Still celebrating Women's History Month for March, xoxo.
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It's officially Spring! Time to tuck away your blacks and bring out your whites and corals. Anyway, Spring is always exciting because it's my birthday season and I can't help but think about rain and flowers whenever it comes around. Soft rain, of course. And colorful flowers. Sometimes I feel like I've let myself go during Winter and Spring is my time to get things on track again. A couple of my Spring must-do's:
1. Spring Cleaning Yes everyone talks about it but how many of us actually do it? I know I've only done it every other year when I truly realize half my Winter clothes has got to go considering I live in what feels like a desert and my clothes is folded outside my closet because there is simply no more room for it. Any way, clean out your closet. Chances are you always wear the same thing. Admit it, you secretly repeat that white button down with boyfriend jeans because you know it matches anything you accessorize it with. But how about the sequin skirts and ruffled shirts? We both know you won't be caught dead out in those. Get rid of anything that doesn't let you breathe, sit, or move. Toss out the shoes that have been beat by your endless nights. Give away the things that simply don't match your style anymore. Keep only your all-time favorite bags. And last but not least, organize the things you stay with, whether it be by item, season, or color. 2. Get back to the gym You might have pulled off your out of shape body for Winter but it's not going to slide in Spring. Lets face it, your not going to pass up on beach days because of your body and you shouldn't have to but you also don't want to show up a feel like a walking chocolate bar. As I once read: "If you never quit you never have to start again". Get back at it. Swimsuit season is right around the corner. 3. Start planning your summer adventures Have you been dreaming of a Europe trip? Are you dying to catch a cruise? When are you finally going to plan the weekend to the keys? Now. Figure out who wants to join the party and start planning. Remember the longer you wait till Summer, the more it's going to cost you. 4. Festival Season Ultra, Coachella, Tortuga, Governors Ball, Bonaroo they're all fast approaching. Maybe this will finally be the year you and your friends actually feed your music festival craving. Start buying your tickets and outfits because they'll be here before you know it. 5. Apply for Summer Internships, Jobs, Classes Having responsibilities is not the funeral of your summer, I promise. The best advice I can give is to start now. The faster you start applying for internships the more likely you will be to find one that best fits your schedule and what you're looking for. The faster you sign up for your summer classes the better schedule you will get. Remember the good ones always go first. Hey Spring Breakers! Welcome back to the reality of school and work. I know, I know the spring break memories are haunting you, me too. Unfortunately for me, they will only haunt me in my mind considering I got my phone stolen with ALL my spring break photos. *insert sad face*. I'm mostly sad because I was so excited to share with you all the incredible sights of Boston. The only good news is my boyfriend & I made a GoPro video of some key moments during the trip to share with you. (sorry we're so mushy and lovey, hope you'll forgive me *embarrassed face).
Some trip highlights:
First of all, my proudest moment of the entire trip was walking a mile in a skirt in the snow without catching hypothermia. My second proudest moment was battling my annual chin zit (It was really hard for me to cope considering I never get zits). Anyway, I really enjoyed taking the T-Train up and down Boston. It's a common attraction to Boston residents but a luxury to anyone from who has terrible public transportation in their hometown. It was so exciting figuring out how to get from one side of Boston to the other with a $2 train ticket. The rest of the time we used Uber (it was my first time so I got a 30 minute ride for free!! Here is a code if you want an Uber discount: danielag306). I also had the greatest time visiting my sister, ex-dance team member, and current Tufts dance team member. She took us to a dance team formal that was in the basement!! Definitely not something you see in any Miami party. Lastly, the clam chowder at Quincy Market lived up to its reputation as New England's best dish. Till next time Boston! Am I the only who feels there's been one too many Friday the 13th's lately? Although I'm not much into superstitions, I did walk under a ladder the other day and had my phone stolen yesterday.. strange. Any way, my mini vacation week is over. Stay updated for my first GoPro video about my Boston trip with all the Boston must-sees and eats. Until then, here are a couple week finds dedicated to all the beautiful, empowering women in honor of Women's History Month. ps- thinglink is back!! (scroll over the picture to view the attachments). Update: I'll be getting on a plane soon. But, I forgot to share with you all some of my airport carry-on must-haves:
My laptop (I love doing offline things on the airplane like editing photos, videos, organizing) A book (I started reading Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman... it's awesome so far). A magazine (I range from wedding mags to fitness mags) Headphones Chargers for everything that needs charging Water & snack Your makeup bag (because you never know how long you'll be at the airport and sometimes you need a fix-up) An extra sweater in case the one you have on isn't enough Moisturizer (something about airplanes makes me dry up) Hand-Sani .. self explanatory. xo. Just last night I was running all around Miami making sure my bags were nice and organized for 4AM today. I was supposed to be on a flight to Boston with my boyfriend at 7AM. Now, I'm sitting in a gate wondering if i'll be boarding the next or the last flight of the day. I think it's amazing how one moment we feel like we don't even have a second to breathe of how fast our lives are moving. We get frustrated, overwhelmed, angry because, "I've done a million things today! I'm starving! All I want to do is nap!!!" (sound familiar?). But, the next moment we have all the time in the world and we feel guilty for not being productive.
The truth is, as frustrated as I may getting doing math homework or as overwhelmed as I get planning a trip, I love doing those things. I love having an overbooked life. I feel grateful to have so many things to be a part of. I truly think this is a habit not everyone acquires. It's those people who want to give even the tiniest piece of themselves in absolutely everything who create this habit. I remember how excited I was to just get home and nap when I got out school. Then I got to college and I only had class for 3 hours Tuesdays and Thursdays. So what about every other day? Was I supposed to nap all day? How am I supposed to get frustrated doing that? What is going to go wrong and need my fixing? I had to remake the schedule I was once tired of and now longing for. It was almost exciting to realize this new task. It was like I had a redo opportunity to choose my electives all over again. I wasn't committed to anything. There was no one to let down. Nothing to return to. So, what are some things to take into account when you're given the chance to remake your schedule? 1. Forget all the things you've been doing and absolutely hate. Are you so over take three hours of ballet? Are you so over baseball tournaments every weekend? It's not called quitting. You're still going to dance around your room to the piano songs that were drilled into your head during ballet barre. And you're still going to join every club baseball team on your free time. But, you're not going to feel committed anymore. You'll be releasing a lot of needless frustration in order to make room for good frustration on new hobbies. There's nothing wrong with changing up the game. 2. Before you start taking up all the fun hobbies. Think of hobbies your future self might thank you for when you look at your paycheck? Yes you take all the necessary coursework to get your degree, but so does everyone else! With all the competition in the world you constantly have to be asking yourself what is so great about you over someone else? Take time to learn even more than what your college says you need. Volunteer to be an assistant for someone in your field who might need a helping hand. Take the workshops. Listen in on the career talks. These things will give you incomparable experience because you will mostly probably fail but at least you'll learn before anyone else does. 3. Now, your health hobbies. Has your doctor been talking to you about exercise forever? Is your therapist on the verge of paying for your yoga sessions himself? Are you lacking some serious Vitamin D? People who don't have these problems are probably taking time in their day to get some Vitamin D with a walk to the nearest park offering yoga. A lot of people consider this their hobbies. They genuinely take pleasure in meeting their health needs. 4. Last but not least, your fun hobbies. Once you have put first things first and worked around your schedule with the important stuff, you'll probably have a couple hours a day for some free time, me time (whatever you want to call it). Here you insert the things that feed your personality. Maybe an episode of Orange is the New Black is just right for the end of the day. Cooking for your friends and family. Scrolling through Pinterest and giving your boards a whole new batch of ideas. How about actually fulfilling one of those ideas? executing a DIY. Whatever it is, make time for it because routine gets boring but not as boring as having nothing to do gets. ps- In the span of time it took me to write I found out a flight got cancelled last night and all those people will be before me on standby.. yes, an entire aircraft will board standby before me. I also found out I won't be getting on the 1PM flight. I foreshadow a long day of airport watch ahead of me. Maybe some math homework (bored always reminds you of responsibilities, it's gross). Ok bye guys! Hopefully my next post will be a Boston update (that is, if I ever get there). Big News! I'm happy to announce that I have officially started my first story as the newest addition of The Reporter. Last week I applied to be part of MDC's prestigious newspaper, formerly known as The Metropolitan. I'll be writing stories for the Arts & Entertainment section of the newspaper. But considering my background in TV Production, I was able to help film a story on MDC's West Campus parking lot situation today. As many of you may or may not know, West Campus' parking lot collapsed on four workers in the midst of construction in 2012. Since then, the garage hasn't been able to be demolished and rebuilt due to lawsuits on the construction company. Students have to park at a nearby mall or park in order to take a 10 minute school-run bus system to campus. And to give my opinion, coming from a West Campus student, it sucks. Today was the perfect example. The park parking lot was closed down in order to make parking room for the Doral golf tournament this week. Therefore, all students were forced to park at the mall parking lot, which they were obviously not happy about because no one likes having their commute schedule changed last minute. Because the mall parking lot had a lot of student traffic, we were able to get different student opinions on the problem. Overall, it was a productive and HOT day of interviews. Friday night I saw the talented, Ricardo Arjona, a Guatemalan singer-songwriter, producer, and musician at the American Airlines Arena for his tour Viaje. Although I went in only knowing a couple of songs, I left a total fan. I knew him most for his love ballads but to my surprise his lyrics ranged from world peace to friendship. More than his lyrics, I was blown away by the musicality in all his songs. The drums and saxophone to be exact. I didn't catch a single empty seat in the audience. The arena was packed with elegant, hispanic middle aged couples and forty-year-old women holding signs that said, "Señora de las Cuatro Décadas", a love song about a woman in her forty's who doesn't need to show off her beauty to know she's beautiful. For this song, he chose a woman from the crowd and brought her on stage for a serenade. Overall, I was very impressed by the show. I mean, I probably should've expected it considering he has recorded fourteen studio albums, one live album, and forty-three singles. Ricardo Arjona
Jerry Seinfeld If you couldn't make it to see the witty Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld this weekend, well, that sucks because he was great!!! (by the way, according to Jerry, "sucks" and "great" are the only adjectives Americans use *embarassed face*). I was sort of obligated by my boyfriend to attend this event even though I'm constantly called out for not laughing at supposedly "funny" things (again, *kinda embarassed face*). But this was good since Seinfeld's specialty is making fun of social obligation. To my surprise, I spent TWO HOURS laughing my a** off. Something I should've expected considering Jerry is one of the highest paid stand-up comedians and admits he's only doing it because he is bored with his life after his self-titled show, Seinfeld. I hardly know much about Jerry Seinfeld besides that his sitcom ended in the 90's. But I was surprised to find out Jerry actually got married at 45 and is now 60 with three kids. It was the best outing I had been to in a while. Definitely worth leaving the royalty of your bed for. If you are anything like me, oblivious to Seinfeld until this weekend, please do yourself a favor and watch EVERY stand-up video of his you can find. I promise you will not regret it.
I'll be first to say making a decision is a roller coaster of emotions. A year ago around this time I was faced with my first real life-changing decision. Seriously, life-changing. For the first time, it was my choice. Not my parents, my teachers, or my friends. It wasn't a simple, "pick where you want to eat" decision. It was life-changing. It was going to change the course of my life. It was no other than a college decision. In the length of my stressful senior year, I had been admitted into every college I had applied to except the one I wanted to go to. My first thoughts were of course a series of regrets. All my past choices that were probably the reasons I hadn't been admitted. But this regret wasn't making anything better. It was turning my sorrow into anger and clouding up my decision-making process. I knew I essentially had two choices: settle for my second choice or do my AA in community college and reapply. So I started the process. After all, I only had two options.
1. I gave my second choice school a whole-hearted chance. I constantly visited the campus, continuously checked their website, and asked my friends who had labeled it their number one choice what they admired so much about it. I tried to get the full experience of being there before I called it home. I looked at where I would live, how I would eat, who I would room with, what organizations/clubs I would join, how they would help me be the person I wanted to be after college. Those were all important questions to me. 2. I looked at my other option: community college. I'll be completely honest, to me community college was a reject school. But, I didn't think as terrible of it as some other people did. I had heard many success stories come out of community college. People, just like me, has gone on to become engineers, doctors, and political figures. I visited the numerous campus' around Miami and finally decided to focus on the downtown campus. Simply because it didn't feel like I was being punished. It was right on the water and walking distance from some of Miami's best points. I spoke with one of the advisors, told her my plans of transferring to a big university after my AA, asked for her sincere and honest advice. I also looked at the organizations/clubs. 3. Living at home for another two years. I've always been a very independent person. I rarely felt anything held me back not my parents, not my friends, not my personality. I'm an only child so I was constantly experiencing things alone. I seldom felt lonely or bored. I knew if I stayed in community college I would be living at home. Something people were so excited to leave after high school. To me it wasn't exactly on the top 5 exciting college moments. I did want to experience life in another place but I didn't want to leave home. I loved my moms cooking, I loved my room, I loved my car. All things that would go away if I left. Of course, my parents are the kind who want to know everything about my life and can be overwhelming. But I was far from being on the edge with them. They teach me a lot and two more years with them wasn't going to throw me over the edge. 4. The friend factor. Once college started I knew all the people who made Miami so amazing would be gone and off to their respective new homes. I wondered if it would all be just as amazing without them and if I would make an effort to make just as amazing? I decided I would. I knew it wouldn't be easy at first. But there are so many college students in Miami, I'm quite outgoing, I knew I could easily make at least a couple of friends. 5. Money. All I ever hear college grads complain about are their college loans. I'm not just talking about people in their 20's. I'm also talking about parents who are still paying their four years of college loans. Community college was basically paying me to attend. While, my second choice school was giving me everything except all my living expenses, which were quite a lot (and having money to eat is important). Yes, I probably would've had to take out loans had I been accepted to my first option school but I would be doing it to fulfill a dream. Rather than doing it for a school I had hardly even thought of before. 6. Advice Lastly, I went to the experts. Neither of my parents had a clue how complicated the college process was and as much as they wanted to help they simply didn't know. The college advisor told me the coursework of the first two years were the same wherever I went. I had never taken AP's in high school so I wasn't significantly ahead on my college work. I also had no clue what I wanted to study. I was afraid to be forced into a decision and then waste money and time on classes I wasn't going to need for graduation. 7. What would I do differently if I stayed? There comes a time when you need to look within and ask yourself what it is you want. It's not easy and it doesn't happen in a day. Ask yourself the things you don't like, the things you still like but want to do differently, the things you want do more of. In high school we live in a bubble of school. Everything is there. Your friends, food, fun, education. I knew if I stayed and wanted to succeed I had to change some things that clearly didn't work for me the first time around. I had to become a better candidate. Would I get a job? Would I join clubs/organizations? Would I volunteer at the college's events? Would I focus more on my blog? Would I focus more on exercising? Once I answered all those questions, I wrote them down in case I ever forgot them. 8. Completely eliminate an option Choosing the right college for you is all about where you think you'll achieve the most. Wherever I decided to go I knew I would do three things: focus on my grades, get involved, gain field experience. I also knew I would do my absolute best at those things in both locations. Now, every time I visited my second choice school I tried to forget that I hadn't been accepted to my first choice because I was going to choose out vengeance rather than liking. I knew it wasn't for me because no matter how many times I went I never found the fun, easy-going experience I was looking for. I had applied to a billion scholarships to fill my living expenses and nothing. I definitely knew I didn't want to take out loans. So I decided to eliminate my second choice school as an option. 9. Apply to community college. I knew I had to run toward my decision before I turned around so I did. I met with an advisor with a list of the schools I was planning on transferring to after my two years and their degree requirements. We made a plan for the fastest way to fit all the necessary coursework for admission after my AA. I looked at my club/organization options. I signed up for the school newspaper team. I volunteered for their annual book fair events. I looked for jobs or internships that were accepting college freshman applications. I spoke with career advisors about my resume. And I was all clear for my next two years. 10. Be proud of your decision. I won't lie and say there aren't days I wonder if I made the right decision. But I will say I'm proud of my decision to have the strength to choose the best path rather than the selfish path. Choosing community college has empowered me to never settle for your second option. I truly feel the possibilities are unless. I once had a dream of a small Florida school but now I know I can go anywhere I wish after my AA. I'm never worried I won't have enough money for lunch because the school has granted me a scholarship that exceeds my basic tuition necessities. The relationships with my family members have grown more in this one year than in the past 17 years. I'm experiencing Miami in a way I never had the time to when I was in high school. I'm constantly inspired my it's innovation and the possibilities it has to offer. To sum it all up, base your college decision on what you feel will lead you to the endless possibilities without leaving you in a debt you will have to spend your entire life paying off. Remember success looks a lot like a maze rather than a straight line. Don't feel like you need to follow the crowd or be traditional. Don't be afraid to make the "wrong" decision. This is your journey, the wheel is in your hands, and whichever route you choose to steer is okay because it came from your own judgement. Today was my first day at my first internship ever at CPM Communications Inc as an assistant to the Marketing Director. I'm going to be learning the in's and out's of marketing specifically for luxury properties, sweet. Pre-First Day Thoughts: Now, is marketing what I want to do my whole life? I don't know, it might be. I heard the coursework requires a lot of math so I'll definitely have to consider that. Was a marketing internship my first choice? I was really looking for something to do with event planning and public relations. I probably won't be planning and executing wedding budget plans any time soon.. but it's a start. Do I even know what marketing is? To me, marketing is organizing a plan that will work best for a company in order to help them reach their audience the way they'd like to. (I could be wrong though, so you'll have to stick around) What am I looking forward to most? I'm mostly excited to LEARN about marketing strategies, meet new people, web maintenance, and hopefully attend some events. What should I wear on my first day? Because I didn't actually look at anyone other than my manager during my interview session, I wasn't sure what the average worker wears. Therefore, I sported a nice shirt toned down with a casual cardigan while staying professional in my slacks and comfortable heels. What should I take? I'm used to constantly drinking water and an hour without water could possibly throw off all my concentration. So, I've made it a habit to bring some with me wherever I go. I also don't want to be taking water fountain laps on my first day. I also carry tissues in case of emergencies (even the ones that don't involve my nose, you just never know). I packed bandaids in case my feet weren't going to handle a 9-5 shift in heels. Lastly, I packed a loaded sandwich with Blue Chips in a ziplock since I wasn't sure of the lunch conditions. Am I excited about my internship? Yes!! My First Day Essentials: |
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