Hey guys! I can’t believe this is my last blog post ever! I am so relieved to tell you the truth, I don’t really know if blogging is for me. I hope I’ve posted some interesting stuff for you all this semester!

My last little piece of advice has to do with summer plans. I feel like as college students, we are torn between wanting to live it up all summer before we get internships and real jobs, and working ourselves to death to pay off student loans/other college expenses. My advice to you is to do what feels right to you. Honestly, I would try to find a good balance. I say all this because I usually just choose to work myself until every muscle on my body aches, and I regret not doing more with my friends and family because I had to work or I was too tired to do anything between shifts. There are so many things I still have to do experience before I become a real adult, but at the same time it’s so hard for me to go out and have fun when I know I could be making money instead. I have such an issue with this, but I’m thinking I found a nice balance for this summer. So, I’ll tell you my plans!

The fact that I’ll be home the second week of May is absolutely fantastic for a couple reasons. 1. I won’t be stressed 24/7 and I can take a little breather, and 2. I can go back to work! You are probably thinking that I’m some workaholic…and that’s because I am. I have had a job since I was 14 years old. I have worked at a kid’s amusement park for 5 (soon to be 6) summers and I have worked at a restaurant since I was 16. So yes I have had two jobs at once. The summers are my money makin’ months for sure. Between the two jobs, I average about 60 hours every week working. That of course includes days when I go to work at 9 am, leave my first job around 4, and spend the rest of my night at my other job, until around 11. I am very used to 12-14 hour days and it might sound crazy to literally anyone, but I love those kind of days. My social life is sort of nonexistent, but working so hard is so rewarding to me. I mean I bought my first car and a trip to Italy all by myself! What 16 year old does that?  Anywayyyy my summer plans here ya go!

So I get home I think the 5th of May? I have about two weeks to relax and not worry about school, and then guess what! I’m taking an online summer class from about mid-May to mid-June and I’m not excited about it at all. It’s physics 212 and from what I know about physics 211, it’s gonna suck. While I am taking this online class, I will be only working one of my jobs, which will be the restaurant. It’s a cute little place tucked into the woods called Foggy Mountain Lodge and Restaurant and I have worked the past two years there as a hostess, but this summer I’m going to be a server and make a crapload of money. My kinda job am I right? 

Once the summer class is over, I will celebrate by going back to my second job, at the amusement park. I know, I’m such a hoot. Anyone would kill to have my life, yeah I’ve heard it a lot. I don’t really love the work I do at the amusement park, but it’s one of the most layed back jobs in the whole park and plus my best friend works with me there so it’s pretty fantastic if I have to be honest.

Okay other than the boring stuff, here’s where the fun comes in! For the first time ever, I am taking a road trip up to Long Island with my friends to stay with my roommate for a week! I am so excited about this that I’m already planning about it. I have never been to New York at all, and we will be going into the city for a couple days as well as the beach. I’ve never really gone on a vacation with my friends so this is a big deal for me, and also nice relaxing break from work. 

I am so excited for summer, but sad that I only get to spend a week of it with my friends from school. I’m gonna miss the people here a lot.

So to help you out with some ideas of how to make your summer more interesting, I’m gonna include some summer bucket lists so you can fill the months with awesome activities before we go off and become real boring adults. Ps the people in these pics are the friends I’m going to New York with!!

I really hope everyone enjoys their summers and the rest of their time at Penn State 🙂 Thanks for reading my blogs!

The ultimate 2018 summer bucket list

Welcome back to school everyone! I hope y’all had an amazing break and your year is going well! This week I am going to talk about my vacation over spring break to Turks and Caicos!! 

My family went to Beaches Turks and Caicos last week for the second time ever and it was more beautiful than ever there. We went back when I was 13 so I was super awkward looking and wore really unappealing clothes so I’m glad we have some new memories so I don’t have to think about that…

This trip was really special for me because I was about to get certified as a SCUBA diver! I have been taking the SCUBA class here at Penn State and have learned so much that getting certified at the resort was super easy and fun! My little brother and I are the only ones in my family who aren’t certified, so I’m really glad that we’re a complete diver family now!

A little backstory as to why I have put off being a diver for so long… So I am honestly just a wimp and have been terrified all my life to swim with fish. That’s literally it. I was scared they would touch me or I’d get attacked by a shark or a crab would pinch me or something idk and my family has laughed at me for years. You can get certified at 10…I’m nineteen. It’s about time I grew a pair. So taking this course at school and getting certified on vacation was kind of a huge accomplishment for me. I have been facing my fears and the outcomes have been nothing but rewarding.

The first full day we were there my little brother, Max and I went through our skills in a pool before we took on the big fish take (aka the ocean) and it went really well. I already knew all the skills so it was fun getting to help Max and make him feel more comfortable. The only thing left to do was our checkout dives in the ocean! Piece of cake. Unfortunately the next two days diving was cancelled across the island due to the strong wind and currents. It kinda sucked especially because that really never happens there. My luck I guess. 

A few days later we finally got to go out. I have never seen water so clear, the visibility was about 40 feet. It was insane! Max and I got to suit up with our mom and her friend Pamela who came on vacation with us (she is also a dive instructor at another resort in St. Lucia) and head into the water!

I am so glad I chose to face this fear, but I’m a little mad that it took me so long. I’ve missed out on seeing some truly amazing sights because I was scared and I can’t get those years of diving back. We saw so many cool fish. A lot of Dory’s (I hope you know what that means), some stingrays, lobsters, and a SHARK. Wow! And the best part about seeing the shark was that I wasn’t even scared! I was so excited I was laughing through my regulator with my mom. What an experience. I can’t wait to go out and dive more. That was so much fun. 

The rest of my vacation was fantastic as well. All inclusive resorts are the way to go, trust me. As much food and drink as you want and you don’t need your wallet with you ever. And did I mention the drinking age there was 18?? I really enjoyed getting to go on a family vacation again, I hadn’t been on one in so long and it was such a relaxing break from school. My parents are the best for taking us.

I know I need to be adding some sort of advice into these still, so what I really want to say is you should really think about facing the little fears bottled up in you. I had such a stupid fear of swimming with other creatures that it kept me from doing potentially the best activity in the world for so long. After facing that, I want to do it all the time. I plan to take scientific diving classes here at school and maybe even writing my senior thesis on something with diving! Face your fears people!!  

Best dive locations in the caribbean

Sooooooo just to clarify, for those of you who have been living under a rock…THON IS THIS WEEKEND!!! I am so excited I can’t even find words to express my feelings.

So this year I am on the HOSpitality committee and it has been insanely fun. I have met 27 new (best) friends and have had a great time! Our job during THON weekend is to work in the concessions stands and serve food to the THON dancers and the THON families! We will be working the majority of the 46 hours this weekend and it is going to be very tiring. Buttttt it’s all for the kids!! PLEASE COME TO THON I PROMISE YOU WON’T BE DISAPPOINTED. I mean I haven’t experienced one yet but I still know you’ll love it!

As we get closer to THON, everyone starts to think/talk about why they THON. There are many reasons why I want to contribute to this incredible organization. I do it so kids can be kids. I do it so they can have more birthdays, and just enjoy being a normal kid. I do it so parents don’t have to think about their kids passing away before they do. But there’s more to it. I don’t know if I’ve ever told the story on my blog, but there’s a bigger reason. 

When I was little, we were really close with our neighbors through the woods, the Scanlons. The parents are Jim and Marie Paul, both extremely nice people, very similar to my parents. My dad and Jim (well they have the same name lol) like to go hunting and fishing together, they love to drink together, and they love playing outside with their kids. Marie Paul is from Belgium and she’s amazing. She has such a big heart and a hilarious attitude and she loves to drink wine with my mom. Yes most of the time when we are with them the parents like to chill and drink but I promise they aren’t alcoholics.

Jimmy and Marie Paul had two kids, Sasha and Chad, both older than my brother Sam and me. Sam and I loved playing with Sasha and Chad; we would always play on our swing-sets and in the woods and basically do everything together, especially during the summer. Sasha and Chad are so fun to be with, I miss being a kid more than anything and honestly I mostly miss getting to play with them.

When I was 7 years old, our lives took a turn for the worse. One day Chad had complained to his mom that his head hurt really bad. He didn’t want to leave his bed, and we were all really confused. In the end, Marie Paul decided to take him to the hospital. Things changed that night. We found out that chad had a tumor in his brain.

I was still confused. What did that mean? What was cancer? What does it do to you? My mom tried to explain it to me, and all that I got rom it was that Chad wasn’t going to be playing with us much for a while. That really sucked. I loved playing with him!

We all went on with our lives as best as we could. I visited Chad a lot and read to him and watched movies with him. The one thing I noticed about him was he was always smiling. He never really looked like he was in pain, like my mom told me he would be. Most of the time I couldn’t really tell he had cancer. He was just a normal kid. As things got worse, though, I wasn’t able to see him as much anymore which was sad.

The day before he passed, my older brother and I went around our entire elementary school and got everyone to sign a card for him. That evening we delivered it to him and I saw something I will never unsee. Chad was laying in his mother’s bed, unable to talk, unable to eat, barely able to squeeze his mom’s hand to signal a yes or no. His eyes were black and the one thing that devastated me, he wasn’t smiling. Chad always smiles…it was so weird. I knew this was not good. We gave him the card and he squeezed Marie Paul’s hand to express “thank you” and we went home to leave them be. The next day, my mom received the news that Chad had passed, in his mom’s bed, in his sleep. This struck me hard. No more playdates. No more smiles. No more laughs. Just tears and sad hugs and depressing visits to a grave. This wasn’t Chad. He didn’t deserve that. He was only 12?? 

So to make a long story, I guess, a little shorter, I’ll just talk about why I THON now. I THON for Chad. I THON for kids like him who lose their smiles. Their cute crooked smiles with new grownup teeth growing in. I THON so that there can be endless smiles. Endless playdates. Like I said, I’d give anything to be a kid again. I just can’t fathom that some kids don’t get to experience the same childhood as I did. It sucks. Cancer sucks.

I am so thankful to be a part of THON and so blessed to have known Chad, though I didn’t get to be with him for long. I know he’s looking down on me, proud of me and all the volunteers who just want to kick cancers ass. I hope to see the day where “your child has cancer” is never said again. When I’m in the BJC this weekend, it’ll be for you Chad 🙂

He wasn’t a four diamonds child, but he was part of the Pittsburgh foundation, and he later had a book written about his life by a family friend who I knew from church. If you’d like to donate to his fund I’ll leave the link. Please enjoy THON this weekend everyone 🙂

Chad Scanlon Memorial Fund

Chad Scanlon Obituary

Chad Scanlon Memorial Fund Facebook

Over the weekend I got to experience something I never had before. I got to drive out to Annapolis, Maryland with my Hospitality committee and spend the weekend at one of the girl’s houses. I was excited to get away from State College for a bit and just relax, despite the huge physics exam I was stressing over that I desperately needed to study for. I expected to bond with my committee a little bit, yanno, see how they acted outside of school and really just talk to them about their lives. But what I didn’t expect was how close we actually all got by the end of the weekend. 

We enjoyed eating together and watching movies and playing with the new puppy at the house! Moose! He was so precious and chunky it was amazing. In order to get to know one another a little better, we did some activities where we went around the group and answered some questions. Some were easy to answer, and others required a lot of thought and emotion. A lot of the committee members cried, including me, especially during this one question which was “What was the most significant moment in your life in the past year?”

I had to think about this one for a little bit, I mean, a lot has happened to me within the last year. I got into Penn State, I graduated, I left my family to come here, I experienced so much at school. While those are all significant events, I really didn’t think they were significant enough to change the way I thought about life. Eventually I realized what this moment was, and I have to say, it really made me choke up thinking about it.

Over Christmas break something really upsetting happened a couple days before Christmas that really changed my mother’s and my own view on life. While we were at the local YMCA at one of my mom’s water aerobics classes, there was an accident on the highway we take to go home. My friends all texted me telling me not to go that way home, that the road was completely blocked off. At that moment, we didn’t know who was in the accident, but we were still worried. That day I drove separate from my mom because I had to go straight to work after the class. I decided to try to go the way I wasn’t supposed to just because I was curious to see the wreck. I drove up and was flagged to turn around in a parking lot nearby, but I saw the pickup truck that crashed. It was completely flipped over, and the entire cab was smashed in. Whatever happened, it didn’t look good for whoever was in the truck.

Later that night I found out who was driving the truck. He was a 28 year old from my home town, he went to my high school, and my mom is good friends with his mother. It was really hard to know that someone’s son wasn’t going to be around

anymore, especially so close to Christmas. No parent, family member, girlfriend/boyfriend, or friends ever wants to receive the news that their loved one has passed away.

My mom and dad attended his viewing, and I didn’t really talk to them about it. Frankly, I was busy working and getting my last-minute shopping done that I wasn’t home much to talk to them. Christmas Eve came along, and we had to go to mass twice that day, since it fell on a Sunday. We were in mass that morning, and as the priest was talking about family and spending the holidays with your loved ones, my mom, sitting right next to me, began to cry. I held her for a bit while we sat in the pew. I really hate seeing my mom cry, it makes me so sad that I really never know what to do. When she stopped sobbing enough to find words, she whispered to me, “I just can’t imagine my life without you kids.” That right there was the most significant moment in my life. As soon as I heard those words, I began to cry too. I can’t imagine a life without my mom. She’s so strong and caring and helpful. She knows what to do in any situation, and is the most beautiful woman I know. I don’t always tell her how much I love her and appreciate everything she does to me, and in that moment I realized I need to say it more often before I miss the chance to.

While telling my committee this story, I began to cry, but not out of sadness, although it was kind of a sad story, but out of pure love. I will never take my mom, or anyone for granted. This moment in my life allowed me to open my eyes and taught me to tell people I love them. We don’t always know if there will be a tomorrow, so it is important to let everyone in your life know that you love them every day.

I love my mom and my dad so much. My family is so important to me and I miss them more than ever. Please call your parents every day. Even if you don’t have anything to talk about, do it to hear the sound of their voices, it’s so nice to at least have that to hold onto while we’re away from them for so long.

The Importance of Family

10 Reasons Why We All Need a Mom

4 Reasons to Tell People You Love Them

When I was younger, talking about myself embarrassed me and I didn’t like to talk in front of a lot of people at once. It was a process, and I eventually grew up and realized that there’s no reason to be so ashamed of things that have happened in my life. Bad things happen to everyone so why not just laugh about it, yanno? So my advice for this blog is for you to open up to people. Talk about those embarrassing moments when you were little or even the rough middle school days (yes we all had them we just try not to relive them). I’m going to talk about those moments now!! I’m hoping it’ll help bring you out of your shells as well!

Allllllllrighty so some of these stories are just hilarious to me now. I’m laughing just thinking of how sheltered I was as a kid.

So my first story, I was three years old, so don’t judge me too harshly for this. I went on vacation for the first time with my family to Ocean City MD. I love it there, people from home like to call it Ocean Shitty but I don’t believe in that. So anyway, we’re in the lobby of the hotel and I see this black woman and loudly ask my mother, “Mommy why is her skin brown?” -_- please forgive me I was three need I remind you. Naturally my mom apologized to the woman and everything was fine. BUT….the next day comes along….and I said the SAME THING TO THE SAME WOMAN. I am the worst I really am. I hope the woman didn’t take offense to that I really do, I’m not that kind of person really.

SECOND!! Hahahaha I just love remembering these stories of myself. So when I was probably six or seven-ish I tried something new! My brother and I always spent the entire day outside playing any game we could come up with. We hated being in the house, especially during the summer. So my brother, as boys do, stood towards a tree at one point because he had to pee. And ambitious little me thought “wow that looks easy let me try!” I won’t get too into detail, but I obviously don’t have the same “parts” as my brother so this ended up being a challenge for me. Instead of simply unzippering my pants like he did, I had to completely strip down where my lower half was concerned and try to pee. You can probably guess that the pee never really reached the tree, but rather went all over my underwear and shorts. I learned that day that girls can’t do everything boys can do. 

Oh my goodness this is a good one, we’ll end with a good old middle school embarrassing story. So we’re sitting at lunch in fifth grade. I sat at a table with my crush and of course we flirted by messing with each other just like any tween would do to show their affection. Everyday at the end of lunch they turned the lights out to quiet us so we could walk back to our rooms by class. So my crush, his name was Austin lol, were messing around and he took my history homework that I was doing during lunch and I got super mad (but in a flirty way of course, you guys know what I mean) and I smacked him on the back. Not like a little nudge or anything, a full on thump that everyone heard because I did it right when the lights were shut off and everything was completely silent. The librarian, who was there for lunch duty, approached me and told me I’d be spending a week at the bad kids table (which for anyone who doesn’t know it’s just an isolated table where all the really bad kids sit so they are separated from their friends during lunch). I was so embarrassed, my face looked like a tomato for real. My friends were cracking up and Austin later on told me he was surprised at how hard I could hit…in which he was totally flirting with me guys like it’s totally obvious. But anyway the next week was very lonesome for me, but I got to hang out with the bad kids in the grade, and it made me feel pretty cool. So don’t mess with me, this is a formal warning. 

Alrighty well I hope you enjoyed these terribly embarrassing stories of mine, please if you have a funny story of your own, comment about it. I would love to read about it.

How to Get Over an Embarrassing Moment

Tips to Save Yourself from Embarrassment

It’s O.K. to be Embarrassed

Three weeks in and I’m already struggling with finding a topic to blog about. I still want to give advice to my readers but I thought I’d get more personal with my life while I’m at it! Today I want to talk about some regrets I’ve had throughout my life.

1. I regret fighting with my second grade best friend. Courtney, if you’re out there somewhere (she moved schools after fourth grade) I just wanna say I’m sorry for fighting with you over Hannah Montana songs. After years of thought I agree that Nobody’s Perfect is way better than If We Were a Movie. (Y’all are probably laughing at me but seriously that tore me up for years). 
2. I regret quitting basketball. I began playing basketball when I was four. I went through travel teams as well as the middle school and high school teams. I had the same coach from grade 7 to grade 10 and after sophomore year I was so fed up with her. She was a terrible coach and pretty much ruined my love for the game. She resigned after my sophomore year, but despite that I still quit. I didn’t even give the new coach a chance because I was so done with the sport and today I regret it because I have been told so often that I am crazy for quitting. I had so much talent and skill and it sucks because it’s been so many years and if I went and tried playing again I’d probably enjoy the hell out of it.
3. I regret dating literally all but one of the guys I have dated so far. Boy am I stupid when it comes to love lol. For those of you that don’t know, I am a very caring person. Here’s how my relationships usually go: I start dating them because I really like them and they seem to really care about me. Time goes on and they show their real colors and usually turn out to be jerks. When they are a jerk to me I get mad and want to end things, but then they come to me with a problem and tell me I’m the only one who’s there for them, so I get guilted into staying with them. I’M DUMB. Plain and simple.
4. I regret not hanging out with my family as much before college started. I love them dearly, and I think I really took advantage of them being around me all the time. I was so busy with work and school that I don’t really remember spending much of my summer with them. That makes me sad; this summer will be different for sure. I miss them so much. 
5. I regret not working hard enough my first semester. I consider myself a very smart woman. I did very well in high school and I really sort of slacked off my first semester, and my grades showed for it. This semester I am trying to be more focused and put school work before clubs and social events. In the end, my grades and knowledge are going to get me employed when I am looking for a job.
6. I regret not being healthy. I used to eat right and workout with my mom and go to the gym and lift and stuff, and when college came around I just kind of cut that out of my life. I miss working out and feeling good after running and building muscle. I miss being sore. I joined a club here at Penn State that will hopefully change my perspective of that.

So yeah some of those sounds pretty stupid. With all the big regrets there are of course small ones as well. And yes I seriously regret fighting about Hannah Montana that isn’t a lie. With all my regrets, I have also made a lot of great choices, like choosing this amazing college with infinite opportunity, to choosing my friends here and choosing the things I want to be involved in. Don’t get me wrong I’m really happy with my life right now. I don’t often think about my regrets but when I do I know they’re in my past and thinking about them will get me nowhere. The future is wide open as Tom Petty (I’m incredibly sad that he passed I’m literally tearing up right now) once said and I like to live by his wise words. Life is all about making mistakes and learning from them. Try not to worry about regrets because they’ll just drag you down!!

How to Get Over Regret

How to Overcome Serious Regrets

Forget Regret

Do you ever lay in bed at night staring at the ceiling and wonder what your life is going to be like after college? 5 years from now? 10 years? I’ve been thinking a lot about my future lately and it results in my head spinning and tons of self-doubt. But still, I dream. And I have been thinking that I don’t really want these dreams of mine to only be dreams. I want to live them and follow through with my goals.

Yes I have a lot of the typical dreams that most teenage/college girls also have, with a few adjustments probably. I’ll try to just list the big ones and maybe add some of the little ones later.

1. HAPPINESS. Okay so this might seem broad or vague or however you want to see it, but this is the biggest dream of mine honestly. No matter what troubles I go through in my life, I want to be happy with what I have. Throughout middle and high school I sort of relied on other people for my happiness, whether it was my friends or a boyfriend or my grades or even my family, and I realized how terrible that way of life was. If someone in my life was sad or mad, I would feel the same way, and I would usually blame myself for their problems, which was ridiculous. I mean sure I should feel sympathy for those people, but I shouldn’t have let their issues consume me. Since the summer after graduation I realized that I had to make my own happiness, and I had to understand that I was allowed to be happy even when others weren’t. So since then I have taken all the things in my life and turned them into positive things, and I still try to do that every day. To achieve any of my dreams, I need to be happy first.
2. Family. I want to keep my family close for as long as I can. I don’t show it a lot, but I am so lost without my parents and my brothers. My parents have spoiled me with love since the day I was born, and I dream that we remain close to one another and that one day I can care for them like they did for me my entire life. I owe them the world, and I know it would feel so rewarding if I could help them when they are unable to help themselves. But for now, I just want to make them proud. I also dream that my family will grow someday. I don’t have a lot of family, I have 5 first cousins and only four sets of aunt and uncles. What I’d really like –that of course will happen years from now– is to have children of my own so my family grows and with that our love grows as well. I want my parents to have grandkids to spoil and babysit occasionally, and I really just want to be a great mother to them.
3. Wholehearted. I could explain this in a lot of ways, but basically I dream to always give more than I take. I know throughout my life there will always be people that need love more than I do, and I dream that no matter what path I choose in life I never forget to put others before myself. When we were younger we were taught to share and to be kind and to love unconditionally, but as we get older, I think those traits slip away from us. I dream to always be happy, but with that, I want to make others happy as well.

There are many other things I dream of, such as a great job and a beautiful home and all that, but the three I just discussed are most important to me, and with happiness, support and love from my family, and a wholehearted mindset, I can accomplish truly anything. So my advice to you is to dig a little deeper when thinking about what your dreams are. Do you want a big house and lots of money? or to be happy and rich with love? or maybe both? The possibilities are endless, you can never dream too big. Also enjoy life and try not to make it all about yourself and work, step outside boundaries and make fun memories while you can, especially during these college years!!

How to Dream Big 

How to Motivate Yourself to Reach Your Goals

50 Small Ways You Can Help Make the World a Better Place

Hey guys! I decided to keep my passion blog going for this semester because I enjoyed finding stuff to write about every week that made me (and hopefully some of you) happy!! I am hoping to have some great material for you this semester!

After having a long time to reflect on my first semester here, I feel like I had a lot of troubles, a lot of fun, and a lot of happy times. Most of all I feel like I learned so much, not just in class but in life lessons as well. Annnnnnddd I also found some things that I can change that will really improve my study habits and my procrastination.

I don’t like saying they’re my “New Year’s Resolutions” because I mean those fail more times than not, am I right? I see my life changes as things that just need to be altered in my life. I’m not making these changes just so I can bail on them by February like the rest of the world. I want to better myself as a person and a student, and I’m not changing simply because it’s a new year, but just because I know I’m not doing the best that I can be and I caught myself in bad habits.

So, here are my changes that I would AM making as we speak and I am sticking to them.

College students, as well as most teenagers and adults love to watch Netflix. I mean, it’s a pretty amazing thing. So many good shows, and movies, just a way to relax and “chill” for those guys that hope to get lucky when watching it with a girl. Lol. Anyway, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Netflix can take up a sh*t ton of your time. Time that you could easily be using to read over notes or work on homework assignments, or even go to the gym! I realize how sucked in I have gotten to Netflix and it is really unhealthy. I don’t go to the gym anymore, my grades sort of suffered last semester, and I just became a lazy bum and it sucks. I just think about all the time I have wasted watching The Office (which I GUARANTEE you I can quote just about any episode. WHICH IS PATHETIC I KNOW)

as well as other shows and movies. I feel stupid. Truly stupid.

Anyway, so I am forcing myself to delete my Netflix account and find another way to spend my valuable time. I know it won’t be hard if I just get rid of it completely, so there ya go. I really just need to focus on my classes more, and I absolutely need to start going to the gym again. I may have a high metabolism now, but when I’m older I will start to gain weight and keep it on and I know if I don’t get into a routine of working out now it’ll be close to impossible when I’m older.

Next, I am also unhappy with the amount of time I spend on my phone. It’s insane. I never put that thing down! Like why is Snapchat so important honestly?? For this change, I am going to go on social media less, and get into the habit of not always needing to have my phone in my hand. Answering snaps can wait. Like it got to the point where I would be on my phone in class, and I promised myself before school that I wouldn’t do that. The stuff on my phone is not nearly as important as the lessons being taught right in front of me in the classroom.

So if you can take anything from this, please just know that no you don’t have to make a New Year’s resolution. If you are happy with how your life is, why change it? And if you do want to change some things around, don’t just do it to say you made a New Year’s resolution. I think the real reward is when down the road you are still making positive changes for yourself and just making yourself the happiest you can be.

Also, life is way too short to be watching Netflix and being sucked into your phone. Go out with your friends and have a good time! It’s okay to check your phone and see what other people are doing, but don’t live your life through other people’s snap stories or insta posts, go out and make your own stories and just have fun! I can’t wait to see all the happiness that comes from the changes I am making, and I hope you all can carry out any changes you want to make in the future!

I’m including some links on activities you can do instead of watching Netflix and being on your phone, and they are really helpful for me so far!

25 Productive Things to Do Instead of Binge On Netflix

43 Things You Should Do Instead of Looking at Your Phone

Going Screen-free at Home

Wow my last blog post already?? I feel like I have so much more to talk about!!

At this point you all probably feel like me..hella unmotivated and lazy, am I right? Sadly, this is absolutely NOT the time to be lazy, because finals are coming! WOOOOOO!!

Yeah I know, finals are not going to be fun and you’re probably angry just thinking about them (my b). Although I have never experienced college finals, I want to tell you, if you didn’t already know, how extremely important it is to study your butt off for them. You’ve worked so hard the whole semester learning everything you need to know for these finals, so you can definitely do well on them! Some quick tips I could give you are:

1. Leave behind your phone. Like I said before, these finals are sooo important. They are all most likely worth most of your grade, so you seriously need to focus. Our biggest distraction is our phones. We are so drawn to our phones to take us away from the awfulness of studying for finals, but again, FINALS ARE SO IMPORTANT. You can do without your phone for a few hours, and whoever you’re talking to will understand that you aren’t responding because you’re studying for finals. They probably are studying too.
2. Organize a study space. Whether it’s in your dorm or in the library, you should keep your study space clutter free so you can be as focused as possible. A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind, as they say right?
3. Take regular breaks. This is really important. And this is when you can check your phone! Plan times when you can take a break while studying, or just take a break when you feel like you need it. If you study for hours on end with no breaks, you’ll begin to lose your mind. Stop what you’re doing, go grab a bite to eat, call your parents, workout, just remove yourself from studying for a bit.
4. Snack on brain food. Apples, bananas, oranges, almonds, carrots, peanuts, oatmeal, green veggies, coffee, pretzels, and so many others are considered great brain food and are all healthy as well! Try to steer towards these foods rather than fatty foods that might just leave you tired.
5. Meet up and study with friends. More than likely, you’re friends are struggling with studying for finals just like you, so why not suffer together!! Plan to meet up and study with your friends, but be sure to pick friends who will help you more than hurt you. Make sure you can all stay focused and get work done, and still remember to put your phones away!

Okay I don’t want to talk about finals anymore because I’m getting sad, so I’ll just say good luck to everyone on their finals and I hope you all crush them!!

The best part about getting over finals is… CHRISTMAS BREAK!! As soon as you finish them, you get a luxurious break where you don’t have to think about school work AT ALL. How wonderful!! Get exciteddddd! Since you’ll have so much free time over break, I’m going to leave some links that have tons of holiday break activities to do with your family members and friends! Enjoy and have a great rest of the year 🙂

30 Christmas Party Games the Family Will Love

10 Things You Should do Over Break

21 Things to do Over Christmas Break

Hey everyone! I haven’t had a lot of exciting stuff going on in my life to talk to you about. I have been taking several L’s recently and it kind of sucks, but after thinking about it, that’s the perfect topic. I wanna focus this blog on the fact that we as students are going to take tons of L’s, most likely more than one a day, but that is perfectly O.K. to do! I mean if you go through college with zero issues did you even go to college?

It’s important to make mistakes in college! and here’s why:

Not only will four years in college supply you with a degree to help you be successful in a career for the rest of your life, it will provide you with lessons and experiences that will make you stronger and wiser. Sometimes we learn these lessons the hard way, but I promise, everybody’s doing it, and it’s OK.

I can’t express how messed up my mindset has gotten since college started. I mean, most of the time I’m like “Get good grades and get that degree” but other times I’m like “go out and have fun! do this! do that! you only have so much time to experience everything!” Ya feel me? It’s really hard to find a balance in what I need to focus on, because if I only focus on my degree, I am missing out on experiences that only happen in college, and friendships that are long lasting; that sounds way too good to miss out on, right?

Anyways, we are all allowed to make mistakes. Yes it’s okay to skip class once and a while and yes it’s okay to hang out with friends even when you should be studying. As long as we find a good balance in everything, it’s no big deal right?

Also. This is important. Please understand, you are at a school where there are over 40,000 students. We might do some embarrassing things every once and a while, but just think, whoever saw you do it, you probably won’t see ever again. Try not to care what people think of you, it makes your college experience a lot better for sure. The only person’s opinion of you that matters is yours. Remember to do what makes you happy and you’ll have a really enjoyable time in college.

What I love about Penn State is that if you make a mistake, you can just wake up the next day and try again. You can learn from your mistakes and work harder. If you failed a test, strive to do better next time. If you find you’re doing terrible in a class, you can drop it and try something else! There is so much opportunity here and it’s okay to go down different paths in your time here. You are human. We weren’t created to be perfect, we are supposed to make mistakes.

The most important thing to take from this is, without mistakes, you cannot grow as a person. Mistakes are life lessons, and the most successful people went through some rough patches too. Like Hannah Montana once said, “Everybody makes mistakes” and it’s TRUE. When you make a mistake, it might seem like the end of the world, but that just means you get a chance to start over and fix things! Reflect on your decisions and learn from them, and try to enjoy college because I’ve heard it goes by even faster than high school! WHAT??

Wishing everyone the best of luck in their college careers, please go out and have fun, and hit the books! 🙂

Here’s the music video for Nobody’s perfect, because I can’t get that song out of my head now.

It’s Okay to Make Mistakes

20 Mistakes Everyone Makes in College