I love is a coffee date. There's something about just sitting in a coffee shop for hours just enjoying good company. Either burning through topics so fast that your brain can't even comprehend, or having a really deep passionate conversation where both people are just completely present in each others lives. I love that
10. My favorite outdoor activity: Like I said in the last one, there's not much that I don't like doing outside. My favorite would have to be camping though. Real camping. In tents and spending all day in the sun, and making smores at the end of the day. I grew up on a campground every summer, my grandparents actually owned one. Their campground was olds school though, no pool, no games room, none of that bullshit. If your swimming your going to the falls, if you want games, play fetch, play tag, catch frogs, play cards even. I loved it because you really enjoyed the family experience there. That and you got to witness everyone else's family moments too. There was a lady you lived in one of the cabins there, her name was Diana and she had two incredibly gorgeous dogs. Anyway, one day she was watching my sister and I and she taught us how to make dream catchers. How cute is that! They had little wooden ladybugs on them and everything. 

Those are a few of my favorite things, thanks for reading!

-Courtney :)