8 Months Later…

So. Here we are again. A distracted writer, a neglected blog. That’s my bad.

In the last 8 months (seriously…wow), I guess you could say I’ve been slightly busy. Last fall, I was working full time and going to school full time, which meant there was definitely no room in my life for recreational writing. Hell, I was barely getting enough sleep at the time. The good news is that I actually managed to finish school after 5 years and finally managed to obtain my degree! Getting a B.A. in Psychology with a Minor in Criminal Justice never felt so good.

What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was the reality of how little that piece of paper was  going to affect me once it was all said and done. Do I feel more accomplished after having fought my way through two universities, two state moves, a break-up, and a full time job just to add B.A. in Psychology to my resume? Well, that’s a given. I never thought it would happen in the first place. But I have to be honest – life after college just isn’t what I thought it would be.

It should be known that I have a tendency to live in somewhat of an unrealistic, romanticized, fantasy world. I have grandiose ideas of life and what it will be like “when I get older”. But what I’m finding is that I get older every day and the world I live in seems to change very little.

Even after hearing horror stories of how difficult it has been for others I know to get a job in their field after finishing college, I was overly optimistic about my chances to find a mental health job. After all, I’m a hard worker, I’m efficient, I learn quickly, I work well with people, etc. Not surprisingly, after applying to between 50-100 mental health jobs all over the city of Denver and state of Colorado, only one place was interested in me. One.

It pains me to admit to my naivete, but I honestly believed I would hear from at least half of those places. But, as countless others have discovered before me, it is damn near impossible to find a job in the field you desire without any experience. And the craziest part is that no one is willing to give you any experience. It’s the dumbest, most twisted logic I’ve ever heard of, but it’s reality. It’s what thousands of college graduates face every December and every May when they finish their degrees.

I honestly don’t mean this to sound overly complainy. Truly. It’s just difficult not to marvel over the irony of obtaining a college degree to get a job only to find that it is damn near impossible to get the job you studied for.

However, something much more interesting has happened since I got my degree and went on the somewhat fruitless job hunt for a job in mental health. Not only did I get a job in mental health that is a perfect fit for my lifestyle at the moment, but I found something else that I happen to be really passionate about – retail.

Truthfully, I never, ever thought I would say something like that. Who the hell is passionate about retail? Who is passionate about overpriced clothes, sale-hungry consumers, inconsistent hours, and next to no time off? Well…I am.

The funny thing is that every since I took a promotion into management, I’ve questioned every single day whether or not I made the right choice. Am I enough of a leader for this role? How do I expect anyone to take me seriously at the ripe old age of 26? What can I contribute to this store that assures them that I’m a worthwhile investment?

I’ve learned a lot at that job over the last year. I’ve learned that, in addition to being in a leadership position, I am incredibly passionate about the numbers side of retail. The inventory management, the design aspect, the visual merchandising, ways to increase sell-through, ways to maximize sales in order to reach sales plans and bonuses every month. With all the negative aspects that come along with retail, there are so many positives that I’ve grown to love and understand that make me question whether or not I ever even want to leave retail.

I’ve always entertained the possibility of going to grad school. Something I’ve really missed in the last five months has been learning and writing and keeping my brain active. I would still love to go to grad school someday…but perhaps instead of pursuing social work or counseling, I might want to pursue business school. I want to delve deeper into the inner workings of the business world and economics and leadership. Maybe.

I realize that this blog has a mere handful of followers and I realize that these posts that I write spend the majority of their time in the ether of the internet, not read or paid attention to by anyone. But for those of you that do happen to take the time to read this, thank you. I got bit really hard by the writing bug today and I just had to get all that stuff out.

With every blog I’ve written, I make futile promises to keep up with them. I’ve realized that puts an undue amount of pressure on myself when I don’t have the time to bring those promises to fruition. So…until next time…

Uh…hey?

Holy smokes. I haven’t written in two months. Two months to the date, actually. Whoops! But, hello there…if you’re still out there.

The last two months have been an emotional roller coaster, to say the very least. A couple of days after I wrote my last post, I got a promotion at work! You are now reading the blog of a Floor Supervisor at Tommy Bahama. This is, however, a glorified job title for pretty much the same job I already had. Except now I have keys to the store and they let me count money and stuff.

Two weeks after I wrote my last post, my grandfather passed away. While my family and I all knew it was coming, there is absolutely nothing that can soften the blow of a loved one’s death. I miss him every single day and I still can’t believe he’s gone.

During this time, I was still taking online classes in order to finish up my degree by December. I managed to pass said online classes despite having to spend some time in Nebraska with my family for my grandfather’s memorial service. So five weeks after my last post, I finished two of the last six classes I need to graduate.

Unfortunately, six weeks after my last post, my grandmother passed away as well. For most of my family, none of them had seen her since my grandfather’s memorial service. I was lucky enough to have gone home a few days before she passed away and I visited her in the rest home. The most heartbreaking thing was, to me, she seemed like she was just fine. And in a matter of three days, she was gone. We all knew she was miserable without my grandfather. For as devastated as we all were (and still are), we knew that it was better that she wasn’t suffering without him anymore.

That brings us to today. I’ve started my last semester in college, I’m working full time, and I’m trying to find time to sleep and have a social life while keeping on top of my reading and school work. Not to mention I’m still dealing with some very real and present residual sadness from losing my grandparents less than a month apart.

Fortunately, I have a pretty amazing support system in Tim, my family, and my friends. I’m not exactly great at asking others for help when I need it, particularly when I’m overwhelmingly sad. The good news is that they all know that, so they do a pretty good job of checking up on me.

So…there’s all that. I apologize for not having kept up with this blog, but frankly, I just didn’t have the time.

However, I don’t want this blog to fall by the wayside. With graduation coming up in a few short months, I have been thinking about all the things that I will miss (and many, many more things that I won’t miss) after I’m out of college. The thing I will miss most is writing. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and once I don’t absolutely have to do it anymore, I don’t just want to stop doing it. I will try my hardest to keep up with this thing, though. Promise!

On The Road To Healthy: An Update

About a month ago, I wrote a post about how I wanted to start maintaining a healthier lifestyle by eating healthier, exercising regularly, and generally taking better care of myself.

This week, I finished a Pilates workout calendar for beginners created by my favorite online fitness guru, Cassey Ho of Blogilates. The workout calendar was 6 days on, 1 day off, complete with either three or four workouts per day. The days focused on abs, lower body, upper body, and total body – most often, it was a combination of everything.

I admit, it was hard for me to work out 6 days in a row. If I’m being totally honest, I think that only happened during the first week. For the most part it’s been three or four days on, a day or two of a break, then back to three or four days in a row.

As a result, it took me about five weeks to finish a four week workout calendar. Oops.

However, despite not following the calendar religiously,  I have definitely noticed a change in my body in the last few weeks. On the whole, I feel so much stronger. I’m not as strong as I would like to be, but I’m definitely getting there.

During the first week of the workout calendar, one of the daily exercises was “Wake up and do a one minute plank”. At 15 seconds, I wanted to cry. At 20 seconds, my body was shaking so violently, I thought I was going to fall over. At 35 seconds, I started making some very unlady-like grunts due to the amount of pain I was in. At the end of 60 seconds, I fell on the ground and laid there for a few minutes, cursing the stupid workout calendar.

Yesterday, though, part of my workout was another one minute plank. Though my body started shaking a little halfway through, it seemed like the minute passed by without any trouble. I was so happy, I could have cried.

I’m also starting to physically see the results on my body. My legs are trimmer, my butt is slightly perkier (though, at this point, I’m convinced nothing is going to make that thing firm), and I can see some definition in my abs. It’s exciting to see and feel my hard work paying off!

The one thing I’m still having trouble with, though, is doing enough cardio. All the muscle I’m building will never show through if I don’t do something to burn the fat that’s still covering it up. I’m so tired after my Pilates workouts that it’s tough to go out for a run afterwards; conversely, I wear myself out so much when I go for a run that I have no energy left to do a Pilates workout post-run. I need to figure out a way to be able to do both and have enough energy to keep myself going.

The thing that has been the easiest to change is my diet. Since I’ve been living with my roommate and only buying groceries for myself, I find that it’s so much easier to buy as many fruits and veggies as I can handle and consistently come up with ways to keep my diet varied enough that I won’t get burned out on eating any one thing. Maybe my next post will be sharing a few of the healthy recipes I use on a regular basis…

The toughest part of changing my diet is cutting out refined sugars. Lord help me, I love me some refined sugar. You name it: Snickers bars, cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, frozen yogurt topped with the absolutely unhealthiest toppings…I love it all. And it has been so freaking hard to not eat any of it. It got to the point where I craved them so much that I literally couldn’t stop thinking about them. I have learned, though, that giving in to a sweet craving every once in a while is not going to skew my diet and it’s not going to destroy all the hard work I’ve been doing. Eating something sweet and sugary feeds my soul and perks me up a little.

Don’t get me wrong, though – it still sucks not eating it all the time.

I still have a long way to go before I get my body in the shape I want it to be in – lean, toned, and, most importantly, strong. I heard somewhere that it takes around 30 days to build a habit…and I’ve been working on this one for about the last 37. I hate to jump the gun, but I think I’m finally getting the hang of taking better care of myself.

Three Good Things

In the five years that I have been studying psychology, I have spent almost zero time studying positive psychology. There are a few reasons for this – namely, I had never been interested in taking the class and unless you take the class, you’re unlikely to hear it talked about elsewhere.

However, last semester, a TA gave a lecture in my Clinical & Counseling class about positive psychology. After that lecture, I found myself disappointed in not taking the time to learn more about positive psychology before the end of my undergraduate career.

The general gist of positive psychology is focusing on people’s strengths instead of their weaknesses. This is particularly true in dealing with depression or anxiety. After learning more about it, I am of the mindset that there are definitely aspects of positive psychology that could benefit anyone, not just those struggling with depression or anxiety.

One of my favorite tools in positive psychology counseling is the “Three Blessings/Three Good Things” exercise. It’s pretty self-explanatory – every day, write down three blessings or three good things you are happy about that day. It’s particularly helpful in dealing with depression as it helps people learn shift their thinking in a more positive manner. However, I think this is an excellent tool that could just promote general happiness and well-being in anyone’s life.

In an attempt to make more positive changes in my life, I’ve decided to start doing this myself. Between work and school, there are plenty of things for me to stress out over or plenty of things to be negative about. I don’t know about anyone else, but sometimes it seems so much easier to be negative than to be positive.

Because it’s so easy for me to get bogged down by negativity, I want to start focusing more on the things I’m grateful for and the things in my life that make me happy; even the littlest of things. Thus, I resolve to spend the next 30 days documenting my Three Good Things to see how this change impacts my general outlook on life.

Today, these are the Three Good Things about my life:

1. I got 10 hours of sleep last night and I woke up feeling more rested than I have in weeks.

2. I bought a new coffee mug yesterday and I used it this morning to drink my coffee. It’s pretty and turquoise and, call me crazy, I think it made my coffee taste better.

3. I actually feel motivated to bust through all of my homework for my online classes today, which leads me to feel like I will be incredibly productive today.

As you can see, none of these things are particularly life changing, but they are the things that are making me happy today. Not to mention the sun is shining and it really is a beautiful day today.

I encourage the few people who follow this blog to try this for a few days and see what kind of effect it has on your mood and outlook on life. If you feel like sharing any of them in the comments, I encourage that as well.

Oh, and it’s Wednesday! Happy hump day!

Now Playing: An Ode to Pop Punk

As I mentioned to you guys in my first post, I had been maintaining a music blog up until recently. One of my favorite types of posts to publish on that blog was a “Now Playing” post (in fact, the last one I wrote was just that!) in which I would share the artists and songs that have been dominating my earbuds lately.

Recently, I have been loving on some pop punk music. Not that this is out of the ordinary; I spent a decent chunk of my life listening to basically nothing but pop punk. However, in the last few years, I attempted to branch out and became deeply involved in the singer-songwriter, “indie”, mellow music world, growing attached to artists like Joshua Radin, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Damien Rice.

While I truly love my singer-songwriters, the biggest spot in my music-loving heart is reserved for pop punk. Since I began seeing my boyfriend, we have started introducing each other  to some of our favorite bands. Because he has been a drummer for most of his life, his favorite music tends to be heavy on the drums, upbeat, fast-paced types of music…like pop punk.

In the last few months, he’s introduced me to a few bands that I’ve previously heard of but never devoted a lot of time to. Now, they are some of my new favorites. Here are the bands that have been ruling my airwaves:

All Time Low: This is a band that I have loved for a lot of years. So Wrong, It’s Right has always been a favorite album of mine, especially with songs like Six Feet Under The Stars and Dear Maria (Count Me In), but I found myself disappointed in their follow-up album, Nothing Personal. They put out two additional albums after that, and I never listened to either of them. However, when I met my boyfriend, we began talking about our mutual love of All Time Low and he encouraged me to listen to their most recent albums. It is begrudgingly that I admit that their album Don’t Panic is a new favorite. The first four songs on the album are solid gold; I’ll bet I’ve listened to If These Sheets Were The States about a million times.

Forever The Sickest Kids: Considering how much I love All Time Low, I can’t believe it’s taken me until now to listen to this band. They sound incredibly similar – both incorporate upbeat electric guitar, a fast-paced drumline, and catchy-ass lyrics. Their album Underdog Alma Mater is one of the best albums I’ve ever listened to. In my opinion, save for one song on the album, it’s nearly perfect. Some of my favorites include My Worst Nightmare and Believe Me I’m Lying. Because this was their debut album, it was a difficult one to top, but their 2013 album J.A.C.K. came pretty damn close.

New Found Glory: As a teenager who lived and breathed pop punk and lived in band t-shirts, I was definitely familiar with New Found Glory, but I’ll bet it’s been about 11 years since I’ve actually taken the time to listen to any of their songs. And, though this may come off as a little “hipster-y”, I tend to prefer some of their older tunes to newer ones. Their 2009 album Not Without A Fight boasts catchy yet morose lyrics, but with the upbeat tempos, who could ever tell?

Relient K: During my senior year of high school, I had an enormous crush on a boy whose favorite band was Relient K, so back then, I tried to listen to a lot of it to impress him (*sigh* high school love). However, as is the case with New Found Glory, it’s been years since I gave this band a listen. Shortly after we began dating, my boyfriend put together a mix CD for me (which, by the way, is the quickest way to my heart) and put their song Must Have Done Something Right on there for me. I had forgotten how much I loved the lead singer’s voice and the lyrics these guys write, but after hearing lines like “And I know that it’s so cliche / to tell you that every day / I spend with you is a new best day of my life”, I started listening to all the Relient K I could get my hands on.

Mae: Mae is another band that I have loved for years and their album The Everglow has always been at least one of my top 20 albums of all time. On our first date, my now boyfriend mentioned that he saw on my Facebook page that I liked Mae and I got so excited, I started wildly gesturing and gushing over how much I love them and miss their music, all of which he enthusiastically reciprocated. After that date, I began listening to The Everglow on repeat, falling in love with it all over again. This is especially relevant today because Mae just announced that, in 2015, they are going back on tour for the 10th anniversary of the album and will be playing it beginning to end. I can assure you that he & I will for sure be in that audience!

What bands and songs are you guys obsessing over these days?

On The Road To Healthy

If there’s one thing I believe most women can relate to, it’s issues regarding body image and its apparent (but unnecessary) ties to self-worth. I, like many women, have spent the better part of my life struggling with these issues and trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle while knowing that my self-worth is not determined by a number on the scale. However, it’s been a tough journey.

In high school, I was a tall, awkward 5’9″ and weighed in at a slim 110. A too slim 110, I might add. At the time, I was dating a boy who made constant comments about my weight and made snide little remarks about how I could stand to shed a few pounds. As a result, I was underweight and ate next to nothing most of the time.

When I finally wised up three years later (it’s always a little embarrassing to admit that I continued to date someone who belittled me for so long), I changed my eating habits drastically. So drastically, in fact, that I gained about 50 lbs after graduating from high school.

I remember crying the first time I saw stretch marks on my thighs where my skin couldn’t keep up with how quickly I was gaining weight. Even though I desperately needed some of the weight I was putting on, I put it on much too quickly and it was the result of entirely too much beer and junk food. My weight improved, but my health did not.

That phase of my life lasted for about five years. I was consistently eating junk food, drinking too much beer, and exercising almost never. And honestly, even though I wasn’t happy with the way I looked, I never once thought about doing something to change it. I was complacent and in no hurry to change my lifestyle.

It wasn’t until I was sitting on my couch one day that I realized I needed to make a change. I looked down at my belly and it was so perfectly round that it looked like I was a few months pregnant. That snapped me out of my complacency so quickly, I damn near got whiplash.

While it wasn’t easy to start changing the way I ate, it became easier the more often I did it. I swapped out candy bars for fruit and yogurt, I traded sodium-heavy snacks for vegetables, and I gave up frozen dinners for home-cooked ones. I drank more water and less beer. And, most importantly, I started running.

I can’t express how difficult the exercise was for me at the beginning. I hated running. I hated even thinking about running. I hated that I couldn’t seem to run for more than a few minutes without getting winded and feeling cramps in my side. But day by day, minute by minute, I got better. Running got easier, I got faster, I ran longer distances, and I actually started to enjoy the way I felt, both while I was running and after my workouts were over. It was incredible.

All of those changes took place two years ago. In the last two years, my personal life has undergone some drastic changes and it has been difficult to balance dealing with the emotions from those changes and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. So, in short, I just haven’t. I stopped exercising as often and I stopped caring about whether I was eating healthy or not.

But today, that changes. And I wanted to blog about it in an attempt to hold myself more accountable for these changes (and I hope you’ll hold me accountable, too).

I signed up for a beginner’s workout calendar with my favorite fitness blogger Cassey Ho of Blogilates. I ate a clean breakfast (oatmeal with strawberries and a cup of coffee). I’ve had 32 oz of water this morning. And I’m about to complete my first workout on the workout calendar.

I miss the energy I had when I was regularly exercising and eating healthier. I miss how well I slept when I wasn’t drinking beer every day. But mostly, I miss how strong I was when I was running and doing Pilates on a regular basis.

So, here it is. My challenge to myself – to rebuild my strength and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s time to eat clean, train mean, and stay that way!

Free Time?!

I’ve officially been out of school for a week now and I’ve noticed something interesting about my schedule.

For the first time in five months, I actually have some free time.

It’s a little odd; I’ve been working more hours at the store, and that keeps me plenty busy. But when I come home at night, I find myself at a loss. I have no homework, no reading, no nothing. So just what in the hell am I supposed to do with this free time?!

I guess I should explain that I’m an easily distracted person. Unless I’m fully committed to something (work, school, relationship, etc.), I get easily bored and am looking for something else to do. I have never had a hobby that has actually stuck with me for life. As much as it pains me to say it, that includes reading.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve definitely been trying to read more in my three week break from school. During the semester, I have difficulties in finding time to actually read something I enjoy. I have noticed, though, that when I read during my free time, I get super bored super easily. And that’s a tad frustrating.

Additionally, I live close enough to my boyfriend that we often spend our free weeknights together. That occupies a decent chunk of my time, but we don’t spend every single waking moment together. So when I have absolutely, 100%, completely unscheduled free time…I have no freaking clue what to do with myself.

I’ve spent most of tonight trying to figure out some different things I could do, besides just reading or watching TV, when I find myself spending a night alone. I managed to come up with a few things that may help stave off the boredom I may face in the next few weeks before summer classes start.

• My Music Listography book.  I bought this book at Target quite a while ago, and when I first got it, I couldn’t wait to fill it out! It’s page after page of listing different bands and songs that have provided the soundtrack to my life – favorite songs, favorite bands, favorite music by decade, memorable moments in music, a song for every lover I’ve had, songs I would dedicate to my friends…this book is amazing. I had forgotten about it for quite a while, but I found it again after my recent move to my new apartment. I filled it out a little this afternoon, but I’d like to spend some more time with it tonight and perhaps rediscover some music I’ve forgotten.
• Paint my nails.  This is a huge one, and a little bit of a no-brainer. I have an extensive nail polish collection (too extensive for someone who doesn’t actually own a nail salon), and I love giving myself manicures at home. I will for sure be doing this tomorrow when I have the entire day off…after I do the next thing on my “stave off boredom” list.
• Clean the house.  As long as I can get myself started on cleaning, it takes almost no energy to clean my entire place. I haven’t done it as of yet because, frankly, I haven’t been home long enough in one day to actually do it. However, I happen to have a special guest coming over for a sleepover on Saturday, and I want my place to look nice and squeaky clean! Plus, let’s face it, who doesn’t feel better after spending a day just cleaning up and then relaxing in a clean house? Just me? Yeah, ok.
• Read more than one book at a time.  This might sound a little crazy, but I think this actually does help when it comes to not getting bored or easily distracted when reading just one book. If I am reading a couple of different books at once, I can switch back & forth between them if I need a break from one of them. I’m currently in the middle of Insurgent (but really, how good was Divergent?!), and I think I’d like to start up on an old classic that I’ve never read, like The Three Musketeers or Les Miserables. I guess we’ll see!
• Exercise.  I am sorry to say that I only thought of this after watching my roommate go out to complete her diligent daily running. I love to run, and I really miss it sometimes, but it is tough for me to exercise or go out for a run towards the end of the day. I should get back into the habit of doing it no matter what time of day it is, and especially if I find myself bored with nothing else for me to do.

So…that’s kind of all I came up with for tonight. If anyone else has any suggestions or things they like to do when they find themselves with all kinds of free time, feel free to leave some comments!

 

On Stress and Finals

Oy. Finals week. Aside from group projects, finals are the most stressful thing about the college experience.

“Wait,” you ask, “if it’s finals week, why are you wasting your time writing this post?”

Oh, well, thank you for asking. The simple answer is that if I have to look at one more question regarding the concept of drug addiction as a disease and how addicts can improve their recovery process, I will literally start pulling hairs out of my head.

Throughout my five years as a college student (super-senior ftw!), I have learned a few tricks when it comes to finals week. I intend to share them with you with the enormous disclaimer that it is entirely possible that these tricks don’t work for anyone who isn’t me.

1. Do not spend hours upon hours studying with no break. From a purely cognitive psych perspective, you are setting yourself up for failure if you study like this. Studying for that long with no breaks in between basically guarantees that you will not retain most of the knowledge you are attempting to soak in. On average, it’s best to study for about 15-20 minute increments with small breaks in between. You’re active enough to retain information, but not completely overloading the system.

2. Stress eating be damned – if you want the pizza, eat the pizza. Ok, this one likely doesn’t have any legitimate reason or research behind it, but this is a personal strategy of my own. I happen to be a horrible stress eater. During times of unusual stress, I find myself craving junk food. That actually does have a bit of science behind it, which deals with the release of cortisol and its effects on the parts of your brain that control hunger. However, because I typically eat pretty healthy, I always feel a little bit of guilt when I crave junk food like that. Except during finals week. Case in point: tonight, I wanted a pizza with pepperoni & jalapeno with a side of chicken wings. So I ordered it…and ate half the pizza. Does the fact that it was a small 10″ pizza help? No, but who cares? I fell a hell of a lot less stressed now.

3. At some point during your studying, take a longer than usual break to do something relaxing. This is important in order to avoid burnout. Burnout typically comes along with those marathon studying sessions, and it destroys any learning you’re trying to enhance. Take a walk, go for a run, do some yoga, meditate, take a bath, listen to some music, watch your favorite tv show – anything that does not involve you staring at a book or computer screen for 20-30 minutes.

4. Remember – finals will eventually end. This is something I constantly struggle with. While consumed with studying every single night for finals, it feels as though the levels of stress I’m under will never end. However, it’s important to remember that there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel…and that light will be coming with some hot-ass days and beers on the patio. Score.

5. Drink plenty of water. I can see how this might seem silly because most of studying for finals involves sitting and not moving for extended periods of time. Because most of those study sessions are intense and focused, it’s easy to forget the simple things like staying hydrated. This will not only improve your focus and keep you more alert, but it will also help stave off illness once the stress & cortisol levels in your body drop off completely, leaving you vulnerable to illness.

I feel like there were more I wanted to include, but clearly, I have “finals brain”. Things are definitely not in 100% working order up there. To anyone else working on finals this week, the best of luck to you! Any other helpful tricks you would like to share for surviving finals week are welcome in the comment section below.

Happy studying!

Welcome, introductions, etc.

Oh, hi there. I’m Marie. Welcome to Twenty-Something – a blog in which I intend to chronicle my innermost thoughts and desires (they’re not that intense, I swear), my awkward life moments and hurdles (of which there are around a million), and just my everyday musings on the world I find myself attempting to survive in (something that proves difficult when you trip over nonexistent objects).

Here’s the thing: I’ve tried writing a music blog for an extended period of time within the last year, and I found it more difficult than I anticipated. Frankly, I don’t have a lot to write about in the realm of music. I enjoy the hell out of it but, in terms of technical stuff and being able to have opinions other than “That song is amazing” or “Fuck Coldplay” (that’s a true sentiment, for the record), I just don’t have a lot to say on the matter (that being said, I do intend to write about music from time to time).

I’ve also tried writing a personal blog in the past, which I absolutely loved. The nice thing about it was that I could write about absolutely anything I wanted to! Granted, I didn’t write about the nitty-gritty details of my life and I wasn’t in the business of airing my dirty laundry, but it was nice to have just an open-ended forum to write about whatever the hell I wanted.

Also, I love to write. Perhaps it’s less than modest, but aside from enjoying it, I’m also pretty damn good at it. So I’ve decided to give the “personal” blog another go.

Again, this is not a place to air my dirty laundry, nor do I intend to write long diatribes about my love life, family life, friend drama, etc. (though, I promise you, it’s all very interesting and saucy…usually). This is simply an outlet for me to do something I enjoy and to give my creativity a boost. In that area, I need all the help I can get.

So if you find yourself wanting to be along for the ride, again, welcome! I’m more than happy to have you here. I’ll start by sharing a few different hats that I wear.

The student: I am 6 months away from graduating college and I could not be any happier about that. College has simultaneously enriched my life and destroyed my soul. I love to learn, but I also love sleep. Maybe someday I can have both?

The football fan: I love college football, specifically the Nebraska Huskers. Go big red!

The friend: My friends are some of the most important people in my life. I intend to write more about them when the situation arises.

The girlfriend: My dating life has been somewhat of a mess in the last year – I dated the same person from the age of 20-25, and around 8 months ago, it became apparent that we were not meant for each other. Going through a break-up and moving out of the apartment we shared was an absolute nightmare, but I am happier now than I’ve been in years. Not to mention, I happen to be dating someone new. Someone who makes me feel like I’m walking around every day with little cartoon heart bubbles popping out of my head. We have what should be an illegal amount of fun together, we’re so compatible it scares me, and I am head over heels in love with him. It’s pretty awesome.

Phew, did it get a little serious in here? Perhaps that’s enough sharing for one day. We’ll start again soon with…well, whatever the hell I want! See you next time…