I know being in the mountains is a huge change for me coming from Florida, and I don’t know how it is for you guys, but for me it’s a huge change seeing it a part of my everyday life since I came from a flat landed state. I love hiking, always have, and I love the scenery of every thing up north. One of my favorite things about going to school here at Penn State is how we are surrounded by mountains and all. I travel up north every winter, so I love the cold and how different it is from Florida, and every year whenever I came up north to either New York, Connecticut, North Carolina, etc I always went hiking. Coming up here for school I was genuinely so excited to be able to go hiking whenever I got in the mood to go, which happens often, but I couldn’t act on that in Florida.

During the week I had the fattest urge to go on a run on a trail on one of the mountains nearby. I did a little research for where I wanted to go on my run, and found a place. I like running on trails, I love the scenery, the feeling I have from being away from everything and just being surrounded by nature. I drove about 10 minutes off campus to Rothrock State Forest, and it was so nice. For one the weather was amazing during my run, it was low 60s, so in my opinion it was a perfect cool temperature to take a run in through the mountains. I brought water with me of course to stay hydrated and had my mask in my hand incase I ran into anyone, but thankfully I only came across one other person, so I put my mask on before I got close to them, and then took it off again after so I don’t suffocate trying to breath on my run, and I was off campus fully in the mountains. At first I ran for about 40 minutes, the first 20 minutes it was slightly going up hill, then the second 20 minutes it was straight up hill. It felt like I was just running up stairs. Then I got to a part that had such a major incline, and the ground was just filled with rocks that were slightly slippery, so for this part I walked and it was about 25 minutes of just walking. I almost slipped like 7 times but that’s because I tried running up it, and decided it was a bad idea!

I had on my bucket list to go hiking on Nittany Mountain with friends, and to explore other areas to go hiking on, so now we have one of those crossed off my list! It was so pretty, I got to such a high elevation, I was almost to the top of the mountain, I was at eye level with the top of the surrounding mountains, but I turned back around, and hiked back down until I was able to run again. In total I ran for about an hour, and then hiked for about 45, so it was a very successful little adventure I took by myself, but sometimes it’s fun to just do things on your own. I know I like my independence and enjoy doing things on my lonesome, so I had a great time.

If you want to go on a run, or even just a hike, alone or with some friends, I highly recommend going to Rothrock State Forest, and to just unplug from the world, and enjoy it all.

Week five on campus and now I’ve completed my fourth item on my bucket list. I have always wanted a belly button piercing. I was about to get it done when I was 16, but I lived in Florida and as we filled out the paper work they told me me I cannot go into water for 6 months until it is fully healed, and I did not like that since it was summer and I was at the beach or pool everyday. Being up in State College, not surrounded by any water, my friend Megan and I decided to be impulsive and go get out belly buttons pierced downtown at Ikonic Ink Tattoo and Piercing Studio on Wednesday, September 23rd. The place was very clean and organized, and if you are up for a piercing I recommend going here because they were very gentle and it didn’t even hurt! When he pierced my belly button it felt like a pinch. I did bleed after it and Megan did not, but so far since then I have been good. After the piercing we went to Snaps with three of our other friends who were waiting outside for us while we got pierced. At Snaps both Megan and I felt stinging from the piercing about every ten minutes for about an hour, but then after it went away. It was not bad, just a little sting every once in a while.

For the first night we had to be very careful with it, so when I went to shower I fully cupped it when I washed the soap off my body in hopes the soapy water doesn’t drip over it. Thankfully it did not touch the piercing. After I had to clean it with salt mixed into warm water because it’s the best care for it. I bought the care treatment they gave me at Ikonic, but the natural salt mixed into warm water is better for it. We have to clean it twice a day, and hope it does not get infected. I doubt it will because I am taking care of it, and I am not touching it either. It hurts at moments if something hits it or I stretch so far that I pull it, but sleeping has been totally fine. I thought I was going to be completely bothered and not be able to sleep, but in actuality sleeping is the best time. I don’t feel it when I’m going to sleep, or when I wake up!

If you are feeling impulsive, and your parents won’t kill you for piercing your body, or getting a tattoo, then I suggest going with a friend and doing something crazy! I got a matching butterfly tattoo with my best friend in Florida over summer before leaving for college, and now I got my belly pierced with a close friend up here! We did not get matching piercings, but we did go and get it at the same time, walk out all happy, and we absolute love our new piercings!

My friends and I decided to have some impulsive fun this weekend that just passed. We decided to go out and buy some fun clothes, along with some crazy lashes, and colorful wigs from Party City. We arrived at Party City and noticed how ugly the actual wigs were, so we decided to buy hair spray and to color our hair to match our outfits instead of wigs. It was four girls and two guys, including me, so we dressed the boys up as ‘”frat boys” and dressed ourselves in some cute party outfits. I had a blue theme among my outfit so I sprayed my hair with blue, I unfortunately ran out of hair spray with only half my hair done since I have so much hair, but my boyfriend got blue hairspray too, so I just used his for the other side of my head of hair. My friend Megan had a white and pink theme to her outfit so she sprayed her entire hair pink. Katey and Taylor had similar themes, and both sprayed their hair covering it in silver. The boys got gold and blue, but ended up not hair spraying their hairs with us. Such buzzkills. Pretty rude if you ask me.

We all got ready Friday night, dressed up, hair dyed and all, looking absolutely insane, and decided to walk around campus and meet new people while just listening to music and having fun with our group of friends. We looked so funny, but had the absolute most fun doing stupid things the way we were dressed. We drove to Sheetz, got food, and danced in the parking lot with our chicken tenders, fries, and shakes we got. We didn’t care what anybody thought about us and had so much fun. My group of friends decided to put the dress up with wigs and walk around campus on our bucket list to do together, and we did it. It was so much fun just hanging out with our close friends doing whatever we were doing. We took cute pictures, got a bunch of compliments, along with a lot of stares, and ate lots of food. We actually ended up driving to Sheetz for a second time because I wanted more fries and got in the mood for some Kit-Kat.

This experience was very much out of all our comfort zones, but it was so funny to just walk around the way we did, and have people just look at us like “What kind of party are they going to to be looking like that.” If you want to have some fun with your friends, and to step out of your comfort zones then I hope this inspires you in some way, and let me know about your adventures! 🙂

You can’t tell how strong the hair color was that clearly based off of this photo, but it still shows it!

Bucket list item number 2: complete.

My close group of friends and I decided to go cliff jumping on Saturday September 5th. We drove about an hour off Campus to a place we knew where there are different heights to jump from. We got there and only one of us had service, so it was nice getting out of touch with the world and social media, and really just enjoy ourselves. One of us, David, has previously cliff jumped before, and so have I, but the most I’ve done was about 15 feet, and he has done about 40-50, so he went first since we were on a 50-55 foot drop. We went over how we should all jump, to position our feet straight footed, cross your legs and arms, hold a fist, and to throw a rock into the body of water before jumping so it breaks the tension of the water and doesn’t hurt us.

David went first and “full send” it, then followed our other guy friend, and then me. Three out of the five of us had never cliff jumped before so it took a minute of preparation for the two girls to go, but they ended up doing it and having a blast. The water was cool and the scenery was beautiful. It was so much fun, and it was so great to see everyone having a blast. Especially for the three first timers. They jumped from a pretty high height for their first time, got over their nerves, and was able to cross this off their bucket list, along with me crossing cliff jumping with friends in college off of mine!

If you ever feel spontaneous or impulsive for some adrenaline rush type fun, I suggest finding a local cliff jumping area, getting a few friends together, unplugging from the technology filled world, and to just have fun with your friends doing crazy stuff.

There is obviously dangers to this activity, and if you are not the type to be able to let yourself go to the point of such relaxation and no fear, this may not be for you, but if you want to step out of your comfort zone and try something new and fun with friends then I suggest doing it! As cliche as it sounds, you only live once, so might as well make the most of it, and fill your life with memorable events.

David Jumping First

Making friends is one thing, being there for them and showing them your love and affection is another. I just moved here to Pennsylvania to attend Penn State from Boca Raton, Florida. I moved here only knowing a handful of people, so making new friends is something I was really excited for.

Since I arrived I have made a lot of new friends, and have been having the absolute time of my life, along with doing my school work of course, but I made more friends in a short period of time then I was expecting to and it’s been a lot of fun. I’m in a new state, new town, new school, and people, its like a new start, a new chapter in my life, that I was previously nervous for, but now I am enjoying every moment of it. I made a goal before coming up north to make as many friends as I can, and so far that has been checked off of my bucket list. I am still making more friends as I go, and I will share my experiences I do with them, but for now I will share the birthday fun.

Since we have all been here two of my new friends have had their 18th birthday! In one of my friend groups our friend Megan turned 18, and we decided to surprise her with balloons on her bed, a cake with sparkles, and a whole lot of love. We set up her dorm to walk into as a surprise to, but in the middle of setting up she actually ended up walking in and ruining the surprise before we were ready, but she was still very happy and grateful. From my other friend group my friend Adam turned 18, and our group is a little bigger, so in celebration we all got food together at the dining hall, I know, fancy right, but we all sat together in front of Findlay, 6 feet apart, and enjoyed each other’s company as we ate. After this we gave Adam his birthday card that we all signed along with a birthday cookie cake we got him with some fun candles.

The reason making new friends was on my bucket list was because I love friends, hanging out, and having fun of course, but I decided to include the birthday surprises for a reason. We are all incoming students, at a new school, far from home, away from family and previous friends, and adjusting to this new place. We have to be there for one another and show each other life goes on and how there will always be people who love you and show you they care where ever you go. So next time you know you have a friend who’s birthday is coming up, even if you’re not best friends, put a little something together with a group of people and show them a good time.