Love the rawness in his voice.

From the simple blouse you incorporated into your wardrobe to the way you wore your hair in a loosely styled bun, it seems that your choices and the way you present yourself overall can constitute as indicators of your personality. People who may enjoy a wide assortment of music will have a select few genres as favorites that speak volumes about them. Not surprisingly, music can be seen as an extension of our identity, hence why people feel insulted when their favorite music artist is referred to scathingly.

Four Dimensions of Music Preferences:

• Energetic and Rhythmic (hip-hop/dance/soul/electronica/funk): Positively correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, political liberalism, physical attractiveness, and athleticism. Negatively correlated with "social dominance orientation" and political conservatism.

• Upbeat and Conventional (religious/country/pop): Positively correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, self-esteem, political conservatism, physical attractiveness (self-perceived), wealth, and athleticism. Negatively correlated with emotional stability, openness to experience, "social dominance orientation," depression, political liberalism, intelligence, and verbal ability.

• Reflexive and Complex (blues/classical/folk/jazz): Positively correlated with openness to experience, "self-perceived intelligence," verbal ability, emotional stability, and political liberalism. Negatively correlated with "social dominance orientation," political conservatism, wealth, and athleticism.

• Intense and Rebellious (heavy metal/rock/alternate rock): Positively correlated with openness to experience, extroversion, athleticism, "self-perceived intelligence," "social dominance orientation," and verbal ability.

I typically listen to music that would be defined as "Energetic and Rhythmic." As of late, I have had a growing affinity for indie rock. (That would be under "Intense and Rebellious.") I suppose it is a sign of maturation.

School. Study. Work. School. Work. Study. Work. Study. Work. Study. That is a brusque, yet accurate description of my schedule. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have Psychology at 8:00 AM and one hour in between, before my General Biology class. Afterward, there is a two to five hour slot of time reserved entirely for studying, relaxing, eating, and/or napping. My last class begins at 7:00 PM and ends at 8:50 PM. Every other day, I am working. My shifts for work fluctuate, but once I finish my shifts, I studystudystudy.

Being a full-time student while working part-time is more stressful than I had originally anticipated. The small time frame left in the day that is not consumed by school, work, or studying is usually my time for relaxing. Another way to put it is spacing out, sleeping, eating at home because I forget to eat at/before school and work, or communicating with some friends to compensate for my slowly depleting social life.

I can't say I'm a fan of school or work right now. My professor for General Biology is overbearing personality-wise. He is loud, rude, picks favorites, and his exams are impossible. As someone who has never scored below average, I am not confident with this class, as I cannot see any defined direction of where I am headed with this class. Work is an entirely new story. In a few mere months, I have attained a great deal of knowledge on how to conduct myself socially, multi-task efficiently and quickly, work as a member of a team, and customer service skills. However, working in a restaurant has exposed me to a new side to people. I can truthfully say that customers are unreasonable, but it's a circumstance where you must simply bear with inappropriate behavior, bite your tongue, and swallow your pride because the customer is "always right."

This depresses me to some level, because children, possibly fourteen to sixteen-years-old, are being introduced into the labor force and face appalling behavior from adults. Without a doubt, this experience has made me much more empathetic toward workers. I am going to be a kind customer to all employees of any work environment, not that I was ever a terrible customer to anyone.

To be frank, this entire week has felt like a nightmare for me. A few days ago, a stranger tried to stalk me via Facebook while I was sitting across from him at the school library. He almost sent me a friend request had I not given him the excuse that I only use Facebook for contacting classmates for help with school (which is half true). I then forced one of friend to come fetch me once her class was over so I could escape being put in yet another unfavorable position. I have only had a few interactions with this person, but every time I see him, I want to turn the other way. He is over-affectionate and consistently tries to touch me, which is not within my comfort level. (Plus, he smells.) Moreover, he becomes excessively excited; he starts speaking loudly to get my attention and waves his hands/arms around violently, while making a huge grin.

Keep in mind that I barely associate with him... but I think that even without that fact, my reasons for feeling uncomfortable are completely validated. Along with that, I have seen his deviantART, which seems to be an outlet for him. Journal entry after entry, his deviantART is full of whining about not having a "girl." Not long before the stalking incident, he tried to subtly ask me about my romantic life repeatedly and I told him I have no interest in dating anyone in my college. I simply do not trust his intentions whatsoever. I believe I will now be avoiding the school library.

Another incident I had this week was with a stupid, ignorant fuck. I texted a classmate about the previous situation. I received this as a response, "You're an Asian female, so don't you have to be the super quiet, submissive type?" Excuse me? If you did not send that through text, you would regret speaking to me in that manner.

As for work, I believe that further details are not necessary. Work is work, and customers are terrible. Overall, I am frustrated with people and, their inexhaustible ability to be difficult and overbearing, but I will keep my head up and have a better day.

I have changed. No doubt about that.

Last Thursday, I had a seven-hour shift at work and during my ten-minute break, I caught sight of a man I once knew. He was the father of my ex-best friend, whom I now have a very convoluted, unstable relationship with. Amused with seeing a familiar face, I sent his daughter a text. I then received a friendly reply about him being unemployed and using the restaurant’s free Internet connection to complete online job applications. I simply informed her about my manager’s store policy: customers are not allowed to loiter and will be forced to leave within thirty minutes. With that in mind, I suggested that her father go to the library for its Wi-Fi to avoid an unfavorable encounter with my manager. Plus, the library is open until nine on weekdays, leaving a wider time frame for those type of tasks. For that, I earned disrespect from her. Frustrated with her for accusing me of being “judgmental” and “trying to kick him out,” I told her specifically that choice is entirely up to the manager as she is the only one with the power to do so.

That experience made me realize something important: she was not far from the person she was back in middle school, over-sensitive and delusional. She hears what she wants to hear and cannot bear any negative feedback. Time after time, she has proven herself to be selfish and completely ignorant of how she hurts other people. Most interactions with her are stressful. Not once did I remember not having drama in my life because of her constantly instigating drama and then hiding behind a guise of innocence. She misused my kindness and hid behind excuses. For insulting my appearance, she told me she was feeling terrible about hers and, wanted a "confidence booster" and outlet for her negativity. According to her, she knew that I "would understand." For never visiting me, she told me it was because my mother hated her. That is a fact. Because she did not visit me, I visited her because she begged me and for that, my mom beat me. Of course I was angry with her for multiple reasons that I don't remember now, but she never gave me a proper apology.

She is eighteen-years-old and, does not know how to take responsibility and admit her wrongs because of her victim complex. I remember the days when she had straight As and in high school, her grades plummeted, leaving her to resort to home schooling and charter school where she had little outside social interaction. As of now, she is in community college and I do not know whether she will transfer. It seems that our stages in life have flip-flopped. While I have never let my grades go below average, I was once an uncomfortable little girl. I had no direction with carrying myself socially. I took the longer path to destinations to avoid being seen. I hated what I saw in the mirror and regretted the majority of my actions because I felt that I was an absolute failure in social conduct. Going into high school, I realized my passion, yet I chose to skirt around by enrolling in a community college. I kept my options open and in the end, this has only reaffirmed my love for art. I know where I am headed in life, though I can't say the same for her.

I do not necessarily hate or dislike her. In fact, she was a large part of my life when I was younger and that has shaped the person I am. However, I am astonished by how varied our lifestyles are now. Never would I have guessed that this would be our paths in life back in eighth grade.

"Sometimes you’re 23 and standing in the kitchen of your house making breakfast and brewing coffee and listening to music that for some reason is really getting to your heart. You’re just standing there thinking about going to work and picking up your dry cleaning. And also more exciting things like books you’re reading and trips you plan on taking and relationships that are springing into existence. Or fading from your memory, which is far less exciting. And suddenly you just don’t feel at home in your skin or in your house and you just want home but 'Mom’s' probably wouldn’t feel like home anymore either. There used to be the comfort of a number in your phone and ears that listened everyday and arms that were never for anyone else. But just to calm you down when you started feeling trapped in a five-minute period where nostalgia is too much and thoughts of this person you are feel foreign. When you realize that you’ll never be this young again but this is the first time you’ve ever been this old. When you can’t remember how you got from sixteen to here and all the same feel like sixteen is just as much of a stranger to you now. The song is over. The coffee’s done. You’re going to breath in and out. You’re going to be fine in about five minutes." ~Kalyn RoseAnne