Author: Mia Lambert

Mia Lambert (aka miabiapia) is an art student at the University of Michigan. Coming from the wondrous art communities of Minneapolis, Minnesota, she's hoping to share her work focused on identity, dreams, and the beauty of humankind. Her blog, Witness the Small Life, encourages herself and viewers to pay attention to the moments in our days that make our lives rich with stories and connections. In her (little) free time, Mia also deejays on Umich's student radio station WCBN and writes and draws for the Gargoyle on campus. An avid CD collector, crappy chickflick aficionado, and lover of everything kitschy. Instagram: @miabiapia Email: mialamb@umich.edu

Witness the Small Life – Hydration Station

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To burn out or not to burn out, that is the struggle! I feel like I’ve been straddling the line between hyper-extreme productivity and rotting-in-bed exhaustion for far too long and this battle has only continued its siege on my life! From forgetting the days of the week to leaving behind entire artworks in classrooms, my life has been a mess of unrelenting chaos.

In addition to the constant threat of my near-death, there’s been too many a small things piling up this week for me, both good and bad. Little chores and errands I have to run that I constantly forget about and decide to do all at once which, of course, forces me to dedicate an entire day to finish them all. Fleeting moments of catching people’s exciting conversations as I walk past them on State Street and feeling happy to have been able to share in their musings for just a second. Although these small things do in fact add to my increasing stress and awareness about everything around me, they also help to remind myself that it’s okay to just exist one second at a time. It’s a cheesy thing to say, as most everything is, but it truly is so important to live in the moment when you can. When we move so fast and the world needs you to do everything everywhere all at once, it can become so impossible to take care of yourself. By allowing yourself to just focus on the small necessities in your life, like needing mend a tear in your pants or needing to take out the trash, it helps so much in the long run of managing your stress. It’s a difficult thing to remind myself of this fact even though I preach it so much, but I do stand by its importance in living a good life.

To take into our next week:

Ins: A robust sticker collection, student film festivals, taking things one step at a time, mosh pits (always), outdoor music, the first 8 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, mixed metal jewelry, being able to let go.

Outs: Doomscrolling too early in the morning, cold feet (literally and idiomatically), playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes, not scheduling in time to eat, worrying too much about a future too far away, sleeping with wet hair.

I keep saying that we’re in the homestretch, but this time it’s really true! Many of us (including myself) will be finishing up finals and heading back home for the summer in these next few weeks so here’s to us and all of our hard work! May we all have a happy and healthy end of the semester (and don’t burn out too much!)

Witness the Small Life – Fooling & Folking Around

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Carpe Diem!

I truly believe that sunshine and fresh air will heal most anything. Stressed about an upcoming project? Go sit outside for a little! Worried about the end of the school year? Open that window and breathe in! Filled with an inescapable dread about the fate of the world as we know it? Set up your hammock and take a nap! (and also reach out to your support systems and get that help you deserve!) Not only does a beautiful day help the mind, body, and soul recuperate from a tough week, it’s also really heartwarming to see everyone out on the Diag on blankets and in hammocks spending time together after being cooped up for so long this past winter.

Sierra Ferrell’s new album, Trail of Flowers, has been exclusively on repeat in my headphones this past week. She’s been a favorite artist of mine for a while but she has been my absolute everything lately. Over the course of the past few years I’ve been reawakening my love for folk and bluegrass music and this album has only just fueled those flames. There’s many a person out there that denounces everything country (I used to be one of them yikes!) but I feel like wider society’s perception of country music is extremely limiting to just the honky-tonking Big Green Tractors of the world. (And if you like that song, all the more power to you! I’m over the gatekeeping and demeaning nature of pretentious music communities.) But I feel like once you find a song or two or maybe even a musician within the wider realm of country music, your entire perspective can change. There’s so much to the genre and the ones that exist within and alongside it! Every decade of country/folk/bluegrass since the mid 20th century carries their own certain flair and styles so there’s bound to be something out there that clicks with a certain part of your taste. For me, folk music feels like the singer is speaking directly to the thoughts and feelings within me that I can never put into words. There’s a certain melding of the emotions of the lyrics, vocals, and instrumentals that touches a certain part of my soul that can’t be replicated anywhere else and that’s why I love it so much. Trail of Flowers is another testament to this beautiful relationship I feel when listening to folk music so if you haven’t listened to it yet, you better get on that!

Also, if you ever need some great folk music to listen to and don’t know where to start, tune into WCBN’s very own folk specialty show Just Folkin’ Around every Saturday at 9am! There’s a great rotation of hosts every week (including me!) and we love to highlight our collection of folk, country, singer-songwriter, and bluegrass music in the station!

In other words of music and musicians, I promised a shout out to my favorite Jazz Drum major of UW-Madison, a certain Francis Randall! If you’re interested in the inner machinations of the future generation of jazz drumming in Madison, WI, I’d highly recommend giving a follow to uw.jazz.drums.studio on Instagram. Although their posts could be deemed “strange” and highly-unrelated to jazz drumming, they’re still very entertaining (in my opinion!). And as Sebastian so astutely says about jazz in La La Land: “It’s conflict and it’s compromise, and it’s just…it’s new every time. It’s brand new every night. It’s very, very exciting! And it’s dying. It’s dying, Mia. It’s dying on the vine. And the world says, ‘Let it die. It had its time.’ Well, not on my watch.”

To take into our next week:

Ins: Impractical skirts, basking in the sun (always), hot pink nail polish, being especially talkative, allowing yourself to cry at silly things, the smell of sunscreen, unashamedly listening to really great musical soundtracks.

Outs: Birds chirping at 3am, forgetting hair ties at the exact moment you need them, self-isolating, wearing wrinkled clothes, not treating yourself with kindness, forgetting to patch up your favorite pair of shoes.

Remember to take a break from the whirlwind of finals and spend some time outside! It isn’t everyday we get this beautiful sunshine in the craziness of Michigan weather, so let’s seize those days!

Witness the Small Life – R&R

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We are back! I had to take a small break last week due to a huge array of big things happening in my life, but this week I was able to rest, relax, and resume my appreciation for the little things. No matter how the past week or two or three have been treating you, I hope you’re able to stop and smell those roses along your path through it all.

Like I said, this week has been all about resetting and recuperation. From doing every Monday crossword in the NYT archive to indulging in some No Thai here and there, I’ve been working hard to keep spirits up as I’ve been working hard. Second semester is no joke!

Something important that I’ve truly realized during all of these rituals and routines is the importance of trusting your future self. During a phone call the other week I had someone tell me to allow my present self to trust my future self. At the time of this call I was so stressed and anxious for my future. I had signed a lease for the first time, I had decided the minor I wanted to pursue, and it all felt like my world was spinning at too fast of a speed. I was worried I was making all the wrong choices and that I would end up a failure to myself and others. The person I was talking to, however, reminded me that if I’ve made it here already with all the things I’ve been able to do and the joy I’ve been able to have that goes to show that my future self has been making the right decisions. It’s important to recognize that whatever you’re doing in the moment is what is best for you right then. We live life moment by moment, not year by year. To have trust in your future self allows your present self to take care of what you need right now. Although it’s hard to not worry about tomorrow or next month or next year even, it’s helped me a lot to remember that my future self will take care of me because my present self already is.

To take into our next week:

Ins: Journaling in every form possible (drawing, writing, recording, etc.), calling long distance friends every day, silly graffiti, Sierra Ferrell my beloved, slightly-stale Haribo gummy bears, laying in the grass.

Outs: Complaining for the sake of complaining, not having any shorts to wear, bottling up every single thought you have, feeling like you need to have an answer to everything, laying in bed until noon, hating the future when it hasn’t even happened yet.

Here’s to our wonderful weather from this past weekend and to good health and happiness in surviving the end of the semester!

Witness the Small Life – Bird Brained

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Oh what bundles of joy we were this past week! Maybe joy is thinking too positively, but bundles yes we were. COLD!! With a capital C-O-L-D is all I, and the rest of Ann Arbor, felt all day every day. Some glimpses of the sun poked through here and there, thankfully, but I almost gave into excavating my winter jacket from the depths of storage. No dice, however! I couldn’t do it in fear of manifesting even MORE snow than we already had.

This week, I was all ears! A fun fact about me is that I way too often listen to YouTube video essays on my commutes across campus. This is due to falling in and out of listening to music hardcore and thoroughly, mostly because I suffer intensely from favorite song burnout. This week, though, I’ve felt a huge draw back to my tune-bumping roots. Because of this, I came to realize how 3 of my favorite artists (as above) all have bird-related names. As an angsty tweenager, I felt extremely drawn to birds, all colors and kinds, as a symbol in my artwork. Visual symbolism is my JAM (no pun intended). They represented the worldly freedom of mind and body so I longed to have as a kid cooped up with her younger sisters much of the time. In my musical realizations this week, I’ve been able to reconnect with that version of myself and reflect on where I was then and where I am now. I have so much freedom to explore, learn, and create now while here in college and I am so thankful for that everyday. I wish I could show my younger self this adventure we’re on and to tell her to slow down her internal rebellion and enjoy the world as it was back then. Although I can’t time-travel and break all laws of science, I hope the pieces of her that are still in me have been able to appreciate all of the craziness and joy we’re experiencing in our new freedom together.

TL;DR: Listen to music, indulge your inner child, and appreciate the birds in our lives. We all need love for ourselves in all versions, forms, and ages we exist in.

To take us into our next week:

Ins: Choppy layers, the Hex Girls (always!), tasteful caricature drawings, wolf t-shirts, gossiping in UMMA, the color amber, a healthy ratio of normal socks to crazy socks.

Outs: Ice cream when Mojo is freezing, not cleaning your water bottle (do it!), a rigid 5 year plan, letting your jealousy fester, a bedtime of 2am.

A very cold, but happy Spring Equinox and here’s to all the birds frolicking amongst the snow and playing wonderful songs across our eternal pathways.

Witness the Small Life – A Stormy Day

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Sunshine? Rain? Wind? Snow?! What a week its been! In between my commutes from my dorm to Stamps to Hatcher to (my favorite place on campus) the Union, I’ve seen a whole year’s worth of seasons pass by sometimes in just one day! And I though last week was crazy enough. Mind you, as a Minnesotan I’ve seen my fair share of uber-chaotic weather but these past seven days may have just taken the cake. From donning sunny summer skirts to considering busting out my knee-length winter jacket, I have fully exhausted all the capabilities of my wardrobe.

In terms of the big and small of this week, it’s been mostly a lull. Loads and loads of work sprinkled between some down and up time has meant many a late nights huddled in library corners. Most notably this week I have been especially grateful to know as many people as I do on campus and most importantly feeling like I can say hi to most every one of them. At the beginning of the year my most fear-ridden task was actually going out and meeting people. It was hard at times, but once you commit to going out and doing something you’ll have a high chance of getting to know a great amount of amazing people. I encourage everyone out there to at least do a little wave to an acquaintance or two you see on your commute to class. It makes everyone feel loved! And when does the world ever stop needing some love in it?

To take into our next week:

Ins: Working in the Hatcher stacks, sappy 00s ballads, cabbage, taking walks even if you could bus it, Faygo, going to random events even if you’re nervous (you never know what’ll happen!), appreciating really good typography.

Outs: Not breaking in your shoes the right way, only having a really big umbrella and a really small umbrella, rude bus drivers, falling asleep with headphones on, using way too much dry shampoo.

Here’s to warmer weather (knock on wood!) or at least more consistent weather! No more juggling games of sweaters, umbrellas, hats, oh my!

Witness the Small Life – Battle Royale

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“All is fair in lunch and war!“

As the great OK Go stated (more or less) twas a week full of upside downs and inside outs indeed! From beautiful skies to devious windchill, not only has the weather been a rollercoaster but so has my to-do list. It’s felt like I’ve simultaneously had nothing to do while having nothing to do and vice versa. I’ve been jumping from place to place every which way, but in between all of this commotion there’s been some great moments of rest, relaxation, and rollicking!

With our first full week back in the full swing of things, there were a few big moments! Most of all I had my work shown in my first college art show thank to the newly formed club The Stampede on campus. Whether you draw, paint, sculpt, write, or anything in between, consider submitting your work for their next show! It was amazing to not only see my work among so many other beautiful pieces but also talk to and celebrate with other art majors and non-art majors alike.

Some other highlights of this week: Celebrating my friend’s birthday with balloon guests and Spirited Away, (badly) playing a Tekken Tournament and singing along to YouTube karaoke with friends, and in general doing SO much more drawing everyday!

To take into our next week:

Ins: Telling people you think they’re awesome, the color green, admitting defeat (in a cordial manner), mismatched socks, Wisconsin cheese, using the word awesome!

Outs: Impulsive spending, forgetting to floss, watching really bad TV shows just to have something on in the background, chipping at nail polish, forgetting to bring a hat on really cold night walks home from the library.

Happy (or not so happy) Daylight Savings to you all and let us all hope for some more permanent blue skies ahead of us!