Something you admire . . .

        It's a tie between courage and confidence. I believe that courage and confidence go hand in hand. To be confident, you must have the courage to be yourself. To have courage you must have confidence in yourself. I guess I admire them, and spot them in a person right away, because I didn't have courage and confidence when I was younger. In all honesty I gave up on many things, including myself. It's been said that all the things worthwhile in this life require courage: getting a job, falling in love, having children, pursuing a dream and persevering in  a difficult situation. From characters in stories to people in real life, courage will always be admirable in my eyes. Confidence is it's own branch of courage. It takes bravery to speak your mind, step into the unknown and discover who you are.
      The power to face your fears requires a confidence that you will overcome them. That confidence becomes more important than fear. I believe that if you have courage and confidence, you can do anything you set your mind to. Most of the people I admire have these qualities, and I'm fascinated by the lengths they have gone with two simple character traits. The truth is that hanging around someone with these qualities is contagious. When someone around you believes in his or her self, you begin to discover that you can do the same.  The main reason that I admire both courage and confidence the most is because in my eyes, years ago, they were super powers. Anyone around me who was confident and courageous was a powerful being who could achieve anything in the world. There were many days I wondered how it happened. How could someone be so straightforward about what they wanted, and then go for it without fear?
       Now I'm learning, little by little, that it is something you discover, buried under doubt and fear. Some people have told me I'm more confident then I believe, and I'm braver than I know. For awhile these comments were extremely difficult for me to believe, and that was frustrating for the people who said them. Now, when I look back, I faced a lot of fears of my own and I displayed confidence without even realizing it. I'm still not as confident or courageous as I'd like to be, so I suppose that's another reason why I admire these qualities in others. These people give me a goal, to become as courageous and confident as they are, maybe even more so. My heroes, role-models and favorite characters are all important for me to look up to because they give me the hope that I will one day be just as amazing as they are.

Something that speaks to me . . .

 Blog Challenge week post 1:
Prompt: Something that speaks to you . . .

          When I was in High School, I read Fruits Basket by Natsuki Tayaka for the first time. I felt attached to the characters right away, because they all had problems. Some problems were more serious than others, but the main thing that kept me reading was the hope and love all the characters find because they never give up on rising above their misfortunes. It's a story about acceptance: acceptance of the self and acceptance of others. It's also a story about growing up, facing fear and overcoming everything to find love and happiness. The anime is just as important, but not as long, complex and detailed as the manga. With each secret revealed and burden lifted, the Sohmas find a way to survive with a curse, and Tohru Honda discovers a real family.
        There is no way I can sum this anime or manga up in a paragraph or even an essay. It really speaks for itself and dives into the human heart in a way I have never seen a story do before. The closest story I can compare Fruits Basket to is Dengeki Daisy by Kyousuke Motomi.This story speaks to me, because it taught me so many important lessons and gave me hope that I would overcome my weakness and become stronger through each difficulty I faced. To me, Fruits Basket is about life and how people learn from it.

Now, I'll let Fruits Basket speak for itself ^_^