Freya's 30 Day Challenge: Day 1: 15 Facts about Freya

Freya baby loved the suggestion that I allow her to do a 30-day challenge about herself alongside my other blog posts. She says she wants to be like her celebrity, kitty crush Sylvester The Talking Cat (may his owner Steve rest in peace).

Without further ado here's Freya's first day of her challenge.

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For a month alongside humans blog posts I’m going to be doing my own 30 Day challenge since, one of the human girl’s friends/a reader of this blog liked learning about me and well, why not learn a bit about what makes a kitty cat tick. Some of the day’s challenges will be changed a little bit since they do talk about human things that I cat doesn’t know about.

Fact 1: I don’t like getting my picture taken

As you may see, I don’t like getting my picture taken by anybody. As soon as the girl human picks up her phone and says, “Let’s take a picture Freya.” I get up and walk off, and refuse to allow the girl human to take a photo of me. That’s why all of the photos she takes I either look mad or I’m looking the other way.

Fact 2: The humans were going to name me Pumpkin

The human girl wanted to call me Pumpkin or Pumpkin Patch because I walked into the apartment on Halloween. The girl human says she changed my name from Pumpkin to Freya because she used to have dreams about a cat named Freya. Plus if you didn’t know Freya is the goddess of cats in Norse Mythology, the name fits me very well.

Fact 3: I’m a great hunter

I love playing fetch a lot. Man human either throws Nerf Darts (I kill ‘em and tear them to pieces), he throws pieces of paper. If he throws the paper girl human says I trot back to the man human too with tons of pride.

Fact 4: I have a crush on Sylvester the Talking cat.

Back when Steve was alive, girl human would turn on The Talking Cat videos, and I’d stop whatever I was doing just to go watch Sylvester. He’s the kind of cat I’d share my cat food with! I don’t share my cat food with any cat!

Photo: https://talking-kitty-cat.fandom.com/wiki/Sylvester

Fact 5: Sylvester is the reason why I wanted to start blogging

I can’t talk like Sylvester, but I can type. I loved how opinionated and cat-like he was. He hates other cats, I hate other cats, he loves wet food, I love wet food. Oh and he’s black, and I’m part black and part peach.

Fact 6: I have a few cool markings that make me a unique torti, or so they humans say

If you’ve seen pictures of my face, you’d see that half of my chin is black the other half is peach. Talking about peach, I also have a peach foot! The humans call my peach foot, my special foot. I also have a special belly. I have 3 white spots on my belly.

Fact 7: I have Torti-tude

Girl human says torti cats are not a breed of cat but a coat style, but a lot of torties have torti-tude. She says I’m possessive of her, that I’m stubborn and very spunky. Girl human also says it’s why she loves me. She loves my torti-tude.

Fact 8: I like to try to bury things indoors

This is one of those things that I do, that gets the human girl to yell at me. When I’m done eating I try to bury my food. She says that I can’t bury stuff in the apartment because there’s no way to bury it. I’m scratching things.

Fact 9: I am a purramedic

When humans aren’t feeling good I’ll cuddle with them and spend time with them unless they’re feeling better. The man human had a tooth pulled today and I sat with him and the girl human who was having a panic attack to be sure they’d both be okay

Fact 10: I love cuddling with the girl human

Even when she’s not having a panic attack the human girl and I love to cuddle. She makes me feel safe and calls me the ‘sweetest little thing’. She also says I’m her beast friend. A beast friend is a beast-like me that human bonds with.

Fact 11: Some crazy lady closed a cage door on my paw Once some scary lady came to the apartment, she put me in a cage. I didn’t want to go in and fought her. Then she closed the door on my foot. Then the next day I got a naked belly. I hated the naked belly thing. I was cold even though the girl human said was cute with a naked belly

Fact 12: At night I sleep at the head of the bed or on the girl humans legs

When it’s bedtime I curl up next to the human girl by her head or on her legs. She says she doesn’t even feel me curling up on her legs anymore because she’s used to it.

Fact 13: I don’t meow very much

The only times I meow are when I have a toy and nobody’s paying attention to me. Well, there was one-time girl human gave me really really good cat food I meowed so she’d give it to me quickly.

Fact 14: I love the video Hallelujah by Theory

The song’s so pretty, it’s one of the human girl’s favorite songs, and the video has a really cute baby kitten in it. The girl human said that the baby kitten got adopted to a new family! I wouldn’t want her living here but, I’m happy she has a home.

Fact 15: I eat my food separate from Monkey

I eat in the bedroom on top of the bookshelf because Monkey will eat all of his wet food, then eat mine! I used to go hungry a lot until the human girl noticed that Monkey wasn’t sharing with me, so now she allows me to eat in the bedroom with her.

6 Bits of Advice for teens starting high school

It’s crazy to think that if I graduated with everyone else my age instead of dropping out, I would be celebrating 15 years since I’ve graduated. It’s crazy to think that high school was that long ago, and that life as a high school student is no way close to the way it was when I was in school. I would have loved virtual learning vs. public school. I was the loner and because of my autism, I couldn’t focus at all on my school work and knew it would have been insanely difficult to learn in that environment.

For those of you that have children starting high school this year, or are a high school student, I compiled pieces of advice that I would have loved to have as a high schooler.

Being Different is Fine

When everyone starts their first day of high school they want to fit in and be like everyone else. I did it in my freshman year and even my sophomore year since my family moved and I started in a new school. I went through a period both times where I tried to be like everyone else, from fashion to what they ate, and became a chameleon.

Once I learned to be myself, dress how I wanted to and became the poetry writing loner. Life made more sense I was actually happy. Nobody around me was into poetry and it was the one thing that made me who I was. When I let my writer side fly and wasn’t just a copy of whatever, my English teachers loved it. They said I had so much creativity. If I blended in and followed everyone’s leads, I don’t think I’d even blog.

If you’re having trouble learning bring it up

If I knew about my autism diagnosis as a teenager, I feel it would have made things a whole lot easier. If things are too loud for you to study, or the lights or too bright, whatever your issue is, bring it up with your guidance counselor if you have one. They can aid you on what step to take next and help you you with getting all your ducks in a row.

Always Dream

My dreams as a teenager changed a lot. If I stopped dreaming, I don’t think that I would have made strides as I have. Once I wanted to be a veterinarian, so I took Animal Science, I wanted to be a web developer, so then I took a class on photo editing, and the list goes on. I never got a job in any of the careers that I mentioned. But now that I look at my life in hind sight, I can build my own web pages,I can talk about farm animals and name breeds of the animals, and I love to edit photos when I’m bored. You won’t know if your dreams right for you unless you try.

Do not date if you don’t love and respect yourself first

This goes for anyone of any age, if you don’t have confidence, or don’t love yourself, you set your standards lower than they should be. Be strong love yourself, and enjoy who you are. You are a beautiful human being and worth being treated with respect and dignity.

Tour the school before you start, if at all possible

I am horrible at directions and maps usually don’t work well for me. I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten lost in high school, especially when I was starting new classes. I was late to class, not because I was socializing, but because I couldn’t find it the first week. If you can’t tour the school, try to make friends with someone who knows their way around the school.

Learn that some school nurses don’t care about you being sick

Sorry, not sorry, about the last piece of advice. But I’ve learned that some school nurses do not care about how you feel. My best example was one day I walked to the math classroom and remembered telling the teacher that I wanted to the nurse because I was going to puke. Before I went to the nurse I puked in the trash can. When I went to the nurse she was almost reluctant to send me home and told my grandma, “Jennifer claimed that she puked.” with sarcasm. Most of the time if there was any other illness, she’d give you an aspirin and a couple of saltine crackers and send you on your way. Yeah, that even happened when I had my first few cluster headaches. I was in so much pain, I couldn’t move and all I wanted to do was cry. The whole day I couldn’t focus because of the pain.

If your nurse is like the one I had and you’re having a day that you’re sick. Find a way to sneak in a phone call and call your parents, so they can call the school to pick you up.

School can be fun, it can be scary. But hopefully, with these few tips, you’ll be able to have an easier time navigating the world of high school.

A little compassion goes a long way

The Dalai Lama once said, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” It’s a beautiful quote with a lot of truth to it don’t you think? Compassion and empathy are what I feel warms anyone’s heart, and are what makes life worth living. Imagine what the world would be like if compassion and empathy for other’s didn’t exist. It’d be darker than it already is.

Just recently I had the luxury of reading the children’s book, How to Mend a Broken Wing by Bob Graham. A book about a young boy’s compassion for a pigeon with a broken wing. Never once had I read a children’s book that almost brought me to tears like this book did. By the time I finished reading the book by myself, I felt moved, yet saddened.

A bit about the book

In How to Mend a Broken Wing, a young boy named Will was the only person to notice an injured pigeon on the sidewalk. Everyone was too busy going about their daily lives, but not Will. She saw the wounded bird and asked to take him home with him to try to save the bird. The book goes on and talks about how Will had compassion and took care of the bird, until it was better. I won’t ruin the ending, but as I’ve already said, the compassion of young Will, was exactly what made me tear up. It made me realize that even if you’re the only person to show compassion to someone else, it still makes a difference.

Three of the coolest forms of Compassion I’ve seen this week

I’ve seen some amazing compassion this week alone. I’m in awe over the intense emotion and the insane feelings that come along with it.

The responses about my blog post. There’s actually a reason why I blog and love what I do. Most if not all of my blog posts I write I want to show compassion and help people learn that even having barriers no matter the kind of barrier, being able to let people they’re not alone is such an amazing feeling.

The same goes with the messages I’ve received from my blog post from earlier this week. I contemplated writing it because I wasn’t sure if it could actually help people and make them feel less alone. Once I wrote it and people messaged me to know I’m not alone. It was great. It made me feel like my blog hit home for the people who’ve just read and glanced at it.

The communal hallway spot. At my apartment building we have a place where people will put clothes that don’t fit, or nonperishable foods that they won’t eat, in case someone else can use it. We’ll all share stuff if we know it can help another neighbor. It’s a lot better than tossing away stuff we know others could use. We’ve donated closed cans of wet food that cats refused to eat, and food that I’ve had from my stockpile, in the past. I’m hoping the other buildings would catch on, if they haven’t already.

Fibro Fairies. I’m in a group for people in Michigan who have fibromyalgia, it’s a group where members send gifts and stuff to brighten the days as another member. I thought it was cool, even though like me, the members are in pain every day of their lives, but knowing a small gift would make anyone feel better.

A little drop of sand is still sand

I’ve once heard that we’re all like grains of sand, as a population and a lot of people won’t even know you exist. But even if we are just grains of sand, you can feel only a few grains of sand when you hold it in your hand or walk across the beach. Just like Will was the only one to notice the pigeon, he still made the difference in the pigeon’s life. That’s why I leave you all with a question, my daily question, well two daily questions. “When was the last time that you showed compassion? When was the last time someone else's compassion made you happy?”